thunder of the waterfall.
In the vast unbroken solitudes the awful silence is terrible.

The Count of Nideck and the old woman found a gap in the face of the
rock, up which they mounted straight with marvellous celerity, whilst I
had to pull myself up by the help of the bushes.

Hardly had they reached the ridge of the crags, which came almost to a
point, when I was within three yards of them, and I beheld beyond a
dreadful precipice of which I could not see the bottom. At the left hung
in the air like a vast sheet the fall of the Schneeberg, a mass of ice.
That resemblance to an immense wave taking the precipice at one bound,
bearing trees on its breast, fringed with the bushes, and winding out the
long ivy sprays, which exhibit in their delicate tracery the form of the
rigid glassy billow; that mere semblance of movement amidst the stillness
and immovableness of death, and the presence of those two speechless
creatures pursuing their ghastly work with automatic precision, added to
the terror with which I already trembled.

Nature herself seemed to shrink with horror.

The count had laid down his burden; the old woman and he took it up
together, swung it for a moment over the edge of the precipice, then the
long shroud floated over the abyss, and the imaginary murderers in
silence bent forward to see it fall.

That long white sheet floating in the air is still present before my
eyes. It descends, it falls like a wild swan shot in the clouds,
spreading its wide wings, the long neck thrown back, whirling down to
earth to die.

The white burden disappeared in the dark depths of the precipice.

At last the cloud which I had long seen threatening to cover the moon's
bright disc veiled her in its steel-blue folds, and her rays ceased to
shine.

The old woman, holding the count by the hand and dragging him forward
with hurried steps, came for a moment into view.

The cloud had overshadowed the moon, and I could not move out of their
way without danger of falling over the precipice.

After a few minutes, during which I lay as close as I could, there was a
rift in the cloud. I looked out again. I stood alone on the point of the
peak with the snow up to my knees.

Full of horror and apprehension, I descended from my perilous position,
and ran to the castle in as much consternation as if I had been guilty of
some great crime.

As for the lord of Nideck and his companion, I lost sight of them.

CHAPTER X.