All
night they plunged forward through the tangled thicket and under-brush,
surrounded by thick darkness, glancing now and then upward to their only
light,
"Star of the North! though night winds drift the fleecy
drapery of the sky,
Between thy lamp and thee, I lift, yea, lift with hope
my sleepless eye."
When day dawned they threw their weary bodies on the ground, famished
and thirsty, and waited for the darkness to again conceal them while they
pursued their journey. The second day of their flight, the pain of hunger
became almost beyond endurance. They found a few roots which relieved them
a little; but frequently they lost their way, and becoming bewildered,
knew not which way to go; they pushed on, however, determined to keep as
far from their pursuers as possible. Their shoes were soon worn out; but
bare-footed, bare-headed, and famishing with hunger, they pressed forward,
until the fourth day, when they found themselves too weak to proceed
farther. Hope, the anchor of the soul, had failed them! They were starving
in a dense forest! No track or path could they find, and even had they
seen a human being, they would have been more terrified than at the sight
of a wild beast!
Poor Rosa, could go no farther--her strength was all gone--and as her
emaciated husband laid her on the cold earth, he exclaimed, "Oh, dear God!
_must_ we, after all our efforts, starve in this dark wilderness! Beside
his fainting wife, he finally stretched himself, sheltered only by a few
bushes, and tried to compose himself to die! but resting a few moments
revived him, and he aroused himself, to make one more effort for life!
Stay you here, wife, and I will try once more to find the highway; it
cannot be far from here; and if I am taken, I will submit to my fate
without a struggle; we can but die.
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