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24 BOLTON ABBEY.

scured the serene azure of the sky, but for some time one black spot had been visible in the distance; it had for the last half hour been rapidly increasing in size, and every now and then I could distinguish the low mutterings of the distant thunder, accompanied by a few faint flashes of lightning. Aware that the storm would not now pass away, I was on the point of leaving the building, when a peal of thunder shook it to its very foundation; at that moment my companions joined ‘me. We wished to have reached the inn; but the storm was now raging with a violence which drowned the sound of our voices: the peals of thunder, bursting with sudden crashes over our heads, were reverberated by a thousand echoes amongst the rocks and dilapidated buildings; and long ere one sound died away, it was renewed by claps, each of which seemed longer and louder than the last, while the forked and vivid lightning flashed from every window and crevice, rendering the horrors of the scene without distinctly visible. We had entered that part of the abbey where divine service is still performed, and arranged ourselves in silence round the altar. Thus we remained for more than an hour, when the fury of the storm began to abate, but the thunder had been succeeded by floods of rain; and being at some distance from the inn, we’ were detained prisoners some time longer. We reached it at last; but the shower had been followed by