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- 12704
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:48:16.157Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 12653
- text
- comparatively calm and collected; and I saw my folly in endeavouring to
trifle with one apparently so mysterious and inexplicable.
I now resolved, that whatever might betide, I would patiently await the
issue of the affair, and advancing forward in the direction of my guide,
who all this time had maintained her ground, steadfastly watching my
actions, we both simultaneously strode forward, and were soon on the
same footing as before.
We walked on at an increased pace, and were just past the suburbs of the
town when my conductress, plunging into a neighbouring grove, pursued
her way with augmented speed, till we arrived at a spot, whose singular
and grotesque beauty, even amidst the agitating occurrences of the
evening, I could not refrain from observing. A circular space of about a
dozen acres in extent had been cleared in the very heart of the grove,
leaving, however, two parallel rows of lofty trees, which at the
distance of about twenty paces, and intersected in the centre by two
similar ranges, traversed the whole diameter of the circle. These noble
plants shooting their enormous trunks to an amazing height, bore their
verdant honours far aloft, throwing their gigantic limbs abroad and
embracing each other with their rugged arms. This fanciful union of
their sturdy boughs formed a magnificent arch, whose grand proportions,
swelling upward in proud pre-eminence, presented to the eye a vaulted
roof, which to my perturbed imagination at the time, seemed to have
canopied the triumphal feasts of the sylvan god. This singular prospect
burst upon me in all its beauty, as we emerged from the surrounding
thicket, and I had unconsciously lingered on the borders of the wood,
the better to enjoy so unrivalled a view, when, as my eye was following
the dusky outline of the grove, I caught sight of the diminutive figure
of my guide, who, standing at the entrance of the arched way I have been
endeavouring to describe, was making the most extravagant gesture of
impatience at my delay. Reminded at once of the situation, which put me
for a time under the control of this capricious mortal, I replied to her
summons by immediately throwing myself forward, and we soon entered the
Atlantian arbour, in whose umbrageous shades we were completely hid.
Lost in conjecture, during the whole of this eccentric ramble, as to its
probable termination, the sombre gloom of these ancestral trees gave a
darkening hue to my imaginings, and I began to repent the inconsiderate
haste which had hurried me on in an expedition so peculiar and
suspicious. In spite of all my efforts to exclude them, the fictions of
the nursery poured in upon my recollections, and I felt with Bob Acres
in the _Rivals_, that ‘my valour was certainly going.’ Once, I am almost
ashamed to own it to thee, gentle reader, my mind was so haunted with
ghostly images, that in an agony of apprehension I was about to turn and
flee, and had actually made some preliminary movements to that effect,
when my hand, accidentally straying into my bosom, gripped the billet,
whose romantic summons had caused this nocturnal adventure. I felt my
soul regain her fortitude, and smiling at the absurd conceits which
infested my brain, I once more stalked proudly forward, under the
overhanging branches of these ancient trees.
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