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Show 294 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. wedding plan; and so they laid a plot to steal away at dead of night on the old man's burros; and crossing the Sangre de Cristo chain to the San Luis Park, spend there their honeymoon. When the morning sun smiled again, they were far away upon the mountain trail. The maiden looked back upon the beautiful scene; spied her wrathful father with a band of men all well armed, rushing forward upon their track. Safety lay in flight, for well they knew, that naught but the lover's life would atone for the theft of the burros, to say nothing of stealing the maiden. And so, plying whip and lash, on they sped " O'er granite crags, and canons deep, In which the direst horrors sleep." It is plain the angry father and his band will win the desperate race: " And still beside the wild ravine The loyer's towering form is seen; He scans with piercing, blazing eyes, The horrid gorge, then wildly cries! 'Come to my arms and throbbing breast, And let your firm, round bosom rest Against my coat front, while I try A' Lover's Leap,' which will defy Your d d old dad and all his crew,- Death cannot tear my heart from you.' Two thousand feet, at least, below, The stream of death doth coldly flow; Sharp crags stand out on either side Of the fearful gorge, full seven yards wide; But now the leap, the lover's leap,- Prepare, sweet maids, to wail and weep; Sacre! The fellow jumps like h-! But down the gorge has surely fell. No! hold! He grasps a pointed crag |