2.  The wind began to blow sharp and keen, and the hard vault of the sky to lift a little.  He fancied that the hills on his right had fallen away, and that the horizon was suddenly depressed towards the north.  Roger’s feet began to splash in constantly deepening water, and presently a roar, distinct from that of the wind, filled the air.

3.  It was the Brandywine.  The stream had overflowed its broad meadow bottoms, and was running high and fierce beyond its main channel.  The turbid waters made a dim, dusky gleam around him; soon the fences disappeared, and the flood reached to his horse’s body.

4.  But he knew that the ford could be distinguished by the break in the fringe of timber; moreover, that the creek bank was a little higher than the meadows behind it, and so far, at least, he might venture.  The ford was not more than twenty yards across, and he could trust Roger to swim that distance.

5.  The faithful animal pressed bravely on, but Gilbert soon noticed that he seemed at fault.  The swift water had forced him out of the road, and he stopped from time to time, as if anxious and uneasy.  The timber could now be discerned, only a short distance in advance, and in a few minutes they would gain the bank.

6.  What was that?  A strange, rustling, hissing sound, as of cattle trampling through dry reeds,—­a sound which quivered and shook, even in the breath of the hurrying wind!  Roger snorted, stood still, and trembled in every limb; and a sensation of awe and terror struck a chill through Gilbert’s heart.  The sound drew swiftly nearer, and became a wild, seething roar, filling the whole breadth of the valley.

7.  “The dam! the dam!” cried Gilbert, “the dam has given way!” He turned Roger’s head, gave him the rein, struck, spurred, cheered, and shouted.  The brave beast struggled through the impeding flood, but the advance wave of the coming inundation already touched his side.  He staggered; a line of churning foam bore down upon them, the terrible roar was all around and over them, and horse and rider were whirled away.

8.  What happened during the first few seconds, Gilbert could never distinctly recall.  Now they were whelmed in the water, now riding its careering tide, torn through the tops of brushwood, jostled by floating logs and timbers of the dam, but always, as it seemed, remorselessly held in the heart of the tumult and the ruin.

[Transcriber’s Footnote:  careering—­Path or course, as the moon through the sky.]

9.  He saw at last that they had fallen behind the furious onset of the flood, but Roger was still swimming with it, desperately throwing up his head from time to time, and snorting the water from his nostrils.  All his efforts to gain a foothold failed; his strength was nearly spent, and unless some help should come in a few minutes it would come in vain.  And in the darkness, and the rapidity with which they were borne along, how should help come?