THE BLAZING UP. 239 



fragments of tar-barrels, they blazed up at once amid 

 the gloom, like the sudden flash from the crater of a 

 volcano. The ruddy light glared on the rough features 

 and dark dresses of the leisterers in cutting flames 

 directly met by black shadows, — an effect which those 

 will best understand who in the Eternal City have seen 

 the statues in the Vatican by torch-light. Extending 

 itself, it reddened the shelving rocks above, and glanced 

 upon the blasted arms of the trees, slowly perishing in 

 their struggle for existence amongst the stony crevices ; 

 it glowed upon the hanging wood, on fir, birch, broom, 

 and bracken, half veiled, or half revealed, as they were 

 more or less prominent. The form of things remote 

 from the concentrated light was dark and dubious ; 

 even the trees on the summit of the brae sank in ob- 

 scurity. 



The principals now sprang into the boats. Harry 

 Otter stood at the head, and Charlie Purdie at the stern. 

 These men regulated the course of the craft with their 

 leisters ; the auxiliaries were stationed between them, 

 and the light was in the centre by the boat side. The 

 logs, steeped as they were in pitch, crackled and burned 

 fiercely, sending up a column of black smoke. As the 

 rude forms of the men rose up in their dark attire, 

 wielding their long leisters, with the streaks of light that 

 glared partially upon them, and surrounded as they were 

 by the shades of night, you might almost have fancied 

 yourself in the realms below, with Pluto and his grim 

 associates, embarked on the Stygian lake. But as the 

 sports began, and as the Scotch accent prevailed, the 

 illusion passed away ; for no poet, that I am aware of, 



