And a great pang seized my heart as I thought of the home where I was once so happy.
"Let it go," said Magdalen, bitterly. "It and its like have long enough cumbered the ground. But we must not tarry here, lady. Follow me—look well to your steps, and fear not."
We now descended into the ravine, through which the brook raved and roared, apparently filling the whole space at the bottom.
"There is a path, though of the narrowest!" said Magdalen, as we reached the bottom. "Tarry a little till I strike a light."
She lighted as she spoke a dark lantern, which she had carried, and showed me indeed a very narrow path; hardly wide enough for one, under the banks, which here became high and steep, towering in bare walls above our heads.
"This is our own Coombe Ashton stream," said she, "and would lead us homeward, but you must not venture hither till we find how the land lies."
The day had begun to dawn as we reached a projecting rock, beyond which there seemed to be no passing.
"Have faith still!" said Magdalen.
As she spoke, she stepped out on a stone in the bed of the stream, and then disappeared round the projection. In another moment I heard her voice:
"Now, my Lady, place your foot on that stone firmly, and give me your hand. Take time. The stream is swollen, but you can do it."