“The moon is up,” said Flora, who wished to turn the conversation from that to another topic.  “I see if yonder through the trees; it rises red and large—­it is very beautiful—­and yet there is not a cloud about to give it the colour and appearance it now wears.”

“Exactly so,” said Sir Francis Varney; “but the reason is the air is filled with a light, invisible vapour, that has the effect you perceive.  There has been much evaporation going on, and now it shows itself in giving the moon that peculiar large appearance and deep colour.”

“Ay, I see; it peeps through the trees, the branches of which cut it up into various portions.  It is singular, and yet beautiful, and yet the earth below seems dark.”

“It is dark; you would be surprised to find it so if you walked about.  It will soon be lighter than it is at this present moment.”

“What sounds are those?” inquired Sir Francis Varney, as he listened attentively.

“Sounds!  What sounds?” returned Henry.

“The sounds of wheels and horses’ feet,” said Varney.

“I cannot even hear them, much less can I tell what they are,” said Henry.

“Then listen.  Now they come along the road.  Cannot you hear them now?” said Varney.

“Yes, I can,” said Charles Holland; “but I really don’t know what they are, or what it can matter to us; we don’t expect any visitors.”

“Certainly, certainly,” said Varney.  “I am somewhat apprehensive of the approach of strange sounds.”

“You are not likely to be disturbed here,” said Charles.

“Indeed; I thought so when I had succeeded in getting into the house near the town, and so far from believing it was likely I should be discovered, that I sat on the house-top while the mob surrounded it.”

“Did you not hear them coming?”

“I did.”

“And yet you did not attempt to escape from them?”

“No, I could not persuade them I was not there save by my utter silence.  I allowed them to come too close to leave myself time to escape—­besides, I could hardly persuade myself there could be any necessity for so doing.”

“It was fortunate it was as it happened afterwards, that you were able to reach the wood, and get out of it unperceived by the mob.”

“I should have been in an unfortunate condition had I been in their hands long.  A man made of iron would not be able to resist the brutality of those people.”

As they were speaking, a gig, with two men, drove up, followed by one on horseback.  They stopped at the garden-gate, and then tarried to consult with each other, as they looked at the house.

“What can they want, I wonder?” inquired Henry; “I never saw them before.”

“Nor I,” said Charles Holland.

“Do you not know them at all?” inquired Varney.

“No,” replied Flora; “I never saw them, neither can I imagine what is their object in coming here.”