They arrived without molestation at an enclosure about a mile distant
from the priory. Here they alighted, leaving the horses to the care of
their attendants. Turning the angle made by a low wall, they observed a
footpath, which the clerk pointed out as the shortest and most
convenient course to their destination. Soon the east end of the priory
chapel was visible, basking in the broad light of the harvest moon, then
riding up full and unclouded towards her zenith. Buttress and oriel were
weltering in her beam, and the feathery pinnacles sprang out sharp and
clear into the blue sky. The shadows were thrown back in masses deep and
unbroken, more huge in proportion to the unknown depths through which
the eye could not penetrate.
"There--again! 'Tis a footstep on our track!" said the clerk, abruptly
breaking upon the reverie of his companion.
"'Tis but the tread of the roused deer; man's bolder footstep falls not
so lightly," was the reply; but this did not quiet the apprehensions of
the querist, whose terrors were again stealing upon him. Their path was
up a little glen, down which the mill-stream, now released from its
daily toil, brawled happily along, as if rejoicing in its freedom.
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