st,
between two rapid rivers, with no better shelter, during the
continuance of a Lammas flood, than the hollow of a bank which might
be ten feet under water in an hour.

I ran down the back of the hill to the edge of the interposing flood;
a stunted tree was in the middle, the fork of which I knew was as high
as my shoulder; a mass of weeds and briars was already gathered
against it; the water had raised them within a foot of the first
branch; then I might still ford a passage; no moment was to be lost; I
ran back for the lady, but met her half-way in wild alarm, her head
bare, her beautiful hair shaken out into the blast, her hands clasped,
and her figure just sinking. I caught her in my arms, and bore her
forward with all my speed; but before I again reached the sweeping
inundation, insensibility had released her from the terrors of our
passage.

I dashed in, holding her across my body, with her head resting on my
shoulder; the first step took me to the knee. I raised my burden and
plunged forward; the water rose to my haunches. I lifted her again
across my breast, rushed on, and sank to the waist. I felt that I
could not long support a dead weight in that position; so lowering her
limbs into the water, I profited by that relief, and reached the tree.

The flood had now covered me to the breast, and the lady's neck and
bosom were all that remained unimmersed. I leaned against the old
trunk, and breathed myself. I raised her drooping head on my
shoulder, and pressed my cheek to her forehead; but neither lip nor
eyelid moved. I could not but gaze upon her face; it lay among the
long floating tresses and turbulent eddies, fair as the water's own
lily, and as unconscious. My heart warmed to the lovely being, and I
bent over her, kissing her lips, and pressing her bosom to mine, with
an affection so strangely strong, that I might have stood thus till
escape had been impossible, but that the rustling of the rubbish, as
it crept up the rugged stump with the rise of the waters, caught my
ear. A thunderbolt smouldering at my feet could not have sounded so
horrible. All my fresh affections rushed back to my heart in
multiplied alarm for the safety of their new-found treasure. I started
from my resting-place, and swinging back the long hair from my eyes,
once more breasted the stream with clenched teeth and dripping brows.
But still, as farther I advanced, the water grew deeper and deeper,
and the current split upon my shou