What matters it, too, though the eagle soars and screams among the clouds, halfway up to heaven--flaunting his proud pinions, and glaring with audacious glance in the very eye of the sun--death waits for him in the quiet of his own eyry, nestling with his brood.

These are the goodly texts of the Arabian sage, in whose garden-tree, so much was he the beloved of heaven, the birds came and nightly sang for him those solemn truths--those lessons of a perfect wisdom--which none but the favored of the Deity are ever permitted to hear.

They will find a sufficient commentary in the fortune of the rider whom we have just beheld setting out from his parting with his mistress, on his way of new adventure--his heart comparatively light, and his spirit made buoyant with the throng of pleasant fancies which continually gathered in his thought.
The interview between Forrester and his mistress had been somewhat protracted, and his route from her residence to the road in which we find him, being somewhat circuitous, the night had waned considerably ere he had made much progress.

He now rode carelessly, as one who mused--his horse, not urged by its rider, became somewhat careful of his vigor, and his gait was moderated much from that which had marked his outset.

He had entered upon the trace through a thick wood, when the sound of other hoofs came down upon the wind; not to his ears, for, swallowed up in his own meditations, his senses had lost much of their wonted acuteness.