Look about you, friends; the wreath of smoke, that is rising from the bottoms, plainly says that there is no outlet from this spot, without crossing a belt of fire.

Look for yourselves, my men; look for yourselves; if you can find a single opening, I will engage to follow." The examination, which his companions so instantly and so intently made, rather served to assure them of their desperate situation, than to appease their fears.

Huge columns of smoke were rolling up from the plain, and thickening in gloomy masses around the horizon.

The red glow, which gleamed upon their enormous folds, now lighting their volumes with the glare of the conflagration, and now flashing to another point, as the flame beneath glided ahead, leaving all behind enveloped in awful darkness, and proclaiming louder than words the character of the imminent and approaching danger.
"This is terrible!" exclaimed Middleton, folding the trembling Inez to his heart.

"At such a time as this, and in such a manner!" "The gates of Heaven are open to all who truly believe," murmured the pious devotee in his bosom.
"This resignation is maddening! But we are men, and will make a struggle for our lives! how now, my brave and spirited friend, shall we yet mount and push across the flames, or shall we stand here, and see those we most love perish in this frightful manner, without an effort ?" "I am for a swarming time, and a flight before the hive is too hot to hold us," said the bee-hunter, to whom it will be at once seen that Middleton addressed himself.