Perceiving the rock to give way, he threw himself forward, and alighted on a narrow shelf, a few feet beneath the place where he had just stood, and at least ten feet removed from it, laterally.

The shelf on which he alighted was ragged, and but two or three feet wide.

It would have afforded only a check to his fall, had there not fortunately been some shrubs among the rocks above it.

By these shrubs the young man caught, actually swinging off in the air, under the impetus of his leap.
Happily, the shrubs were too well rooted to give way; and, swinging himself round, with the address of a sailor, the youthful lieutenant was immediately on his feet, in comparative safety.

The silence that succeeded was the consequence of the shock he felt, in finding him so suddenly thrown into this perilous situation.