San Andreas independent., 1857-11-07

a'ghtty ringing at Intervals, and giving
forth that paralyzing sound, which once
heard, is remembered forever. The rep.
tile all this while being conscious of. aud
to sport with while seeking to excite her
tcrrors. Now, with its fat head, disten-
ded mouth, and curving neck, would it
dart forth its long form to warn her-its
fatal teeth, unfolding on either side of
its upper jaws, seeming to threaten her
with instantaneous death, while its pow.
erful eye shot forth glanccs of that fatal
fascination, indignantly bright, which, by
paralyzing with moved form of terror
and of beauty, may readily account for
the spell which it possesses of binding
the feet of the timid, and denying even
to fear the privilege of flight. Gould she
have fed? She felt the necessity, but
the power of her limbs was gone; and
there still it lay, coiling and uncoiling, its
arched neck glittering like a ring of
bronzed copper, bright and lurid, and the
dreadful beauty of its eye still fastened,
eagerly contemplating the victim, while
the pendulous rattle still rang the dcath
note, as if to prepare the conscious mind
for the fate which is momcntly approach
ing the blow. Meonwhi1e, the Stiffness
became deoth-likc, miM all surrounding
objects. The bird had gone with its
scream and rush. The breeze was silent.
The vines ceased to wave. The leaves
family quivercd on their stems. The SER
pent once more lay still, but the eye was
never turned away from the victim. Its
corded muscles are all in COIL They
have but to unclasp suddenly, and the
dreadful foils will be upon her in full
length, and the fatal teeth will strike, and
and the deadly venom which they secrete
will mingle with the life blood in her
veins
"Thc terrified damsel, her full COM
sciousness restored, but not her strength,
feels all her danger. She sees that the
sport Of the terrible reptile IS at an end.
She cannot nou mistake the horrid ec-
preston ofhis rye. She tries to scream,
but her voice died away to feeble gurg-
ling in her throat. Her tongue is para
lyzed-her lips sealed; once more she
strives for flight, but her limbs refuse
their office. She has nothing left of life
but its fearful consciousness. 1t is in her
despair, that, as last effort she succeeds
to scream-a single wild cry, forced from
her by this accumulated agony; she sinks
down upon the grass before her enemy
her eyes, however, still open, and still
looking upon those which directs forever
upon them. She sees him approach, now
advancing, now receding; now swelling
in every part with something like anger,
while his neck arched beautifully, like
that of wild horse under the curb, until,
at length, tired as it were of play, like
the cat with her victim, she sees the neck
growing larger, and becoming completely
browed as if to strike-the huge jaws un-
closing almost directly above her; the
long, tubulated fang, charged with venom,
protruding from the cavernous mouth
and she sees no more! Insensibility
came to her aid, and she lay almost life
less under the folds of the very monster" /"
Nothing in ancient or modern litera-
ture is more strikingly conceived, or WV
idly described than this scene. At this
moment, when we feel that the summer
air is unchanged with this evil presence,
and nature aghast in her solitudes under
these human pangs, the arrow of young
savage trans6xes the neck of the reptile,
and thus turns aside the deadly fang
The accessories are all in keeping-thc
snake-likc vine; the golden and crimson
blooms, the shadows of the old woods, the
cry of the bird, all enhance the sense of
the beautiful and remote, while the touch
es which we have italicised, heighten the
effect, till we feel the glittering eye of
the beast, and its terrible undulations rise
imaee-like to the mind, and we see how
all the benignities of Nature are at war
with the spirit of the reptile.