The storm had now fairly commenced.  Flash followed flash, and peal succeeded peal, without intermission.  The rain descended hissing and spouting, and presently ran down the hill in a torrent, adding to the horseman’s other difficulties and dangers.  To heighten the terror of the scene, strange shapes, revealed by the lightning, were seen flitting among the trees, and strange sounds were heard, though overpowered by the dreadful rolling of the thunder.

But Richard’s resolution continued unshaken, and he forced Merlin on.  He had not proceeded far, however, when the animal uttered a cry of fright, and began beating the air with his fore hoofs.  The lightning enabled Richard to discern the cause of this new distress.  Coiled round the poor beast’s legs, all whose efforts to disengage himself from the terrible assailant were ineffectual, was a large black snake, seemingly about to plunge its poisonous fangs into the flesh.  Again having recourse to the talisman, and bending down, Richard stretched it towards the snake, upon which the reptile instantly darted its arrow-shaped head against him, but instead of wounding him, its forked teeth encountered the piece of gold, and, as if stricken a violent blow, it swiftly untwined itself, and fled, hissing, into the thicket.

Richard was now obliged to dismount and lead his horse.  In this way he toiled slowly up the hill.  The storm continued with unabated fury:  the red lightning played around him, the brattling thunder stunned him, and the pelting rain poured down upon his head.  But he was no more molested.  Save for the vivid flashes, it had become dark as night, but they served to guide him on his way.

At length he got out of the thicket, and trod upon the turf, but it was rendered so slippery by moisture, that he could scarcely keep his feet, while the lightning no longer aided him.  Fearing he had taken a wrong course, he stood still, and while debating with himself a blaze of light illumined the wide heath, and showed him the object of his search, Malkin Tower, standing alone, like a beacon, at about a quarter of a mile’s distance, on the further side of the hill.  Was it disturbed fancy, or did he really behold on the summit of the structure a grisly shape resembling—­if it resembled any thing human—­a gigantic black cat, with roughened staring skin, and flaming eyeballs?

Nerved by the sight of the tower, Richard was on his steed’s back in an instant, and the animal, having in some degree recovered his spirits, galloped off with him, and kept his feet in spite of the slippery state of the road.  Erelong, another flash showed the young man that he was drawing rapidly near the tower, and dismounting, he tied Merlin to a tree, and hurried towards the unhallowed pile.  When within twenty paces of it, mindful of Mistress Nutter’s injunctions, he placed the bugle to his lips, and winded it thrice.  The summons, though clear and loud, sounded strangely in the portentous silence.