Though prepared for the event, in one sense of the word, the great body of the squatters were not prepared for the unusual emotions which succeeded it in their bosoms.  The arms dropped from the hands of many of them—­a speechless horror was the prevailing feature of all, and all fight was over, while the scene of bloody execution was now one of indiscriminate examination and remark with friend and foe.  Ralph was the first to rush up the fatal pass, and to survey the horrible prospect.

One half of the brave little corps had been swept to instant death by the unpitying rock, without having afforded the slightest obstacle to its fearful progress.  In one place lay a disembowelled steed panting its last; mangled in a confused and unintelligible mass lay beside him another, the limbs of his rider in many places undistinguishable from his own.  One poor wretch, whom he assisted to extricate from beneath the body of his struggling horse, cried to him for water, and died in the prayer.  Fortunately for the few who survived the catastrophe—­among whom was their gallant but unfortunate young leader—­they had, at the first glimpse of the danger, urged on their horses with redoubled effort, and by a close approach to the surface or the rock, taking an oblique direction wide of its probable course, had, at the time of its precipitation, reached a line almost parallel with the place upon which it stood, and in this way achieved their escape without injury.  Their number was few, however; and not one half of the fifteen, who commenced the ascent, ever reached or survived its attainment.

Ralph gained the summit just in time to prevent the completion of the foul tragedy by its most appropriate climax.  As if enough had not yet been done in the way of crime, the malignant and merciless Rivers, of whom we have seen little in this affair, but by whose black and devilish spirit the means of destruction had been hit upon, which had so well succeeded, now stood over the body of the Georgian, with uplifted hand, about to complete the deed already begun.  There was not a moment for delay, and the youth sprung forward in time to seize and wrest the weapon from his grasp.  With a feeling of undisguised indignation, he exclaimed, as the outlaw turned furiously upon him—­

“Wretch—­what would you?  Have you not done enough? would you strike the unresisting man?”

Rivers, with undisguised effort, now turned his rage upon the intruder.  His words, choked by passion, could scarce find utterance; but he spoke with furious effort at length, as he directed a wild blow with a battle-axe at the head of the youth.

“You come for your death, and you shall have it!”.

“Not yet,” replied Ralph, adroitly avoiding the stroke and closing with the ruffian—­“you will find that I an not unequal to the struggle, though it be with such a monster as yourself.”