well as terror.  I saw, though at the moment I hardly understood, how she had reached this point.  A very narrow path, some hundred feet in length, sloped down from the table-rock of the summit to the shelf on which she stood, with an outer hedge of shrubs and the summits of small trees, which concealed, and in some sort guarded, the precipice below, so that even a timid girl might pursue the path without fear.  But this path ended several feet from the commencement of the shelf.  Across the gap had lain a fallen tree, with boughs affording such a screen and railing on the outward side as might at once conceal the gulf below, and afford assistance in crossing the chasm.  But in crossing this tree Eveena’s footsteps had displaced it, and it had so given way as not only to be unavailable, but a serious obstacle to my passage.  Had I had time to go round, I might have been able to leap the chasm; I certainly could not return that way with a burden even so light as that of my precious charge.  The only chance was to lift her by main force directly to where I stood; and the outward projection of the rock at this point rendered this peculiarly difficult, as I had nothing to cling or hold by.  The Regent had by this time reached me, and discerned what had occurred.

“Hold me fast,” I said, “or sit upon me if you like, to hold me with your weight whilst I lean over.”  The man stood astounded, not by the danger of another but by the demand on himself; and evidently without the slightest intention of complying.

“You are mad!” he said.  “Your chance is ten times greater to lose your own life than to save hers.”

“Lose my life!” I cried.  “Could I dare return alive without her?  Throw your whole weight on me, I say, as I lean over, and waste no more time!”

“What!” he rejoined.  “You are twice as heavy as I, and if you are pulled over I shall probably go over too.  Why am I to endanger myself to save a girl from the consequences of her folly?”

“If you do not,” I swore, “I will fling you where the carcass of which you are so careful shall be crushed out of the very form of the manhood you disgrace.”

Even this threat failed to move him.  Meantime the bird, fluttering on my shoulder, suggested a last chance; and snatching the tablet round its neck, I wrote two words thereon, and calling to it, “Home!” the intelligent creature flew off at fullest speed.

“Now,” I said, “if you do not help me I will kill you here and now.  If you pretend to help and fail me, that bird carries to Esmo my request to hold you answerable for our lives.”

I invoked, in utter desperation, the awe with which, as his hints and my experience implied, Esmo was regarded by his neighbours; and slender as seemed this support, it did not fail me.  The Regent’s countenance fell, and I saw that I might depend at least on his passive compliance.  Clasping his arm with my left hand, I said, “Pull back with all your might.  If I go over, you shall go over too.”  Then pulling him down with me, and stretching myself over the precipice so far that but for this additional support I must have fallen, I reached Eveena, whose closed eyes and relaxing limbs indicated that another moment’s delay might be fatal.