After this its power gradually diminishes
in the same way as it increased--the peals become less loud and less
frequent, the lightning feebler and less brilliant, until at length it
seems to take another course, and after a few exhausted volleys it dies
away with a hoarse grumble in the distance.
Still it thundered and thundered terribly; nor had the sweep of
the wind-tempest yet lost any of its fury. At this moment Kennedy
discovered, by a succession of those flashes that were lighting the
country around him, a tall young female without cloak or bonnet, her
long hair sometimes streaming in the wind, and sometimes blown up in
confusion over her head. She was proceeding at a tottering but eager
pace, evidently under the influence of wildness and distraction, or
rather as if she felt there was something either mortal or spectral in
pursuit of her. He hailed her by her name as she passed him, for he knew
her, but received no reply. To Tom, who had, as the reader knows, been
a witness of the scene we have described, this fearful glimpse of Nannie
Morrissey's desolation and misery, under the pelting of the pitiless
storm and the angry roar of the I elements, was distressing in the
highest degree, and filled his honest heart with compassion for her
sufferings.
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