nd the shadowy mountain over its
southern side looking now, methought, very much like Gibraltar. I
lingered and lingered, gazing and gazing, and at last only by an effort
tore myself away. The evening had now become delightfully cool in this
land of wonders. On I sped, passing by two noisy brooks coming from
Snowdon to pay tribute to the lake. And now I had left the lake and the
valley behind, and was ascending a hill. As I gained its summit, up rose
the moon to cheer my way. In a little time, a wild stony gorge
confronted me, a stream ran down the gorge with hollow roar, a bridge lay
across it. I asked a figure whom I saw standing by the bridge the
place's name. "Rhyd du"--the black ford--I crossed the bridge. The
voice of the Methodist was yelling from a little chapel on my left. I
went to the door and listened: "When the sinner takes hold of God, God
takes hold of the sinner." The voice was frightfully hoarse. I passed
on: night fell fast around me, and the mountain to the south-east,
towards which I was tending, looked blackly grand. And now I came to a
milestone on which I read with difficulty: "Three miles to Beth Gelert."
The way for some time had been upward, but now it was downward. I
reached a torrent, which coming from the north-west rushed under a
bridge, over which I passed. The torrent attended me on my right hand
the whole way to Beth Gelert. The descent now became very rapid. I
passed a pine wood on my left, and proceeded for more than two miles at a
tremendous rate. I then came to a wood--this wood was just above Beth
Gelert--proceeding in the direction of a black mountain, I found myself
amongst houses, at the bottom of a valley. I passed over a bridge, and
inquiring of some people whom I met the way to the inn, was shown an
edifice brilliantly lighted up, which I entered.

CHAPTER XLV

Inn at Beth Gelert--Delectable Company--Lieutenant P---.

The inn or hotel at Beth Gelert was a large and commodious building, and
was anything but thronged with company; what company, however, there was,
was disagreeable enough, perhaps more so than that in which I had been
the preceding evening, which was composed of the scum of Manchester and
Liverpool; the company amongst which I now was, consisted of seven or
eight individuals, two of them were military puppies, one a tallish
fellow, who though evidently upwards of thirty, affected the airs of a
languishing girl, and would fain have mad