Cloud answered to cloud, and the echoes of the hills prolonged the sound, while shattered trunks and brittle branches filled the air, and shrieked and groaned in that wild war of elements.
Between the pauses of the tempest the long howl of the wolves, from their covert in some distant cedar swamp at the edge of the lake, might be heard from time to time,--a sound that always thrilled their hearts with fear.

To the mighty thunder-peal that burst above their heads they listened with awe and wonder.

It seemed, indeed, to them as if it were the voice of Him who "sendeth out his voice, yea, and that a mighty voice." And they bowed and adored his majesty; but they shrank with curdled blood from the cry of the _felon wolf._ And now the storm was at its climax, and the hail and rain came down in a whitening flood upon that ocean of forest leaves; the old grey branches were lifted up and down, and the stout trunks rent, for they would not bow down before the fury of the whirlwind, and were scattered all abroad like chaff before the wind.
The children thought not of danger for themselves, but they feared for the safety of their fathers, whom they believed to be not far off from them.

And often 'mid the raging of the elements, they fancied they could distinguish familiar voices calling upon their names.

"If our father had not been near, Wolfe would not have come hither." "Ah, if our father should have perished in this fearful storm," said Catharine, weeping, "or have been starved to death while seeking for us!" and Catharine covered her face and wept more bitterly.
But Louis would not listen to such melancholy forebodings.