This aroused Wallace from a long fit of musing to
look around him; but on which side lay the road to Rouen, he could form
no guess. To pass the night in so exposed a spot might be dangerous,
and spurring the animal, he determined to push onward.
He had ridden nearly another hour, when the dead silence of the scene
was broken by the roll of distant thunder. Then forked lightning
shooting from the horizon showed a line of country unmarked by any
vestige of human habitation. Still he proceeded. The storm
approached, till, breaking in peals over his head, it discharged such
sheets of livid fire at his feet that the horse reared, and plunging
amidst the blaze, flashed the light of his rider's armor on the eyes of
a troop of horsemen, who also stood under the tempest, gazing with
affright at the scene. Wallace, by the same transitory illumination,
saw the travelers, as they seemed to start back at his appearance; and,
mistaking their apprehension, he called to them, that his well-managed,
though terrified steed, would do theirs no harm. One of them advanced
and respectfully inquired of him the way to Rouen. Wallace replied
that he was a stranger in this part of the country, and was also
seeking that city.
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