It was very dark upon the forest road, where trees loomed gigantic against the pitchy gloom wherein dim-seen branches creaked and swayed, and leaves rustled faint and fitful in the stealthy night-wind; and through the gloom at the head of his silent company Beltane rode in frowning thought, his humour blacker than the night.

This is all of any interest we know regarding the fitful connection of the guardian and ward.

she trembling stands, All wan her lips, and frozen red her hands; Her mournful eyes are modestly down cast, Her night-black hair streams on the fitful blast; Her bosom, passing fair, is half reveal'd,

[T] shining on her gloomy way, The half-seen form of Twilight roams astray; Shedding, through paly loop-holes mild and small, Gleams that upon the lake's still bosom fall; 295 Soft o'er the surface creep those lustres pale Tracking the motions of the fitful gale.

Tracking the fitful motions of the gale.

Yet the instinct to freedom, the appetite for freedom, flickers through the centuries as a fitful flame, though snuffed out by every gust of class passion, every wind of mob resentment, and every storm of national jealousy.

The second floor proved to be devoted mainly to a drawing-room, a lounge, and a library, all furnished in a weird, inchoate sort of magnificence, with money rather than with taste, if one might judge fairly by the fitful and guarded beam of the torch.

The Count went over the ground of the scene that he had witnessed in the fitful moonlight.

While the fierce fitful blast sweeps on its course.

Saul, of course, did not know on whom the choice had fallen as his successor, but from that day on which he was warned of the penalty of his disobedience divine favor departed from him, and he became jealous, fitful, and cruel.

Sir Torm was helped in his self-given task To struggle with ill humours and with pride Far more by her new gentleness and grace Than he had been by waywardness and scorn And fitful fascination, as of old.

THE PROSPECTOR Where the ragged, snow-capped saw tooth Cuts the azure of the sky And watches o'er the lonely land As ages wander by; Where the sentinel pines in grandeur Murmur to the glacier stream As it, ice-gorged, gluts the canyon, Never brightened by the gleam Of sun at brightest noon day, Nor moon of Arctic night, And whose only link with Heaven Is the fitful Northern Light.

O lonely island of the Rhine, Where seed was never sown, What harvest lay upon thy sands, By those strong reapers thrown? What saw the winter moon that night, As, struggling through the rain, She poured a wan and fitful light On marsh, and stream, and plain?

the bagpipe's fitful wailing: Not the pibroch loud and shrill

Headley, coming out the next morning, after two hours' fitful sleep, met him at the gate: his usual business-like trot was exchanged for a fierce and hurried stamp.

Washington Irving was not bred to any profession, and had a fixed aversion, not characteristic of his countrymen, for regular business-occupation; his literary industry was fitful, and not continuous: but he seems to have been fond of the occupation of writing, and spent upon his diaries and in his correspondence a great many hours, which he could hardly have done, if he had been a lawyer, a doctor, or even a merchant, in active employment.

She did sleep at lasta fitful feverish sleep; but ever at the sound of Mr. Carrollton's voice a spasm of pain distorted her features, and a low moan came from her lips.

But I, to whom this life blooms rich and busy, Whose heart goes out a-Maying all the year In this new Edenin my fitful thought What skill is there, to turn my faith to sight To pierce blank Heaven, like some trained falconer

I would lie down and weep, and weep, Till the salt current of my tears should sweep My soul, like floating weed, adown a fitful sleep, A lingering half-night through.

How it moaned and mocked and muttered At the cottage window, shuttered, Whence there streamed Fitful flecks of firelight mild: And within, a mother smiled, Singing softly to her child As there dinned Round the gabled roof and rafter Long and loud the shout and laughter Of the wind, The wild November wind.

Still the declining sun glowed with unnatural intensity of hue; and the evening breeze swept over the town in unusually fitful and stormy gusts.

Jacob Nowell spent those slow hours in fitful sleep and frequent intervals of wakefulness, in which he would talk to Marian, however she might urge him to remember the doctor's injunctions that he should be kept perfectly quiet.

But before the last fitful film had run through my mind, I beheld one which I shall now describe.

And the principal reason which deters Hamlet from suicide is the fear that even if he does sleep well "after life's fitful fever is over," still, that sleep may be full of troubled dreams.

She was almost gay and joyous at breakfast, and then grew fitful and restless, and then became pensive again.