And both now felt that, with that smothered ray,

The last faint trembling hope had died away.

XLVII.

A fearful growl, close to the cavern’s vent,

First broke the thrall of horror and surprise;

And, by the gleam the smouldering embers sent,

That canine hybrid, shooting from his eyes

A baleful glare, crouched seemingly intent

On the scared infants as his famine’s prize;

The father drove the hatchet to his brains,