Zanoni — Edward Bulwer-Lytton

he heard the voice of Mervale calling on him, though he no longer saw his form. ‘The sound served as a guide. Dizzy and breathless, he bounded forward; when — hark! — a sullen, slow rolling sounded in his ear! He halted, —and turned back to gaze. ‘The fire had overflowed its course; it had opened itself a channel amidst the furrows of the mountain. The stream pursued him fast — fast; and the hot breath of the chasing and preternatural foe came closer and closer upon his cheek! He turned aside; he climbed desperately with hands and feet upon a crag that, to the right, broke the scathed and blasted level of the soil. The stream rolled beside and beneath him, and then taking a sudden wind round the spot on which he stood, interposed its liquid fire, a broad and impassable barrier between his resting-place and escape. There he stood, cut off from descent, and with no alternative but to retrace his steps towards the crater, and thence seek, without guide or clew, some other pathway. For a moment his courage left him; he cried in despair, and in that overstrained pitch of voice which is never heard afar off, to the guide, to Mervale, to return to aid him. No answer came; and the Englishman, thus abandoned solely to his own resources, felt his spirit and energy rise against the danger. He turned back, and ventured as far towards the crater as the noxious exhalation would permit; then, gazing below, carefully and deliberately he chalked out for himself a path by which he trusted to shun the direction the fire-stream had taken, and trod firmly and quickly over the crumbling and heated strata. He had proceeded about fifty yards, when he halted abruptly ; an unspeakable and unaccountable horror, not

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hitherto experienced amidst all his peril, came over him. He shook in every limb; his muscles refused his will, — he felt, as it were, palsied and death-stricken. The horror, I say, was unaccountable, for the path seemed zlear and safe. The fire, above and behind, burned clear and far; and beyond, the stars lent him their cheering guidance. No obstacle was visible, — no danger seemed at hand. As thus, spell-bound and panic-stricken, he stood chained to the soil, —his breast heaving, large drops rolling down his brow, and his eyes starting wildly from their sockets, — he saw before him, at some distance, gradually shaping itself more and more distinctly to his gaze, a colossal shadow; a shadow that seemed partially borrowed from the human shape, but immeasurably above the human stature; vague, dark, almost formless; and differing, he could not tell where or why, not only from the proportions, but also from the limbs and outline of man. The glare of the volcano, that seemed to shrink and collapse from this gigantic and appalling apparition, nevertheless threw its light, redly and steadily, upon another shape that stood beside, quiet and motionless; and it was, perhaps, the contrast of these two things — the Being and the Shadow — that impressed the beholder with the difference between them, —the Man and the Superhuman. It was but for a moment —nay, for the tenth part of a moment — that this sight was permitted to the wanderer. A second eddy of sulphureous vapors from the volcano, yet more rapidly, yet more densely than its predecessor, rolled over the mountain ; and either the nature of the exhalation, or the excess of his own dread, was such, that Glyndon, after one wild gasp for breath, fell senseless on the earth,

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CHAPTER XI.

Was hab’ ich, Wenn ich nicht Alles habe ? —sprach der Jiingling. Das Verschleierte Bild zu Sats,

Mervate and the Italians arrived in safety at the spot where they had left the mules; and not till they had recovered their own alarm and breath did they think of Glyndon. But then, as the minutes passed, and he appeared not, Mervale, whose heart was as good at least as human hearts are in general, grew seriously alarmed. He insisted on returning to search for his friend; and by dint of prodigal promises prevailed at last on the guide to accompany him. ‘The lower part of the mountain lay calm and white in the starlight ; and the guide’s practised eye could discern all objects on the surface at a considerable distance. They had not, however, gone very far, before they perceived two forms slowly approaching them. As they came near, Mervale recognized the form of his friend. “Thank Heaven, he is safe!” he cried, turning to the guide. “Holy angels befriend us!” said the Italian, trembling, — “behold the very being that crossed me last Friday night. It is he, but his face is human now! ” “Signor Inglese,” said the voice of Zanoni, as Glyndon — pale, wan, and silent— returned passively the joyous greeting of Mervale, — “Signor Inglese, I told your friend that we should meet to-night. You see you have not foiled my prediction.”

1 “What have I, if I possess not All?” said the youth.

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