293
A LEGEND OF THE SAVANNAH.
Again the blood rushed to the cheek and temples of Zulmiera—again the eye flashed fire—but again she mastered her emotions ; exclaiming, however, as she did so, but in a voice too subdued to reach her companion's ear, " Rest till to-morrow's night, proud man, then wilt thou learn who governs here !" At this moment, Bridget placed in her father's hand the lately invented telescope,* when, raising it to his eye, he narrowly observed the whole breadth of the copse ; the distant creek and the farther ocean ; but nothing met his eye— nothing, save the wavy green, or the wing of a weary seafowl as it sought its nest. Slowly dropping the instrument, the governor once more gazed with his naked eye in that direction. The sun had set some minutes before, and as the last of his golden beams faded in the west, he turned upon his heel, and, followed by the females, was once more lost in the verdant shrubbery.
CHAPTER XXIV CONTINUATION
IT
OF
THE
LEGEND.
was a calm, delicious, West Indian night.
The moon
shone in all her glory, bathing lawn and lea, upland and woodland, in her silvery light. The waters of the creek we have already noticed were rife with beauty; and the waves of the far-off ocean, as they dashed in measured cadence on the beach, broke musically upon the listener's ear. A stately figure, enveloped in a dark mantle, glided from behind a screen of lime and coffee trees ; and gaining the open ground, looked cautiously around. As if assured its movements were unobserved, the figure darted off at a rapid pace in the direction of a magnificent grove ; but with steps * Telescopes were said to have been invented during the reign of James I., although some attribute the invention to Roger Bacon, 1292.