Page:A New England Tale.djvu/152

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A NEW-ENGLAND TALE.
141

apertures in the rocks, it was impossible to surmount; and Jane felt that she was passing over immense masses of ice, the accumulation perhaps of a hundred winters. She was fleet and agile, and inspired with almost supernatural courage; she, 'though a woman, naturally born to fears,' followed on fearlessly; till they came to an immense rock, whose conical and giant form rested on broken masses below, that on every side were propping this 'mighty monarch of the scene.'

For the first time, crazy Bet seemed to remember she had a companion, and to give a thought to her safety. "Jane," said she, "go carefully over this lower ledge, there is a narrow foot-hold there; let not your foot slip on the wet leaves, or the soft moss. I am in the spirit, and I must mount to the summit."

Jane obeyed her directions, and when, without much trouble, she had attained the further side of the rock, she looked back for crazy Bet, and saw her standing between heaven and earth on the very topmost point of the high rock: she leant on the branch of a tree she had broken off in her struggle to reach that lofty station. The moon had declined a little from the meridian; her oblique rays did not penetrate the depths where Jane stood, but fell in their full brightness on the face of her votress above. Her head, as we have noticed, was fantastically dressed with vines and flowers; her eyes were in a fine 'frenzy, rolling from earth to heaven, and heaven to earth;' she