Ever and
anon large pieces of stone, broken from their native mass, and tumbling
among the craggy caverns, saluted his ear. Now and then he heard a
bubbling fountain bursting from the rock, which presently fell with a
loud and dashing noise along the declivity, and was lost in the pebbles
below. The only light by which his steps were guided, was that which
fell in partial and scanty streams through the fissures of the mountain,
and served to discover little more than the shapelessness of the rocks,
and the uncultivated horrors of the scene.
Through these Edwin passed unappalled. His heart was naturally firm and
intrepid, and he now cased himself round with the armour of untainted
innocence and unsullied truth. It was not long before he came forth from
this scene of desolation to that beautiful and cultivated prospect which
had already enchanted the heart of Imogen. To him it had advantages
which in the former case it could not boast. He could contrast its
gaiety and brightness with the obscure and dismal scene from which he
had escaped. Nor was he struck only by the verdure of the prospect, and
the vividness of its colours, he also beheld the inclosure, not, as his
amiable mistress had done, from a terrace adjoining to the mansion; but
from the last point of the rock from which he was ready to descend.
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