Ralph was the
first to rush up the fatal pass, and to survey the horrible prospect.
One half of the brave little corps had been swept to instant death by
the unpitying rock, without having afforded the slightest obstacle to
its fearful progress. In one place lay a disembowelled steed panting its
last; mangled in a confused and unintelligible mass lay beside him
another, the limbs of his rider in many places undistinguishable from
his own. One poor wretch, whom he assisted to extricate from beneath the
body of his struggling horse, cried to him for water, and died in the
prayer. Fortunately for the few who survived the catastrophe--among whom
was their gallant but unfortunate young leader--they had, at the first
glimpse of the danger, urged on their horses with redoubled effort, and
by a close approach to the surface or the rock, taking an oblique
direction wide of its probable course, had, at the time of its
precipitation, reached a line almost parallel with the place upon which
it stood, and in this way achieved their escape without injury.
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