At these words a thundering crash assailed my ears,--all the windows on either side of the saloon flew open, and showed a strange glitter as of steely spears pointed aloft to the moon,-- ... then, ... half-fainting, I felt myself grasped and lifted suddenly and forcibly upwards, ... and in another moment found myself on the deck of 'The Flame,' held fast as a prisoner in the fierce grip of hands invisible. Raising my eyes in deadly despair,--prepared for hellish tortures, and with a horrible sense of conviction in my soul that it was too late to cry out to God for mercy,--I saw around me a frozen world!--a world that seemed as if the sun had never shone upon it. Thick glassy-green walls of ice pressed round the vessel on all sides and shut her in between their inflexible barriers!--fantastic palaces, pinnacles, towers, bridges and arches of ice formed in their architectural outlines and groupings the semblance of a great city,--over all the coldly glistening peaks, the round moon, emerald-pale, looked down,--and standing opposite to me against the mast, I beheld, ... not Lucio, ... but an Angel! [5] Witness the destruction of Foyers, to the historical shame and disgrace of Scotland and Scotsmen. XLI Crowned with a mystic radiance as of trembling stars of fire, that sublime Figure towered between me and the moonlit sky; the face, austerely grand and beautiful, shone forth luminously pale,--the eyes were full of unquenchable pain, unspeakable remorse, unimaginable despair! The features I had known so long and seen day by day in familiar intercourse were the same,--the same, yet transfigured with ethereal splendour, while shadowed by an everlasting sorrow! Bodily sensations I was scarcely conscious of;--only the Soul of me, hitherto dormant, was awake and palpitating with fear. Gradually I became aware that others were around me, and looking, I saw a dense crowd of faces, wild and wonderful,--imploring eyes were turned upon me in piteous or stern agony,--and pallid hands were stretched towards me more in appeal than menace. And I beheld as I gazed, the air darkening, and anon lightening with the shadow and the brightness of wings!--vast pinions of crimson flame began to unfurl and spread upwards all round the ice-bound vessel,--upwards till their glowing tips seemed well-nigh to touch the moon. And He, my Foe, who leaned against the mast, became likewise encircled with these shafted pinions of burning rose, which like finely-webbed clouds coloured by a strong sunset, streamed outward flaringly from his dark Form and sprang aloft in a blaze of scintillant glory. And a Voice infinitely sad, yet infinitely sweet, struck solemn music from the frozen silence. "Steer onward, Amiel! Onward, to the boundaries of the world!"