42 KUYP VAN KAARTEN, 



drawing some refreshment from his wallet, ate hastily as he walked. 

 The aspect of the country again changed : all seemed a wild and 

 melancholy solitude. A disagreeable and overpowering feeling of 

 utter loneliness stole over him, almost rising to something like terror : 

 every minute, although he seemed to be the only inhabitant of the 

 world, he caught himself looking furtively over his shoulder : but he 

 strode boldly on, guiding himself by the sun : sometimes he was 

 more than half tempted to think he had lost his way, as by this he 

 had expected to see the country open towards districts more suscepti- 

 ble of cultivation ; but traces of any thing calculated to justify the 

 expectation were not to be discovered. Still mass after mass of fo- 

 liage, covering steeps, scaling eminences, or declining into valleys, 

 disclosed themselves one after the other. Kuyp was nearly brought to 

 a stand-still : he first became dubious of his route, then misgiving, 

 and at last totally bewildered. He feared to proceed, through the 

 suspicion that he might be increasing the distance between him and 

 symptoms of civilisation : he feared to retrace his steps, through the 

 dread of still farther involving himself. In this state of indecision 

 he sat himself down, and night began to close around him. To 

 heighten his perplexity and vexation, a violent thunder-storm came 

 on, and roused the forest solitude' into one wild roar of confusion. 

 Sheltering himself as he best might, he waited for its subsidence ; and 

 after wringing his cloak, he walked a little way forward ; but the dis- 

 couraging consciousness that he knew not to which point of the com- 

 pass to direct himself, made him stop, and look wistfully around. 



At this moment a light in the distance attracted his attention. 

 Kuyp laboured on : he now perceived that the ground rose rapidly ; 

 the woods became more gloomy ; and had Kuyp been a believer in 

 fays and goblins, this was a spot eminently calculated to recall all the 

 tales and traditions of the kind to the reluctant memory ; but Kuyp 

 had never troubled himself with speculations as to their existence or 

 non-existence, and had credence in nothing but what could be 

 brought to the te*t of actual experience. 



From what the light proceeded it was totally impossible to disco- 

 ver : it emitted a reddish misty glare upon the nearest objects, but 

 left all in obscurity beyond. Kuyp would have shouted, but some- 

 how or other his voice seemed to stick in his throat : an indefinable 

 feeling of awe stole over him, his knees trembled, and unconsciously 

 he stood for a moment still. At intervals there seemed to be some- 

 thing like faint peals of laughter borne towards him on the breeze : 

 laughter sounded strange in such a place; but it only confirmed his 

 impression, namely, that there must be some human creature within 

 hail. After much toiling, he attained the topmost edge of the 

 ridge ; but who can express his fright and astonishment at the scene 

 that met his eyes below ! 



A large fire of heaped up twigs and branches was kindled in the 

 centre of a wide amphitheatre, whose craggy walls shot upwards to 

 an immense height ; here shelving into precipices, and there branch- 

 ing off into narrow rocky ledges, only practicable for animals of the 

 surest feet. Above rose pyramids of foliage ; trees bending horizon- 

 tally inwards, and shutting out the moon-lighted clouds : ponderous 



