noon
Fain would I relate the manner of their arrival in the thick recesses of the forest , -- how they found the Red Hunter seated on a fallen pine beside a wide chasm in the earth , with the arching bows of the wizard oak wreathing above his head as a canopy , and his bow and spear lying idle at his feet . Fain would I tell of the reception which he deigned to the fairies , and how he told them of his ancient victories over man ; how he chafed at the gathering invasions of his realm ; and how joyously he gloated of some great convulsion * in the northern States , which , rapt into moody reveries in those solitary woods , the fierce demon broodingly foresaw . All these fain would I narrate , but they are not of the Rhine , and my story will not brook the delay . While thus conversing with the fiend , noon had crept on , and the sky had become overcast and lowering ; the giant trees waved gustily to and fro , and the low gatherings of the thunder announced the approaching storm . Then the hunter rose and stretched his mighty limbs , and seizing his spear , he strode rapidly into the forest to meet the things of his own tribe that the tempest wakes from their rugged lair . * Which has come to pass . -- 1847 .