er, the ponderous mass,
which hung for a moment like a cloud above them, upheaved from its bed
of ages, and now freed from all stays, with a sudden, hurricane-like and
whirling impetus, making the solid rock tremble over which it rushed,
came thundering down, swinging over one half of the narrow trace,
bounding from one side to the other along the gorge, and with the
headlong fury of a cataract sweeping everything from before its path
until it reached the dead level of the plain below. The involuntary
shriek from those who beheld the mass, when, for an instant impending
above them, it seemed to hesitate in its progress down, was more full of
human terror than any utterance which followed the event. With the
exception of a groan, wrung forth here and there from the half-crushed
victim, in nature's agony, the deep silence which ensued was painful and
appalling; and even when the dust had dissipated, and the eye was
enabled to take in the entire amount of the evil deed, the prospect
failed in impressing the senses of the survivors with so distinct a
sentiment of horror, as when the doubt and death, suspended in air, were
yet only threatened.

Though prepared for the event, in one sense of the word, the great body
of the squatters were not prepared for the unusual emotions which
succeeded it in their bosoms. The arms dropped from the hands of many of
them--a speechless horror was the prevailing feature of all, and all
fight was over, while the scene of bloody execution was now one of
indiscriminate examination and remark with friend and foe. Ralph was the
first to rush up the fatal pass, and to survey the horrible prospect.

One half of the brave little corps had been swept to instant death by
the unpitying rock, without having afforded the slightest obstacle to
its fearful progress. In one place lay a disembowelled steed panting its
last; mangled in a confused and unintelligible mass lay beside him
another, the limbs of his rider in many places undistinguishable from
his own. One poor wretch, whom he assisted to extricate from beneath the
body of his struggling horse, cried to him for water, and died in the
prayer. Fortunately for the few who survived the catastrophe--among whom
was their gallant but unfortunate young leader--they had, at the first
glimpse of the danger, urged on their horses with redoubled effort, and
by a close approach to the surface or the rock, taking an oblique
direction wide of its probable course,