A cloud had hidden the face of the moon, and they could see nothing, so they stood awhile idly waiting for it to pass.
As they rested thus, suddenly a moaning sound came to their ears, or rather a sound which, beginning with a moan, ended in a long low wail.
"What is that ?" asked Leonard, looking towards the shadows on the further side of the ravine, whence the cry seemed to proceed.
"I do not know," answered Otter, "unless it be a ghost, or the voice of one who mourns her dead." "We are the only mourners here," said Leonard, and as he spoke once more the low and piercing wail thrilled upon the air.

Just then the cloud passed, the moonlight shone out brilliantly, and they saw who it was that cried aloud in this desolate place.

For there, not twenty paces from them, on the other side of the ravine, crouched upon a stone and rocking herself to and fro as though in an agony of despair and grief, sat a tall and withered woman.
With an exclamation of surprise Leonard started towards her, followed by the dwarf.

So absorbed was the woman in her sorrow that she neither saw nor heard them.

Even when they stood close to her she did not perceive them, for her face was hidden in her bony hands.