THE BLACK MASK. 611 



unconscious of all around, he was borne onward the banks on eithei 

 side seemed to fly past him with the speed of lightning, and the sound 

 of the river now fell upon his ear like the deep rolling of artillery; and 

 from this momentary stupor, he only awoke to look forward to a death 

 as certain as N it was awful. The rocks upon which the icebergs were 

 dashed and shivered to atoms as they struck, were already within sight. 

 Another moment and all would be over; he thought he heard already 

 the rush of the water as the waves closed above his head in an agony 

 of despair he turned and looked on every side to catch some object of 

 hope or assistance. As he floated on, between him and the rock upon 

 which the castle stood, now coursed a narrow channel, but yet too broad 

 to think of clearing with a single leap. Along this came a field of ice, 

 wheeling in all the eddies of the river ; he saw that yet he might be 

 saved the danger was dreadful, but still no time was now left to think 

 he dashed his hunting spear towards the floating mass, and with the 

 strength which desperation only can give, threw himself as if on a 

 leaping pole, and cleared both the channels in a spring. As he fell 

 almost lifeless on the bank, he saw the fragment he so lately had trusted 

 to, rent into numberless pieces his strength failed, and he sank back 

 upon the rock. How long he thus lay he knew not; and when he 

 again looked up, all was wrapt in darkness ; the moon had gone down, 

 and nothing recalled him to a sense of his situation save the dull 

 monotonous roaring of the Danube, which poured its flood quite close to 

 where he lay. 



Light now gleamed brightly from the windows of the castle above him, 

 and he felt fresh courage as he thought a place of refuge was so near ; 

 and although stunned by the violence of the shock with which he fell, 

 and half frozen by the cold ice which had been his bed, he made 

 towards the drawbridge. This, to his surprise, was already lowered 

 and the wide gates lay open. As 'he passed along, he met no one he 

 at length reached a broad stair ; ascending this, the loud tones of many 

 voices met his ear he opened a door which stood before him, and 

 entered the apartment when the family now were assembled at supper. 



The possessor of the baronial schloss of Cfervitzen, was one of the last 

 remnants of the feudal system in Hungary ; and to whom, neither the 

 attractions of a court, nor yet the high rank and favour so lavishly 

 bestowed upon his countrymen-^-were inducements strong enough to 

 withdraw him from that wild and dreary abode, where he had passed 

 his youth and his manhood, and now adhered to in his old age, with an 

 attachment which length of years had not rendered less binding. The 

 only companion of his solitude was a daughter, upon whom he heaped 

 all that fondness and affection which the heart estranged from all the 

 world can bestow upon one. She was, indeed, all that ^most sanguine 

 wishes could devise ; beautiful as the fairest of a nation celebrated for 

 the loveliness of its women, and endowed with all the warmth of heart 

 and susceptibility of her country. Of the world she was ignorant as a 

 child, and long learned to think that the mountains which girt their 

 broad valley, enclosed all that was worth knowing or loving in it. 



Hospitality has not in Hungary attained the rank of a virtue, it is 

 merely the characteristic of a nation. Shelter is so often required and 

 afforded to the desolate wanderer, through vast and almost uninhabited 

 tracts of mountain and forest, that the arrival of a stranger at the evening 

 meal of a family, would create but little surprise among its members, 



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