CHAPTER V.THE EMPTY SADDLE.
The night has been unruly:...
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death.
_Macbeth_.
The storm was now all but over.

The moon shone clear, and the clouds that scudded across its face were few.

Lauvellen, to the east, was visible to the summit; and Raven Craig, to the west, loomed black before the moon.

A cutting wind still blew, and a frost had set in sharp and keen.

Already the sleet that had fallen was frozen in sheets along the road, which was thereby made almost impassable even to the sure footsteps of the mountaineer.