Raymond did not even look back, nor pay the slightest attention to what she said.
"'Never mind them,' said he; 'I know best--it's often I crossed it.' "On reaching the centre of the stream, however, he appeared to feel as if he had miscalculated the strength of either it or himself.

He stood for a moment literally shaking like a reed in its strong current--the passive maniac still in his arms, uncertain whether to advance with her or go back.

Experience, however, had often told him, that if the fording it were at all practicable, the danger was tenfold to return, for by the very act of changing the position, a man must necessarily lose the firmness of his opposition to the stream, and consequently be borne away without the power of resisting it.

Raymond, therefore, balanced himself as steadily as possible, and by feeling and making sure his footing in the most cautious manner--the slightest possible slip or stumble being at that moment fatal--he, with surprising strength and courage, had just succeeded in placing her safely on the rock he had before alluded to, when a stone turned under him--his foot gave way--and the poor creature, whose reason was veiled to almost every impulse but that of a wild and touching humanity, tumbled down the boiling torrent, helpless and unresisting as a child, and utterly beyond the reach of assistance.

My own sensations and feelings I really cannot describe, because, in point of fact, such was the tumult--the horror--of my mind at that moment, that I have no distinct recollection of my impressions.