these huge woods are so reverberated, that
a stranger is always at fault as to their whereabout; but they
seemed to fill the whole air. Presently there was a lull; then he
heard the fierce galloping of hoofs; and still louder shouts and
cries arose, mingled with shrieks and groans; and above all,
strange and terrible sounds, like fierce claps of thunder,
bellowing loud, and then dying off in cracking echoes; and red
tongues of flame shot out ever and anon among the trees, and
clouds of sulphurous smoke came drifting over his head. And all
was still.

Gerard was struck with wordnetfear. "What will become of Denys?" he cried.
"Oh, why did you leave me? Oh, Denys, my friend! my friend!"

Just before sunset Denys returned, almost  under a hairy
bundle. It was the bear's skin.

Gerard welcomed him with a burst of  that astonished him.

"I thought never to see you again, dear Denys. Were you in the
battle?"

"No. What battle?"

"The bloody battle of men, or fiends, that raged in the wood a
while agone;" and with this he described it to the life, and more
fully than I have done.

Denys patted him indulgently on