 | The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Joanna Baillie |  |
SCENE II.
A different part of the wood, wild and savage: the scene still darkened, and a storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied with hail. Enter Rayner.Ray.
I know not where these men have shelter'd them.
I've miss'd their signal: this loud stunning din
399
Athwart this arch of deep embodied darkness,
Swift shiv'ring lightnings glare, from end to end
Mantling the welkin o'er in vivid flames;
Or from aloft, like sheeted cataracts
Of liquid fire, seem pour'd. E'en o'er my head
The soft and misty-textured clouds seem changed
To piles of harden'd rocks, which from their base,
Like the up-breaking of a ruin'd world,
Are hurl'd with force tremendous. Patt'ring hail
Beats on my shrinking form with spiteful force:
Where shall I shelter me? Ha! through the trees
Peers, near at hand, a small but settled light:
I will make quickly towards it; perhaps
There may be some lone dwelling in the wood.
[Exit.
| The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Joanna Baillie | |