92 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES. 
— 
somehow I was reminded by their course of 
those shadowy, silvery lines in the blades of 
Damascus daggers. 
We slipped on and on, still following the 
now madly careering halcyon. For the mer- 
est point of time, not long enough for an eye 
to twinkle, we were opposite the rift in the 
woods and trembling on the verge of mystery. 
I looked down the open vista and saw some- 
thing, I know not what—a form or a shadow, 
an image conjured up by my imagination, or 
only a blending of the glooms and gleams by 
force of distance and velocity—but a new ele- 
ment was added to my nature. I felt a great 
thrill. A new joy took root in my heart. A 
new flower blew open in my soul. Accipio 
agnoscogue deos / 
It seemed that down that aisle I could look 
to the remotest age of time; and out of it, 
blowing into my eager face, I felt the un- 
changed, the unchangeable spirit of Eld! 
Was it, or not, a face that I saw? Can I ever 
know? The flowing hair, like blown supple 
ringlets of gold floss, the gray deep eyes, the 
divinely smiling lips; were they not there? 
And the shining body and agile limbs, did I 
only fancy I saw them? How shall I ever be 
sure?) Of Deacerte. An indescribable some- 
thing, as of that whole landscape melting and 
vanishing, by a sudden and noiseless deflagra- 
tion, followed close upon this fortunate mo- 
ment. With a harsh, maniacal cry of delight, 
the belted halcyon leaped over the coruscating 
line into the silvery mist beyond. And, like 
an arrow flung from the bent bow of the river, 
we were whirled after him into the vast fanged 
jaws of the cafion. 
