ins to
diminish, it is gone before you can catch it again--a fact which adds
something of a wild and supernatural character to its life-like motion
and appearance. The storm in which we saw it, was altogether confined
to the mountains, where it raged for a long time, evidently pouring down
deluges of rain, whilst on the hill side which we traversed, there was
nothing but calmness and sunshine.

"'It will be before us,' said Raymond, pointing to a dry torrent bed
close beside us; 'whisht, here it is---ha, ha, I like that--see it, see
it!'

"I looked in the direction of his hand, and was entranced in a kind of
wild and novel delight, by witnessing a large bursting body of water,
something between a dark and yellow hue, tumbling down the bed of the
river, with a roaring noise and impetuosity of which I had never formed
any conception before. From the spot we stood on, up to its formation
among the mountains, the river was literally a furious mountain torrent,
foaming over its very banks, whilst from the same place down to the
cultivated country it was almost dry, with merely an odd pool, connected
here and there by a stream too shallow to cover the round worn stones in
its channel. So rapid, and, indeed dangerous, is the rise of a mountain
flood, that many a life of man and beast have fallen victims to the
fatal speed of its progress. Raymond now bent his steps over to
the left, and, in a few minutes, we entered a graveyard, so closely
surrounded by majestic whitethorns, that it came upon me by surprise.

"'Whisht,' said he, 'she's often here--behind this ould chapel. For 'tis
there they are, the two big coffins and the little one--but I liked the
little one best.'

"He conducted me to an old mullioned window in the gable, through which
a single glance discovered to me the female of whose insanity, and the
dreadful cause of it, I had before heard. Whilst pointing her out to me,
he laid his hand upon my shoulder, and, heavy as it was, I could feel
the more distinctly by its vibrations that he trembled; and, on looking
into his face I perceived that he had got deadly pale, and that the same
spirit of humanity and compassion, to which I have alluded, had returned
to it once more. There was not reason in his face, to be sure, but there
certainly was an expression there, trembling, and mild, and beautiful,
as is the light of the morning star, before the glory of the sun has
unveiled itself in heaven. To Raymond's mind that