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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Phantastes, by George MacDonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Phantastes
+       A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
+
+Author: George MacDonald
+
+Release Date: September, 1995 [eBook #325]
+[Most recently updated: May 6, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Mike Lough and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PHANTASTES ***
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+Phantastes
+A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
+
+by George MacDonald
+
+
+A new Edition, with thirty-three new Illustrations by Arthur Hughes;
+
+edited by Greville MacDonald (Illustrations not available)
+
+
+“In good sooth, my masters, this is no door.
+
+Yet is it a little window, that looketh upon a great world.”
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+ PREFACE
+ PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+ CHAPTER II.
+ CHAPTER III.
+ CHAPTER IV.
+ CHAPTER V.
+ CHAPTER VI.
+ CHAPTER VII.
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+ CHAPTER IX.
+ CHAPTER X.
+ CHAPTER XI.
+ CHAPTER XII.
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+ CHAPTER XV.
+ CHAPTER XVI.
+ CHAPTER XVII.
+ CHAPTER XVIII.
+ CHAPTER XIX.
+ CHAPTER XX.
+ CHAPTER XXI.
+ CHAPTER XXII.
+ CHAPTER XXIII.
+ CHAPTER XXIV.
+ CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+For offering this new edition of my father’s Phantastes, my reasons are
+three. The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustrated
+without the author’s sanction, and so unsuitably that all lovers of the
+book must have experienced some real grief in turning its pages. With
+the copyright I secured also the whole of that edition and turned it
+into pulp.
+
+My second reason is to pay a small tribute to my father by way of
+personal gratitude for this, his first prose work, which was published
+nearly fifty years ago. Though unknown to many lovers of his greater
+writings, none of these has exceeded it in imaginative insight and
+power of expression. To me it rings with the dominant chord of his
+life’s purpose and work.
+
+My third reason is that wider knowledge and love of the book should be
+made possible. To this end I have been most happy in the help of my
+father’s old friend, who has illustrated the book. I know of no other
+living artist who is capable of portraying the spirit of Phantastes;
+and every reader of this edition will, I believe, feel that the
+illustrations are a part of the romance, and will gain through them
+some perception of the brotherhood between George MacDonald and Arthur
+Hughes.
+
+GREVILLE MACDONALD.
+
+September 1905.
+
+
+
+
+PHANTASTES`
+A FAERIE ROMANCE
+
+
+“Phantastes from ‘their fount’ all shapes deriving,
+In new habiliments can quickly dight.”
+FLETCHER’S _Purple Island_
+
+
+Es lassen sich Erzählungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch mit Association,
+wie Träume, denken; Gedichte, die bloss wohlklingend und voll schöner
+Worte sind, aber auch ohne allen Sinn und Zusammenhang, höchstens
+einzelne Strophen verständlich, wie Bruchstücke aus den
+verschiedenartigsten Dingen. Diese wahre Poesie kann höchstens einen
+allegorischen Sinn in Grossen, und eine indirecte Wirkung, wie Musik,
+haben. Darum ist die Natur so rein poetisch, wie die Stube eines
+Zauberers, eines Physikers, eine Kinderstube, eine Polter- und
+Vorrathskammer.
+
+Ein Märchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammenhang. Ein Ensemble
+wunderbarer Dinge und Begebenheiten, z. B. eine musikalische Phantasie,
+die harmonischen Folgen einer Aeolsharfe, die Natur selbst...
+
+In einem echten Märchen muss alles wunderbar, geheimnissvoll und
+zusammenhängend sein; alles belebt, jeder auf eine andere Art. Die
+ganze Natur muss wunderlich mit der ganzen Geisterwelt gemischt sein;
+hier tritt die Zeit der Anarchie, der Gesetzlosigkeit, Freiheit, der
+Naturstand der Natur, die Zeit von der Welt ein . . . Die Welt des
+Märchens ist die, der Welt der Wahrheit durchaus entgegengesetzte, und
+eben darum ihr so durchaus ähnlich, wie das Chaos der vollendeten
+Schöpfung ähnlich ist.--NOVALIS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+“A spirit  .  .  .
+.  .  .  .  .  .
+The undulating and silent well,
+And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom,
+Now deepening the dark shades, for speech assuming,
+Held commune with him; as if he and it
+Were all that was.”
+          SHELLEY’S _Alastor_.
+
+
+I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies
+the return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern
+window of my room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing a cloud
+that just rose above the low swell of the horizon, announced the
+approach of the sun. As my thoughts, which a deep and apparently
+dreamless sleep had dissolved, began again to assume crystalline forms,
+the strange events of the foregoing night presented themselves anew to
+my wondering consciousness. The day before had been my
+one-and-twentieth birthday. Among other ceremonies investing me with my
+legal rights, the keys of an old secretary, in which my father had kept
+his private papers, had been delivered up to me. As soon as I was left
+alone, I ordered lights in the chamber where the secretary stood, the
+first lights that had been there for many a year; for, since my
+father’s death, the room had been left undisturbed. But, as if the
+darkness had been too long an inmate to be easily expelled, and had
+dyed with blackness the walls to which, bat-like, it had clung, these
+tapers served but ill to light up the gloomy hangings, and seemed to
+throw yet darker shadows into the hollows of the deep-wrought cornice.
+All the further portions of the room lay shrouded in a mystery whose
+deepest folds were gathered around the dark oak cabinet which I now
+approached with a strange mingling of reverence and curiosity. Perhaps,
+like a geologist, I was about to turn up to the light some of the
+buried strata of the human world, with its fossil remains charred by
+passion and petrified by tears. Perhaps I was to learn how my father,
+whose personal history was unknown to me, had woven his web of story;
+how he had found the world, and how the world had left him. Perhaps I
+was to find only the records of lands and moneys, how gotten and how
+secured; coming down from strange men, and through troublous times, to
+me, who knew little or nothing of them all. To solve my speculations,
+and to dispel the awe which was fast gathering around me as if the dead
+were drawing near, I approached the secretary; and having found the key
+that fitted the upper portion, I opened it with some difficulty, drew
+near it a heavy high-backed chair, and sat down before a multitude of
+little drawers and slides and pigeon-holes. But the door of a little
+cupboard in the centre especially attracted my interest, as if there
+lay the secret of this long-hidden world. Its key I found.
+
+One of the rusty hinges cracked and broke as I opened the door: it
+revealed a number of small pigeon-holes. These, however, being but
+shallow compared with the depth of those around the little cupboard,
+the outer ones reaching to the back of the desk, I concluded that there
+must be some accessible space behind; and found, indeed, that they were
+formed in a separate framework, which admitted of the whole being
+pulled out in one piece. Behind, I found a sort of flexible portcullis
+of small bars of wood laid close together horizontally. After long
+search, and trying many ways to move it, I discovered at last a
+scarcely projecting point of steel on one side. I pressed this
+repeatedly and hard with the point of an old tool that was lying near,
+till at length it yielded inwards; and the little slide, flying up
+suddenly, disclosed a chamber—empty, except that in one corner lay a
+little heap of withered rose-leaves, whose long-lived scent had long
+since departed; and, in another, a small packet of papers, tied with a
+bit of ribbon, whose colour had gone with the rose-scent. Almost
+fearing to touch them, they witnessed so mutely to the law of oblivion,
+I leaned back in my chair, and regarded them for a moment; when
+suddenly there stood on the threshold of the little chamber, as though
+she had just emerged from its depth, a tiny woman-form, as perfect in
+shape as if she had been a small Greek statuette roused to life and
+motion. Her dress was of a kind that could never grow old-fashioned,
+because it was simply natural: a robe plaited in a band around the
+neck, and confined by a belt about the waist, descended to her feet. It
+was only afterwards, however, that I took notice of her dress, although
+my surprise was by no means of so overpowering a degree as such an
+apparition might naturally be expected to excite. Seeing, however, as I
+suppose, some astonishment in my countenance, she came forward within a
+yard of me, and said, in a voice that strangely recalled a sensation of
+twilight, and reedy river banks, and a low wind, even in this deathly
+room:—
+
+“Anodos, you never saw such a little creature before, did you?”
+
+“No,” said I; “and indeed I hardly believe I do now.”
+
+“Ah! that is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the first
+time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of
+what you consider in itself unbelievable. I am not going to argue with
+you, however, but to grant you a wish.”
+
+Here I could not help interrupting her with the foolish speech, of
+which, however, I had no cause to repent—
+
+“How can such a very little creature as you grant or refuse anything?”
+
+“Is that all the philosophy you have gained in one-and-twenty years?”
+said she. “Form is much, but size is nothing. It is a mere matter of
+relation. I suppose your six-foot lordship does not feel altogether
+insignificant, though to others you do look small beside your old Uncle
+Ralph, who rises above you a great half-foot at least. But size is of
+so little consequence with old me, that I may as well accommodate
+myself to your foolish prejudices.”
+
+So saying, she leapt from the desk upon the floor, where she stood a
+tall, gracious lady, with pale face and large blue eyes. Her dark hair
+flowed behind, wavy but uncurled, down to her waist, and against it her
+form stood clear in its robe of white.
+
+“Now,” said she, “you will believe me.”
+
+Overcome with the presence of a beauty which I could now perceive, and
+drawn towards her by an attraction irresistible as incomprehensible, I
+suppose I stretched out my arms towards her, for she drew back a step
+or two, and said—
+
+“Foolish boy, if you could touch me, I should hurt you. Besides, I was
+two hundred and thirty-seven years old, last Midsummer eve; and a man
+must not fall in love with his grandmother, you know.”
+
+“But you are not my grandmother,” said I.
+
+“How do you know that?” she retorted. “I dare say you know something of
+your great-grandfathers a good deal further back than that; but you
+know very little about your great-grandmothers on either side. Now, to
+the point. Your little sister was reading a fairy-tale to you last
+night.”
+
+“She was.”
+
+“When she had finished, she said, as she closed the book, ‘Is there a
+fairy-country, brother?’ You replied with a sigh, ‘I suppose there is,
+if one could find the way into it.’”
+
+“I did; but I meant something quite different from what you seem to
+think.”
+
+“Never mind what I seem to think. You shall find the way into Fairy
+Land to-morrow. Now look in my eyes.”
+
+Eagerly I did so. They filled me with an unknown longing. I remembered
+somehow that my mother died when I was a baby. I looked deeper and
+deeper, till they spread around me like seas, and I sank in their
+waters. I forgot all the rest, till I found myself at the window, whose
+gloomy curtains were withdrawn, and where I stood gazing on a whole
+heaven of stars, small and sparkling in the moonlight. Below lay a sea,
+still as death and hoary in the moon, sweeping into bays and around
+capes and islands, away, away, I knew not whither. Alas! it was no sea,
+but a low bog burnished by the moon. “Surely there is such a sea
+somewhere!” said I to myself. A low sweet voice beside me replied—
+
+“In Fairy Land, Anodos.”
+
+I turned, but saw no one. I closed the secretary, and went to my own
+room, and to bed.
+
+All this I recalled as I lay with half-closed eyes. I was soon to find
+the truth of the lady’s promise, that this day I should discover the
+road into Fairy Land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+“‘Where is the stream?’ cried he, with tears. ‘Seest thou not its blue
+waves above us?’ He looked up, and lo! the blue stream was flowing
+gently over their heads.” —NOVALIS, _Heinrich von Ofterdingen_.
+
+
+While these strange events were passing through my mind, I suddenly, as
+one awakes to the consciousness that the sea has been moaning by him
+for hours, or that the storm has been howling about his window all
+night, became aware of the sound of running water near me; and, looking
+out of bed, I saw that a large green marble basin, in which I was wont
+to wash, and which stood on a low pedestal of the same material in a
+corner of my room, was overflowing like a spring; and that a stream of
+clear water was running over the carpet, all the length of the room,
+finding its outlet I knew not where. And, stranger still, where this
+carpet, which I had myself designed to imitate a field of grass and
+daisies, bordered the course of the little stream, the grass-blades and
+daisies seemed to wave in a tiny breeze that followed the water’s flow;
+while under the rivulet they bent and swayed with every motion of the
+changeful current, as if they were about to dissolve with it, and,
+forsaking their fixed form, become fluent as the waters.
+
+My dressing-table was an old-fashioned piece of furniture of black oak,
+with drawers all down the front. These were elaborately carved in
+foliage, of which ivy formed the chief part. The nearer end of this
+table remained just as it had been, but on the further end a singular
+change had commenced. I happened to fix my eye on a little cluster of
+ivy-leaves. The first of these was evidently the work of the carver;
+the next looked curious; the third was unmistakable ivy; and just
+beyond it a tendril of clematis had twined itself about the gilt handle
+of one of the drawers. Hearing next a slight motion above me, I looked
+up, and saw that the branches and leaves designed upon the curtains of
+my bed were slightly in motion. Not knowing what change might follow
+next, I thought it high time to get up; and, springing from the bed, my
+bare feet alighted upon a cool green sward; and although I dressed in
+all haste, I found myself completing my toilet under the boughs of a
+great tree, whose top waved in the golden stream of the sunrise with
+many interchanging lights, and with shadows of leaf and branch gliding
+over leaf and branch, as the cool morning wind swung it to and fro,
+like a sinking sea-wave.
+
+After washing as well as I could in the clear stream, I rose and looked
+around me. The tree under which I seemed to have lain all night was one
+of the advanced guard of a dense forest, towards which the rivulet ran.
+Faint traces of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, and
+with here and there a pimpernel even, were discernible along the right
+bank. “This,” thought I, “must surely be the path into Fairy Land,
+which the lady of last night promised I should so soon find.” I crossed
+the rivulet, and accompanied it, keeping the footpath on its right
+bank, until it led me, as I expected, into the wood. Here I left it,
+without any good reason: and with a vague feeling that I ought to have
+followed its course, I took a more southerly direction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+“Man doth usurp all space,
+Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in the face.
+Never thine eyes behold a tree;
+‘Tis no sea thou seest in the sea,
+‘Tis but a disguised humanity.
+To avoid thy fellow, vain thy plan;
+All that interests a man, is man.”
+          HENRY SUTTON.
+
+
+The trees, which were far apart where I entered, giving free passage to
+the level rays of the sun, closed rapidly as I advanced, so that ere
+long their crowded stems barred the sunlight out, forming as it were a
+thick grating between me and the East. I seemed to be advancing towards
+a second midnight. In the midst of the intervening twilight, however,
+before I entered what appeared to be the darkest portion of the forest,
+I saw a country maiden coming towards me from its very depths. She did
+not seem to observe me, for she was apparently intent upon a bunch of
+wild flowers which she carried in her hand. I could hardly see her
+face; for, though she came direct towards me, she never looked up. But
+when we met, instead of passing, she turned and walked alongside of me
+for a few yards, still keeping her face downwards, and busied with her
+flowers. She spoke rapidly, however, all the time, in a low tone, as if
+talking to herself, but evidently addressing the purport of her words
+to me.
+
+She seemed afraid of being observed by some lurking foe. “Trust the
+Oak,” said she; “trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech. Take
+care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be
+changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre,—you
+will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with
+her web of hair, if you let her near you at night.” All this was
+uttered without pause or alteration of tone. Then she turned suddenly
+and left me, walking still with the same unchanging gait. I could not
+conjecture what she meant, but satisfied myself with thinking that it
+would be time enough to find out her meaning when there was need to
+make use of her warning, and that the occasion would reveal the
+admonition. I concluded from the flowers that she carried, that the
+forest could not be everywhere so dense as it appeared from where I was
+now walking; and I was right in this conclusion. For soon I came to a
+more open part, and by-and-by crossed a wide grassy glade, on which
+were several circles of brighter green. But even here I was struck with
+the utter stillness. No bird sang. No insect hummed. Not a living
+creature crossed my way. Yet somehow the whole environment seemed only
+asleep, and to wear even in sleep an air of expectation. The trees
+seemed all to have an expression of conscious mystery, as if they said
+to themselves, “we could, an’ if we would.” They had all a meaning look
+about them. Then I remembered that night is the fairies’ day, and the
+moon their sun; and I thought—Everything sleeps and dreams now: when
+the night comes, it will be different. At the same time I, being a man
+and a child of the day, felt some anxiety as to how I should fare among
+the elves and other children of the night who wake when mortals dream,
+and find their common life in those wondrous hours that flow
+noiselessly over the moveless death-like forms of men and women and
+children, lying strewn and parted beneath the weight of the heavy waves
+of night, which flow on and beat them down, and hold them drowned and
+senseless, until the ebbtide comes, and the waves sink away, back into
+the ocean of the dark. But I took courage and went on. Soon, however, I
+became again anxious, though from another cause. I had eaten nothing
+that day, and for an hour past had been feeling the want of food. So I
+grew afraid lest I should find nothing to meet my human necessities in
+this strange place; but once more I comforted myself with hope and went
+on.
+
+Before noon, I fancied I saw a thin blue smoke rising amongst the stems
+of larger trees in front of me; and soon I came to an open spot of
+ground in which stood a little cottage, so built that the stems of four
+great trees formed its corners, while their branches met and
+intertwined over its roof, heaping a great cloud of leaves over it, up
+towards the heavens. I wondered at finding a human dwelling in this
+neighbourhood; and yet it did not look altogether human, though
+sufficiently so to encourage me to expect to find some sort of food.
+Seeing no door, I went round to the other side, and there I found one,
+wide open. A woman sat beside it, preparing some vegetables for dinner.
+This was homely and comforting. As I came near, she looked up, and
+seeing me, showed no surprise, but bent her head again over her work,
+and said in a low tone:
+
+“Did you see my daughter?”
+
+“I believe I did,” said I. “Can you give me something to eat, for I am
+very hungry?” “With pleasure,” she replied, in the same tone; “but do
+not say anything more, till you come into the house, for the Ash is
+watching us.”
+
+Having said this, she rose and led the way into the cottage; which, I
+now saw, was built of the stems of small trees set closely together,
+and was furnished with rough chairs and tables, from which even the
+bark had not been removed. As soon as she had shut the door and set a
+chair—
+
+“You have fairy blood in you,” said she, looking hard at me.
+
+“How do you know that?”
+
+“You could not have got so far into this wood if it were not so; and I
+am trying to find out some trace of it in your countenance. I think I
+see it.”
+
+“What do you see?”
+
+“Oh, never mind: I may be mistaken in that.”
+
+“But how then do you come to live here?”
+
+“Because I too have fairy blood in me.”
+
+Here I, in my turn, looked hard at her, and thought I could perceive,
+notwithstanding the coarseness of her features, and especially the
+heaviness of her eyebrows, a something unusual—I could hardly call it
+grace, and yet it was an expression that strangely contrasted with the
+form of her features. I noticed too that her hands were delicately
+formed, though brown with work and exposure.
+
+“I should be ill,” she continued, “if I did not live on the borders of
+the fairies’ country, and now and then eat of their food. And I see by
+your eyes that you are not quite free of the same need; though, from
+your education and the activity of your mind, you have felt it less
+than I. You may be further removed too from the fairy race.”
+
+I remembered what the lady had said about my grandmothers.
+
+Here she placed some bread and some milk before me, with a kindly
+apology for the homeliness of the fare, with which, however, I was in
+no humour to quarrel. I now thought it time to try to get some
+explanation of the strange words both of her daughter and herself.
+
+“What did you mean by speaking so about the Ash?”
+
+She rose and looked out of the little window. My eyes followed her; but
+as the window was too small to allow anything to be seen from where I
+was sitting, I rose and looked over her shoulder. I had just time to
+see, across the open space, on the edge of the denser forest, a single
+large ash-tree, whose foliage showed bluish, amidst the truer green of
+the other trees around it; when she pushed me back with an expression
+of impatience and terror, and then almost shut out the light from the
+window by setting up a large old book in it.
+
+“In general,” said she, recovering her composure, “there is no danger
+in the daytime, for then he is sound asleep; but there is something
+unusual going on in the woods; there must be some solemnity among the
+fairies to-night, for all the trees are restless, and although they
+cannot come awake, they see and hear in their sleep.”
+
+“But what danger is to be dreaded from him?”
+
+Instead of answering the question, she went again to the window and
+looked out, saying she feared the fairies would be interrupted by foul
+weather, for a storm was brewing in the west.
+
+“And the sooner it grows dark, the sooner the Ash will be awake,” added
+she.
+
+I asked her how she knew that there was any unusual excitement in the
+woods. She replied—
+
+“Besides the look of the trees, the dog there is unhappy; and the eyes
+and ears of the white rabbit are redder than usual, and he frisks about
+as if he expected some fun. If the cat were at home, she would have her
+back up; for the young fairies pull the sparks out of her tail with
+bramble thorns, and she knows when they are coming. So do I, in another
+way.”
+
+At this instant, a grey cat rushed in like a demon, and disappeared in
+a hole in the wall.
+
+“There, I told you!” said the woman.
+
+“But what of the ash-tree?” said I, returning once more to the subject.
+Here, however, the young woman, whom I had met in the morning, entered.
+A smile passed between the mother and daughter; and then the latter
+began to help her mother in little household duties.
+
+“I should like to stay here till the evening,” I said; “and then go on
+my journey, if you will allow me.”
+
+“You are welcome to do as you please; only it might be better to stay
+all night, than risk the dangers of the wood then. Where are you
+going?”
+
+“Nay, that I do not know,” I replied, “but I wish to see all that is to
+be seen, and therefore I should like to start just at sundown.”
+
+“You are a bold youth, if you have any idea of what you are daring; but
+a rash one, if you know nothing about it; and, excuse me, you do not
+seem very well informed about the country and its manners. However, no
+one comes here but for some reason, either known to himself or to those
+who have charge of him; so you shall do just as you wish.”
+
+Accordingly I sat down, and feeling rather tired, and disinclined for
+further talk, I asked leave to look at the old book which still
+screened the window. The woman brought it to me directly, but not
+before taking another look towards the forest, and then drawing a white
+blind over the window. I sat down opposite to it by the table, on which
+I laid the great old volume, and read. It contained many wondrous tales
+of Fairy Land, and olden times, and the Knights of King Arthur’s table.
+I read on and on, till the shades of the afternoon began to deepen; for
+in the midst of the forest it gloomed earlier than in the open country.
+At length I came to this passage—
+
+“Here it chanced, that upon their quest, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale
+rencountered in the depths of a great forest. Now, Sir Galahad was
+dight all in harness of silver, clear and shining; the which is a
+delight to look upon, but full hasty to tarnish, and withouten the
+labour of a ready squire, uneath to be kept fair and clean. And yet
+withouten squire or page, Sir Galahad’s armour shone like the moon. And
+he rode a great white mare, whose bases and other housings were black,
+but all besprent with fair lilys of silver sheen. Whereas Sir Percivale
+bestrode a red horse, with a tawny mane and tail; whose trappings were
+all to-smirched with mud and mire; and his armour was wondrous rosty to
+behold, ne could he by any art furbish it again; so that as the sun in
+his going down shone twixt the bare trunks of the trees, full upon the
+knights twain, the one did seem all shining with light, and the other
+all to glow with ruddy fire. Now it came about in this wise. For Sir
+Percivale, after his escape from the demon lady, whenas the cross on
+the handle of his sword smote him to the heart, and he rove himself
+through the thigh, and escaped away, he came to a great wood; and, in
+nowise cured of his fault, yet bemoaning the same, the damosel of the
+alder tree encountered him, right fair to see; and with her fair words
+and false countenance she comforted him and beguiled him, until he
+followed her where she led him to a—-”
+
+Here a low hurried cry from my hostess caused me to look up from the
+book, and I read no more.
+
+“Look there!” she said; “look at his fingers!”
+
+Just as I had been reading in the book, the setting sun was shining
+through a cleft in the clouds piled up in the west; and a shadow as of
+a large distorted hand, with thick knobs and humps on the fingers, so
+that it was much wider across the fingers than across the undivided
+part of the hand, passed slowly over the little blind, and then as
+slowly returned in the opposite direction.
+
+“He is almost awake, mother; and greedier than usual to-night.”
+
+“Hush, child; you need not make him more angry with us than he is; for
+you do not know how soon something may happen to oblige us to be in the
+forest after nightfall.”
+
+“But you are in the forest,” said I; “how is it that you are safe
+here?”
+
+“He dares not come nearer than he is now,” she replied; “for any of
+those four oaks, at the corners of our cottage, would tear him to
+pieces; they are our friends. But he stands there and makes awful faces
+at us sometimes, and stretches out his long arms and fingers, and tries
+to kill us with fright; for, indeed, that is his favourite way of
+doing. Pray, keep out of his way to-night.”
+
+“Shall I be able to see these things?” said I.
+
+“That I cannot tell yet, not knowing how much of the fairy nature there
+is in you. But we shall soon see whether you can discern the fairies in
+my little garden, and that will be some guide to us.”
+
+“Are the trees fairies too, as well as the flowers?” I asked.
+
+“They are of the same race,” she replied; “though those you call
+fairies in your country are chiefly the young children of the flower
+fairies. They are very fond of having fun with the thick people, as
+they call you; for, like most children, they like fun better than
+anything else.”
+
+“Why do you have flowers so near you then? Do they not annoy you?”
+
+“Oh, no, they are very amusing, with their mimicries of grown people,
+and mock solemnities. Sometimes they will act a whole play through
+before my eyes, with perfect composure and assurance, for they are not
+afraid of me. Only, as soon as they have done, they burst into peals of
+tiny laughter, as if it was such a joke to have been serious over
+anything. These I speak of, however, are the fairies of the garden.
+They are more staid and educated than those of the fields and woods. Of
+course they have near relations amongst the wild flowers, but they
+patronise them, and treat them as country cousins, who know nothing of
+life, and very little of manners. Now and then, however, they are
+compelled to envy the grace and simplicity of the natural flowers.”
+
+“Do they live _in_ the flowers?” I said.
+
+“I cannot tell,” she replied. “There is something in it I do not
+understand. Sometimes they disappear altogether, even from me, though I
+know they are near. They seem to die always with the flowers they
+resemble, and by whose names they are called; but whether they return
+to life with the fresh flowers, or, whether it be new flowers, new
+fairies, I cannot tell. They have as many sorts of dispositions as men
+and women, while their moods are yet more variable; twenty different
+expressions will cross their little faces in half a minute. I often
+amuse myself with watching them, but I have never been able to make
+personal acquaintance with any of them. If I speak to one, he or she
+looks up in my face, as if I were not worth heeding, gives a little
+laugh, and runs away.” Here the woman started, as if suddenly
+recollecting herself, and said in a low voice to her daughter, “Make
+haste—go and watch him, and see in what direction he goes.”
+
+I may as well mention here, that the conclusion I arrived at from the
+observations I was afterwards able to make, was, that the flowers die
+because the fairies go away; not that the fairies disappear because the
+flowers die. The flowers seem a sort of houses for them, or outer
+bodies, which they can put on or off when they please. Just as you
+could form some idea of the nature of a man from the kind of house he
+built, if he followed his own taste, so you could, without seeing the
+fairies, tell what any one of them is like, by looking at the flower
+till you feel that you understand it. For just what the flower says to
+you, would the face and form of the fairy say; only so much more
+plainly as a face and human figure can express more than a flower. For
+the house or the clothes, though like the inhabitant or the wearer,
+cannot be wrought into an equal power of utterance. Yet you would see a
+strange resemblance, almost oneness, between the flower and the fairy,
+which you could not describe, but which described itself to you.
+Whether all the flowers have fairies, I cannot determine, any more than
+I can be sure whether all men and women have souls.
+
+The woman and I continued the conversation for a few minutes longer. I
+was much interested by the information she gave me, and astonished at
+the language in which she was able to convey it. It seemed that
+intercourse with the fairies was no bad education in itself. But now
+the daughter returned with the news, that the Ash had just gone away in
+a south-westerly direction; and, as my course seemed to lie eastward,
+she hoped I should be in no danger of meeting him if I departed at
+once. I looked out of the little window, and there stood the ash-tree,
+to my eyes the same as before; but I believed that they knew better
+than I did, and prepared to go. I pulled out my purse, but to my dismay
+there was nothing in it. The woman with a smile begged me not to
+trouble myself, for money was not of the slightest use there; and as I
+might meet with people in my journeys whom I could not recognise to be
+fairies, it was well I had no money to offer, for nothing offended them
+so much.
+
+“They would think,” she added, “that you were making game of them; and
+that is their peculiar privilege with regard to us.” So we went
+together into the little garden which sloped down towards a lower part
+of the wood.
+
+Here, to my great pleasure, all was life and bustle. There was still
+light enough from the day to see a little; and the pale half-moon,
+halfway to the zenith, was reviving every moment. The whole garden was
+like a carnival, with tiny, gaily decorated forms, in groups,
+assemblies, processions, pairs or trios, moving stately on, running
+about wildly, or sauntering hither or thither. From the cups or bells
+of tall flowers, as from balconies, some looked down on the masses
+below, now bursting with laughter, now grave as owls; but even in their
+deepest solemnity, seeming only to be waiting for the arrival of the
+next laugh. Some were launched on a little marshy stream at the bottom,
+in boats chosen from the heaps of last year’s leaves that lay about,
+curled and withered. These soon sank with them; whereupon they swam
+ashore and got others. Those who took fresh rose-leaves for their boats
+floated the longest; but for these they had to fight; for the fairy of
+the rose-tree complained bitterly that they were stealing her clothes,
+and defended her property bravely.
+
+“You can’t wear half you’ve got,” said some.
+
+“Never you mind; I don’t choose you to have them: they are my
+property.”
+
+“All for the good of the community!” said one, and ran off with a great
+hollow leaf. But the rose-fairy sprang after him (what a beauty she
+was! only too like a drawing-room young lady), knocked him
+heels-over-head as he ran, and recovered her great red leaf. But in the
+meantime twenty had hurried off in different directions with others
+just as good; and the little creature sat down and cried, and then, in
+a pet, sent a perfect pink snowstorm of petals from her tree, leaping
+from branch to branch, and stamping and shaking and pulling. At last,
+after another good cry, she chose the biggest she could find, and ran
+away laughing, to launch her boat amongst the rest.
+
+But my attention was first and chiefly attracted by a group of fairies
+near the cottage, who were talking together around what seemed a last
+dying primrose. They talked singing, and their talk made a song,
+something like this:
+
+“Sister Snowdrop died
+    Before we were born.”
+“She came like a bride
+    In a snowy morn.”
+“What’s a bride?”
+    “What is snow?
+“Never tried.”
+    “Do not know.”
+
+“Who told you about her?”
+    “Little Primrose there
+Cannot do without her.”
+    “Oh, so sweetly fair!”
+“Never fear,
+    She will come,
+Primrose dear.”
+    “Is she dumb?”
+
+“She’ll come by-and-by.”
+    “You will never see her.”
+“She went home to die,
+    “Till the new year.”
+“Snowdrop!” “‘Tis no good
+    To invite her.”
+“Primrose is very rude,
+    “I will bite her.”
+
+“Oh, you naughty Pocket!
+    “Look, she drops her head.”
+“She deserved it, Rocket,
+    “And she was nearly dead.”
+“To your hammock—off with you!”
+    “And swing alone.”
+“No one will laugh with you.”
+    “No, not one.”
+
+“Now let us moan.”
+    “And cover her o’er.”
+“Primrose is gone.”
+    “All but the flower.”
+“Here is a leaf.”
+    “Lay her upon it.”
+“Follow in grief.”
+    “Pocket has done it.”
+
+“Deeper, poor creature!
+    Winter may come.”
+“He cannot reach her—
+    That is a hum.”
+“She is buried, the beauty!”
+    “Now she is done.”
+“That was the duty.”
+    “Now for the fun.”
+
+
+And with a wild laugh they sprang away, most of them towards the
+cottage. During the latter part of the song-talk, they had formed
+themselves into a funeral procession, two of them bearing poor
+Primrose, whose death Pocket had hastened by biting her stalk, upon one
+of her own great leaves. They bore her solemnly along some distance,
+and then buried her under a tree. Although I say _her_ I saw nothing
+but the withered primrose-flower on its long stalk. Pocket, who had
+been expelled from the company by common consent, went sulkily away
+towards her hammock, for she was the fairy of the calceolaria, and
+looked rather wicked. When she reached its stem, she stopped and looked
+round. I could not help speaking to her, for I stood near her. I said,
+“Pocket, how could you be so naughty?”
+
+“I am never naughty,” she said, half-crossly, half-defiantly; “only if
+you come near my hammock, I will bite you, and then you will go away.”
+
+“Why did you bite poor Primrose?”
+
+“Because she said we should never see Snowdrop; as if we were not good
+enough to look at her, and she was, the proud thing!—served her right!”
+
+“Oh, Pocket, Pocket,” said I; but by this time the party which had gone
+towards the house, rushed out again, shouting and screaming with
+laughter. Half of them were on the cat’s back, and half held on by her
+fur and tail, or ran beside her; till, more coming to their help, the
+furious cat was held fast; and they proceeded to pick the sparks out of
+her with thorns and pins, which they handled like harpoons. Indeed,
+there were more instruments at work about her than there could have
+been sparks in her. One little fellow who held on hard by the tip of
+the tail, with his feet planted on the ground at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, helping to keep her fast, administered a continuous flow of
+admonitions to Pussy.
+
+“Now, Pussy, be patient. You know quite well it is all for your good.
+You cannot be comfortable with all those sparks in you; and, indeed, I
+am charitably disposed to believe” (here he became very pompous) “that
+they are the cause of all your bad temper; so we must have them all
+out, every one; else we shall be reduced to the painful necessity of
+cutting your claws, and pulling out your eye-teeth. Quiet! Pussy,
+quiet!”
+
+But with a perfect hurricane of feline curses, the poor animal broke
+loose, and dashed across the garden and through the hedge, faster than
+even the fairies could follow. “Never mind, never mind, we shall find
+her again; and by that time she will have laid in a fresh stock of
+sparks. Hooray!” And off they set, after some new mischief.
+
+But I will not linger to enlarge on the amusing display of these
+frolicsome creatures. Their manners and habits are now so well known to
+the world, having been so often described by eyewitnesses, that it
+would be only indulging self-conceit, to add my account in full to the
+rest. I cannot help wishing, however, that my readers could see them
+for themselves. Especially do I desire that they should see the fairy
+of the daisy; a little, chubby, round-eyed child, with such innocent
+trust in his look! Even the most mischievous of the fairies would not
+tease him, although he did not belong to their set at all, but was
+quite a little country bumpkin. He wandered about alone, and looked at
+everything, with his hands in his little pockets, and a white night-cap
+on, the darling! He was not so beautiful as many other wild flowers I
+saw afterwards, but so dear and loving in his looks and little
+confident ways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+“When bale is att hyest, boote is nyest.”
+_Ballad of Sir Aldingar_.
+
+
+By this time, my hostess was quite anxious that I should be gone. So,
+with warm thanks for their hospitality, I took my leave, and went my
+way through the little garden towards the forest. Some of the garden
+flowers had wandered into the wood, and were growing here and there
+along the path, but the trees soon became too thick and shadowy for
+them. I particularly noticed some tall lilies, which grew on both sides
+of the way, with large dazzlingly white flowers, set off by the
+universal green. It was now dark enough for me to see that every flower
+was shining with a light of its own. Indeed it was by this light that I
+saw them, an internal, peculiar light, proceeding from each, and not
+reflected from a common source of light as in the daytime. This light
+sufficed only for the plant itself, and was not strong enough to cast
+any but the faintest shadows around it, or to illuminate any of the
+neighbouring objects with other than the faintest tinge of its own
+individual hue. From the lilies above mentioned, from the campanulas,
+from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped flower, curious little
+figures shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed
+to inhabit them, as snails their shells; but I was sure some of them
+were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who
+inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. From the cups of Arum
+lilies, creatures with great heads and grotesque faces shot up like
+Jack-in-the-box, and made grimaces at me; or rose slowly and slily over
+the edge of the cup, and spouted water at me, slipping suddenly back,
+like those little soldier-crabs that inhabit the shells of sea-snails.
+Passing a row of tall thistles, I saw them crowded with little faces,
+which peeped every one from behind its flower, and drew back as
+quickly; and I heard them saying to each other, evidently intending me
+to hear, but the speaker always hiding behind his tuft, when I looked
+in his direction, “Look at him! Look at him! He has begun a story
+without a beginning, and it will never have any end. He! he! he! Look
+at him!”
+
+But as I went further into the wood, these sights and sounds became
+fewer, giving way to others of a different character. A little forest
+of wild hyacinths was alive with exquisite creatures, who stood nearly
+motionless, with drooping necks, holding each by the stem of her
+flower, and swaying gently with it, whenever a low breath of wind swung
+the crowded floral belfry. In like manner, though differing of course
+in form and meaning, stood a group of harebells, like little angels
+waiting, ready, till they were wanted to go on some yet unknown
+message. In darker nooks, by the mossy roots of the trees, or in little
+tufts of grass, each dwelling in a globe of its own green light,
+weaving a network of grass and its shadows, glowed the glowworms.
+
+They were just like the glowworms of our own land, for they are fairies
+everywhere; worms in the day, and glowworms at night, when their own
+can appear, and they can be themselves to others as well as themselves.
+But they had their enemies here. For I saw great strong-armed beetles,
+hurrying about with most unwieldy haste, awkward as elephant-calves,
+looking apparently for glowworms; for the moment a beetle espied one,
+through what to it was a forest of grass, or an underwood of moss, it
+pounced upon it, and bore it away, in spite of its feeble resistance.
+Wondering what their object could be, I watched one of the beetles, and
+then I discovered a thing I could not account for. But it is no use
+trying to account for things in Fairy Land; and one who travels there
+soon learns to forget the very idea of doing so, and takes everything
+as it comes; like a child, who, being in a chronic condition of wonder,
+is surprised at nothing. What I saw was this. Everywhere, here and
+there over the ground, lay little, dark-looking lumps of something more
+like earth than anything else, and about the size of a chestnut. The
+beetles hunted in couples for these; and having found one, one of them
+stayed to watch it, while the other hurried to find a glowworm. By
+signals, I presume, between them, the latter soon found his companion
+again: they then took the glowworm and held its luminous tail to the
+dark earthly pellet; when lo, it shot up into the air like a
+sky-rocket, seldom, however, reaching the height of the highest tree.
+Just like a rocket too, it burst in the air, and fell in a shower of
+the most gorgeously coloured sparks of every variety of hue; golden and
+red, and purple and green, and blue and rosy fires crossed and
+inter-crossed each other, beneath the shadowy heads, and between the
+columnar stems of the forest trees. They never used the same glowworm
+twice, I observed; but let him go, apparently uninjured by the use they
+had made of him.
+
+In other parts, the whole of the immediately surrounding foliage was
+illuminated by the interwoven dances in the air of splendidly coloured
+fire-flies, which sped hither and thither, turned, twisted, crossed,
+and recrossed, entwining every complexity of intervolved motion. Here
+and there, whole mighty trees glowed with an emitted phosphorescent
+light. You could trace the very course of the great roots in the earth
+by the faint light that came through; and every twig, and every vein on
+every leaf was a streak of pale fire.
+
+All this time, as I went through the wood, I was haunted with the
+feeling that other shapes, more like my own size and mien, were moving
+about at a little distance on all sides of me. But as yet I could
+discern none of them, although the moon was high enough to send a great
+many of her rays down between the trees, and these rays were unusually
+bright, and sight-giving, notwithstanding she was only a half-moon. I
+constantly imagined, however, that forms were visible in all directions
+except that to which my gaze was turned; and that they only became
+invisible, or resolved themselves into other woodland shapes, the
+moment my looks were directed towards them. However this may have been,
+except for this feeling of presence, the woods seemed utterly bare of
+anything like human companionship, although my glance often fell on
+some object which I fancied to be a human form; for I soon found that I
+was quite deceived; as, the moment I fixed my regard on it, it showed
+plainly that it was a bush, or a tree, or a rock.
+
+Soon a vague sense of discomfort possessed me. With variations of
+relief, this gradually increased; as if some evil thing were wandering
+about in my neighbourhood, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off,
+but still approaching. The feeling continued and deepened, until all my
+pleasure in the shows of various kinds that everywhere betokened the
+presence of the merry fairies vanished by degrees, and left me full of
+anxiety and fear, which I was unable to associate with any definite
+object whatever. At length the thought crossed my mind with horror:
+“Can it be possible that the Ash is looking for me? or that, in his
+nightly wanderings, his path is gradually verging towards mine?” I
+comforted myself, however, by remembering that he had started quite in
+another direction; one that would lead him, if he kept it, far apart
+from me; especially as, for the last two or three hours, I had been
+diligently journeying eastward. I kept on my way, therefore, striving
+by direct effort of the will against the encroaching fear; and to this
+end occupying my mind, as much as I could, with other thoughts. I was
+so far successful that, although I was conscious, if I yielded for a
+moment, I should be almost overwhelmed with horror, I was yet able to
+walk right on for an hour or more. What I feared I could not tell.
+Indeed, I was left in a state of the vaguest uncertainty as regarded
+the nature of my enemy, and knew not the mode or object of his attacks;
+for, somehow or other, none of my questions had succeeded in drawing a
+definite answer from the dame in the cottage. How then to defend myself
+I knew not; nor even by what sign I might with certainty recognise the
+presence of my foe; for as yet this vague though powerful fear was all
+the indication of danger I had. To add to my distress, the clouds in
+the west had risen nearly to the top of the skies, and they and the
+moon were travelling slowly towards each other. Indeed, some of their
+advanced guard had already met her, and she had begun to wade through a
+filmy vapour that gradually deepened.
+
+At length she was for a moment almost entirely obscured. When she shone
+out again, with a brilliancy increased by the contrast, I saw plainly
+on the path before me—from around which at this spot the trees receded,
+leaving a small space of green sward—the shadow of a large hand, with
+knotty joints and protuberances here and there. Especially I remarked,
+even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers. I
+looked hurriedly all around, but could see nothing from which such a
+shadow should fall. Now, however, that I had a direction, however
+undetermined, in which to project my apprehension, the very sense of
+danger and need of action overcame that stifling which is the worst
+property of fear. I reflected in a moment, that if this were indeed a
+shadow, it was useless to look for the object that cast it in any other
+direction than between the shadow and the moon. I looked, and peered,
+and intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of
+that kind, not even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow
+remained; not steady, but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers
+close, and grind themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as
+if in uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey. There seemed
+but one mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow. I went
+forward boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would not heed,
+to the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the ground, laid my
+head within the form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards the moon.
+Good heavens! what did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that the
+very shadow of the hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had
+frozen my brain. I saw the strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost
+transparent, in the central parts, and gradually deepening in substance
+towards the outside, until it ended in extremities capable of casting
+such a shadow as fell from the hand, through the awful fingers of which
+I now saw the moon. The hand was uplifted in the attitude of a paw
+about to strike its prey. But the face, which throbbed with fluctuating
+and pulsatory visibility—not from changes in the light it reflected,
+but from changes in its own conditions of reflecting power, the
+alterations being from within, not from without—it was horrible. I do
+not know how to describe it. It caused a new sensation. Just as one
+cannot translate a horrible odour, or a ghastly pain, or a fearful
+sound, into words, so I cannot describe this new form of awful
+hideousness. I can only try to describe something that is not it, but
+seems somewhat parallel to it; or at least is suggested by it. It
+reminded me of what I had heard of vampires; for the face resembled
+that of a corpse more than anything else I can think of; especially
+when I can conceive such a face in motion, but not suggesting any life
+as the source of the motion. The features were rather handsome than
+otherwise, except the mouth, which had scarcely a curve in it. The lips
+were of equal thickness; but the thickness was not at all remarkable,
+even although they looked slightly swollen. They seemed fixedly open,
+but were not wide apart. Of course I did not _remark_ these lineaments
+at the time: I was too horrified for that. I noted them afterwards,
+when the form returned on my inward sight with a vividness too intense
+to admit of my doubting the accuracy of the reflex. But the most awful
+of the features were the eyes. These were alive, yet not with life.
+
+They seemed lighted up with an infinite greed. A gnawing voracity,
+which devoured the devourer, seemed to be the indwelling and propelling
+power of the whole ghostly apparition. I lay for a few moments simply
+imbruted with terror; when another cloud, obscuring the moon, delivered
+me from the immediately paralysing effects of the presence to the
+vision of the object of horror, while it added the force of imagination
+to the power of fear within me; inasmuch as, knowing far worse cause
+for apprehension than before, I remained equally ignorant from what I
+had to defend myself, or how to take any precautions: he might be upon
+me in the darkness any moment. I sprang to my feet, and sped I knew not
+whither, only away from the spectre. I thought no longer of the path,
+and often narrowly escaped dashing myself against a tree, in my
+headlong flight of fear.
+
+Great drops of rain began to patter on the leaves. Thunder began to
+mutter, then growl in the distance. I ran on. The rain fell heavier. At
+length the thick leaves could hold it up no longer; and, like a second
+firmament, they poured their torrents on the earth. I was soon
+drenched, but that was nothing. I came to a small swollen stream that
+rushed through the woods. I had a vague hope that if I crossed this
+stream, I should be in safety from my pursuer; but I soon found that my
+hope was as false as it was vague. I dashed across the stream, ascended
+a rising ground, and reached a more open space, where stood only great
+trees. Through them I directed my way, holding eastward as nearly as I
+could guess, but not at all certain that I was not moving in an
+opposite direction. My mind was just reviving a little from its extreme
+terror, when, suddenly, a flash of lightning, or rather a cataract of
+successive flashes, behind me, seemed to throw on the ground in front
+of me, but far more faintly than before, from the extent of the source
+of the light, the shadow of the same horrible hand. I sprang forward,
+stung to yet wilder speed; but had not run many steps before my foot
+slipped, and, vainly attempting to recover myself, I fell at the foot
+of one of the large trees. Half-stunned, I yet raised myself, and
+almost involuntarily looked back. All I saw was the hand within three
+feet of my face. But, at the same moment, I felt two large soft arms
+thrown round me from behind; and a voice like a woman’s said: “Do not
+fear the goblin; he dares not hurt you now.” With that, the hand was
+suddenly withdrawn as from a fire, and disappeared in the darkness and
+the rain. Overcome with the mingling of terror and joy, I lay for some
+time almost insensible. The first thing I remember is the sound of a
+voice above me, full and low, and strangely reminding me of the sound
+of a gentle wind amidst the leaves of a great tree. It murmured over
+and over again: “I may love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I
+am only a beech-tree.” I found I was seated on the ground, leaning
+against a human form, and supported still by the arms around me, which
+I knew to be those of a woman who must be rather above the human size,
+and largely proportioned. I turned my head, but without moving
+otherwise, for I feared lest the arms should untwine themselves; and
+clear, somewhat mournful eyes met mine. At least that is how they
+impressed me; but I could see very little of colour or outline as we
+sat in the dark and rainy shadow of the tree. The face seemed very
+lovely, and solemn from its stillness; with the aspect of one who is
+quite content, but waiting for something. I saw my conjecture from her
+arms was correct: she was above the human scale throughout, but not
+greatly.
+
+“Why do you call yourself a beech-tree?” I said.
+
+“Because I am one,” she replied, in the same low, musical, murmuring
+voice.
+
+“You are a woman,” I returned.
+
+“Do you think so? Am I very like a woman then?”
+
+“You are a very beautiful woman. Is it possible you should not know
+it?”
+
+“I am very glad you think so. I fancy I feel like a woman sometimes. I
+do so to-night—and always when the rain drips from my hair. For there
+is an old prophecy in our woods that one day we shall all be men and
+women like you. Do you know anything about it in your region? Shall I
+be very happy when I am a woman? I fear not, for it is always in nights
+like these that I feel like one. But I long to be a woman for all
+that.”
+
+I had let her talk on, for her voice was like a solution of all musical
+sounds. I now told her that I could hardly say whether women were happy
+or not. I knew one who had not been happy; and for my part, I had often
+longed for Fairy Land, as she now longed for the world of men. But then
+neither of us had lived long, and perhaps people grew happier as they
+grew older. Only I doubted it.
+
+I could not help sighing. She felt the sigh, for her arms were still
+round me. She asked me how old I was.
+
+“Twenty-one,” said I.
+
+“Why, you baby!” said she, and kissed me with the sweetest kiss of
+winds and odours. There was a cool faithfulness in the kiss that
+revived my heart wonderfully. I felt that I feared the dreadful Ash no
+more.
+
+“What did the horrible Ash want with me?” I said.
+
+“I am not quite sure, but I think he wants to bury you at the foot of
+his tree. But he shall not touch you, my child.”
+
+“Are all the ash-trees as dreadful as he?”
+
+“Oh, no. They are all disagreeable selfish creatures—(what horrid men
+they will make, if it be true!)—but this one has a hole in his heart
+that nobody knows of but one or two; and he is always trying to fill it
+up, but he cannot. That must be what he wanted you for. I wonder if he
+will ever be a man. If he is, I hope they will kill him.”
+
+“How kind of you to save me from him!”
+
+“I will take care that he shall not come near you again. But there are
+some in the wood more like me, from whom, alas! I cannot protect you.
+Only if you see any of them very beautiful, try to walk round them.”
+
+“What then?”
+
+“I cannot tell you more. But now I must tie some of my hair about you,
+and then the Ash will not touch you. Here, cut some off. You men have
+strange cutting things about you.”
+
+She shook her long hair loose over me, never moving her arms.
+
+“I cannot cut your beautiful hair. It would be a shame.”
+
+“Not cut my hair! It will have grown long enough before any is wanted
+again in this wild forest. Perhaps it may never be of any use again—not
+till I am a woman.” And she sighed.
+
+As gently as I could, I cut with a knife a long tress of flowing, dark
+hair, she hanging her beautiful head over me. When I had finished, she
+shuddered and breathed deep, as one does when an acute pain,
+steadfastly endured without sign of suffering, is at length relaxed.
+She then took the hair and tied it round me, singing a strange, sweet
+song, which I could not understand, but which left in me a feeling like
+this—
+
+“I saw thee ne’er before;
+I see thee never more;
+But love, and help, and pain, beautiful one,
+Have made thee mine, till all my years are done.”
+
+
+I cannot put more of it into words. She closed her arms about me again,
+and went on singing. The rain in the leaves, and a light wind that had
+arisen, kept her song company. I was wrapt in a trance of still
+delight. It told me the secret of the woods, and the flowers, and the
+birds. At one time I felt as if I was wandering in childhood through
+sunny spring forests, over carpets of primroses, anemones, and little
+white starry things—I had almost said creatures, and finding new
+wonderful flowers at every turn. At another, I lay half dreaming in the
+hot summer noon, with a book of old tales beside me, beneath a great
+beech; or, in autumn, grew sad because I trod on the leaves that had
+sheltered me, and received their last blessing in the sweet odours of
+decay; or, in a winter evening, frozen still, looked up, as I went home
+to a warm fireside, through the netted boughs and twigs to the cold,
+snowy moon, with her opal zone around her. At last I had fallen asleep;
+for I know nothing more that passed till I found myself lying under a
+superb beech-tree, in the clear light of the morning, just before
+sunrise. Around me was a girdle of fresh beech-leaves. Alas! I brought
+nothing with me out of Fairy Land, but memories—memories. The great
+boughs of the beech hung drooping around me. At my head rose its smooth
+stem, with its great sweeps of curving surface that swelled like
+undeveloped limbs. The leaves and branches above kept on the song which
+had sung me asleep; only now, to my mind, it sounded like a farewell
+and a speedwell. I sat a long time, unwilling to go; but my unfinished
+story urged me on. I must act and wander. With the sun well risen, I
+rose, and put my arms as far as they would reach around the beech-tree,
+and kissed it, and said good-bye. A trembling went through the leaves;
+a few of the last drops of the night’s rain fell from off them at my
+feet; and as I walked slowly away, I seemed to hear in a whisper once
+more the words: “I may love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I
+am only a beech-tree.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+“And she was smooth and full, as if one gush
+Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep
+Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep
+Than bee from daisy.”
+          BEDDOES’ _Pygmalion_.
+
+“Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,
+Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day.”
+          _Romance of Sir Launfal_.
+
+
+I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only thing
+that damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between sorrow and
+delight that crossed my mind with the frequently returning thought of
+my last night’s hostess. “But then,” thought I, “if she is sorry, I
+could not help it; and she has all the pleasures she ever had. Such a
+day as this is surely a joy to her, as much at least as to me. And her
+life will perhaps be the richer, for holding now within it the memory
+of what came, but could not stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows
+but we may meet somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the
+universe.” Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction, as if
+I ought not to have left her, I went on. There was little to
+distinguish the woods to-day from those of my own land; except that all
+the wild things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and the numberless
+other inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they did not run away from
+me, but gazed at me as I passed, frequently coming nearer, as if to
+examine me more closely. Whether this came from utter ignorance, or
+from familiarity with the human appearance of beings who never hurt
+them, I could not tell. As I stood once, looking up to the splendid
+flower of a parasite, which hung from the branch of a tree over my
+head, a large white rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its little
+feet on one of mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as I
+had been looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it;
+but when I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind
+feet and scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look at me
+several times before I lost sight of it. Now and then, too, a dim human
+figure would appear and disappear, at some distance, amongst the trees,
+moving like a sleep-walker. But no one ever came near me.
+
+This day I found plenty of food in the forest—strange nuts and fruits I
+had never seen before. I hesitated to eat them; but argued that, if I
+could live on the air of Fairy Land, I could live on its food also. I
+found my reasoning correct, and the result was better than I had hoped;
+for it not only satisfied my hunger, but operated in such a way upon my
+senses that I was brought into far more complete relationship with the
+things around me. The human forms appeared much more dense and defined;
+more tangibly visible, if I may say so. I seemed to know better which
+direction to choose when any doubt arose. I began to feel in some
+degree what the birds meant in their songs, though I could not express
+it in words, any more than you can some landscapes. At times, to my
+surprise, I found myself listening attentively, and as if it were no
+unusual thing with me, to a conversation between two squirrels or
+monkeys. The subjects were not very interesting, except as associated
+with the individual life and necessities of the little creatures: where
+the best nuts were to be found in the neighbourhood, and who could
+crack them best, or who had most laid up for the winter, and such like;
+only they never said where the store was. There was no great difference
+in kind between their talk and our ordinary human conversation. Some of
+the creatures I never heard speak at all, and believe they never do so,
+except under the impulse of some great excitement. The mice talked; but
+the hedgehogs seemed very phlegmatic; and though I met a couple of
+moles above ground several times, they never said a word to each other
+in my hearing. There were no wild beasts in the forest; at least, I did
+not see one larger than a wild cat. There were plenty of snakes,
+however, and I do not think they were all harmless; but none ever bit
+me.
+
+Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great size,
+but very steep; and having no trees—scarcely even a bush—upon it,
+entirely exposed to the heat of the sun. Over this my way seemed to
+lie, and I immediately began the ascent. On reaching the top, hot and
+weary, I looked around me, and saw that the forest still stretched as
+far as the sight could reach on every side of me. I observed that the
+trees, in the direction in which I was about to descend, did not come
+so near the foot of the hill as on the other side, and was especially
+regretting the unexpected postponement of shelter, because this side of
+the hill seemed more difficult to descend than the other had been to
+climb, when my eye caught the appearance of a natural path, winding
+down through broken rocks and along the course of a tiny stream, which
+I hoped would lead me more easily to the foot. I tried it, and found
+the descent not at all laborious; nevertheless, when I reached the
+bottom, I was very tired and exhausted with the heat. But just where
+the path seemed to end, rose a great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs
+and creeping plants, some of them in full and splendid blossom: these
+almost concealed an opening in the rock, into which the path appeared
+to lead. I entered, thirsting for the shade which it promised. What was
+my delight to find a rocky cell, all the angles rounded away with rich
+moss, and every ledge and projection crowded with lovely ferns, the
+variety of whose forms, and groupings, and shades wrought in me like a
+poem; for such a harmony could not exist, except they all consented to
+some one end! A little well of the clearest water filled a mossy hollow
+in one corner. I drank, and felt as if I knew what the elixir of life
+must be; then threw myself on a mossy mound that lay like a couch along
+the inner end. Here I lay in a delicious reverie for some time; during
+which all lovely forms, and colours, and sounds seemed to use my brain
+as a common hall, where they could come and go, unbidden and unexcused.
+I had never imagined that such capacity for simple happiness lay in me,
+as was now awakened by this assembly of forms and spiritual sensations,
+which yet were far too vague to admit of being translated into any
+shape common to my own and another mind. I had lain for an hour, I
+should suppose, though it may have been far longer, when, the
+harmonious tumult in my mind having somewhat relaxed, I became aware
+that my eyes were fixed on a strange, time-worn bas-relief on the rock
+opposite to me. This, after some pondering, I concluded to represent
+Pygmalion, as he awaited the quickening of his statue. The sculptor sat
+more rigid than the figure to which his eyes were turned. That seemed
+about to step from its pedestal and embrace the man, who waited rather
+than expected.
+
+“A lovely story,” I said to myself. “This cave, now, with the bushes
+cut away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place
+as he would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his
+block of marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already
+clothed with form in the unseen hall of the sculptor’s brain. And,
+indeed, if I mistake not,” I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of
+light arrived at that moment through a crevice in the roof, and lighted
+up a small portion of the rock, bare of vegetation, “this very rock is
+marble, white enough and delicate enough for any statue, even if
+destined to become an ideal woman in the arms of the sculptor.”
+
+I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which
+I had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster
+than ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it
+was alabaster. By an inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of
+impulse, I went on removing the moss from the surface of the stone; and
+soon saw that it was polished, or at least smooth, throughout. I
+continued my labour; and after clearing a space of about a couple of
+square feet, I observed what caused me to prosecute the work with more
+interest and care than before. For the ray of sunlight had now reached
+the spot I had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed its
+usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife had
+scratched the surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to
+have a definite limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more
+solid, white marble. I was careful to scratch no more. And first, a
+vague anticipation gave way to a startling sense of possibility; then,
+as I proceeded, one revelation after another produced the entrancing
+conviction, that under the crust of alabaster lay a dimly visible form
+in marble, but whether of man or woman I could not yet tell. I worked
+on as rapidly as the necessary care would permit; and when I had
+uncovered the whole mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a
+little way, so that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw
+before me with sufficient plainness—though at the same time with
+considerable indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light
+the place admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself—a
+block of pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a
+reposing woman. She lay on one side, with her hand under her cheek, and
+her face towards me; but her hair had fallen partly over her face, so
+that I could not see the expression of the whole. What I did see
+appeared to me perfectly lovely; more near the face that had been born
+with me in my soul, than anything I had seen before in nature or art.
+The actual outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that
+the more than semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to
+account for the fact; and I conjectured that a light robe added its
+obscurity. Numberless histories passed through my mind of change of
+substance from enchantment and other causes, and of imprisonments such
+as this before me. I thought of the Prince of the Enchanted City, half
+marble and half a man; of Ariel; of Niobe; of the Sleeping Beauty in
+the Wood; of the bleeding trees; and many other histories. Even my
+adventure of the preceding evening with the lady of the beech-tree
+contributed to arouse the wild hope, that by some means life might be
+given to this form also, and that, breaking from her alabaster tomb,
+she might glorify my eyes with her presence. “For,” I argued, “who can
+tell but this cave may be the home of Marble, and this, essential
+Marble—that spirit of marble which, present throughout, makes it
+capable of being moulded into any form? Then if she should awake! But
+how to awake her? A kiss awoke the Sleeping Beauty! a kiss cannot reach
+her through the incrusting alabaster.” I kneeled, however, and kissed
+the pale coffin; but she slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, and the
+following stones—that trees should follow his music seemed nothing
+surprising now. Might not a song awake this form, that the glory of
+motion might for a time displace the loveliness of rest? Sweet sounds
+can go where kisses may not enter. I sat and thought. Now, although
+always delighting in music, I had never been gifted with the power of
+song, until I entered the fairy forest. I had a voice, and I had a true
+sense of sound; but when I tried to sing, the one would not content the
+other, and so I remained silent. This morning, however, I had found
+myself, ere I was aware, rejoicing in a song; but whether it was before
+or after I had eaten of the fruits of the forest, I could not satisfy
+myself. I concluded it was after, however; and that the increased
+impulse to sing I now felt, was in part owing to having drunk of the
+little well, which shone like a brilliant eye in a corner of the cave.
+I sat down on the ground by the “antenatal tomb,” leaned upon it with
+my face towards the head of the figure within, and sang—the words and
+tones coming together, and inseparably connected, as if word and tone
+formed one thing; or, as if each word could be uttered only in that
+tone, and was incapable of distinction from it, except in idea, by an
+acute analysis. I sang something like this: but the words are only a
+dull representation of a state whose very elevation precluded the
+possibility of remembrance; and in which I presume the words really
+employed were as far above these, as that state transcended this
+wherein I recall it:
+
+“Marble woman, vainly sleeping
+In the very death of dreams!
+Wilt thou—slumber from thee sweeping,
+All but what with vision teems—
+Hear my voice come through the golden
+Mist of memory and hope;
+And with shadowy smile embolden
+Me with primal Death to cope?
+
+“Thee the sculptors all pursuing,
+Have embodied but their own;
+Round their visions, form enduring,
+Marble vestments thou hast thrown;
+But thyself, in silence winding,
+Thou hast kept eternally;
+Thee they found not, many finding—
+I have found thee: wake for me.”
+
+
+As I sang, I looked earnestly at the face so vaguely revealed before
+me. I fancied, yet believed it to be but fancy, that through the dim
+veil of the alabaster, I saw a motion of the head as if caused by a
+sinking sigh. I gazed more earnestly, and concluded that it was but
+fancy. Neverthless I could not help singing again—
+
+“Rest is now filled full of beauty,
+And can give thee up, I ween;
+Come thou forth, for other duty
+Motion pineth for her queen.
+
+“Or, if needing years to wake thee
+From thy slumbrous solitudes,
+Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
+To the friendly, sleeping woods.
+
+Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
+Round thee storms would never rave;
+And when need of rest is sorest,
+Glide thou then into thy cave.
+
+“Or, if still thou choosest rather
+Marble, be its spell on me;
+Let thy slumber round me gather,
+Let another dream with thee!”
+
+
+Again I paused, and gazed through the stony shroud, as if, by very
+force of penetrative sight, I would clear every lineament of the lovely
+face. And now I thought the hand that had lain under the cheek, had
+slipped a little downward. But then I could not be sure that I had at
+first observed its position accurately. So I sang again; for the
+longing had grown into a passionate need of seeing her alive—
+
+“Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I
+    Have set me singing by thy side,
+Life hath forsook the upper sky,
+    And all the outer world hath died.
+
+“Yea, I am dead; for thou hast drawn
+    My life all downward unto thee.
+Dead moon of love! let twilight dawn:
+    Awake! and let the darkness flee.
+
+“Cold lady of the lovely stone!
+    Awake! or I shall perish here;
+And thou be never more alone,
+    My form and I for ages near.
+
+“But words are vain; reject them all—
+    They utter but a feeble part:
+Hear thou the depths from which they call,
+    The voiceless longing of my heart.”
+
+
+There arose a slightly crashing sound. Like a sudden apparition that
+comes and is gone, a white form, veiled in a light robe of whiteness,
+burst upwards from the stone, stood, glided forth, and gleamed away
+towards the woods. For I followed to the mouth of the cave, as soon as
+the amazement and concentration of delight permitted the nerves of
+motion again to act; and saw the white form amidst the trees, as it
+crossed a little glade on the edge of the forest where the sunlight
+fell full, seeming to gather with intenser radiance on the one object
+that floated rather than flitted through its lake of beams. I gazed
+after her in a kind of despair; found, freed, lost! It seemed useless
+to follow, yet follow I must. I marked the direction she took; and
+without once looking round to the forsaken cave, I hastened towards the
+forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+“Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, rain down
+upon him, and his happiness is unbounded.”
+          —FOUQUÉ, _Der Zauberring_.
+
+“Thy red lips, like worms,
+Travel over my cheek.”
+          —MOTHERWELL.
+
+
+But as I crossed the space between the foot of the hill and the forest,
+a vision of another kind delayed my steps. Through an opening to the
+westward flowed, like a stream, the rays of the setting sun, and
+overflowed with a ruddy splendour the open space where I was. And
+riding as it were down this stream towards me, came a horseman in what
+appeared red armour. From frontlet to tail, the horse likewise shone
+red in the sunset. I felt as if I must have seen the knight before; but
+as he drew near, I could recall no feature of his countenance. Ere he
+came up to me, however, I remembered the legend of Sir Percival in the
+rusty armour, which I had left unfinished in the old book in the
+cottage: it was of Sir Percival that he reminded me. And no wonder; for
+when he came close up to me, I saw that, from crest to heel, the whole
+surface of his armour was covered with a light rust. The golden spurs
+shone, but the iron greaves glowed in the sunlight. The _morning star_,
+which hung from his wrist, glittered and glowed with its silver and
+bronze. His whole appearance was terrible; but his face did not answer
+to this appearance. It was sad, even to gloominess; and something of
+shame seemed to cover it. Yet it was noble and high, though thus
+beclouded; and the form looked lofty, although the head drooped, and
+the whole frame was bowed as with an inward grief. The horse seemed to
+share in his master’s dejection, and walked spiritless and slow. I
+noticed, too, that the white plume on his helmet was discoloured and
+drooping. “He has fallen in a joust with spears,” I said to myself;
+“yet it becomes not a noble knight to be conquered in spirit because
+his body hath fallen.” He appeared not to observe me, for he was riding
+past without looking up, and started into a warlike attitude the moment
+the first sound of my voice reached him. Then a flush, as of shame,
+covered all of his face that the lifted beaver disclosed. He returned
+my greeting with distant courtesy, and passed on. But suddenly, he
+reined up, sat a moment still, and then turning his horse, rode back to
+where I stood looking after him.
+
+“I am ashamed,” he said, “to appear a knight, and in such a guise; but
+it behoves me to tell you to take warning from me, lest the same evil,
+in his kind, overtake the singer that has befallen the knight. Hast
+thou ever read the story of Sir Percival and the”—(here he shuddered,
+that his armour rang)—“Maiden of the Alder-tree?”
+
+“In part, I have,” said I; “for yesterday, at the entrance of this
+forest, I found in a cottage the volume wherein it is recorded.”
+
+“Then take heed,” he rejoined; “for, see my armour—I put it off; and as
+it befell to him, so has it befallen to me. I that was proud am humble
+now. Yet is she terribly beautiful—beware. Never,” he added, raising
+his head, “shall this armour be furbished, but by the blows of knightly
+encounter, until the last speck has disappeared from every spot where
+the battle-axe and sword of evil-doers, or noble foes, might fall; when
+I shall again lift my head, and say to my squire, ‘Do thy duty once
+more, and make this armour shine.’”
+
+Before I could inquire further, he had struck spurs into his horse and
+galloped away, shrouded from my voice in the noise of his armour. For I
+called after him, anxious to know more about this fearful enchantress;
+but in vain—he heard me not. “Yet,” I said to myself, “I have now been
+often warned; surely I shall be well on my guard; and I am fully
+resolved I shall not be ensnared by any beauty, however beautiful.
+Doubtless, some one man may escape, and I shall be he.” So I went on
+into the wood, still hoping to find, in some one of its mysterious
+recesses, my lost lady of the marble. The sunny afternoon died into the
+loveliest twilight. Great bats began to flit about with their own
+noiseless flight, seemingly purposeless, because its objects are
+unseen. The monotonous music of the owl issued from all unexpected
+quarters in the half-darkness around me. The glow-worm was alight here
+and there, burning out into the great universe. The night-hawk
+heightened all the harmony and stillness with his oft-recurring,
+discordant jar. Numberless unknown sounds came out of the unknown dusk;
+but all were of twilight-kind, oppressing the heart as with a condensed
+atmosphere of dreamy undefined love and longing. The odours of night
+arose, and bathed me in that luxurious mournfulness peculiar to them,
+as if the plants whence they floated had been watered with bygone
+tears. Earth drew me towards her bosom; I felt as if I could fall down
+and kiss her. I forgot I was in Fairy Land, and seemed to be walking in
+a perfect night of our own old nursing earth. Great stems rose about
+me, uplifting a thick multitudinous roof above me of branches, and
+twigs, and leaves—the bird and insect world uplifted over mine, with
+its own landscapes, its own thickets, and paths, and glades, and
+dwellings; its own bird-ways and insect-delights. Great boughs crossed
+my path; great roots based the tree-columns, and mightily clasped the
+earth, strong to lift and strong to uphold. It seemed an old, old
+forest, perfect in forest ways and pleasures. And when, in the midst of
+this ecstacy, I remembered that under some close canopy of leaves, by
+some giant stem, or in some mossy cave, or beside some leafy well, sat
+the lady of the marble, whom my songs had called forth into the outer
+world, waiting (might it not be?) to meet and thank her deliverer in a
+twilight which would veil her confusion, the whole night became one
+dream-realm of joy, the central form of which was everywhere present,
+although unbeheld. Then, remembering how my songs seemed to have called
+her from the marble, piercing through the pearly shroud of
+alabaster—“Why,” thought I, “should not my voice reach her now, through
+the ebon night that inwraps her.” My voice burst into song so
+spontaneously that it seemed involuntarily.
+
+“Not a sound
+But, echoing in me,
+Vibrates all around
+With a blind delight,
+Till it breaks on Thee,
+Queen of Night!
+
+Every tree,
+O’ershadowing with gloom,
+Seems to cover thee
+Secret, dark, love-still’d,
+In a holy room
+Silence-filled.
+
+“Let no moon
+Creep up the heaven to-night;
+I in darksome noon
+Walking hopefully,
+Seek my shrouded light—
+Grope for thee!
+
+“Darker grow
+The borders of the dark!
+Through the branches glow,
+From the roof above,
+Star and diamond-sparks
+Light for love.”
+
+
+Scarcely had the last sounds floated away from the hearing of my own
+ears, when I heard instead a low delicious laugh near me. It was not
+the laugh of one who would not be heard, but the laugh of one who has
+just received something long and patiently desired—a laugh that ends in
+a low musical moan. I started, and, turning sideways, saw a dim white
+figure seated beside an intertwining thicket of smaller trees and
+underwood.
+
+“It is my white lady!” I said, and flung myself on the ground beside
+her; striving, through the gathering darkness, to get a glimpse of the
+form which had broken its marble prison at my call.
+
+“It is your white lady!” said the sweetest voice, in reply, sending a
+thrill of speechless delight through a heart which all the love-charms
+of the preceding day and evening had been tempering for this
+culminating hour. Yet, if I would have confessed it, there was
+something either in the sound of the voice, although it seemed
+sweetness itself, or else in this yielding which awaited no gradation
+of gentle approaches, that did not vibrate harmoniously with the beat
+of my inward music. And likewise, when, taking her hand in mine, I drew
+closer to her, looking for the beauty of her face, which, indeed, I
+found too plenteously, a cold shiver ran through me; but “it is the
+marble,” I said to myself, and heeded it not.
+
+She withdrew her hand from mine, and after that would scarce allow me
+to touch her. It seemed strange, after the fulness of her first
+greeting, that she could not trust me to come close to her. Though her
+words were those of a lover, she kept herself withdrawn as if a mile of
+space interposed between us.
+
+“Why did you run away from me when you woke in the cave?” I said.
+
+“Did I?” she returned. “That was very unkind of me; but I did not know
+better.”
+
+“I wish I could see you. The night is very dark.”
+
+“So it is. Come to my grotto. There is light there.”
+
+“Have you another cave, then?”
+
+“Come and see.”
+
+But she did not move until I rose first, and then she was on her feet
+before I could offer my hand to help her. She came close to my side,
+and conducted me through the wood. But once or twice, when,
+involuntarily almost, I was about to put my arm around her as we walked
+on through the warm gloom, she sprang away several paces, always
+keeping her face full towards me, and then stood looking at me,
+slightly stooping, in the attitude of one who fears some half-seen
+enemy. It was too dark to discern the expression of her face. Then she
+would return and walk close beside me again, as if nothing had
+happened. I thought this strange; but, besides that I had almost, as I
+said before, given up the attempt to account for appearances in Fairy
+Land, I judged that it would be very unfair to expect from one who had
+slept so long and had been so suddenly awakened, a behaviour
+correspondent to what I might unreflectingly look for. I knew not what
+she might have been dreaming about. Besides, it was possible that,
+while her words were free, her sense of touch might be exquisitely
+delicate.
+
+At length, after walking a long way in the woods, we arrived at another
+thicket, through the intertexture of which was glimmering a pale rosy
+light.
+
+“Push aside the branches,” she said, “and make room for us to enter.”
+
+I did as she told me.
+
+“Go in,” she said; “I will follow you.”
+
+I did as she desired, and found myself in a little cave, not very
+unlike the marble cave. It was festooned and draperied with all kinds
+of green that cling to shady rocks. In the furthest corner, half-hidden
+in leaves, through which it glowed, mingling lovely shadows between
+them, burned a bright rosy flame on a little earthen lamp. The lady
+glided round by the wall from behind me, still keeping her face towards
+me, and seated herself in the furthest corner, with her back to the
+lamp, which she hid completely from my view. I then saw indeed a form
+of perfect loveliness before me. Almost it seemed as if the light of
+the rose-lamp shone through her (for it could not be reflected from
+her); such a delicate shade of pink seemed to shadow what in itself
+must be a marbly whiteness of hue. I discovered afterwards, however,
+that there was one thing in it I did not like; which was, that the
+white part of the eye was tinged with the same slight roseate hue as
+the rest of the form. It is strange that I cannot recall her features;
+but they, as well as her somewhat girlish figure, left on me simply and
+only the impression of intense loveliness. I lay down at her feet, and
+gazed up into her face as I lay. She began, and told me a strange tale,
+which, likewise, I cannot recollect; but which, at every turn and every
+pause, somehow or other fixed my eyes and thoughts upon her extreme
+beauty; seeming always to culminate in something that had a relation,
+revealed or hidden, but always operative, with her own loveliness. I
+lay entranced. It was a tale which brings back a feeling as of snows
+and tempests; torrents and water-sprites; lovers parted for long, and
+meeting at last; with a gorgeous summer night to close up the whole. I
+listened till she and I were blended with the tale; till she and I were
+the whole history. And we had met at last in this same cave of
+greenery, while the summer night hung round us heavy with love, and the
+odours that crept through the silence from the sleeping woods were the
+only signs of an outer world that invaded our solitude. What followed I
+cannot clearly remember. The succeeding horror almost obliterated it. I
+woke as a grey dawn stole into the cave. The damsel had disappeared;
+but in the shrubbery, at the mouth of the cave, stood a strange
+horrible object. It looked like an open coffin set up on one end; only
+that the part for the head and neck was defined from the shoulder-part.
+In fact, it was a rough representation of the human frame, only hollow,
+as if made of decaying bark torn from a tree.
+
+It had arms, which were only slightly seamed, down from the
+shoulder-blade by the elbow, as if the bark had healed again from the
+cut of a knife. But the arms moved, and the hand and the fingers were
+tearing asunder a long silky tress of hair. The thing turned round—it
+had for a face and front those of my enchantress, but now of a pale
+greenish hue in the light of the morning, and with dead lustreless
+eyes. In the horror of the moment, another fear invaded me. I put my
+hand to my waist, and found indeed that my girdle of beech-leaves was
+gone. Hair again in her hands, she was tearing it fiercely. Once more,
+as she turned, she laughed a low laugh, but now full of scorn and
+derision; and then she said, as if to a companion with whom she had
+been talking while I slept, “There he is; you can take him now.” I lay
+still, petrified with dismay and fear; for I now saw another figure
+beside her, which, although vague and indistinct, I yet recognised but
+too well. It was the Ash-tree. My beauty was the Maid of the Alder! and
+she was giving me, spoiled of my only availing defence, into the hands
+of my awful foe. The Ash bent his Gorgon-head, and entered the cave. I
+could not stir. He drew near me. His ghoul-eyes and his ghastly face
+fascinated me. He came stooping, with the hideous hand outstretched,
+like a beast of prey. I had given myself up to a death of unfathomable
+horror, when, suddenly, and just as he was on the point of seizing me,
+the dull, heavy blow of an axe echoed through the wood, followed by
+others in quick repetition. The Ash shuddered and groaned, withdrew the
+outstretched hand, retreated backwards to the mouth of the cave, then
+turned and disappeared amongst the trees. The other walking Death
+looked at me once, with a careless dislike on her beautifully moulded
+features; then, heedless any more to conceal her hollow deformity,
+turned her frightful back and likewise vanished amid the green
+obscurity without. I lay and wept. The Maid of the Alder-tree had
+befooled me—nearly slain me—in spite of all the warnings I had received
+from those who knew my danger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+“Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes,
+    A little I am hurt, but yett not slaine;
+I’le but lye downe and bleede awhile,
+    And then I’le rise and fight againe.”
+          BALLAD _of Sir Andrew Barton_.
+
+
+But I could not remain where I was any longer, though the daylight was
+hateful to me, and the thought of the great, innocent, bold sunrise
+unendurable. Here there was no well to cool my face, smarting with the
+bitterness of my own tears. Nor would I have washed in the well of that
+grotto, had it flowed clear as the rivers of Paradise. I rose, and
+feebly left the sepulchral cave. I took my way I knew not whither, but
+still towards the sunrise. The birds were singing; but not for me. All
+the creatures spoke a language of their own, with which I had nothing
+to do, and to which I cared not to find the key any more.
+
+I walked listlessly along. What distressed me most—more even than my
+own folly—was the perplexing question, How can beauty and ugliness
+dwell so near? Even with her altered complexion and her face of
+dislike; disenchanted of the belief that clung around her; known for a
+living, walking sepulchre, faithless, deluding, traitorous; I felt
+notwithstanding all this, that she was beautiful. Upon this I pondered
+with undiminished perplexity, though not without some gain. Then I
+began to make surmises as to the mode of my deliverance; and concluded
+that some hero, wandering in search of adventure, had heard how the
+forest was infested; and, knowing it was useless to attack the evil
+thing in person, had assailed with his battle-axe the body in which he
+dwelt, and on which he was dependent for his power of mischief in the
+wood. “Very likely,” I thought, “the repentant-knight, who warned me of
+the evil which has befallen me, was busy retrieving his lost honour,
+while I was sinking into the same sorrow with himself; and, hearing of
+the dangerous and mysterious being, arrived at his tree in time to save
+me from being dragged to its roots, and buried like carrion, to nourish
+him for yet deeper insatiableness.” I found afterwards that my
+conjecture was correct. I wondered how he had fared when his blows
+recalled the Ash himself, and that too I learned afterwards.
+
+I walked on the whole day, with intervals of rest, but without food;
+for I could not have eaten, had any been offered me; till, in the
+afternoon, I seemed to approach the outskirts of the forest, and at
+length arrived at a farm-house. An unspeakable joy arose in my heart at
+beholding an abode of human beings once more, and I hastened up to the
+door, and knocked. A kind-looking, matronly woman, still handsome, made
+her appearance; who, as soon as she saw me, said kindly, “Ah, my poor
+boy, you have come from the wood! Were you in it last night?”
+
+I should have ill endured, the day before, to be called _boy_; but now
+the motherly kindness of the word went to my heart; and, like a boy
+indeed, I burst into tears. She soothed me right gently; and, leading
+me into a room, made me lie down on a settle, while she went to find me
+some refreshment. She soon returned with food, but I could not eat. She
+almost compelled me to swallow some wine, when I revived sufficiently
+to be able to answer some of her questions. I told her the whole story.
+
+“It is just as I feared,” she said; “but you are now for the night
+beyond the reach of any of these dreadful creatures. It is no wonder
+they could delude a child like you. But I must beg you, when my husband
+comes in, not to say a word about these things; for he thinks me even
+half crazy for believing anything of the sort. But I must believe my
+senses, as he cannot believe beyond his, which give him no intimations
+of this kind. I think he could spend the whole of Midsummer-eve in the
+wood and come back with the report that he saw nothing worse than
+himself. Indeed, good man, he would hardly find anything better than
+himself, if he had seven more senses given him.”
+
+“But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any heart
+at all—without any place even for a heart to live in.”
+
+“I cannot quite tell,” she said; “but I am sure she would not look so
+beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful
+than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with her
+before you saw her beauty, mistaking her for the lady of the
+marble—another kind altogether, I should think. But the chief thing
+that makes her beautiful is this: that, although she loves no man, she
+loves the love of any man; and when she finds one in her power, her
+desire to bewitch him and gain his love (not for the sake of his love
+either, but that she may be conscious anew of her own beauty, through
+the admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely—with a
+self-destructive beauty, though; for it is that which is constantly
+wearing her away within, till, at last, the decay will reach her face,
+and her whole front, when all the lovely mask of nothing will fall to
+pieces, and she be vanished for ever. So a wise man, whom she met in
+the wood some years ago, and who, I think, for all his wisdom, fared no
+better than you, told me, when, like you, he spent the next night here,
+and recounted to me his adventures.”
+
+I thanked her very warmly for her solution, though it was but partial;
+wondering much that in her, as in woman I met on my first entering the
+forest, there should be such superiority to her apparent condition.
+Here she left me to take some rest; though, indeed, I was too much
+agitated to rest in any other way than by simply ceasing to move.
+
+In half an hour, I heard a heavy step approach and enter the house. A
+jolly voice, whose slight huskiness appeared to proceed from overmuch
+laughter, called out “Betsy, the pigs’ trough is quite empty, and that
+is a pity. Let them swill, lass! They’re of no use but to get fat. Ha!
+ha! ha! Gluttony is not forbidden in their commandments. Ha! ha! ha!”
+The very voice, kind and jovial, seemed to disrobe the room of the
+strange look which all new places wear—to disenchant it out of the
+realm of the ideal into that of the actual. It began to look as if I
+had known every corner of it for twenty years; and when, soon after,
+the dame came and fetched me to partake of their early supper, the
+grasp of his great hand, and the harvest-moon of his benevolent face,
+which was needed to light up the rotundity of the globe beneath it,
+produced such a reaction in me, that, for a moment, I could hardly
+believe that there was a Fairy Land; and that all I had passed through
+since I left home, had not been the wandering dream of a diseased
+imagination, operating on a too mobile frame, not merely causing me
+indeed to travel, but peopling for me with vague phantoms the regions
+through which my actual steps had led me. But the next moment my eye
+fell upon a little girl who was sitting in the chimney-corner, with a
+little book open on her knee, from which she had apparently just looked
+up to fix great inquiring eyes upon me. I believed in Fairy Land again.
+She went on with her reading, as soon as she saw that I observed her
+looking at me. I went near, and peeping over her shoulder, saw that she
+was reading _The History of Graciosa and Percinet_.
+
+“Very improving book, sir,” remarked the old farmer, with a
+good-humoured laugh. “We are in the very hottest corner of Fairy Land
+here. Ha! ha! Stormy night, last night, sir.”
+
+“Was it, indeed?” I rejoined. “It was not so with me. A lovelier night
+I never saw.”
+
+“Indeed! Where were you last night?”
+
+“I spent it in the forest. I had lost my way.”
+
+“Ah! then, perhaps, you will be able to convince my good woman, that
+there is nothing very remarkable about the forest; for, to tell the
+truth, it bears but a bad name in these parts. I dare say you saw
+nothing worse than yourself there?”
+
+“I hope I did,” was my inward reply; but, for an audible one, I
+contented myself with saying, “Why, I certainly did see some
+appearances I could hardly account for; but that is nothing to be
+wondered at in an unknown wild forest, and with the uncertain light of
+the moon alone to go by.”
+
+“Very true! you speak like a sensible man, sir. We have but few
+sensible folks round about us. Now, you would hardly credit it, but my
+wife believes every fairy-tale that ever was written. I cannot account
+for it. She is a most sensible woman in everything else.”
+
+“But should not that make you treat her belief with something of
+respect, though you cannot share in it yourself?”
+
+“Yes, that is all very well in theory; but when you come to live every
+day in the midst of absurdity, it is far less easy to behave
+respectfully to it. Why, my wife actually believes the story of the
+‘White Cat.’ You know it, I dare say.”
+
+“I read all these tales when a child, and know that one especially
+well.”
+
+“But, father,” interposed the little girl in the chimney-corner, “you
+know quite well that mother is descended from that very princess who
+was changed by the wicked fairy into a white cat. Mother has told me so
+a many times, and you ought to believe everything she says.”
+
+“I can easily believe that,” rejoined the farmer, with another fit of
+laughter; “for, the other night, a mouse came gnawing and scratching
+beneath the floor, and would not let us go to sleep. Your mother sprang
+out of bed, and going as near it as she could, mewed so infernally like
+a great cat, that the noise ceased instantly. I believe the poor mouse
+died of the fright, for we have never heard it again. Ha! ha! ha!”
+
+The son, an ill-looking youth, who had entered during the conversation,
+joined in his father’s laugh; but his laugh was very different from the
+old man’s: it was polluted with a sneer. I watched him, and saw that,
+as soon as it was over, he looked scared, as if he dreaded some evil
+consequences to follow his presumption. The woman stood near, waiting
+till we should seat ourselves at the table, and listening to it all
+with an amused air, which had something in it of the look with which
+one listens to the sententious remarks of a pompous child. We sat down
+to supper, and I ate heartily. My bygone distresses began already to
+look far off.
+
+“In what direction are you going?” asked the old man.
+
+“Eastward,” I replied; nor could I have given a more definite answer.
+“Does the forest extend much further in that direction?”
+
+“Oh! for miles and miles; I do not know how far. For although I have
+lived on the borders of it all my life, I have been too busy to make
+journeys of discovery into it. Nor do I see what I could discover. It
+is only trees and trees, till one is sick of them. By the way, if you
+follow the eastward track from here, you will pass close to what the
+children say is the very house of the ogre that Hop-o’-my-Thumb
+visited, and ate his little daughters with the crowns of gold.”
+
+“Oh, father! ate his little daughters! No; he only changed their gold
+crowns for nightcaps; and the great long-toothed ogre killed them in
+mistake; but I do not think even he ate them, for you know they were
+his own little ogresses.”
+
+“Well, well, child; you know all about it a great deal better than I
+do. However, the house has, of course, in such a foolish neighbourhood
+as this, a bad enough name; and I must confess there is a woman living
+in it, with teeth long enough, and white enough too, for the lineal
+descendant of the greatest ogre that ever was made. I think you had
+better not go near her.”
+
+In such talk as this the night wore on. When supper was finished, which
+lasted some time, my hostess conducted me to my chamber.
+
+“If you had not had enough of it already,” she said, “I would have put
+you in another room, which looks towards the forest; and where you
+would most likely have seen something more of its inhabitants. For they
+frequently pass the window, and even enter the room sometimes. Strange
+creatures spend whole nights in it, at certain seasons of the year. I
+am used to it, and do not mind it. No more does my little girl, who
+sleeps in it always. But this room looks southward towards the open
+country, and they never show themselves here; at least I never saw
+any.”
+
+I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experience that I might have, of
+the inhabitants of Fairy Land; but the effect of the farmer’s company,
+and of my own later adventures, was such, that I chose rather an
+undisturbed night in my more human quarters; which, with their clean
+white curtains and white linen, were very inviting to my weariness.
+
+In the morning I awoke refreshed, after a profound and dreamless sleep.
+The sun was high, when I looked out of the window, shining over a wide,
+undulating, cultivated country. Various garden-vegetables were growing
+beneath my window. Everything was radiant with clear sunlight. The
+dew-drops were sparkling their busiest; the cows in a near-by field
+were eating as if they had not been at it all day yesterday; the maids
+were singing at their work as they passed to and fro between the
+out-houses: I did not believe in Fairy Land. I went down, and found the
+family already at breakfast. But before I entered the room where they
+sat, the little girl came to me, and looked up in my face, as though
+she wanted to say something to me. I stooped towards her; she put her
+arms round my neck, and her mouth to my ear, and whispered—
+
+“A white lady has been flitting about the house all night.”
+
+“No whispering behind doors!” cried the farmer; and we entered
+together. “Well, how have you slept? No bogies, eh?”
+
+“Not one, thank you; I slept uncommonly well.”
+
+“I am glad to hear it. Come and breakfast.”
+
+After breakfast, the farmer and his son went out; and I was left alone
+with the mother and daughter.
+
+“When I looked out of the window this morning,” I said, “I felt almost
+certain that Fairy Land was all a delusion of my brain; but whenever I
+come near you or your little daughter, I feel differently. Yet I could
+persuade myself, after my last adventures, to go back, and have nothing
+more to do with such strange beings.”
+
+“How will you go back?” said the woman.
+
+“Nay, that I do not know.”
+
+“Because I have heard, that, for those who enter Fairy Land, there is
+no way of going back. They must go on, and go through it. How, I do not
+in the least know.”
+
+“That is quite the impression on my own mind. Something compels me to
+go on, as if my only path was onward, but I feel less inclined this
+morning to continue my adventures.”
+
+“Will you come and see my little child’s room? She sleeps in the one I
+told you of, looking towards the forest.”
+
+“Willingly,” I said.
+
+So we went together, the little girl running before to open the door
+for us. It was a large room, full of old-fashioned furniture, that
+seemed to have once belonged to some great house.
+
+The window was built with a low arch, and filled with lozenge-shaped
+panes. The wall was very thick, and built of solid stone. I could see
+that part of the house had been erected against the remains of some old
+castle or abbey, or other great building; the fallen stones of which
+had probably served to complete it. But as soon as I looked out of the
+window, a gush of wonderment and longing flowed over my soul like the
+tide of a great sea. Fairy Land lay before me, and drew me towards it
+with an irresistible attraction. The trees bathed their great heads in
+the waves of the morning, while their roots were planted deep in gloom;
+save where on the borders the sunshine broke against their stems, or
+swept in long streams through their avenues, washing with brighter hue
+all the leaves over which it flowed; revealing the rich brown of the
+decayed leaves and fallen pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the
+long grasses and tiny forests of moss that covered the channel over
+which it passed in motionless rivers of light. I turned hurriedly to
+bid my hostess farewell without further delay. She smiled at my haste,
+but with an anxious look.
+
+“You had better not go near the house of the ogre, I think. My son will
+show you into another path, which will join the first beyond it.”
+
+Not wishing to be headstrong or too confident any more, I agreed; and
+having taken leave of my kind entertainers, went into the wood,
+accompanied by the youth. He scarcely spoke as we went along; but he
+led me through the trees till we struck upon a path. He told me to
+follow it, and, with a muttered “good morning” left me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+“I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole.”
+          GOETHE.—_Mephistopheles in Faust_.
+
+
+My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not
+regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like
+life itself—not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned,
+that the best way to manage some kinds of pain filled thoughts, is to
+dare them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart
+till they are tired; and you find you still have a residue of life they
+cannot kill. So, better and worse, I went on, till I came to a little
+clearing in the forest. In the middle of this clearing stood a long,
+low hut, built with one end against a single tall cypress, which rose
+like a spire to the building. A vague misgiving crossed my mind when I
+saw it; but I must needs go closer, and look through a little half-open
+door, near the opposite end from the cypress. Window I saw none. On
+peeping in, and looking towards the further end, I saw a lamp burning,
+with a dim, reddish flame, and the head of a woman, bent downwards, as
+if reading by its light. I could see nothing more for a few moments. At
+length, as my eyes got used to the dimness of the place, I saw that the
+part of the rude building near me was used for household purposes; for
+several rough utensils lay here and there, and a bed stood in the
+corner.
+
+An irresistible attraction caused me to enter. The woman never raised
+her face, the upper part of which alone I could see distinctly; but, as
+soon as I stepped within the threshold, she began to read aloud, in a
+low and not altogether unpleasing voice, from an ancient little volume
+which she held open with one hand on the table upon which stood the
+lamp. What she read was something like this:
+
+“So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever have an
+end. So, then, is it eternal. The negation of aught else, is its
+affirmation. Where the light cannot come, there abideth the darkness.
+The light doth but hollow a mine out of the infinite extension of the
+darkness. And ever upon the steps of the light treadeth the darkness;
+yea, springeth in fountains and wells amidst it, from the secret
+channels of its mighty sea. Truly, man is but a passing flame, moving
+unquietly amid the surrounding rest of night; without which he yet
+could not be, and whereof he is in part compounded.”
+
+As I drew nearer, and she read on, she moved a little to turn a leaf of
+the dark old volume, and I saw that her face was sallow and slightly
+forbidding. Her forehead was high, and her black eyes repressedly
+quiet. But she took no notice of me. This end of the cottage, if
+cottage it could be called, was destitute of furniture, except the
+table with the lamp, and the chair on which the woman sat. In one
+corner was a door, apparently of a cupboard in the wall, but which
+might lead to a room beyond. Still the irresistible desire which had
+made me enter the building urged me: I must open that door, and see
+what was beyond it. I approached, and laid my hand on the rude latch.
+Then the woman spoke, but without lifting her head or looking at me:
+“You had better not open that door.” This was uttered quite quietly;
+and she went on with her reading, partly in silence, partly aloud; but
+both modes seemed equally intended for herself alone. The prohibition,
+however, only increased my desire to see; and as she took no further
+notice, I gently opened the door to its full width, and looked in. At
+first, I saw nothing worthy of attention. It seemed a common closet,
+with shelves on each hand, on which stood various little necessaries
+for the humble uses of a cottage. In one corner stood one or two
+brooms, in another a hatchet and other common tools; showing that it
+was in use every hour of the day for household purposes. But, as I
+looked, I saw that there were no shelves at the back, and that an empty
+space went in further; its termination appearing to be a faintly
+glimmering wall or curtain, somewhat less, however, than the width and
+height of the doorway where I stood. But, as I continued looking, for a
+few seconds, towards this faintly luminous limit, my eyes came into
+true relation with their object. All at once, with such a shiver as
+when one is suddenly conscious of the presence of another in a room
+where he has, for hours, considered himself alone, I saw that the
+seemingly luminous extremity was a sky, as of night, beheld through the
+long perspective of a narrow, dark passage, through what, or built of
+what, I could not tell. As I gazed, I clearly discerned two or three
+stars glimmering faintly in the distant blue. But, suddenly, and as if
+it had been running fast from a far distance for this very point, and
+had turned the corner without abating its swiftness, a dark figure sped
+into and along the passage from the blue opening at the remote end. I
+started back and shuddered, but kept looking, for I could not help it.
+On and on it came, with a speedy approach but delayed arrival; till, at
+last, through the many gradations of approach, it seemed to come within
+the sphere of myself, rushed up to me, and passed me into the cottage.
+All I could tell of its appearance was, that it seemed to be a dark
+human figure. Its motion was entirely noiseless, and might be called a
+gliding, were it not that it appeared that of a runner, but with
+ghostly feet. I had moved back yet a little to let him pass me, and
+looked round after him instantly. I could not see him.
+
+“Where is he?” I said, in some alarm, to the woman, who still sat
+reading.
+
+“There, on the floor, behind you,” she said, pointing with her arm
+half-outstretched, but not lifting her eyes. I turned and looked, but
+saw nothing. Then with a feeling that there was yet something behind
+me, I looked round over my shoulder; and there, on the ground, lay a
+black shadow, the size of a man. It was so dark, that I could see it in
+the dim light of the lamp, which shone full upon it, apparently without
+thinning at all the intensity of its hue.
+
+“I told you,” said the woman, “you had better not look into that
+closet.”
+
+“What is it?” I said, with a growing sense of horror.
+
+“It is only your shadow that has found you,” she replied. “Everybody’s
+shadow is ranging up and down looking for him. I believe you call it by
+a different name in your world: yours has found you, as every person’s
+is almost certain to do who looks into that closet, especially after
+meeting one in the forest, whom I dare say you have met.”
+
+Here, for the first time, she lifted her head, and looked full at me:
+her mouth was full of long, white, shining teeth; and I knew that I was
+in the house of the ogre. I could not speak, but turned and left the
+house, with the shadow at my heels. “A nice sort of valet to have,” I
+said to myself bitterly, as I stepped into the sunshine, and, looking
+over my shoulder, saw that it lay yet blacker in the full blaze of the
+sunlight. Indeed, only when I stood between it and the sun, was the
+blackness at all diminished. I was so bewildered—stunned—both by the
+event itself and its suddenness, that I could not at all realise to
+myself what it would be to have such a constant and strange attendance;
+but with a dim conviction that my present dislike would soon grow to
+loathing, I took my dreary way through the wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+“O lady! we receive but what we give,
+And in our life alone does nature live:
+Ours is her wedding garments ours her shroud!
+.  .  .  .  .
+    Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth,
+A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud,
+    Enveloping the Earth—
+And from the soul itself must there be sent
+    A sweet and potent voice of its own birth,
+Of all sweet sounds the life and element!”
+          COLERIDGE.
+
+
+From this time, until I arrived at the palace of Fairy Land, I can
+attempt no consecutive account of my wanderings and adventures.
+Everything, henceforward, existed for me in its relation to my
+attendant. What influence he exercised upon everything into contact
+with which I was brought, may be understood from a few detached
+instances. To begin with this very day on which he first joined me:
+after I had walked heartlessly along for two or three hours, I was very
+weary, and lay down to rest in a most delightful part of the forest,
+carpeted with wild flowers. I lay for half an hour in a dull repose,
+and then got up to pursue my way. The flowers on the spot where I had
+lain were crushed to the earth: but I saw that they would soon lift
+their heads and rejoice again in the sun and air. Not so those on which
+my shadow had lain. The very outline of it could be traced in the
+withered lifeless grass, and the scorched and shrivelled flowers which
+stood there, dead, and hopeless of any resurrection. I shuddered, and
+hastened away with sad forebodings.
+
+In a few days, I had reason to dread an extension of its baleful
+influences from the fact, that it was no longer confined to one
+position in regard to myself. Hitherto, when seized with an
+irresistible desire to look on my evil demon (which longing would
+unaccountably seize me at any moment, returning at longer or shorter
+intervals, sometimes every minute), I had to turn my head backwards,
+and look over my shoulder; in which position, as long as I could retain
+it, I was fascinated. But one day, having come out on a clear grassy
+hill, which commanded a glorious prospect, though of what I cannot now
+tell, my shadow moved round, and came in front of me. And, presently, a
+new manifestation increased my distress. For it began to coruscate, and
+shoot out on all sides a radiation of dim shadow. These rays of gloom
+issued from the central shadow as from a black sun, lengthening and
+shortening with continual change. But wherever a ray struck, that part
+of earth, or sea, or sky, became void, and desert, and sad to my heart.
+On this, the first development of its new power, one ray shot out
+beyond the rest, seeming to lengthen infinitely, until it smote the
+great sun on the face, which withered and darkened beneath the blow. I
+turned away and went on. The shadow retreated to its former position;
+and when I looked again, it had drawn in all its spears of darkness,
+and followed like a dog at my heels.
+
+Once, as I passed by a cottage, there came out a lovely fairy child,
+with two wondrous toys, one in each hand. The one was the tube through
+which the fairy-gifted poet looks when he beholds the same thing
+everywhere; the other that through which he looks when he combines into
+new forms of loveliness those images of beauty which his own choice has
+gathered from all regions wherein he has travelled. Round the child’s
+head was an aureole of emanating rays. As I looked at him in wonder and
+delight, round crept from behind me the something dark, and the child
+stood in my shadow. Straightway he was a commonplace boy, with a rough
+broad-brimmed straw hat, through which brim the sun shone from behind.
+The toys he carried were a multiplying-glass and a kaleidoscope. I
+sighed and departed.
+
+One evening, as a great silent flood of western gold flowed through an
+avenue in the woods, down the stream, just as when I saw him first,
+came the sad knight, riding on his chestnut steed.
+
+But his armour did not shine half so red as when I saw him first.
+
+Many a blow of mighty sword and axe, turned aside by the strength of
+his mail, and glancing adown the surface, had swept from its path the
+fretted rust, and the glorious steel had answered the kindly blow with
+the thanks of returning light. These streaks and spots made his armour
+look like the floor of a forest in the sunlight. His forehead was
+higher than before, for the contracting wrinkles were nearly gone; and
+the sadness that remained on his face was the sadness of a dewy summer
+twilight, not that of a frosty autumn morn. He, too, had met the
+Alder-maiden as I, but he had plunged into the torrent of mighty deeds,
+and the stain was nearly washed away. No shadow followed him. He had
+not entered the dark house; he had not had time to open the closet
+door. “Will he ever look in?” I said to myself. “_Must_ his shadow find
+him some day?” But I could not answer my own questions.
+
+We travelled together for two days, and I began to love him. It was
+plain that he suspected my story in some degree; and I saw him once or
+twice looking curiously and anxiously at my attendant gloom, which all
+this time had remained very obsequiously behind me; but I offered no
+explanation, and he asked none. Shame at my neglect of his warning, and
+a horror which shrunk from even alluding to its cause, kept me silent;
+till, on the evening of the second day, some noble words from my
+companion roused all my heart; and I was at the point of falling on his
+neck, and telling him the whole story; seeking, if not for helpful
+advice, for of that I was hopeless, yet for the comfort of
+sympathy—when round slid the shadow and inwrapt my friend; and I could
+not trust him.
+
+The glory of his brow vanished; the light of his eye grew cold; and I
+held my peace. The next morning we parted.
+
+But the most dreadful thing of all was, that I now began to feel
+something like satisfaction in the presence of the shadow. I began to
+be rather vain of my attendant, saying to myself, “In a land like this,
+with so many illusions everywhere, I need his aid to disenchant the
+things around me. He does away with all appearances, and shows me
+things in their true colour and form. And I am not one to be fooled
+with the vanities of the common crowd. I will not see beauty where
+there is none. I will dare to behold things as they are. And if I live
+in a waste instead of a paradise, I will live knowing where I live.”
+But of this a certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite
+cured me, turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and
+distrust. It was thus:
+
+One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the wood in
+a direction at right angles to my path. She came along singing and
+dancing, happy as a child, though she seemed almost a woman. In her
+hands—now in one, now in another—she carried a small globe, bright and
+clear as the purest crystal. This seemed at once her plaything and her
+greatest treasure. At one moment, you would have thought her utterly
+careless of it, and at another, overwhelmed with anxiety for its
+safety. But I believe she was taking care of it all the time, perhaps
+not least when least occupied about it. She stopped by me with a smile,
+and bade me good day with the sweetest voice. I felt a wonderful liking
+to the child—for she produced on me more the impression of a child,
+though my understanding told me differently. We talked a little, and
+then walked on together in the direction I had been pursuing. I asked
+her about the globe she carried, but getting no definite answer, I held
+out my hand to take it. She drew back, and said, but smiling almost
+invitingly the while, “You must not touch it;”—then, after a moment’s
+pause—“Or if you do, it must be very gently.” I touched it with a
+finger. A slight vibratory motion arose in it, accompanied, or perhaps
+manifested, by a faint sweet sound. I touched it again, and the sound
+increased. I touched it the third time: a tiny torrent of harmony
+rolled out of the little globe. She would not let me touch it any more.
+
+We travelled on together all that day. She left me when twilight came
+on; but next day, at noon, she met me as before, and again we travelled
+till evening. The third day she came once more at noon, and we walked
+on together. Now, though we had talked about a great many things
+connected with Fairy Land, and the life she had led hitherto, I had
+never been able to learn anything about the globe. This day, however,
+as we went on, the shadow glided round and inwrapt the maiden. It could
+not change her. But my desire to know about the globe, which in his
+gloom began to waver as with an inward light, and to shoot out flashes
+of many-coloured flame, grew irresistible. I put out both my hands and
+laid hold of it. It began to sound as before. The sound rapidly
+increased, till it grew a low tempest of harmony, and the globe
+trembled, and quivered, and throbbed between my hands. I had not the
+heart to pull it away from the maiden, though I held it in spite of her
+attempts to take it from me; yes, I shame to say, in spite of her
+prayers, and, at last, her tears. The music went on growing in,
+intensity and complication of tones, and the globe vibrated and heaved;
+till at last it burst in our hands, and a black vapour broke upwards
+from out of it; then turned, as if blown sideways, and enveloped the
+maiden, hiding even the shadow in its blackness. She held fast the
+fragments, which I abandoned, and fled from me into the forest in the
+direction whence she had come, wailing like a child, and crying, “You
+have broken my globe; my globe is broken—my globe is broken!” I
+followed her, in the hope of comforting her; but had not pursued her
+far, before a sudden cold gust of wind bowed the tree-tops above us,
+and swept through their stems around us; a great cloud overspread the
+day, and a fierce tempest came on, in which I lost sight of her. It
+lies heavy on my heart to this hour. At night, ere I fall asleep,
+often, whatever I may be thinking about, I suddenly hear her voice,
+crying out, “You have broken my globe; my globe is broken; ah, my
+globe!”
+
+Here I will mention one more strange thing; but whether this
+peculiarity was owing to my shadow at all, I am not able to assure
+myself. I came to a village, the inhabitants of which could not at
+first sight be distinguished from the dwellers in our land. They rather
+avoided than sought my company, though they were very pleasant when I
+addressed them. But at last I observed, that whenever I came within a
+certain distance of any one of them, which distance, however, varied
+with different individuals, the whole appearance of the person began to
+change; and this change increased in degree as I approached. When I
+receded to the former distance, the former appearance was restored. The
+nature of the change was grotesque, following no fixed rule. The
+nearest resemblance to it that I know, is the distortion produced in
+your countenance when you look at it as reflected in a concave or
+convex surface—say, either side of a bright spoon. Of this phenomenon I
+first became aware in rather a ludicrous way. My host’s daughter was a
+very pleasant pretty girl, who made herself more agreeable to me than
+most of those about me. For some days my companion-shadow had been less
+obtrusive than usual; and such was the reaction of spirits occasioned
+by the simple mitigation of torment, that, although I had cause enough
+besides to be gloomy, I felt light and comparatively happy. My
+impression is, that she was quite aware of the law of appearances that
+existed between the people of the place and myself, and had resolved to
+amuse herself at my expense; for one evening, after some jesting and
+raillery, she, somehow or other, provoked me to attempt to kiss her.
+But she was well defended from any assault of the kind. Her countenance
+became, of a sudden, absurdly hideous; the pretty mouth was elongated
+and otherwise amplified sufficiently to have allowed of six
+simultaneous kisses. I started back in bewildered dismay; she burst
+into the merriest fit of laughter, and ran from the room. I soon found
+that the same undefinable law of change operated between me and all the
+other villagers; and that, to feel I was in pleasant company, it was
+absolutely necessary for me to discover and observe the right focal
+distance between myself and each one with whom I had to do. This done,
+all went pleasantly enough. Whether, when I happened to neglect this
+precaution, I presented to them an equally ridiculous appearance, I did
+not ascertain; but I presume that the alteration was common to the
+approximating parties. I was likewise unable to determine whether I was
+a necessary party to the production of this strange transformation, or
+whether it took place as well, under the given circumstances, between
+the inhabitants themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+“From Eden’s bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
+To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
+Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields.
+To guide the wanderers to the happy fields.”
+
+
+After leaving this village, where I had rested for nearly a week, I
+travelled through a desert region of dry sand and glittering rocks,
+peopled principally by goblin-fairies. When I first entered their
+domains, and, indeed, whenever I fell in with another tribe of them,
+they began mocking me with offered handfuls of gold and jewels, making
+hideous grimaces at me, and performing the most antic homage, as if
+they thought I expected reverence, and meant to humour me like a
+maniac. But ever, as soon as one cast his eyes on the shadow behind me,
+he made a wry face, partly of pity, partly of contempt, and looked
+ashamed, as if he had been caught doing something inhuman; then,
+throwing down his handful of gold, and ceasing all his grimaces, he
+stood aside to let me pass in peace, and made signs to his companions
+to do the like. I had no inclination to observe them much, for the
+shadow was in my heart as well as at my heels. I walked listlessly and
+almost hopelessly along, till I arrived one day at a small spring;
+which, bursting cool from the heart of a sun-heated rock, flowed
+somewhat southwards from the direction I had been taking. I drank of
+this spring, and found myself wonderfully refreshed. A kind of love to
+the cheerful little stream arose in my heart. It was born in a desert;
+but it seemed to say to itself, “I will flow, and sing, and lave my
+banks, till I make my desert a paradise.” I thought I could not do
+better than follow it, and see what it made of it. So down with the
+stream I went, over rocky lands, burning with sunbeams. But the rivulet
+flowed not far, before a few blades of grass appeared on its banks, and
+then, here and there, a stunted bush. Sometimes it disappeared
+altogether under ground; and after I had wandered some distance, as
+near as I could guess, in the direction it seemed to take, I would
+suddenly hear it again, singing, sometimes far away to my right or
+left, amongst new rocks, over which it made new cataracts of watery
+melodies. The verdure on its banks increased as it flowed; other
+streams joined it; and at last, after many days’ travel, I found
+myself, one gorgeous summer evening, resting by the side of a broad
+river, with a glorious horse-chestnut tree towering above me, and
+dropping its blossoms, milk-white and rosy-red, all about me. As I sat,
+a gush of joy sprang forth in my heart, and over flowed at my eyes.
+
+Through my tears, the whole landscape glimmered in such bewildering
+loveliness, that I felt as if I were entering Fairy Land for the first
+time, and some loving hand were waiting to cool my head, and a loving
+word to warm my heart. Roses, wild roses, everywhere! So plentiful were
+they, they not only perfumed the air, they seemed to dye it a faint
+rose-hue. The colour floated abroad with the scent, and clomb, and
+spread, until the whole west blushed and glowed with the gathered
+incense of roses. And my heart fainted with longing in my bosom.
+
+Could I but see the Spirit of the Earth, as I saw once the indwelling
+woman of the beech-tree, and my beauty of the pale marble, I should be
+content. Content!—Oh, how gladly would I die of the light of her eyes!
+Yea, I would cease to be, if that would bring me one word of love from
+the one mouth. The twilight sank around, and infolded me with sleep. I
+slept as I had not slept for months. I did not awake till late in the
+morning; when, refreshed in body and mind, I rose as from the death
+that wipes out the sadness of life, and then dies itself in the new
+morrow. Again I followed the stream; now climbing a steep rocky bank
+that hemmed it in; now wading through long grasses and wild flowers in
+its path; now through meadows; and anon through woods that crowded down
+to the very lip of the water.
+
+At length, in a nook of the river, gloomy with the weight of
+overhanging foliage, and still and deep as a soul in which the torrent
+eddies of pain have hollowed a great gulf, and then, subsiding in
+violence, have left it full of a motionless, fathomless sorrow—I saw a
+little boat lying. So still was the water here, that the boat needed no
+fastening. It lay as if some one had just stepped ashore, and would in
+a moment return. But as there were no signs of presence, and no track
+through the thick bushes; and, moreover, as I was in Fairy Land where
+one does very much as he pleases, I forced my way to the brink, stepped
+into the boat, pushed it, with the help of the tree-branches, out into
+the stream, lay down in the bottom, and let my boat and me float
+whither the stream would carry us. I seemed to lose myself in the great
+flow of sky above me unbroken in its infinitude, except when now and
+then, coming nearer the shore at a bend in the river, a tree would
+sweep its mighty head silently above mine, and glide away back into the
+past, never more to fling its shadow over me. I fell asleep in this
+cradle, in which mother Nature was rocking her weary child; and while I
+slept, the sun slept not, but went round his arched way. When I awoke,
+he slept in the waters, and I went on my silent path beneath a round
+silvery moon. And a pale moon looked up from the floor of the great
+blue cave that lay in the abysmal silence beneath.
+
+Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call the reality?—not so
+grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the
+gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting
+sail below is fairer still. Yea, the reflecting ocean itself, reflected
+in the mirror, has a wondrousness about its waters that somewhat
+vanishes when I turn towards itself. All mirrors are magic mirrors. The
+commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass. (And this
+reminds me, while I write, of a strange story which I read in the fairy
+palace, and of which I will try to make a feeble memorial in its
+place.) In whatever way it may be accounted for, of one thing we may be
+sure, that this feeling is no cheat; for there is no cheating in nature
+and the simple unsought feelings of the soul. There must be a truth
+involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning. Even
+the memories of past pain are beautiful; and past delights, though
+beheld only through clefts in the grey clouds of sorrow, are lovely as
+Fairy Land. But how have I wandered into the deeper fairyland of the
+soul, while as yet I only float towards the fairy palace of Fairy Land!
+The moon, which is the lovelier memory or reflex of the down-gone sun,
+the joyous day seen in the faint mirror of the brooding night, had rapt
+me away.
+
+I sat up in the boat. Gigantic forest trees were about me; through
+which, like a silver snake, twisted and twined the great river. The
+little waves, when I moved in the boat, heaved and fell with a plash as
+of molten silver, breaking the image of the moon into a thousand
+morsels, fusing again into one, as the ripples of laughter die into the
+still face of joy. The sleeping woods, in undefined massiveness; the
+water that flowed in its sleep; and, above all, the enchantress moon,
+which had cast them all, with her pale eye, into the charmed slumber,
+sank into my soul, and I felt as if I had died in a dream, and should
+never more awake.
+
+From this I was partly aroused by a glimmering of white, that, through
+the trees on the left, vaguely crossed my vision, as I gazed upwards.
+But the trees again hid the object; and at the moment, some strange
+melodious bird took up its song, and sang, not an ordinary bird-song,
+with constant repetitions of the same melody, but what sounded like a
+continuous strain, in which one thought was expressed, deepening in
+intensity as evolved in progress. It sounded like a welcome already
+overshadowed with the coming farewell. As in all sweetest music, a
+tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the
+pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot
+unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy.
+Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the
+doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for very love.
+
+As the song concluded the stream bore my little boat with a gentle
+sweep round a bend of the river; and lo! on a broad lawn, which rose
+from the water’s edge with a long green slope to a clear elevation from
+which the trees receded on all sides, stood a stately palace glimmering
+ghostly in the moonshine: it seemed to be built throughout of the
+whitest marble. There was no reflection of moonlight from windows—there
+seemed to be none; so there was no cold glitter; only, as I said, a
+ghostly shimmer. Numberless shadows tempered the shine, from column and
+balcony and tower. For everywhere galleries ran along the face of the
+buildings; wings were extended in many directions; and numberless
+openings, through which the moonbeams vanished into the interior, and
+which served both for doors and windows, had their separate balconies
+in front, communicating with a common gallery that rose on its own
+pillars. Of course, I did not discover all this from the river, and in
+the moonlight. But, though I was there for many days, I did not succeed
+in mastering the inner topography of the building, so extensive and
+complicated was it.
+
+Here I wished to land, but the boat had no oars on board. However, I
+found that a plank, serving for a seat, was unfastened, and with that I
+brought the boat to the bank and scrambled on shore. Deep soft turf
+sank beneath my feet, as I went up the ascent towards the palace.
+
+When I reached it, I saw that it stood on a great platform of marble,
+with an ascent, by broad stairs of the same, all round it. Arrived on
+the platform, I found there was an extensive outlook over the forest,
+which, however, was rather veiled than revealed by the moonlight.
+
+Entering by a wide gateway, but without gates, into an inner court,
+surrounded on all sides by great marble pillars supporting galleries
+above, I saw a large fountain of porphyry in the middle, throwing up a
+lofty column of water, which fell, with a noise as of the fusion of all
+sweet sounds, into a basin beneath; overflowing which, it ran into a
+single channel towards the interior of the building. Although the moon
+was by this time so low in the west, that not a ray of her light fell
+into the court, over the height of the surrounding buildings; yet was
+the court lighted by a second reflex from the sun of other lands. For
+the top of the column of water, just as it spread to fall, caught the
+moonbeams, and like a great pale lamp, hung high in the night air,
+threw a dim memory of light (as it were) over the court below. This
+court was paved in diamonds of white and red marble. According to my
+custom since I entered Fairy Land, of taking for a guide whatever I
+first found moving in any direction, I followed the stream from the
+basin of the fountain. It led me to a great open door, beneath the
+ascending steps of which it ran through a low arch and disappeared.
+Entering here, I found myself in a great hall, surrounded with white
+pillars, and paved with black and white. This I could see by the
+moonlight, which, from the other side, streamed through open windows
+into the hall.
+
+Its height I could not distinctly see. As soon as I entered, I had the
+feeling so common to me in the woods, that there were others there
+besides myself, though I could see no one, and heard no sound to
+indicate a presence. Since my visit to the Church of Darkness, my power
+of seeing the fairies of the higher orders had gradually diminished,
+until it had almost ceased. But I could frequently believe in their
+presence while unable to see them. Still, although I had company, and
+doubtless of a safe kind, it seemed rather dreary to spend the night in
+an empty marble hall, however beautiful, especially as the moon was
+near the going down, and it would soon be dark. So I began at the place
+where I entered, and walked round the hall, looking for some door or
+passage that might lead me to a more hospitable chamber. As I walked, I
+was deliciously haunted with the feeling that behind some one of the
+seemingly innumerable pillars, one who loved me was waiting for me.
+Then I thought she was following me from pillar to pillar as I went
+along; but no arms came out of the faint moonlight, and no sigh assured
+me of her presence.
+
+At length I came to an open corridor, into which I turned;
+notwithstanding that, in doing so, I left the light behind. Along this
+I walked with outstretched hands, groping my way, till, arriving at
+another corridor, which seemed to strike off at right angles to that in
+which I was, I saw at the end a faintly glimmering light, too pale even
+for moonshine, resembling rather a stray phosphorescence. However,
+where everything was white, a little light went a great way. So I
+walked on to the end, and a long corridor it was. When I came up to the
+light, I found that it proceeded from what looked like silver letters
+upon a door of ebony; and, to my surprise even in the home of wonder
+itself, the letters formed the words, _The Chamber of Sir Anodos_.
+Although I had as yet no right to the honours of a knight, I ventured
+to conclude that the chamber was indeed intended for me; and, opening
+the door without hesitation, I entered. Any doubt as to whether I was
+right in so doing, was soon dispelled. What to my dark eyes seemed a
+blaze of light, burst upon me. A fire of large pieces of some
+sweet-scented wood, supported by dogs of silver, was burning on the
+hearth, and a bright lamp stood on a table, in the midst of a plentiful
+meal, apparently awaiting my arrival. But what surprised me more than
+all, was, that the room was in every respect a copy of my own room, the
+room whence the little stream from my basin had led me into Fairy Land.
+There was the very carpet of grass and moss and daisies, which I had
+myself designed; the curtains of pale blue silk, that fell like a
+cataract over the windows; the old-fashioned bed, with the chintz
+furniture, on which I had slept from boyhood. “Now I shall sleep,” I
+said to myself. “My shadow dares not come here.”
+
+I sat down to the table, and began to help myself to the good things
+before me with confidence. And now I found, as in many instances
+before, how true the fairy tales are; for I was waited on, all the time
+of my meal, by invisible hands. I had scarcely to do more than look
+towards anything I wanted, when it was brought me, just as if it had
+come to me of itself. My glass was kept filled with the wine I had
+chosen, until I looked towards another bottle or decanter; when a fresh
+glass was substituted, and the other wine supplied. When I had eaten
+and drank more heartily and joyfully than ever since I entered Fairy
+Land, the whole was removed by several attendants, of whom some were
+male and some female, as I thought I could distinguish from the way the
+dishes were lifted from the table, and the motion with which they were
+carried out of the room. As soon as they were all taken away, I heard a
+sound as of the shutting of a door, and knew that I was left alone. I
+sat long by the fire, meditating, and wondering how it would all end;
+and when at length, wearied with thinking, I betook myself to my own
+bed, it was half with a hope that, when I awoke in the morning, I
+should awake not only in my own room, but in my own castle also; and
+that I should walk, out upon my own native soil, and find that Fairy
+Land was, after all, only a vision of the night. The sound of the
+falling waters of the fountain floated me into oblivion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+“A wilderness of building, sinking far
+And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth,
+Far sinking into splendour—without end:
+Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
+With alabaster domes, and silver spires,
+And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
+Uplifted.”
+          WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+But when, after a sleep, which, although dreamless, yet left behind it
+a sense of past blessedness, I awoke in the full morning, I found,
+indeed, that the room was still my own; but that it looked abroad upon
+an unknown landscape of forest and hill and dale on the one side—and on
+the other, upon the marble court, with the great fountain, the crest of
+which now flashed glorious in the sun, and cast on the pavement beneath
+a shower of faint shadows from the waters that fell from it into the
+marble basin below.
+
+Agreeably to all authentic accounts of the treatment of travellers in
+Fairy Land, I found by my bedside a complete suit of fresh clothing,
+just such as I was in the habit of wearing; for, though varied
+sufficiently from the one removed, it was yet in complete accordance
+with my tastes. I dressed myself in this, and went out. The whole
+palace shone like silver in the sun. The marble was partly dull and
+partly polished; and every pinnacle, dome, and turret ended in a ball,
+or cone, or cusp of silver. It was like frost-work, and too dazzling,
+in the sun, for earthly eyes like mine.
+
+I will not attempt to describe the environs, save by saying, that all
+the pleasures to be found in the most varied and artistic arrangement
+of wood and river, lawn and wild forest, garden and shrubbery, rocky
+hill and luxurious vale; in living creatures wild and tame, in gorgeous
+birds, scattered fountains, little streams, and reedy lakes—all were
+here. Some parts of the palace itself I shall have occasion to describe
+more minutely.
+
+For this whole morning I never thought of my demon shadow; and not till
+the weariness which supervened on delight brought it again to my
+memory, did I look round to see if it was behind me: it was scarcely
+discernible. But its presence, however faintly revealed, sent a pang to
+my heart, for the pain of which, not all the beauties around me could
+compensate. It was followed, however, by the comforting reflection
+that, peradventure, I might here find the magic word of power to banish
+the demon and set me free, so that I should no longer be a man beside
+myself. The Queen of Fairy Land, thought I, must dwell here: surely she
+will put forth her power to deliver me, and send me singing through the
+further gates of her country back to my own land. “Shadow of me!” I
+said; “which art not me, but which representest thyself to me as me;
+here I may find a shadow of light which will devour thee, the shadow of
+darkness! Here I may find a blessing which will fall on thee as a
+curse, and damn thee to the blackness whence thou hast emerged
+unbidden.” I said this, stretched at length on the slope of the lawn
+above the river; and as the hope arose within me, the sun came forth
+from a light fleecy cloud that swept across his face; and hill and
+dale, and the great river winding on through the still mysterious
+forest, flashed back his rays as with a silent shout of joy; all nature
+lived and glowed; the very earth grew warm beneath me; a magnificent
+dragon-fly went past me like an arrow from a bow, and a whole concert
+of birds burst into choral song.
+
+The heat of the sun soon became too intense even for passive support. I
+therefore rose, and sought the shelter of one of the arcades. Wandering
+along from one to another of these, wherever my heedless steps led me,
+and wondering everywhere at the simple magnificence of the building, I
+arrived at another hall, the roof of which was of a pale blue, spangled
+with constellations of silver stars, and supported by porphyry pillars
+of a paler red than ordinary.—In this house (I may remark in passing),
+silver seemed everywhere preferred to gold; and such was the purity of
+the air, that it showed nowhere signs of tarnishing.—The whole of the
+floor of this hall, except a narrow path behind the pillars, paved with
+black, was hollowed into a huge basin, many feet deep, and filled with
+the purest, most liquid and radiant water. The sides of the basin were
+white marble, and the bottom was paved with all kinds of refulgent
+stones, of every shape and hue.
+
+In their arrangement, you would have supposed, at first sight, that
+there was no design, for they seemed to lie as if cast there from
+careless and playful hands; but it was a most harmonious confusion; and
+as I looked at the play of their colours, especially when the waters
+were in motion, I came at last to feel as if not one little pebble
+could be displaced, without injuring the effect of the whole. Beneath
+this floor of the water, lay the reflection of the blue inverted roof,
+fretted with its silver stars, like a second deeper sea, clasping and
+upholding the first. The fairy bath was probably fed from the fountain
+in the court. Led by an irresistible desire, I undressed, and plunged
+into the water. It clothed me as with a new sense and its object both
+in one. The waters lay so close to me, they seemed to enter and revive
+my heart. I rose to the surface, shook the water from my hair, and swam
+as in a rainbow, amid the coruscations of the gems below seen through
+the agitation caused by my motion. Then, with open eyes, I dived, and
+swam beneath the surface. And here was a new wonder. For the basin,
+thus beheld, appeared to extend on all sides like a sea, with here and
+there groups as of ocean rocks, hollowed by ceaseless billows into
+wondrous caves and grotesque pinnacles. Around the caves grew sea-weeds
+of all hues, and the corals glowed between; while far off, I saw the
+glimmer of what seemed to be creatures of human form at home in the
+waters. I thought I had been enchanted; and that when I rose to the
+surface, I should find myself miles from land, swimming alone upon a
+heaving sea; but when my eyes emerged from the waters, I saw above me
+the blue spangled vault, and the red pillars around. I dived again, and
+found myself once more in the heart of a great sea. I then arose, and
+swam to the edge, where I got out easily, for the water reached the
+very brim, and, as I drew near washed in tiny waves over the black
+marble border. I dressed, and went out, deeply refreshed.
+
+And now I began to discern faint, gracious forms, here and there
+throughout the building. Some walked together in earnest conversation.
+Others strayed alone. Some stood in groups, as if looking at and
+talking about a picture or a statue. None of them heeded me. Nor were
+they plainly visible to my eyes. Sometimes a group, or single
+individual, would fade entirely out of the realm of my vision as I
+gazed. When evening came, and the moon arose, clear as a round of a
+horizon-sea when the sun hangs over it in the west, I began to see them
+all more plainly; especially when they came between me and the moon;
+and yet more especially, when I myself was in the shade. But, even
+then, I sometimes saw only the passing wave of a white robe; or a
+lovely arm or neck gleamed by in the moonshine; or white feet went
+walking alone over the moony sward. Nor, I grieve to say, did I ever
+come much nearer to these glorious beings, or ever look upon the Queen
+of the Fairies herself. My destiny ordered otherwise.
+
+In this palace of marble and silver, and fountains and moonshine, I
+spent many days; waited upon constantly in my room with everything
+desirable, and bathing daily in the fairy bath. All this time I was
+little troubled with my demon shadow I had a vague feeling that he was
+somewhere about the palace; but it seemed as if the hope that I should
+in this place be finally freed from his hated presence, had sufficed to
+banish him for a time. How and where I found him, I shall soon have to
+relate.
+
+The third day after my arrival, I found the library of the palace; and
+here, all the time I remained, I spent most of the middle of the day.
+For it was, not to mention far greater attractions, a luxurious retreat
+from the noontide sun. During the mornings and afternoons, I wandered
+about the lovely neighbourhood, or lay, lost in delicious day-dreams,
+beneath some mighty tree on the open lawn. My evenings were by-and-by
+spent in a part of the palace, the account of which, and of my
+adventures in connection with it, I must yet postpone for a little.
+
+The library was a mighty hall, lighted from the roof, which was formed
+of something like glass, vaulted over in a single piece, and stained
+throughout with a great mysterious picture in gorgeous colouring.
+
+The walls were lined from floor to roof with books and books: most of
+them in ancient bindings, but some in strange new fashions which I had
+never seen, and which, were I to make the attempt, I could ill
+describe. All around the walls, in front of the books, ran galleries in
+rows, communicating by stairs. These galleries were built of all kinds
+of coloured stones; all sorts of marble and granite, with porphyry,
+jasper, lapis lazuli, agate, and various others, were ranged in
+wonderful melody of successive colours. Although the material, then, of
+which these galleries and stairs were built, rendered necessary a
+certain degree of massiveness in the construction, yet such was the
+size of the place, that they seemed to run along the walls like cords.
+
+Over some parts of the library, descended curtains of silk of various
+dyes, none of which I ever saw lifted while I was there; and I felt
+somehow that it would be presumptuous in me to venture to look within
+them. But the use of the other books seemed free; and day after day I
+came to the library, threw myself on one of the many sumptuous eastern
+carpets, which lay here and there on the floor, and read, and read,
+until weary; if that can be designated as weariness, which was rather
+the faintness of rapturous delight; or until, sometimes, the failing of
+the light invited me to go abroad, in the hope that a cool gentle
+breeze might have arisen to bathe, with an airy invigorating bath, the
+limbs which the glow of the burning spirit within had withered no less
+than the glow of the blazing sun without.
+
+One peculiarity of these books, or at least most of those I looked
+into, I must make a somewhat vain attempt to describe.
+
+If, for instance, it was a book of metaphysics I opened, I had scarcely
+read two pages before I seemed to myself to be pondering over
+discovered truth, and constructing the intellectual machine whereby to
+communicate the discovery to my fellow men. With some books, however,
+of this nature, it seemed rather as if the process was removed yet a
+great way further back; and I was trying to find the root of a
+manifestation, the spiritual truth whence a material vision sprang; or
+to combine two propositions, both apparently true, either at once or in
+different remembered moods, and to find the point in which their
+invisibly converging lines would unite in one, revealing a truth higher
+than either and differing from both; though so far from being opposed
+to either, that it was that whence each derived its life and power. Or
+if the book was one of travels, I found myself the traveller. New
+lands, fresh experiences, novel customs, rose around me. I walked, I
+discovered, I fought, I suffered, I rejoiced in my success. Was it a
+history? I was the chief actor therein. I suffered my own blame; I was
+glad in my own praise. With a fiction it was the same. Mine was the
+whole story. For I took the place of the character who was most like
+myself, and his story was mine; until, grown weary with the life of
+years condensed in an hour, or arrived at my deathbed, or the end of
+the volume, I would awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the
+consciousness of my present life, recognising the walls and roof around
+me, and finding I joyed or sorrowed only in a book. If the book was a
+poem, the words disappeared, or took the subordinate position of an
+accompaniment to the succession of forms and images that rose and
+vanished with a soundless rhythm, and a hidden rime.
+
+In one, with a mystical title, which I cannot recall, I read of a world
+that is not like ours. The wondrous account, in such a feeble,
+fragmentary way as is possible to me, I would willingly impart. Whether
+or not it was all a poem, I cannot tell; but, from the impulse I felt,
+when I first contemplated writing it, to break into rime, to which
+impulse I shall give way if it comes upon me again, I think it must
+have been, partly at least, in verse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+“Chained is the Spring. The night-wind bold
+    Blows over the hard earth;
+Time is not more confused and cold,
+    Nor keeps more wintry mirth.
+
+“Yet blow, and roll the world about;
+    Blow, Time—blow, winter’s Wind!
+Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out,
+    And Spring the frost behind.”
+          G. E. M.
+
+
+They who believe in the influences of the stars over the fates of men,
+are, in feeling at least, nearer the truth than they who regard the
+heavenly bodies as related to them merely by a common obedience to an
+external law. All that man sees has to do with man. Worlds cannot be
+without an intermundane relationship. The community of the centre of
+all creation suggests an interradiating connection and dependence of
+the parts. Else a grander idea is conceivable than that which is
+already imbodied. The blank, which is only a forgotten life, lying
+behind the consciousness, and the misty splendour, which is an
+undeveloped life, lying before it, may be full of mysterious
+revelations of other connexions with the worlds around us, than those
+of science and poetry. No shining belt or gleaming moon, no red and
+green glory in a self-encircling twin-star, but has a relation with the
+hidden things of a man’s soul, and, it may be, with the secret history
+of his body as well. They are portions of the living house wherein he
+abides.
+
+Through the realms of the monarch Sun
+Creeps a world, whose course had begun,
+On a weary path with a weary pace,
+Before the Earth sprang forth on her race:
+But many a time the Earth had sped
+Around the path she still must tread,
+Ere the elder planet, on leaden wing,
+Once circled the court of the planet’s king.
+
+There, in that lonely and distant star,
+The seasons are not as our seasons are;
+But many a year hath Autumn to dress
+The trees in their matron loveliness;
+As long hath old Winter in triumph to go
+O’er beauties dead in his vaults below;
+And many a year the Spring doth wear
+Combing the icicles from her hair;
+And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,
+With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon:
+And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
+Till a burst of tears is the heart’s relief.
+
+Children, born when Winter is king,
+May never rejoice in the hoping Spring;
+Though their own heart-buds are bursting with joy,
+And the child hath grown to the girl or boy;
+But may die with cold and icy hours
+Watching them ever in place of flowers.
+And some who awake from their primal sleep,
+When the sighs of Summer through forests creep,
+Live, and love, and are loved again;
+Seek for pleasure, and find its pain;
+Sink to their last, their forsaken sleeping,
+With the same sweet odours around them creeping.
+
+
+Now the children, there, are not born as the children are born in
+worlds nearer to the sun. For they arrive no one knows how. A maiden,
+walking alone, hears a cry: for even there a cry is the first
+utterance; and searching about, she findeth, under an overhanging rock,
+or within a clump of bushes, or, it may be, betwixt gray stones on the
+side of a hill, or in any other sheltered and unexpected spot, a little
+child. This she taketh tenderly, and beareth home with joy, calling
+out, “Mother, mother”—if so be that her mother lives—“I have got a
+baby—I have found a child!” All the household gathers round to
+see;—“_Where is it? What is it like? Where did you find it?_” and
+such-like questions, abounding. And thereupon she relates the whole
+story of the discovery; for by the circumstances, such as season of the
+year, time of the day, condition of the air, and such like, and,
+especially, the peculiar and never-repeated aspect of the heavens and
+earth at the time, and the nature of the place of shelter wherein it is
+found, is determined, or at least indicated, the nature of the child
+thus discovered. Therefore, at certain seasons, and in certain states
+of the weather, according, in part, to their own fancy, the young women
+go out to look for children. They generally avoid seeking them, though
+they cannot help sometimes finding them, in places and with
+circumstances uncongenial to their peculiar likings. But no sooner is a
+child found, than its claim for protection and nurture obliterates all
+feeling of choice in the matter. Chiefly, however, in the season of
+summer, which lasts so long, coming as it does after such long
+intervals; and mostly in the warm evenings, about the middle of
+twilight; and principally in the woods and along the river banks, do
+the maidens go looking for children just as children look for flowers.
+And ever as the child grows, yea, more and more as he advances in
+years, will his face indicate to those who understand the spirit of
+Nature, and her utterances in the face of the world, the nature of the
+place of his birth, and the other circumstances thereof; whether a
+clear morning sun guided his mother to the nook whence issued the boy’s
+low cry; or at eve the lonely maiden (for the same woman never finds a
+second, at least while the first lives) discovers the girl by the
+glimmer of her white skin, lying in a nest like that of the lark, amid
+long encircling grasses, and the upward-gazing eyes of the lowly
+daisies; whether the storm bowed the forest trees around, or the still
+frost fixed in silence the else flowing and babbling stream.
+
+After they grow up, the men and women are but little together. There is
+this peculiar difference between them, which likewise distinguishes the
+women from those of the earth. The men alone have arms; the women have
+only wings. Resplendent wings are they, wherein they can shroud
+themselves from head to foot in a panoply of glistering glory. By these
+wings alone, it may frequently be judged in what seasons, and under
+what aspects, they were born. From those that came in winter, go great
+white wings, white as snow; the edge of every feather shining like the
+sheen of silver, so that they flash and glitter like frost in the sun.
+But underneath, they are tinged with a faint pink or rose-colour. Those
+born in spring have wings of a brilliant green, green as grass; and
+towards the edges the feathers are enamelled like the surface of the
+grass-blades. These again are white within. Those that are born in
+summer have wings of a deep rose-colour, lined with pale gold. And
+those born in autumn have purple wings, with a rich brown on the
+inside. But these colours are modified and altered in all varieties,
+corresponding to the mood of the day and hour, as well as the season of
+the year; and sometimes I found the various colours so intermingled,
+that I could not determine even the season, though doubtless the
+hieroglyphic could be deciphered by more experienced eyes. One
+splendour, in particular, I remember—wings of deep carmine, with an
+inner down of warm gray, around a form of brilliant whiteness.
+
+She had been found as the sun went down through a low sea-fog, casting
+crimson along a broad sea-path into a little cave on the shore, where a
+bathing maiden saw her lying.
+
+But though I speak of sun and fog, and sea and shore, the world there
+is in some respects very different from the earth whereon men live. For
+instance, the waters reflect no forms. To the unaccustomed eye they
+appear, if undisturbed, like the surface of a dark metal, only that the
+latter would reflect indistinctly, whereas they reflect not at all,
+except light which falls immediately upon them. This has a great effect
+in causing the landscapes to differ from those on the earth. On the
+stillest evening, no tall ship on the sea sends a long wavering
+reflection almost to the feet of him on shore; the face of no maiden
+brightens at its own beauty in a still forest-well. The sun and moon
+alone make a glitter on the surface. The sea is like a sea of death,
+ready to ingulf and never to reveal: a visible shadow of oblivion. Yet
+the women sport in its waters like gorgeous sea-birds. The men more
+rarely enter them. But, on the contrary, the sky reflects everything
+beneath it, as if it were built of water like ours. Of course, from its
+concavity there is some distortion of the reflected objects; yet
+wondrous combinations of form are often to be seen in the overhanging
+depth. And then it is not shaped so much like a round dome as the sky
+of the earth, but, more of an egg-shape, rises to a great towering
+height in the middle, appearing far more lofty than the other. When the
+stars come out at night, it shows a mighty cupola, “fretted with golden
+fires,” wherein there is room for all tempests to rush and rave.
+
+One evening in early summer, I stood with a group of men and women on a
+steep rock that overhung the sea. They were all questioning me about my
+world and the ways thereof. In making reply to one of their questions,
+I was compelled to say that children are not born in the Earth as with
+them. Upon this I was assailed with a whole battery of inquiries, which
+at first I tried to avoid; but, at last, I was compelled, in the
+vaguest manner I could invent, to make some approach to the subject in
+question. Immediately a dim notion of what I meant, seemed to dawn in
+the minds of most of the women. Some of them folded their great wings
+all around them, as they generally do when in the least offended, and
+stood erect and motionless. One spread out her rosy pinions, and
+flashed from the promontory into the gulf at its foot. A great light
+shone in the eyes of one maiden, who turned and walked slowly away,
+with her purple and white wings half dispread behind her. She was
+found, the next morning, dead beneath a withered tree on a bare
+hill-side, some miles inland. They buried her where she lay, as is
+their custom; for, before they die, they instinctively search for a
+spot like the place of their birth, and having found one that satisfies
+them, they lie down, fold their wings around them, if they be women, or
+cross their arms over their breasts, if they are men, just as if they
+were going to sleep; and so sleep indeed. The sign or cause of coming
+death is an indescribable longing for something, they know not what,
+which seizes them, and drives them into solitude, consuming them
+within, till the body fails. When a youth and a maiden look too deep
+into each other’s eyes, this longing seizes and possesses them; but
+instead of drawing nearer to each other, they wander away, each alone,
+into solitary places, and die of their desire. But it seems to me, that
+thereafter they are born babes upon our earth: where, if, when grown,
+they find each other, it goes well with them; if not, it will seem to
+go ill. But of this I know nothing. When I told them that the women on
+the Earth had not wings like them, but arms, they stared, and said how
+bold and masculine they must look; not knowing that their wings,
+glorious as they are, are but undeveloped arms.
+
+But see the power of this book, that, while recounting what I can
+recall of its contents, I write as if myself had visited the far-off
+planet, learned its ways and appearances, and conversed with its men
+and women. And so, while writing, it seemed to me that I had.
+
+The book goes on with the story of a maiden, who, born at the close of
+autumn, and living in a long, to her endless winter, set out at last to
+find the regions of spring; for, as in our earth, the seasons are
+divided over the globe. It begins something like this:
+
+She watched them dying for many a day,
+Dropping from off the old trees away,
+One by one; or else in a shower
+Crowding over the withered flower
+For as if they had done some grievous wrong,
+The sun, that had nursed them and loved them so long,
+Grew weary of loving, and, turning back,
+Hastened away on his southern track;
+And helplessly hung each shrivelled leaf,
+Faded away with an idle grief.
+And the gusts of wind, sad Autumn’s sighs,
+Mournfully swept through their families;
+Casting away with a helpless moan
+All that he yet might call his own,
+As the child, when his bird is gone for ever,
+Flingeth the cage on the wandering river.
+And the giant trees, as bare as Death,
+Slowly bowed to the great Wind’s breath;
+And groaned with trying to keep from groaning
+Amidst the young trees bending and moaning.
+And the ancient planet’s mighty sea
+Was heaving and falling most restlessly,
+And the tops of the waves were broken and white,
+Tossing about to ease their might;
+And the river was striving to reach the main,
+And the ripple was hurrying back again.
+Nature lived in sadness now;
+Sadness lived on the maiden’s brow,
+As she watched, with a fixed, half-conscious eye,
+One lonely leaf that trembled on high,
+Till it dropped at last from the desolate bough—
+Sorrow, oh, sorrow! ‘tis winter now.
+And her tears gushed forth, though it was but a leaf,
+For little will loose the swollen fountain of grief:
+When up to the lip the water goes,
+It needs but a drop, and it overflows.
+
+Oh! many and many a dreary year
+Must pass away ere the buds appear:
+Many a night of darksome sorrow
+Yield to the light of a joyless morrow,
+Ere birds again, on the clothed trees,
+Shall fill the branches with melodies.
+She will dream of meadows with wakeful streams;
+Of wavy grass in the sunny beams;
+Of hidden wells that soundless spring,
+Hoarding their joy as a holy thing;
+Of founts that tell it all day long
+To the listening woods, with exultant song;
+She will dream of evenings that die into nights,
+Where each sense is filled with its own delights,
+And the soul is still as the vaulted sky,
+Lulled with an inner harmony;
+
+And the flowers give out to the dewy night,
+Changed into perfume, the gathered light;
+And the darkness sinks upon all their host,
+Till the sun sail up on the eastern coast—
+She will wake and see the branches bare,
+Weaving a net in the frozen air.
+
+
+The story goes on to tell how, at last, weary with wintriness, she
+travelled towards the southern regions of her globe, to meet the spring
+on its slow way northwards; and how, after many sad adventures, many
+disappointed hopes, and many tears, bitter and fruitless, she found at
+last, one stormy afternoon, in a leafless forest, a single snowdrop
+growing betwixt the borders of the winter and spring. She lay down
+beside it and died. I almost believe that a child, pale and peaceful as
+a snowdrop, was born in the Earth within a fixed season from that
+stormy afternoon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+“I saw a ship sailing upon the sea
+Deeply laden as ship could be;
+But not so deep as in love I am
+For I care not whether I sink or swim.”
+          OLD BALLAD.
+
+“But Love is such a Mystery
+    I cannot find it out:
+For when I think I’m best resolv’d,
+    I then am in most doubt.”
+          SIR JOHN SUCKLING.
+
+
+One story I will try to reproduce. But, alas! it is like trying to
+reconstruct a forest out of broken branches and withered leaves. In the
+fairy book, everything was just as it should be, though whether in
+words or something else, I cannot tell. It glowed and flashed the
+thoughts upon the soul, with such a power that the medium disappeared
+from the consciousness, and it was occupied only with the things
+themselves. My representation of it must resemble a translation from a
+rich and powerful language, capable of embodying the thoughts of a
+splendidly developed people, into the meagre and half-articulate speech
+of a savage tribe. Of course, while I read it, I was Cosmo, and his
+history was mine. Yet, all the time, I seemed to have a kind of double
+consciousness, and the story a double meaning. Sometimes it seemed only
+to represent a simple story of ordinary life, perhaps almost of
+universal life; wherein two souls, loving each other and longing to
+come nearer, do, after all, but behold each other as in a glass darkly.
+
+As through the hard rock go the branching silver veins; as into the
+solid land run the creeks and gulfs from the unresting sea; as the
+lights and influences of the upper worlds sink silently through the
+earth’s atmosphere; so doth Faerie invade the world of men, and
+sometimes startle the common eye with an association as of cause and
+effect, when between the two no connecting links can be traced.
+
+Cosmo von Wehrstahl was a student at the University of Prague. Though
+of a noble family, he was poor, and prided himself upon the
+independence that poverty gives; for what will not a man pride himself
+upon, when he cannot get rid of it? A favourite with his fellow
+students, he yet had no companions; and none of them had ever crossed
+the threshold of his lodging in the top of one of the highest houses in
+the old town. Indeed, the secret of much of that complaisance which
+recommended him to his fellows, was the thought of his unknown retreat,
+whither in the evening he could betake himself and indulge undisturbed
+in his own studies and reveries. These studies, besides those subjects
+necessary to his course at the University, embraced some less commonly
+known and approved; for in a secret drawer lay the works of Albertus
+Magnus and Cornelius Agrippa, along with others less read and more
+abstruse. As yet, however, he had followed these researches only from
+curiosity, and had turned them to no practical purpose.
+
+His lodging consisted of one large low-ceiled room, singularly bare of
+furniture; for besides a couple of wooden chairs, a couch which served
+for dreaming on both by day and night, and a great press of black oak,
+there was very little in the room that could be called furniture.
+
+But curious instruments were heaped in the corners; and in one stood a
+skeleton, half-leaning against the wall, half-supported by a string
+about its neck. One of its hands, all of fingers, rested on the heavy
+pommel of a great sword that stood beside it.
+
+Various weapons were scattered about over the floor. The walls were
+utterly bare of adornment; for the few strange things, such as a large
+dried bat with wings dispread, the skin of a porcupine, and a stuffed
+sea-mouse, could hardly be reckoned as such. But although his fancy
+delighted in vagaries like these, he indulged his imagination with far
+different fare. His mind had never yet been filled with an absorbing
+passion; but it lay like a still twilight open to any wind, whether the
+low breath that wafts but odours, or the storm that bows the great
+trees till they strain and creak. He saw everything as through a
+rose-coloured glass. When he looked from his window on the street
+below, not a maiden passed but she moved as in a story, and drew his
+thoughts after her till she disappeared in the vista. When he walked in
+the streets, he always felt as if reading a tale, into which he sought
+to weave every face of interest that went by; and every sweet voice
+swept his soul as with the wing of a passing angel. He was in fact a
+poet without words; the more absorbed and endangered, that the
+springing-waters were dammed back into his soul, where, finding no
+utterance, they grew, and swelled, and undermined. He used to lie on
+his hard couch, and read a tale or a poem, till the book dropped from
+his hand; but he dreamed on, he knew not whether awake or asleep, until
+the opposite roof grew upon his sense, and turned golden in the
+sunrise. Then he arose too; and the impulses of vigorous youth kept him
+ever active, either in study or in sport, until again the close of the
+day left him free; and the world of night, which had lain drowned in
+the cataract of the day, rose up in his soul, with all its stars, and
+dim-seen phantom shapes. But this could hardly last long. Some one form
+must sooner or later step within the charmed circle, enter the house of
+life, and compel the bewildered magician to kneel and worship.
+
+One afternoon, towards dusk, he was wandering dreamily in one of the
+principal streets, when a fellow student roused him by a slap on the
+shoulder, and asked him to accompany him into a little back alley to
+look at some old armour which he had taken a fancy to possess. Cosmo
+was considered an authority in every matter pertaining to arms, ancient
+or modern. In the use of weapons, none of the students could come near
+him; and his practical acquaintance with some had principally
+contributed to establish his authority in reference to all. He
+accompanied him willingly.
+
+They entered a narrow alley, and thence a dirty little court, where a
+low arched door admitted them into a heterogeneous assemblage of
+everything musty, and dusty, and old, that could well be imagined. His
+verdict on the armour was satisfactory, and his companion at once
+concluded the purchase. As they were leaving the place, Cosmo’s eye was
+attracted by an old mirror of an elliptical shape, which leaned against
+the wall, covered with dust. Around it was some curious carving, which
+he could see but very indistinctly by the glimmering light which the
+owner of the shop carried in his hand. It was this carving that
+attracted his attention; at least so it appeared to him. He left the
+place, however, with his friend, taking no further notice of it. They
+walked together to the main street, where they parted and took opposite
+directions.
+
+No sooner was Cosmo left alone, than the thought of the curious old
+mirror returned to him. A strong desire to see it more plainly arose
+within him, and he directed his steps once more towards the shop. The
+owner opened the door when he knocked, as if he had expected him. He
+was a little, old, withered man, with a hooked nose, and burning eyes
+constantly in a slow restless motion, and looking here and there as if
+after something that eluded them. Pretending to examine several other
+articles, Cosmo at last approached the mirror, and requested to have it
+taken down.
+
+“Take it down yourself, master; I cannot reach it,” said the old man.
+
+Cosmo took it down carefully, when he saw that the carving was indeed
+delicate and costly, being both of admirable design and execution;
+containing withal many devices which seemed to embody some meaning to
+which he had no clue. This, naturally, in one of his tastes and
+temperament, increased the interest he felt in the old mirror; so much,
+indeed, that he now longed to possess it, in order to study its frame
+at his leisure. He pretended, however, to want it only for use; and
+saying he feared the plate could be of little service, as it was rather
+old, he brushed away a little of the dust from its face, expecting to
+see a dull reflection within. His surprise was great when he found the
+reflection brilliant, revealing a glass not only uninjured by age, but
+wondrously clear and perfect (should the whole correspond to this part)
+even for one newly from the hands of the maker. He asked carelessly
+what the owner wanted for the thing. The old man replied by mentioning
+a sum of money far beyond the reach of poor Cosmo, who proceeded to
+replace the mirror where it had stood before.
+
+“You think the price too high?” said the old man.
+
+“I do not know that it is too much for you to ask,” replied Cosmo; “but
+it is far too much for me to give.”
+
+The old man held up his light towards Cosmo’s face. “I like your look,”
+said he.
+
+Cosmo could not return the compliment. In fact, now he looked closely
+at him for the first time, he felt a kind of repugnance to him, mingled
+with a strange feeling of doubt whether a man or a woman stood before
+him.
+
+“What is your name?” he continued.
+
+“Cosmo von Wehrstahl.”
+
+“Ah, ah! I thought as much. I see your father in you. I knew your
+father very well, young sir. I dare say in some odd corners of my
+house, you might find some old things with his crest and cipher upon
+them still. Well, I like you: you shall have the mirror at the fourth
+part of what I asked for it; but upon one condition.”
+
+“What is that?” said Cosmo; for, although the price was still a great
+deal for him to give, he could just manage it; and the desire to
+possess the mirror had increased to an altogether unaccountable degree,
+since it had seemed beyond his reach.
+
+“That if you should ever want to get rid of it again, you will let me
+have the first offer.”
+
+“Certainly,” replied Cosmo, with a smile; adding, “a moderate condition
+indeed.”
+
+“On your honour?” insisted the seller.
+
+“On my honour,” said the buyer; and the bargain was concluded.
+
+“I will carry it home for you,” said the old man, as Cosmo took it in
+his hands.
+
+“No, no; I will carry it myself,” said he; for he had a peculiar
+dislike to revealing his residence to any one, and more especially to
+this person, to whom he felt every moment a greater antipathy. “Just as
+you please,” said the old creature, and muttered to himself as he held
+his light at the door to show him out of the court: “Sold for the sixth
+time! I wonder what will be the upshot of it this time. I should think
+my lady had enough of it by now!”
+
+Cosmo carried his prize carefully home. But all the way he had an
+uncomfortable feeling that he was watched and dogged. Repeatedly he
+looked about, but saw nothing to justify his suspicions. Indeed, the
+streets were too crowded and too ill lighted to expose very readily a
+careful spy, if such there should be at his heels. He reached his
+lodging in safety, and leaned his purchase against the wall, rather
+relieved, strong as he was, to be rid of its weight; then, lighting his
+pipe, threw himself on the couch, and was soon lapt in the folds of one
+of his haunting dreams.
+
+He returned home earlier than usual the next day, and fixed the mirror
+to the wall, over the hearth, at one end of his long room.
+
+He then carefully wiped away the dust from its face, and, clear as the
+water of a sunny spring, the mirror shone out from beneath the envious
+covering. But his interest was chiefly occupied with the curious
+carving of the frame. This he cleaned as well as he could with a brush;
+and then he proceeded to a minute examination of its various parts, in
+the hope of discovering some index to the intention of the carver. In
+this, however, he was unsuccessful; and, at length, pausing with some
+weariness and disappointment, he gazed vacantly for a few moments into
+the depth of the reflected room. But ere long he said, half aloud:
+“What a strange thing a mirror is! and what a wondrous affinity exists
+between it and a man’s imagination! For this room of mine, as I behold
+it in the glass, is the same, and yet not the same. It is not the mere
+representation of the room I live in, but it looks just as if I were
+reading about it in a story I like. All its commonness has disappeared.
+The mirror has lifted it out of the region of fact into the realm of
+art; and the very representing of it to me has clothed with interest
+that which was otherwise hard and bare; just as one sees with delight
+upon the stage the representation of a character from which one would
+escape in life as from something unendurably wearisome. But is it not
+rather that art rescues nature from the weary and sated regards of our
+senses, and the degrading injustice of our anxious everyday life, and,
+appealing to the imagination, which dwells apart, reveals Nature in
+some degree as she really is, and as she represents herself to the eye
+of the child, whose every-day life, fearless and unambitious, meets the
+true import of the wonder-teeming world around him, and rejoices
+therein without questioning? That skeleton, now—I almost fear it,
+standing there so still, with eyes only for the unseen, like a
+watch-tower looking across all the waste of this busy world into the
+quiet regions of rest beyond. And yet I know every bone and every joint
+in it as well as my own fist. And that old battle-axe looks as if any
+moment it might be caught up by a mailed hand, and, borne forth by the
+mighty arm, go crashing through casque, and skull, and brain, invading
+the Unknown with yet another bewildered ghost. I should like to live in
+_that_ room if I could only get into it.”
+
+Scarcely had the half-moulded words floated from him, as he stood
+gazing into the mirror, when, striking him as with a flash of amazement
+that fixed him in his posture, noiseless and unannounced, glided
+suddenly through the door into the reflected room, with stately motion,
+yet reluctant and faltering step, the graceful form of a woman, clothed
+all in white. Her back only was visible as she walked slowly up to the
+couch in the further end of the room, on which she laid herself
+wearily, turning towards him a face of unutterable loveliness, in which
+suffering, and dislike, and a sense of compulsion, strangely mingled
+with the beauty. He stood without the power of motion for some moments,
+with his eyes irrecoverably fixed upon her; and even after he was
+conscious of the ability to move, he could not summon up courage to
+turn and look on her, face to face, in the veritable chamber in which
+he stood. At length, with a sudden effort, in which the exercise of the
+will was so pure, that it seemed involuntary, he turned his face to the
+couch. It was vacant. In bewilderment, mingled with terror, he turned
+again to the mirror: there, on the reflected couch, lay the exquisite
+lady-form. She lay with closed eyes, whence two large tears were just
+welling from beneath the veiling lids; still as death, save for the
+convulsive motion of her bosom.
+
+Cosmo himself could not have described what he felt. His emotions were
+of a kind that destroyed consciousness, and could never be clearly
+recalled. He could not help standing yet by the mirror, and keeping his
+eyes fixed on the lady, though he was painfully aware of his rudeness,
+and feared every moment that she would open hers, and meet his fixed
+regard. But he was, ere long, a little relieved; for, after a while,
+her eyelids slowly rose, and her eyes remained uncovered, but
+unemployed for a time; and when, at length, they began to wander about
+the room, as if languidly seeking to make some acquaintance with her
+environment, they were never directed towards him: it seemed nothing
+but what was in the mirror could affect her vision; and, therefore, if
+she saw him at all, it could only be his back, which, of necessity, was
+turned towards her in the glass. The two figures in the mirror could
+not meet face to face, except he turned and looked at her, present in
+his room; and, as she was not there, he concluded that if he were to
+turn towards the part in his room corresponding to that in which she
+lay, his reflection would either be invisible to her altogether, or at
+least it must appear to her to gaze vacantly towards her, and no
+meeting of the eyes would produce the impression of spiritual
+proximity. By-and-by her eyes fell upon the skeleton, and he saw her
+shudder and close them. She did not open them again, but signs of
+repugnance continued evident on her countenance. Cosmo would have
+removed the obnoxious thing at once, but he feared to discompose her
+yet more by the assertion of his presence which the act would involve.
+So he stood and watched her. The eyelids yet shrouded the eyes, as a
+costly case the jewels within; the troubled expression gradually faded
+from the countenance, leaving only a faint sorrow behind; the features
+settled into an unchanging expression of rest; and by these signs, and
+the slow regular motion of her breathing, Cosmo knew that she slept. He
+could now gaze on her without embarrassment. He saw that her figure,
+dressed in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of her face; and so
+harmonious, that either the delicately moulded foot, or any finger of
+the equally delicate hand, was an index to the whole. As she lay, her
+whole form manifested the relaxation of perfect repose. He gazed till
+he was weary, and at last seated himself near the new-found shrine, and
+mechanically took up a book, like one who watches by a sick-bed. But
+his eyes gathered no thoughts from the page before him. His intellect
+had been stunned by the bold contradiction, to its face, of all its
+experience, and now lay passive, without assertion, or speculation, or
+even conscious astonishment; while his imagination sent one wild dream
+of blessedness after another coursing through his soul. How long he sat
+he knew not; but at length he roused himself, rose, and, trembling in
+every portion of his frame, looked again into the mirror. She was gone.
+The mirror reflected faithfully what his room presented, and nothing
+more. It stood there like a golden setting whence the central jewel has
+been stolen away—like a night-sky without the glory of its stars. She
+had carried with her all the strangeness of the reflected room. It had
+sunk to the level of the one without.
+
+But when the first pangs of his disappointment had passed, Cosmo began
+to comfort himself with the hope that she might return, perhaps the
+next evening, at the same hour. Resolving that if she did, she should
+not at least be scared by the hateful skeleton, he removed that and
+several other articles of questionable appearance into a recess by the
+side of the hearth, whence they could not possibly cast any reflection
+into the mirror; and having made his poor room as tidy as he could,
+sought the solace of the open sky and of a night wind that had begun to
+blow, for he could not rest where he was. When he returned, somewhat
+composed, he could hardly prevail with himself to lie down on his bed;
+for he could not help feeling as if she had lain upon it; and for him
+to lie there now would be something like sacrilege. However, weariness
+prevailed; and laying himself on the couch, dressed as he was, he slept
+till day.
+
+With a beating heart, beating till he could hardly breathe, he stood in
+dumb hope before the mirror, on the following evening. Again the
+reflected room shone as through a purple vapour in the gathering
+twilight. Everything seemed waiting like himself for a coming splendour
+to glorify its poor earthliness with the presence of a heavenly joy.
+And just as the room vibrated with the strokes of the neighbouring
+church bell, announcing the hour of six, in glided the pale beauty, and
+again laid herself on the couch. Poor Cosmo nearly lost his senses with
+delight. She was there once more! Her eyes sought the corner where the
+skeleton had stood, and a faint gleam of satisfaction crossed her face,
+apparently at seeing it empty. She looked suffering still, but there
+was less of discomfort expressed in her countenance than there had been
+the night before. She took more notice of the things about her, and
+seemed to gaze with some curiosity on the strange apparatus standing
+here and there in her room. At length, however, drowsiness seemed to
+overtake her, and again she fell asleep. Resolved not to lose sight of
+her this time, Cosmo watched the sleeping form. Her slumber was so deep
+and absorbing that a fascinating repose seemed to pass contagiously
+from her to him as he gazed upon her; and he started as if from a
+dream, when the lady moved, and, without opening her eyes, rose, and
+passed from the room with the gait of a somnambulist.
+
+Cosmo was now in a state of extravagant delight. Most men have a secret
+treasure somewhere. The miser has his golden hoard; the virtuoso his
+pet ring; the student his rare book; the poet his favourite haunt; the
+lover his secret drawer; but Cosmo had a mirror with a lovely lady in
+it. And now that he knew by the skeleton, that she was affected by the
+things around her, he had a new object in life: he would turn the bare
+chamber in the mirror into a room such as no lady need disdain to call
+her own. This he could effect only by furnishing and adorning his. And
+Cosmo was poor. Yet he possessed accomplishments that could be turned
+to account; although, hitherto, he had preferred living on his slender
+allowance, to increasing his means by what his pride considered
+unworthy of his rank. He was the best swordsman in the University; and
+now he offered to give lessons in fencing and similar exercises, to
+such as chose to pay him well for the trouble. His proposal was heard
+with surprise by the students; but it was eagerly accepted by many; and
+soon his instructions were not confined to the richer students, but
+were anxiously sought by many of the young nobility of Prague and its
+neighbourhood. So that very soon he had a good deal of money at his
+command. The first thing he did was to remove his apparatus and
+oddities into a closet in the room. Then he placed his bed and a few
+other necessaries on each side of the hearth, and parted them from the
+rest of the room by two screens of Indian fabric. Then he put an
+elegant couch for the lady to lie upon, in the corner where his bed had
+formerly stood; and, by degrees, every day adding some article of
+luxury, converted it, at length, into a rich boudoir.
+
+Every night, about the same time, the lady entered. The first time she
+saw the new couch, she started with a half-smile; then her face grew
+very sad, the tears came to her eyes, and she laid herself upon the
+couch, and pressed her face into the silken cushions, as if to hide
+from everything. She took notice of each addition and each change as
+the work proceeded; and a look of acknowledgment, as if she knew that
+some one was ministering to her, and was grateful for it, mingled with
+the constant look of suffering. At length, after she had lain down as
+usual one evening, her eyes fell upon some paintings with which Cosmo
+had just finished adorning the walls. She rose, and to his great
+delight, walked across the room, and proceeded to examine them
+carefully, testifying much pleasure in her looks as she did so. But
+again the sorrowful, tearful expression returned, and again she buried
+her face in the pillows of her couch. Gradually, however, her
+countenance had grown more composed; much of the suffering manifest on
+her first appearance had vanished, and a kind of quiet, hopeful
+expression had taken its place; which, however, frequently gave way to
+an anxious, troubled look, mingled with something of sympathetic pity.
+
+Meantime, how fared Cosmo? As might be expected in one of his
+temperament, his interest had blossomed into love, and his love—shall I
+call it _ripened_, or—_withered_ into passion. But, alas! he loved a
+shadow. He could not come near her, could not speak to her, could not
+hear a sound from those sweet lips, to which his longing eyes would
+cling like bees to their honey-founts. Ever and anon he sang to
+himself:
+
+“I shall die for love of the maiden;”
+
+
+and ever he looked again, and died not, though his heart seemed ready
+to break with intensity of life and longing. And the more he did for
+her, the more he loved her; and he hoped that, although she never
+appeared to see him, yet she was pleased to think that one unknown
+would give his life to her. He tried to comfort himself over his
+separation from her, by thinking that perhaps some day she would see
+him and make signs to him, and that would satisfy him; “for,” thought
+he, “is not this all that a loving soul can do to enter into communion
+with another? Nay, how many who love never come nearer than to behold
+each other as in a mirror; seem to know and yet never know the inward
+life; never enter the other soul; and part at last, with but the
+vaguest notion of the universe on the borders of which they have been
+hovering for years? If I could but speak to her, and knew that she
+heard me, I should be satisfied.” Once he contemplated painting a
+picture on the wall, which should, of necessity, convey to the lady a
+thought of himself; but, though he had some skill with the pencil, he
+found his hand tremble so much when he began the attempt, that he was
+forced to give it up. . . . . .
+
+“Who lives, he dies; who dies, he is alive.”
+
+One evening, as he stood gazing on his treasure, he thought he saw a
+faint expression of self-consciousness on her countenance, as if she
+surmised that passionate eyes were fixed upon her. This grew; till at
+last the red blood rose over her neck, and cheek, and brow. Cosmo’s
+longing to approach her became almost delirious. This night she was
+dressed in an evening costume, resplendent with diamonds. This could
+add nothing to her beauty, but it presented it in a new aspect; enabled
+her loveliness to make a new manifestation of itself in a new
+embodiment. For essential beauty is infinite; and, as the soul of
+Nature needs an endless succession of varied forms to embody her
+loveliness, countless faces of beauty springing forth, not any two the
+same, at any one of her heart-throbs; so the individual form needs an
+infinite change of its environments, to enable it to uncover all the
+phases of its loveliness. Diamonds glittered from amidst her hair, half
+hidden in its luxuriance, like stars through dark rain-clouds; and the
+bracelets on her white arms flashed all the colours of a rainbow of
+lightnings, as she lifted her snowy hands to cover her burning face.
+But her beauty shone down all its adornment. “If I might have but one
+of her feet to kiss,” thought Cosmo, “I should be content.” Alas! he
+deceived himself, for passion is never content. Nor did he know that
+there are _two_ ways out of her enchanted house. But, suddenly, as if
+the pang had been driven into his heart from without, revealing itself
+first in pain, and afterwards in definite form, the thought darted into
+his mind, “She has a lover somewhere. Remembered words of his bring the
+colour on her face now. I am nowhere to her. She lives in another world
+all day, and all night, after she leaves me. Why does she come and make
+me love her, till I, a strong man, am too faint to look upon her more?”
+He looked again, and her face was pale as a lily. A sorrowful
+compassion seemed to rebuke the glitter of the restless jewels, and the
+slow tears rose in her eyes. She left her room sooner this evening than
+was her wont. Cosmo remained alone, with a feeling as if his bosom had
+been suddenly left empty and hollow, and the weight of the whole world
+was crushing in its walls. The next evening, for the first time since
+she began to come, she came not.
+
+And now Cosmo was in wretched plight. Since the thought of a rival had
+occurred to him, he could not rest for a moment. More than ever he
+longed to see the lady face to face. He persuaded himself that if he
+but knew the worst he would be satisfied; for then he could abandon
+Prague, and find that relief in constant motion, which is the hope of
+all active minds when invaded by distress. Meantime he waited with
+unspeakable anxiety for the next night, hoping she would return: but
+she did not appear. And now he fell really ill. Rallied by his fellow
+students on his wretched looks, he ceased to attend the lectures. His
+engagements were neglected. He cared for nothing. The sky, with the
+great sun in it, was to him a heartless, burning desert. The men and
+women in the streets were mere puppets, without motives in themselves,
+or interest to him. He saw them all as on the ever-changing field of a
+_camera obscura_. She—she alone and altogether—was his universe, his
+well of life, his incarnate good. For six evenings she came not. Let
+his absorbing passion, and the slow fever that was consuming his brain,
+be his excuse for the resolution which he had taken and begun to
+execute, before that time had expired.
+
+Reasoning with himself, that it must be by some enchantment connected
+with the mirror, that the form of the lady was to be seen in it, he
+determined to attempt to turn to account what he had hitherto studied
+principally from curiosity. “For,” said he to himself, “if a spell can
+force her presence in that glass (and she came unwillingly at first),
+may not a stronger spell, such as I know, especially with the aid of
+her half-presence in the mirror, if ever she appears again, compel her
+living form to come to me here? If I do her wrong, let love be my
+excuse. I want only to know my doom from her own lips.” He never
+doubted, all the time, that she was a real earthly woman; or, rather,
+that there was a woman, who, somehow or other, threw this reflection of
+her form into the magic mirror.
+
+He opened his secret drawer, took out his books of magic, lighted his
+lamp, and read and made notes from midnight till three in the morning,
+for three successive nights. Then he replaced his books; and the next
+night went out in quest of the materials necessary for the conjuration.
+These were not easy to find; for, in love-charms and all incantations
+of this nature, ingredients are employed scarcely fit to be mentioned,
+and for the thought even of which, in connexion with her, he could only
+excuse himself on the score of his bitter need. At length he succeeded
+in procuring all he required; and on the seventh evening from that on
+which she had last appeared, he found himself prepared for the exercise
+of unlawful and tyrannical power.
+
+He cleared the centre of the room; stooped and drew a circle of red on
+the floor, around the spot where he stood; wrote in the four quarters
+mystical signs, and numbers which were all powers of seven or nine;
+examined the whole ring carefully, to see that no smallest break had
+occurred in the circumference; and then rose from his bending posture.
+As he rose, the church clock struck seven; and, just as she had
+appeared the first time, reluctant, slow, and stately, glided in the
+lady. Cosmo trembled; and when, turning, she revealed a countenance
+worn and wan, as with sickness or inward trouble, he grew faint, and
+felt as if he dared not proceed. But as he gazed on the face and form,
+which now possessed his whole soul, to the exclusion of all other joys
+and griefs, the longing to speak to her, to know that she heard him, to
+hear from her one word in return, became so unendurable, that he
+suddenly and hastily resumed his preparations. Stepping carefully from
+the circle, he put a small brazier into its centre. He then set fire to
+its contents of charcoal, and while it burned up, opened his window and
+seated himself, waiting, beside it.
+
+It was a sultry evening. The air was full of thunder. A sense of
+luxurious depression filled the brain. The sky seemed to have grown
+heavy, and to compress the air beneath it. A kind of purplish tinge
+pervaded the atmosphere, and through the open window came the scents of
+the distant fields, which all the vapours of the city could not quench.
+Soon the charcoal glowed. Cosmo sprinkled upon it the incense and other
+substances which he had compounded, and, stepping within the circle,
+turned his face from the brazier and towards the mirror. Then, fixing
+his eyes upon the face of the lady, he began with a trembling voice to
+repeat a powerful incantation. He had not gone far, before the lady
+grew pale; and then, like a returning wave, the blood washed all its
+banks with its crimson tide, and she hid her face in her hands. Then he
+passed to a conjuration stronger yet.
+
+The lady rose and walked uneasily to and fro in her room. Another
+spell; and she seemed seeking with her eyes for some object on which
+they wished to rest. At length it seemed as if she suddenly espied him;
+for her eyes fixed themselves full and wide upon his, and she drew
+gradually, and somewhat unwillingly, close to her side of the mirror,
+just as if his eyes had fascinated her. Cosmo had never seen her so
+near before. Now at least, eyes met eyes; but he could not quite
+understand the expression of hers. They were full of tender entreaty,
+but there was something more that he could not interpret. Though his
+heart seemed to labour in his throat, he would allow no delight or
+agitation to turn him from his task. Looking still in her face, he
+passed on to the mightiest charm he knew. Suddenly the lady turned and
+walked out of the door of her reflected chamber. A moment after she
+entered his room with veritable presence; and, forgetting all his
+precautions, he sprang from the charmed circle, and knelt before her.
+There she stood, the living lady of his passionate visions, alone
+beside him, in a thundery twilight, and the glow of a magic fire.
+
+“Why,” said the lady, with a trembling voice, “didst thou bring a poor
+maiden through the rainy streets alone?”
+
+“Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the
+mirror there.”
+
+“Ah, the mirror!” and she looked up at it, and shuddered. “Alas! I am
+but a slave, while that mirror exists. But do not think it was the
+power of thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing desire to see me,
+that beat at the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield.”
+
+“Canst thou love me then?” said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death, but
+almost inarticulate with emotion.
+
+“I do not know,” she replied sadly; “that I cannot tell, so long as I
+am bewildered with enchantments. It were indeed a joy too great, to lay
+my head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think thou lovest me,
+though I do not know;—but——”
+
+Cosmo rose from his knees.
+
+“I love thee as—nay, I know not what—for since I have loved thee, there
+is nothing else.”
+
+He seized her hand: she withdrew it.
+
+“No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not.”
+
+She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said—
+
+“Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the
+mirror.”
+
+“And shall I see thyself instead?”
+
+“That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet again.”
+
+A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo’s bosom. Now she was in his power. She
+did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To
+break the mirror would be to destroy his very life, to banish out of
+his universe the only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but
+a prison, if he annihilated the one window that looked into the
+paradise of love. Not yet pure in love, he hesitated.
+
+With a wail of sorrow the lady rose to her feet. “Ah! he loves me not;
+he loves me not even as I love him; and alas! I care more for his love
+than even for the freedom I ask.”
+
+“I will not wait to be willing,” cried Cosmo; and sprang to the corner
+where the great sword stood.
+
+Meantime it had grown very dark; only the embers cast a red glow
+through the room. He seized the sword by the steel scabbard, and stood
+before the mirror; but as he heaved a great blow at it with the heavy
+pommel, the blade slipped half-way out of the scabbard, and the pommel
+struck the wall above the mirror. At that moment, a terrible clap of
+thunder seemed to burst in the very room beside them; and ere Cosmo
+could repeat the blow, he fell senseless on the hearth. When he came to
+himself, he found that the lady and the mirror had both disappeared. He
+was seized with a brain fever, which kept him to his couch for weeks.
+
+When he recovered his reason, he began to think what could have become
+of the mirror. For the lady, he hoped she had found her way back as she
+came; but as the mirror involved her fate with its own, he was more
+immediately anxious about that. He could not think she had carried it
+away. It was much too heavy, even if it had not been too firmly fixed
+in the wall, for her to remove it. Then again, he remembered the
+thunder; which made him believe that it was not the lightning, but some
+other blow that had struck him down. He concluded that, either by
+supernatural agency, he having exposed himself to the vengeance of the
+demons in leaving the circle of safety, or in some other mode, the
+mirror had probably found its way back to its former owner; and,
+horrible to think of, might have been by this time once more disposed
+of, delivering up the lady into the power of another man; who, if he
+used his power no worse than he himself had done, might yet give Cosmo
+abundant cause to curse the selfish indecision which prevented him from
+shattering the mirror at once. Indeed, to think that she whom he loved,
+and who had prayed to him for freedom, should be still at the mercy, in
+some degree, of the possessor of the mirror, and was at least exposed
+to his constant observation, was in itself enough to madden a chary
+lover.
+
+Anxiety to be well retarded his recovery; but at length he was able to
+creep abroad. He first made his way to the old broker’s, pretending to
+be in search of something else. A laughing sneer on the creature’s face
+convinced him that he knew all about it; but he could not see it
+amongst his furniture, or get any information out of him as to what had
+become of it. He expressed the utmost surprise at hearing it had been
+stolen, a surprise which Cosmo saw at once to be counterfeited; while,
+at the same time, he fancied that the old wretch was not at all anxious
+to have it mistaken for genuine. Full of distress, which he concealed
+as well as he could, he made many searches, but with no avail. Of
+course he could ask no questions; but he kept his ears awake for any
+remotest hint that might set him in a direction of search. He never
+went out without a short heavy hammer of steel about him, that he might
+shatter the mirror the moment he was made happy by the sight of his
+lost treasure, if ever that blessed moment should arrive. Whether he
+should see the lady again, was now a thought altogether secondary, and
+postponed to the achievement of her freedom. He wandered here and
+there, like an anxious ghost, pale and haggard; gnawed ever at the
+heart, by the thought of what she might be suffering—all from his
+fault.
+
+One night, he mingled with a crowd that filled the rooms of one of the
+most distinguished mansions in the city; for he accepted every
+invitation, that he might lose no chance, however poor, of obtaining
+some information that might expedite his discovery. Here he wandered
+about, listening to every stray word that he could catch, in the hope
+of a revelation. As he approached some ladies who were talking quietly
+in a corner, one said to another:
+
+“Have you heard of the strange illness of the Princess von Hohenweiss?”
+
+“Yes; she has been ill for more than a year now. It is very sad for so
+fine a creature to have such a terrible malady. She was better for some
+weeks lately, but within the last few days the same attacks have
+returned, apparently accompanied with more suffering than ever. It is
+altogether an inexplicable story.”
+
+“Is there a story connected with her illness?”
+
+“I have only heard imperfect reports of it; but it is said that she
+gave offence some eighteen months ago to an old woman who had held an
+office of trust in the family, and who, after some incoherent threats,
+disappeared. This peculiar affection followed soon after. But the
+strangest part of the story is its association with the loss of an
+antique mirror, which stood in her dressing-room, and of which she
+constantly made use.”
+
+Here the speaker’s voice sank to a whisper; and Cosmo, although his
+very soul sat listening in his ears, could hear no more. He trembled
+too much to dare to address the ladies, even if it had been advisable
+to expose himself to their curiosity. The name of the Princess was well
+known to him, but he had never seen her; except indeed it was she,
+which now he hardly doubted, who had knelt before him on that dreadful
+night. Fearful of attracting attention, for, from the weak state of his
+health, he could not recover an appearance of calmness, he made his way
+to the open air, and reached his lodgings; glad in this, that he at
+least knew where she lived, although he never dreamed of approaching
+her openly, even if he should be happy enough to free her from her
+hateful bondage. He hoped, too, that as he had unexpectedly learned so
+much, the other and far more important part might be revealed to him
+ere long.
+
+
+“Have you seen Steinwald lately?”
+
+“No, I have not seen him for some time. He is almost a match for me at
+the rapier, and I suppose he thinks he needs no more lessons.”
+
+“I wonder what has become of him. I want to see him very much. Let me
+see; the last time I saw him he was coming out of that old broker’s
+den, to which, if you remember, you accompanied me once, to look at
+some armour. That is fully three weeks ago.”
+
+This hint was enough for Cosmo. Von Steinwald was a man of influence in
+the court, well known for his reckless habits and fierce passions. The
+very possibility that the mirror should be in his possession was hell
+itself to Cosmo. But violent or hasty measures of any sort were most
+unlikely to succeed. All that he wanted was an opportunity of breaking
+the fatal glass; and to obtain this he must bide his time. He revolved
+many plans in his mind, but without being able to fix upon any.
+
+At length, one evening, as he was passing the house of Von Steinwald,
+he saw the windows more than usually brilliant. He watched for a while,
+and seeing that company began to arrive, hastened home, and dressed as
+richly as he could, in the hope of mingling with the guests
+unquestioned: in effecting which, there could be no difficulty for a
+man of his carriage.
+
+
+In a lofty, silent chamber, in another part of the city, lay a form
+more like marble than a living woman. The loveliness of death seemed
+frozen upon her face, for her lips were rigid, and her eyelids closed.
+Her long white hands were crossed over her breast, and no breathing
+disturbed their repose. Beside the dead, men speak in whispers, as if
+the deepest rest of all could be broken by the sound of a living voice.
+Just so, though the soul was evidently beyond the reach of all
+intimations from the senses, the two ladies, who sat beside her, spoke
+in the gentlest tones of subdued sorrow. “She has lain so for an hour.”
+
+“This cannot last long, I fear.”
+
+“How much thinner she has grown within the last few weeks! If she would
+only speak, and explain what she suffers, it would be better for her. I
+think she has visions in her trances, but nothing can induce her to
+refer to them when she is awake.”
+
+“Does she ever speak in these trances?”
+
+“I have never heard her; but they say she walks sometimes, and once put
+the whole household in a terrible fright by disappearing for a whole
+hour, and returning drenched with rain, and almost dead with exhaustion
+and fright. But even then she would give no account of what had
+happened.”
+
+A scarce audible murmur from the yet motionless lips of the lady here
+startled her attendants. After several ineffectual attempts at
+articulation, the word “_Cosmo!_” burst from her. Then she lay still as
+before; but only for a moment. With a wild cry, she sprang from the
+couch erect on the floor, flung her arms above her head, with clasped
+and straining hands, and, her wide eyes flashing with light, called
+aloud, with a voice exultant as that of a spirit bursting from a
+sepulchre, “I am free! I am free! I thank thee!” Then she flung herself
+on the couch, and sobbed; then rose, and paced wildly up and down the
+room, with gestures of mingled delight and anxiety. Then turning to her
+motionless attendants—“Quick, Lisa, my cloak and hood!” Then lower—“I
+must go to him. Make haste, Lisa! You may come with me, if you will.”
+
+In another moment they were in the street, hurrying along towards one
+of the bridges over the Moldau. The moon was near the zenith, and the
+streets were almost empty. The Princess soon outstripped her attendant,
+and was half-way over the bridge, before the other reached it.
+
+“Are you free, lady? The mirror is broken: are you free?”
+
+The words were spoken close beside her, as she hurried on. She turned;
+and there, leaning on the parapet in a recess of the bridge, stood
+Cosmo, in a splendid dress, but with a white and quivering face.
+
+“Cosmo!—I am free—and thy servant for ever. I was coming to you now.”
+
+“And I to you, for Death made me bold; but I could get no further. Have
+I atoned at all? Do I love you a little—truly?”
+
+“Ah, I know now that you love me, my Cosmo; but what do you say about
+death?”
+
+He did not reply. His hand was pressed against his side. She looked
+more closely: the blood was welling from between the fingers. She flung
+her arms around him with a faint bitter wail.
+
+When Lisa came up, she found her mistress kneeling above a wan dead
+face, which smiled on in the spectral moonbeams.
+
+
+And now I will say no more about these wondrous volumes; though I could
+tell many a tale out of them, and could, perhaps, vaguely represent
+some entrancing thoughts of a deeper kind which I found within them.
+From many a sultry noon till twilight, did I sit in that grand hall,
+buried and risen again in these old books. And I trust I have carried
+away in my soul some of the exhalations of their undying leaves. In
+after hours of deserved or needful sorrow, portions of what I read
+there have often come to me again, with an unexpected comforting; which
+was not fruitless, even though the comfort might seem in itself
+groundless and vain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+“Your gallery
+Have we pass’d through, not without much content
+In many singularities; but we saw not
+That which my daughter came to look upon,
+The state of her mother.”
+          _Winter’s Tale_.
+
+
+It seemed to me strange, that all this time I had heard no music in the
+fairy palace. I was convinced there must be music in it, but that my
+sense was as yet too gross to receive the influence of those mysterious
+motions that beget sound. Sometimes I felt sure, from the way the few
+figures of which I got such transitory glimpses passed me, or glided
+into vacancy before me, that they were moving to the law of music; and,
+in fact, several times I fancied for a moment that I heard a few
+wondrous tones coming I knew not whence. But they did not last long
+enough to convince me that I had heard them with the bodily sense. Such
+as they were, however, they took strange liberties with me, causing me
+to burst suddenly into tears, of which there was no presence to make me
+ashamed, or casting me into a kind of trance of speechless delight,
+which, passing as suddenly, left me faint and longing for more.
+
+Now, on an evening, before I had been a week in the palace, I was
+wandering through one lighted arcade and corridor after another. At
+length I arrived, through a door that closed behind me, in another vast
+hall of the palace. It was filled with a subdued crimson light; by
+which I saw that slender pillars of black, built close to walls of
+white marble, rose to a great height, and then, dividing into
+innumerable divergent arches, supported a roof, like the walls, of
+white marble, upon which the arches intersected intricately, forming a
+fretting of black upon the white, like the network of a skeleton-leaf.
+The floor was black.
+
+Between several pairs of the pillars upon every side, the place of the
+wall behind was occupied by a crimson curtain of thick silk, hanging in
+heavy and rich folds. Behind each of these curtains burned a powerful
+light, and these were the sources of the glow that filled the hall. A
+peculiar delicious odour pervaded the place. As soon as I entered, the
+old inspiration seemed to return to me, for I felt a strong impulse to
+sing; or rather, it seemed as if some one else was singing a song in my
+soul, which wanted to come forth at my lips, imbodied in my breath. But
+I kept silence; and feeling somewhat overcome by the red light and the
+perfume, as well as by the emotion within me, and seeing at one end of
+the hall a great crimson chair, more like a throne than a chair, beside
+a table of white marble, I went to it, and, throwing myself in it, gave
+myself up to a succession of images of bewildering beauty, which passed
+before my inward eye, in a long and occasionally crowded train. Here I
+sat for hours, I suppose; till, returning somewhat to myself, I saw
+that the red light had paled away, and felt a cool gentle breath
+gliding over my forehead. I rose and left the hall with unsteady steps,
+finding my way with some difficulty to my own chamber, and faintly
+remembering, as I went, that only in the marble cave, before I found
+the sleeping statue, had I ever had a similar experience.
+
+After this, I repaired every morning to the same hall; where I
+sometimes sat in the chair and dreamed deliciously, and sometimes
+walked up and down over the black floor. Sometimes I acted within
+myself a whole drama, during one of these perambulations; sometimes
+walked deliberately through the whole epic of a tale; sometimes
+ventured to sing a song, though with a shrinking fear of I knew not
+what. I was astonished at the beauty of my own voice as it rang through
+the place, or rather crept undulating, like a serpent of sound, along
+the walls and roof of this superb music-hall. Entrancing verses arose
+within me as of their own accord, chanting themselves to their own
+melodies, and requiring no addition of music to satisfy the inward
+sense. But, ever in the pauses of these, when the singing mood was upon
+me, I seemed to hear something like the distant sound of multitudes of
+dancers, and felt as if it was the unheard music, moving their rhythmic
+motion, that within me blossomed in verse and song. I felt, too, that
+could I but see the dance, I should, from the harmony of complicated
+movements, not of the dancers in relation to each other merely, but of
+each dancer individually in the manifested plastic power that moved the
+consenting harmonious form, understand the whole of the music on the
+billows of which they floated and swung.
+
+At length, one night, suddenly, when this feeling of dancing came upon
+me, I bethought me of lifting one of the crimson curtains, and looking
+if, perchance, behind it there might not be hid some other mystery,
+which might at least remove a step further the bewilderment of the
+present one. Nor was I altogether disappointed. I walked to one of the
+magnificent draperies, lifted a corner, and peeped in. There, burned a
+great, crimson, globe-shaped light, high in the cubical centre of
+another hall, which might be larger or less than that in which I stood,
+for its dimensions were not easily perceived, seeing that floor and
+roof and walls were entirely of black marble.
+
+The roof was supported by the same arrangement of pillars radiating in
+arches, as that of the first hall; only, here, the pillars and arches
+were of dark red. But what absorbed my delighted gaze, was an
+innumerable assembly of white marble statues, of every form, and in
+multitudinous posture, filling the hall throughout. These stood, in the
+ruddy glow of the great lamp, upon pedestals of jet black. Around the
+lamp shone in golden letters, plainly legible from where I stood, the
+two words—
+
+TOUCH NOT!
+
+
+There was in all this, however, no solution to the sound of dancing;
+and now I was aware that the influence on my mind had ceased. I did not
+go in that evening, for I was weary and faint, but I hoarded up the
+expectation of entering, as of a great coming joy.
+
+Next night I walked, as on the preceding, through the hall. My mind was
+filled with pictures and songs, and therewith so much absorbed, that I
+did not for some time think of looking within the curtain I had last
+night lifted. When the thought of doing so occurred to me first, I
+happened to be within a few yards of it. I became conscious, at the
+same moment, that the sound of dancing had been for some time in my
+ears. I approached the curtain quickly, and, lifting it, entered the
+black hall. Everything was still as death. I should have concluded that
+the sound must have proceeded from some other more distant quarter,
+which conclusion its faintness would, in ordinary circumstances, have
+necessitated from the first; but there was a something about the
+statues that caused me still to remain in doubt. As I said, each stood
+perfectly still upon its black pedestal: but there was about every one
+a certain air, not of motion, but as if it had just ceased from
+movement; as if the rest were not altogether of the marbly stillness of
+thousands of years. It was as if the peculiar atmosphere of each had
+yet a kind of invisible tremulousness; as if its agitated wavelets had
+not yet subsided into a perfect calm. I had the suspicion that they had
+anticipated my appearance, and had sprung, each, from the living joy of
+the dance, to the death-silence and blackness of its isolated pedestal,
+just before I entered. I walked across the central hall to the curtain
+opposite the one I had lifted, and, entering there, found all the
+appearances similar; only that the statues were different, and
+differently grouped. Neither did they produce on my mind that
+impression—of motion just expired, which I had experienced from the
+others. I found that behind every one of the crimson curtains was a
+similar hall, similarly lighted, and similarly occupied.
+
+The next night, I did not allow my thoughts to be absorbed as before
+with inward images, but crept stealthily along to the furthest curtain
+in the hall, from behind which, likewise, I had formerly seemed to hear
+the sound of dancing. I drew aside its edge as suddenly as I could,
+and, looking in, saw that the utmost stillness pervaded the vast place.
+I walked in, and passed through it to the other end.
+
+There I found that it communicated with a circular corridor, divided
+from it only by two rows of red columns. This corridor, which was
+black, with red niches holding statues, ran entirely about the
+statue-halls, forming a communication between the further ends of them
+all; further, that is, as regards the central hall of white whence they
+all diverged like radii, finding their circumference in the corridor.
+
+Round this corridor I now went, entering all the halls, of which there
+were twelve, and finding them all similarly constructed, but filled
+with quite various statues, of what seemed both ancient and modern
+sculpture. After I had simply walked through them, I found myself
+sufficiently tired to long for rest, and went to my own room.
+
+In the night I dreamed that, walking close by one of the curtains, I
+was suddenly seized with the desire to enter, and darted in. This time
+I was too quick for them. All the statues were in motion, statues no
+longer, but men and women—all shapes of beauty that ever sprang from
+the brain of the sculptor, mingled in the convolutions of a complicated
+dance. Passing through them to the further end, I almost started from
+my sleep on beholding, not taking part in the dance with the others,
+nor seemingly endued with life like them, but standing in marble
+coldness and rigidity upon a black pedestal in the extreme left
+corner—my lady of the cave; the marble beauty who sprang from her tomb
+or her cradle at the call of my songs. While I gazed in speechless
+astonishment and admiration, a dark shadow, descending from above like
+the curtain of a stage, gradually hid her entirely from my view. I felt
+with a shudder that this shadow was perchance my missing demon, whom I
+had not seen for days. I awoke with a stifled cry.
+
+Of course, the next evening I began my journey through the halls (for I
+knew not to which my dream had carried me), in the hope of proving the
+dream to be a true one, by discovering my marble beauty upon her black
+pedestal. At length, on reaching the tenth hall, I thought I recognised
+some of the forms I had seen dancing in my dream; and to my
+bewilderment, when I arrived at the extreme corner on the left, there
+stood, the only one I had yet seen, a vacant pedestal. It was exactly
+in the position occupied, in my dream, by the pedestal on which the
+white lady stood. Hope beat violently in my heart.
+
+“Now,” said I to myself, “if yet another part of the dream would but
+come true, and I should succeed in surprising these forms in their
+nightly dance; it might be the rest would follow, and I should see on
+the pedestal my marble queen. Then surely if my songs sufficed to give
+her life before, when she lay in the bonds of alabaster, much more
+would they be sufficient then to give her volition and motion, when she
+alone of assembled crowds of marble forms, would be standing rigid and
+cold.”
+
+But the difficulty was, to surprise the dancers. I had found that a
+premeditated attempt at surprise, though executed with the utmost care
+and rapidity, was of no avail. And, in my dream, it was effected by a
+sudden thought suddenly executed. I saw, therefore, that there was no
+plan of operation offering any probability of success, but this: to
+allow my mind to be occupied with other thoughts, as I wandered around
+the great centre-hall; and so wait till the impulse to enter one of the
+others should happen to arise in me just at the moment when I was close
+to one of the crimson curtains. For I hoped that if I entered any one
+of the twelve halls at the right moment, that would as it were give me
+the right of entrance to all the others, seeing they all had
+communication behind. I would not diminish the hope of the right
+chance, by supposing it necessary that a desire to enter should awake
+within me, precisely when I was close to the curtains of the tenth
+hall.
+
+At first the impulses to see recurred so continually, in spite of the
+crowded imagery that kept passing through my mind, that they formed too
+nearly a continuous chain, for the hope that any one of them would
+succeed as a surprise. But as I persisted in banishing them, they
+recurred less and less often; and after two or three, at considerable
+intervals, had come when the spot where I happened to be was
+unsuitable, the hope strengthened, that soon one might arise just at
+the right moment; namely, when, in walking round the hall, I should be
+close to one of the curtains.
+
+At length the right moment and the impulse coincided. I darted into the
+ninth hall. It was full of the most exquisite moving forms. The whole
+space wavered and swam with the involutions of an intricate dance. It
+seemed to break suddenly as I entered, and all made one or two bounds
+towards their pedestals; but, apparently on finding that they were
+thoroughly overtaken, they returned to their employment (for it seemed
+with them earnest enough to be called such) without further heeding me.
+Somewhat impeded by the floating crowd, I made what haste I could
+towards the bottom of the hall; whence, entering the corridor, I turned
+towards the tenth. I soon arrived at the corner I wanted to reach, for
+the corridor was comparatively empty; but, although the dancers here,
+after a little confusion, altogether disregarded my presence, I was
+dismayed at beholding, even yet, a vacant pedestal. But I had a
+conviction that she was near me. And as I looked at the pedestal, I
+thought I saw upon it, vaguely revealed as if through overlapping folds
+of drapery, the indistinct outlines of white feet. Yet there was no
+sign of drapery or concealing shadow whatever. But I remembered the
+descending shadow in my dream. And I hoped still in the power of my
+songs; thinking that what could dispel alabaster, might likewise be
+capable of dispelling what concealed my beauty now, even if it were the
+demon whose darkness had overshadowed all my life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+“_Alexander_. ‘When will you finish Campaspe?’
+_Apelles_. ‘Never finish: for always in absolute beauty there is
+somewhat above art.’”
+          LYLY’S _Campaspe_.
+
+
+And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was
+present unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless
+of the innumerable forms of beauty that crowded my way: these might
+cross my eyes, but the unseen filled my brain. I wandered long, up and
+down the silent space: no songs came. My soul was not still enough for
+songs. Only in the silence and darkness of the soul’s night, do those
+stars of the inward firmament sink to its lower surface from the
+singing realms beyond, and shine upon the conscious spirit. Here all
+effort was unavailing. If they came not, they could not be found.
+
+Next night, it was just the same. I walked through the red glimmer of
+the silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as lonely trod my soul
+up and down the halls of the brain. At last I entered one of the
+statue-halls. The dance had just commenced, and I was delighted to find
+that I was free of their assembly. I walked on till I came to the
+sacred corner. There I found the pedestal just as I had left it, with
+the faint glimmer as of white feet still resting on the dead black. As
+soon as I saw it, I seemed to feel a presence which longed to become
+visible; and, as it were, called to me to gift it with
+self-manifestation, that it might shine on me. The power of song came
+to me. But the moment my voice, though I sang low and soft, stirred the
+air of the hall, the dancers started; the quick interweaving crowd
+shook, lost its form, divided; each figure sprang to its pedestal, and
+stood, a self-evolving life no more, but a rigid, life-like, marble
+shape, with the whole form composed into the expression of a single
+state or act. Silence rolled like a spiritual thunder through the grand
+space. My song had ceased, scared at its own influences. But I saw in
+the hand of one of the statues close by me, a harp whose chords yet
+quivered. I remembered that as she bounded past me, her harp had
+brushed against my arm; so the spell of the marble had not infolded it.
+I sprang to her, and with a gesture of entreaty, laid my hand on the
+harp. The marble hand, probably from its contact with the uncharmed
+harp, had strength enough to relax its hold, and yield the harp to me.
+No other motion indicated life. Instinctively I struck the chords and
+sang. And not to break upon the record of my song, I mention here, that
+as I sang the first four lines, the loveliest feet became clear upon
+the black pedestal; and ever as I sang, it was as if a veil were being
+lifted up from before the form, but an invisible veil, so that the
+statue appeared to grow before me, not so much by evolution, as by
+infinitesimal degrees of added height. And, while I sang, I did not
+feel that I stood by a statue, as indeed it appeared to be, but that a
+real woman-soul was revealing itself by successive stages of
+imbodiment, and consequent manifestatlon and expression.
+
+Feet of beauty, firmly planting
+    Arches white on rosy heel!
+Whence the life-spring, throbbing, panting,
+    Pulses upward to reveal!
+Fairest things know least despising;
+    Foot and earth meet tenderly:
+‘Tis the woman, resting, rising
+    Upward to sublimity,
+
+Rise the limbs, sedately sloping,
+    Strong and gentle, full and free;
+Soft and slow, like certain hoping,
+    Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.
+Up to speech! As up to roses
+    Pants the life from leaf to flower,
+So each blending change discloses,
+    Nearer still, expression’s power.
+
+Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining
+    Up and outward fearlessly!
+Temple columns, close combining,
+    Lift a holy mystery.
+Heart of mine! what strange surprises
+    Mount aloft on such a stair!
+Some great vision upward rises,
+    Curving, bending, floating fair.
+
+Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow
+    Lead my fascinated eye;
+Some apocalypse will follow,
+    Some new world of deity.
+Zoned unseen, and outward swelling,
+    With new thoughts and wonders rife,
+Queenly majesty foretelling,
+    See the expanding house of life!
+
+Sudden heaving, unforbidden
+    Sighs eternal, still the same—
+Mounts of snow have summits hidden
+    In the mists of uttered flame.
+But the spirit, dawning nearly
+    Finds no speech for earnest pain;
+Finds a soundless sighing merely—
+    Builds its stairs, and mounts again.
+
+Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,
+    Sendeth out her waiting pair;
+Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,
+    Half inclasping visions rare;
+And the great arms, heartways bending;
+    Might of Beauty, drawing home
+There returning, and re-blending,
+    Where from roots of love they roam.
+
+Build thy slopes of radiance beamy
+    Spirit, fair with womanhood!
+Tower thy precipice, white-gleamy,
+    Climb unto the hour of good.
+Dumb space will be rent asunder,
+    Now the shining column stands
+Ready to be crowned with wonder
+    By the builder’s joyous hands.
+
+All the lines abroad are spreading,
+    Like a fountain’s falling race.
+Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,
+    Airy foot to rest the face!
+Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,
+    Sweet approach of lip and breath!
+Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,
+    Waits to die ecstatic death.
+
+Span across in treble curving,
+    Bow of promise, upper lip!
+Set them free, with gracious swerving;
+    Let the wing-words float and dip.
+_Dumb art thou?_ O Love immortal,
+    More than words thy speech must be;
+Childless yet the tender portal
+    Of the home of melody.
+
+Now the nostrils open fearless,
+    Proud in calm unconsciousness,
+Sure it must be something peerless
+    That the great Pan would express!
+Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,
+    In the pure, dear lady-face.
+Lo, a blinding burst of splendour!—
+    ’Tis the free soul’s issuing grace.
+
+Two calm lakes of molten glory
+    Circling round unfathomed deeps!
+Lightning-flashes, transitory,
+    Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.
+This the gate, at last, of gladness,
+    To the outward striving _me_:
+In a rain of light and sadness,
+    Out its loves and longings flee!
+
+With a presence I am smitten
+    Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;
+Presence greater yet than written
+    Even in the glorious eyes.
+Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,
+    I may look till I am lost;
+Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,
+    In a sea without a coast.
+
+Windows open to the glorious!
+    Time and space, oh, far beyond!
+Woman, ah! thou art victorious,
+    And I perish, overfond.
+Springs aloft the yet Unspoken
+    In the forehead’s endless grace,
+Full of silences unbroken;
+    Infinite, unfeatured face.
+
+Domes above, the mount of wonder;
+    Height and hollow wrapt in night;
+Hiding in its caverns under
+    Woman-nations in their might.
+Passing forms, the highest Human
+    Faints away to the Divine
+Features none, of man or woman,
+    Can unveil the holiest shine.
+
+Sideways, grooved porches only
+    Visible to passing eye,
+Stand the silent, doorless, lonely
+    Entrance-gates of melody.
+But all sounds fly in as boldly,
+    Groan and song, and kiss and cry
+At their galleries, lifted coldly,
+    Darkly, ‘twixt the earth and sky.
+
+Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest
+    So, in faint, half-glad despair,
+From the summit thou o’erflowest
+    In a fall of torrent hair;
+Hiding what thou hast created
+    In a half-transparent shroud:
+Thus, with glory soft-abated,
+    Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+“Ev’n the Styx, which ninefold her infoldeth
+    Hems not Ceres’ daughter in its flow;
+But she grasps the apple—ever holdeth
+    Her, sad Orcus, down below.”
+          SCHILLER, _Das Ideal und das Leben_.
+
+
+Ever as I sang, the veil was uplifted; ever as I sang, the signs of
+life grew; till, when the eyes dawned upon me, it was with that sunrise
+of splendour which my feeble song attempted to re-imbody.
+
+The wonder is, that I was not altogether overcome, but was able to
+complete my song as the unseen veil continued to rise. This ability
+came solely from the state of mental elevation in which I found myself.
+Only because uplifted in song, was I able to endure the blaze of the
+dawn. But I cannot tell whether she looked more of statue or more of
+woman; she seemed removed into that region of phantasy where all is
+intensely vivid, but nothing clearly defined. At last, as I sang of her
+descending hair, the glow of soul faded away, like a dying sunset. A
+lamp within had been extinguished, and the house of life shone blank in
+a winter morn. She was a statue once more—but visible, and that was
+much gained. Yet the revulsion from hope and fruition was such, that,
+unable to restrain myself, I sprang to her, and, in defiance of the law
+of the place, flung my arms around her, as if I would tear her from the
+grasp of a visible Death, and lifted her from the pedestal down to my
+heart. But no sooner had her feet ceased to be in contact with the
+black pedestal, than she shuddered and trembled all over; then,
+writhing from my arms, before I could tighten their hold, she sprang
+into the corridor, with the reproachful cry, “You should not have
+touched me!” darted behind one of the exterior pillars of the circle,
+and disappeared. I followed almost as fast; but ere I could reach the
+pillar, the sound of a closing door, the saddest of all sounds
+sometimes, fell on my ear; and, arriving at the spot where she had
+vanished, I saw, lighted by a pale yellow lamp which hung above it, a
+heavy, rough door, altogether unlike any others I had seen in the
+palace; for they were all of ebony, or ivory, or covered with
+silver-plates, or of some odorous wood, and very ornate; whereas this
+seemed of old oak, with heavy nails and iron studs. Notwithstanding the
+precipitation of my pursuit, I could not help reading, in silver
+letters beneath the lamp: “_No one enters here without the leave of the
+Queen_.” But what was the Queen to me, when I followed my white lady? I
+dashed the door to the wall and sprang through. Lo! I stood on a waste
+windy hill. Great stones like tombstones stood all about me. No door,
+no palace was to be seen. A white figure gleamed past me, wringing her
+hands, and crying, “Ah! you should have sung to me; you should have
+sung to me!” and disappeared behind one of the stones. I followed. A
+cold gust of wind met me from behind the stone; and when I looked, I
+saw nothing but a great hole in the earth, into which I could find no
+way of entering. Had she fallen in? I could not tell. I must wait for
+the daylight. I sat down and wept, for there was no help.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+“First, I thought, almost despairing,
+    This must crush my spirit now;
+Yet I bore it, and am bearing—
+    Only do not ask me how.”
+          HEINE.
+
+
+When the daylight came, it brought the possibility of action, but with
+it little of consolation. With the first visible increase of light, I
+gazed into the chasm, but could not, for more than an hour, see
+sufficiently well to discover its nature. At last I saw it was almost a
+perpendicular opening, like a roughly excavated well, only very large.
+I could perceive no bottom; and it was not till the sun actually rose,
+that I discovered a sort of natural staircase, in many parts little
+more than suggested, which led round and round the gulf, descending
+spirally into its abyss. I saw at once that this was my path; and
+without a moment’s hesitation, glad to quit the sunlight, which stared
+at me most heartlessly, I commenced my tortuous descent. It was very
+difficult. In some parts I had to cling to the rocks like a bat. In one
+place, I dropped from the track down upon the next returning spire of
+the stair; which being broad in this particular portion, and standing
+out from the wall at right angles, received me upon my feet safe,
+though somewhat stupefied by the shock. After descending a great way, I
+found the stair ended at a narrow opening which entered the rock
+horizontally. Into this I crept, and, having entered, had just room to
+turn round. I put my head out into the shaft by which I had come down,
+and surveyed the course of my descent. Looking up, I saw the stars;
+although the sun must by this time have been high in the heavens.
+Looking below, I saw that the sides of the shaft went sheer down,
+smooth as glass; and far beneath me, I saw the reflection of the same
+stars I had seen in the heavens when I looked up. I turned again, and
+crept inwards some distance, when the passage widened, and I was at
+length able to stand and walk upright. Wider and loftier grew the way;
+new paths branched off on every side; great open halls appeared; till
+at last I found myself wandering on through an underground country, in
+which the sky was of rock, and instead of trees and flowers, there were
+only fantastic rocks and stones. And ever as I went, darker grew my
+thoughts, till at last I had no hope whatever of finding the white
+lady: I no longer called her to myself _my_ white lady. Whenever a
+choice was necessary, I always chose the path which seemed to lead
+downwards.
+
+At length I began to find that these regions were inhabited. From
+behind a rock a peal of harsh grating laughter, full of evil humour,
+rang through my ears, and, looking round, I saw a queer, goblin
+creature, with a great head and ridiculous features, just such as those
+described, in German histories and travels, as Kobolds. “What do you
+want with me?” I said. He pointed at me with a long forefinger, very
+thick at the root, and sharpened to a point, and answered, “He! he! he!
+what do _you_ want here?” Then, changing his tone, he continued, with
+mock humility—“Honoured sir, vouchsafe to withdraw from thy slaves the
+lustre of thy august presence, for thy slaves cannot support its
+brightness.” A second appeared, and struck in: “You are so big, you
+keep the sun from us. We can’t see for you, and we’re so cold.”
+Thereupon arose, on all sides, the most terrific uproar of laughter,
+from voices like those of children in volume, but scrannel and harsh as
+those of decrepit age, though, unfortunately, without its weakness. The
+whole pandemonium of fairy devils, of all varieties of fantastic
+ugliness, both in form and feature, and of all sizes from one to four
+feet, seemed to have suddenly assembled about me. At length, after a
+great babble of talk among themselves, in a language unknown to me, and
+after seemingly endless gesticulation, consultation, elbow-nudging, and
+unmitigated peals of laughter, they formed into a circle about one of
+their number, who scrambled upon a stone, and, much to my surprise, and
+somewhat to my dismay, began to sing, in a voice corresponding in its
+nature to his talking one, from beginning to end, the song with which I
+had brought the light into the eyes of the white lady. He sang the same
+air too; and, all the time, maintained a face of mock entreaty and
+worship; accompanying the song with the travestied gestures of one
+playing on the lute. The whole assembly kept silence, except at the
+close of every verse, when they roared, and danced, and shouted with
+laughter, and flung themselves on the ground, in real or pretended
+convulsions of delight. When he had finished, the singer threw himself
+from the top of the stone, turning heels over head several times in his
+descent; and when he did alight, it was on the top of his head, on
+which he hopped about, making the most grotesque gesticulations with
+his legs in the air. Inexpressible laughter followed, which broke up in
+a shower of tiny stones from innumerable hands. They could not
+materially injure me, although they cut me on the head and face. I
+attempted to run away, but they all rushed upon me, and, laying hold of
+every part that afforded a grasp, held me tight. Crowding about me like
+bees, they shouted an insect-swarm of exasperating speeches up into my
+face, among which the most frequently recurring were—“You shan’t have
+her; you shan’t have her; he! he! he! She’s for a better man; how he’ll
+kiss her! how he’ll kiss her!”
+
+The galvanic torrent of this battery of malevolence stung to life
+within me a spark of nobleness, and I said aloud, “Well, if he is a
+better man, let him have her.”
+
+They instantly let go their hold of me, and fell back a step or two,
+with a whole broadside of grunts and humphs, as of unexpected and
+disappointed approbation. I made a step or two forward, and a lane was
+instantly opened for me through the midst of the grinning little
+antics, who bowed most politely to me on every side as I passed. After
+I had gone a few yards, I looked back, and saw them all standing quite
+still, looking after me, like a great school of boys; till suddenly one
+turned round, and with a loud whoop, rushed into the midst of the
+others. In an instant, the whole was one writhing and tumbling heap of
+contortion, reminding me of the live pyramids of intertwined snakes of
+which travellers make report. As soon as one was worked out of the
+mass, he bounded off a few paces, and then, with a somersault and a
+run, threw himself gyrating into the air, and descended with all his
+weight on the summit of the heaving and struggling chaos of fantastic
+figures. I left them still busy at this fierce and apparently aimless
+amusement. And as I went, I sang—
+
+If a nobler waits for thee,
+    I will weep aside;
+It is well that thou should’st be,
+    Of the nobler, bride.
+
+For if love builds up the home,
+    Where the heart is free,
+Homeless yet the heart must roam,
+    That has not found thee.
+
+One must suffer: I, for her
+    Yield in her my part
+Take her, thou art worthier—
+    Still I be still, my heart!
+
+Gift ungotten! largess high
+    Of a frustrate will!
+But to yield it lovingly
+    Is a something still.
+
+
+Then a little song arose of itself in my soul; and I felt for the
+moment, while it sank sadly within me, as if I was once more walking up
+and down the white hall of Phantasy in the Fairy Palace. But this
+lasted no longer than the song; as will be seen.
+
+Do not vex thy violet
+    Perfume to afford:
+Else no odour thou wilt get
+    From its little hoard.
+
+In thy lady’s gracious eyes
+    Look not thou too long;
+Else from them the glory flies,
+    And thou dost her wrong.
+
+Come not thou too near the maid,
+    Clasp her not too wild;
+Else the splendour is allayed,
+    And thy heart beguiled.
+
+
+A crash of laughter, more discordant and deriding than any I had yet
+heard, invaded my ears. Looking on in the direction of the sound, I saw
+a little elderly woman, much taller, however, than the goblins I had
+just left, seated upon a stone by the side of the path. She rose, as I
+drew near, and came forward to meet me.
+
+She was very plain and commonplace in appearance, without being
+hideously ugly. Looking up in my face with a stupid sneer, she said:
+“Isn’t it a pity you haven’t a pretty girl to walk all alone with you
+through this sweet country? How different everything would look?
+wouldn’t it? Strange that one can never have what one would like best!
+How the roses would bloom and all that, even in this infernal hole!
+wouldn’t they, Anodos? Her eyes would light up the old cave, wouldn’t
+they?”
+
+“That depends on who the pretty girl should be,” replied I.
+
+“Not so very much matter that,” she answered; “look here.”
+
+I had turned to go away as I gave my reply, but now I stopped and
+looked at her. As a rough unsightly bud might suddenly blossom into the
+most lovely flower; or rather, as a sunbeam bursts through a shapeless
+cloud, and transfigures the earth; so burst a face of resplendent
+beauty, as it were _through_ the unsightly visage of the woman,
+destroying it with light as it dawned through it. A summer sky rose
+above me, gray with heat; across a shining slumberous landscape, looked
+from afar the peaks of snow-capped mountains; and down from a great
+rock beside me fell a sheet of water mad with its own delight.
+
+“Stay with me,” she said, lifting up her exquisite face, and looking
+full in mine.
+
+I drew back. Again the infernal laugh grated upon my ears; again the
+rocks closed in around me, and the ugly woman looked at me with wicked,
+mocking hazel eyes.
+
+“You shall have your reward,” said she. “You shall see your white lady
+again.”
+
+“That lies not with you,” I replied, and turned and left her.
+
+She followed me with shriek upon shriek of laughter, as I went on my
+way.
+
+I may mention here, that although there was always light enough to see
+my path and a few yards on every side of me, I never could find out the
+source of this sad sepulchral illumination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+“In the wind’s uproar, the sea’s raging grim,
+And the sighs that are born in him.”
+          HEINE.
+
+
+“From dreams of bliss shall men awake
+One day, but not to weep:
+The dreams remain; they only break
+The mirror of the sleep.”
+          JEAN PAUL, _Hesperus_.
+
+
+How I got through this dreary part of my travels, I do not know. I do
+not think I was upheld by the hope that any moment the light might
+break in upon me; for I scarcely thought about that. I went on with a
+dull endurance, varied by moments of uncontrollable sadness; for more
+and more the conviction grew upon me that I should never see the white
+lady again. It may seem strange that one with whom I had held so little
+communion should have so engrossed my thoughts; but benefits conferred
+awaken love in some minds, as surely as benefits received in others.
+Besides being delighted and proud that _my_ songs had called the
+beautiful creature to life, the same fact caused me to feel a
+tenderness unspeakable for her, accompanied with a kind of feeling of
+property in her; for so the goblin Selfishness would reward the angel
+Love. When to all this is added, an overpowering sense of her beauty,
+and an unquestioning conviction that this was a true index to inward
+loveliness, it may be understood how it came to pass that my
+imagination filled my whole soul with the play of its own multitudinous
+colours and harmonies around the form which yet stood, a gracious
+marble radiance, in the midst of _its_ white hall of phantasy. The time
+passed by unheeded; for my thoughts were busy. Perhaps this was also in
+part the cause of my needing no food, and never thinking how I should
+find any, during this subterraneous part of my travels. How long they
+endured I could not tell, for I had no means of measuring time; and
+when I looked back, there was such a discrepancy between the decisions
+of my imagination and my judgment, as to the length of time that had
+passed, that I was bewildered, and gave up all attempts to arrive at
+any conclusion on the point.
+
+A gray mist continually gathered behind me. When I looked back towards
+the past, this mist was the medium through which my eyes had to strain
+for a vision of what had gone by; and the form of the white lady had
+receded into an unknown region. At length the country of rock began to
+close again around me, gradually and slowly narrowing, till I found
+myself walking in a gallery of rock once more, both sides of which I
+could touch with my outstretched hands. It narrowed yet, until I was
+forced to move carefully, in order to avoid striking against the
+projecting pieces of rock. The roof sank lower and lower, until I was
+compelled, first to stoop, and then to creep on my hands and knees. It
+recalled terrible dreams of childhood; but I was not much afraid,
+because I felt sure that this was my path, and my only hope of leaving
+Fairy Land, of which I was now almost weary.
+
+At length, on getting past an abrupt turn in the passage, through which
+I had to force myself, I saw, a few yards ahead of me, the
+long-forgotten daylight shining through a small opening, to which the
+path, if path it could now be called, led me. With great difficulty I
+accomplished these last few yards, and came forth to the day. I stood
+on the shore of a wintry sea, with a wintry sun just a few feet above
+its horizon-edge. It was bare, and waste, and gray. Hundreds of
+hopeless waves rushed constantly shorewards, falling exhausted upon a
+beach of great loose stones, that seemed to stretch miles and miles in
+both directions. There was nothing for the eye but mingling shades of
+gray; nothing for the ear but the rush of the coming, the roar of the
+breaking, and the moan of the retreating wave. No rock lifted up a
+sheltering severity above the dreariness around; even that from which I
+had myself emerged rose scarcely a foot above the opening by which I
+had reached the dismal day, more dismal even than the tomb I had left.
+A cold, death-like wind swept across the shore, seeming to issue from a
+pale mouth of cloud upon the horizon. Sign of life was nowhere visible.
+I wandered over the stones, up and down the beach, a human imbodiment
+of the nature around me. The wind increased; its keen waves flowed
+through my soul; the foam rushed higher up the stones; a few dead stars
+began to gleam in the east; the sound of the waves grew louder and yet
+more despairing. A dark curtain of cloud was lifted up, and a pale blue
+rent shone between its foot and the edge of the sea, out from which
+rushed an icy storm of frozen wind, that tore the waters into spray as
+it passed, and flung the billows in raving heaps upon the desolate
+shore. I could bear it no longer.
+
+“I will not be tortured to death,” I cried; “I will meet it half-way.
+The life within me is yet enough to bear me up to the face of Death,
+and then I die unconquered.”
+
+Before it had grown so dark, I had observed, though without any
+particular interest, that on one part of the shore a low platform of
+rock seemed to run out far into the midst of the breaking waters.
+
+Towards this I now went, scrambling over smooth stones, to which scarce
+even a particle of sea-weed clung; and having found it, I got on it,
+and followed its direction, as near as I could guess, out into the
+tumbling chaos. I could hardly keep my feet against the wind and sea.
+The waves repeatedly all but swept me off my path; but I kept on my
+way, till I reached the end of the low promontory, which, in the fall
+of the waves, rose a good many feet above the surface, and, in their
+rise, was covered with their waters. I stood one moment and gazed into
+the heaving abyss beneath me; then plunged headlong into the mounting
+wave below. A blessing, like the kiss of a mother, seemed to alight on
+my soul; a calm, deeper than that which accompanies a hope deferred,
+bathed my spirit. I sank far into the waters, and sought not to return.
+I felt as if once more the great arms of the beech-tree were around me,
+soothing me after the miseries I had passed through, and telling me,
+like a little sick child, that I should be better to-morrow. The waters
+of themselves lifted me, as with loving arms, to the surface. I
+breathed again, but did not unclose my eyes. I would not look on the
+wintry sea, and the pitiless gray sky. Thus I floated, till something
+gently touched me. It was a little boat floating beside me. How it came
+there I could not tell; but it rose and sank on the waters, and kept
+touching me in its fall, as if with a human will to let me know that
+help was by me. It was a little gay-coloured boat, seemingly covered
+with glistering scales like those of a fish, all of brilliant rainbow
+hues. I scrambled into it, and lay down in the bottom, with a sense of
+exquisite repose.
+
+Then I drew over me a rich, heavy, purple cloth that was beside me;
+and, lying still, knew, by the sound of the waters, that my little bark
+was fleeting rapidly onwards. Finding, however, none of that stormy
+motion which the sea had manifested when I beheld it from the shore, I
+opened my eyes; and, looking first up, saw above me the deep violet sky
+of a warm southern night; and then, lifting my head, saw that I was
+sailing fast upon a summer sea, in the last border of a southern
+twilight. The aureole of the sun yet shot the extreme faint tips of its
+longest rays above the horizon-waves, and withdrew them not. It was a
+perpetual twilight. The stars, great and earnest, like children’s eyes,
+bent down lovingly towards the waters; and the reflected stars within
+seemed to float up, as if longing to meet their embraces. But when I
+looked down, a new wonder met my view. For, vaguely revealed beneath
+the wave, I floated above my whole Past. The fields of my childhood
+flitted by; the halls of my youthful labours; the streets of great
+cities where I had dwelt; and the assemblies of men and women wherein I
+had wearied myself seeking for rest. But so indistinct were the
+visions, that sometimes I thought I was sailing on a shallow sea, and
+that strange rocks and forests of sea-plants beguiled my eye,
+sufficiently to be transformed, by the magic of the phantasy, into
+well-known objects and regions. Yet, at times, a beloved form seemed to
+lie close beneath me in sleep; and the eyelids would tremble as if
+about to forsake the conscious eye; and the arms would heave upwards,
+as if in dreams they sought for a satisfying presence. But these
+motions might come only from the heaving of the waters between those
+forms and me. Soon I fell asleep, overcome with fatigue and delight. In
+dreams of unspeakable joy—of restored friendships; of revived embraces;
+of love which said it had never died; of faces that had vanished long
+ago, yet said with smiling lips that they knew nothing of the grave; of
+pardons implored, and granted with such bursting floods of love, that I
+was almost glad I had sinned—thus I passed through this wondrous
+twilight. I awoke with the feeling that I had been kissed and loved to
+my heart’s content; and found that my boat was floating motionless by
+the grassy shore of a little island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+“In still rest, in changeless simplicity, I bear,
+uninterrupted, the consciousness of the whole of Humanity within me.”
+          SCHLEIERMACHER, _Monologen_.
+
+“... such a sweetness, such a grace,
+    In all thy speech appear,
+That what to th’eye a beauteous face,
+    That thy tongue is to the ear.”
+          COWLEY.
+
+
+The water was deep to the very edge; and I sprang from the little boat
+upon a soft grassy turf. The island seemed rich with a profusion of all
+grasses and low flowers. All delicate lowly things were most plentiful;
+but no trees rose skywards, not even a bush overtopped the tall
+grasses, except in one place near the cottage I am about to describe,
+where a few plants of the gum-cistus, which drops every night all the
+blossoms that the day brings forth, formed a kind of natural arbour.
+The whole island lay open to the sky and sea. It rose nowhere more than
+a few feet above the level of the waters, which flowed deep all around
+its border. Here there seemed to be neither tide nor storm. A sense of
+persistent calm and fulness arose in the mind at the sight of the slow,
+pulse-like rise and fall of the deep, clear, unrippled waters against
+the bank of the island, for shore it could hardly be called, being so
+much more like the edge of a full, solemn river. As I walked over the
+grass towards the cottage, which stood at a little distance from the
+bank, all the flowers of childhood looked at me with perfect child-eyes
+out of the grass. My heart, softened by the dreams through which it had
+passed, overflowed in a sad, tender love towards them. They looked to
+me like children impregnably fortified in a helpless confidence. The
+sun stood half-way down the western sky, shining very soft and golden;
+and there grew a second world of shadows amidst the world of grasses
+and wild flowers.
+
+The cottage was square, with low walls, and a high pyramidal roof
+thatched with long reeds, of which the withered blossoms hung over all
+the eaves. It is noticeable that most of the buildings I saw in Fairy
+Land were cottages. There was no path to a door, nor, indeed, was there
+any track worn by footsteps in the island.
+
+The cottage rose right out of the smooth turf. It had no windows that I
+could see; but there was a door in the centre of the side facing me, up
+to which I went. I knocked, and the sweetest voice I had ever heard
+said, “Come in.” I entered. A bright fire was burning on a hearth in
+the centre of the earthern floor, and the smoke found its way out at an
+opening in the centre of the pyramidal roof. Over the fire hung a
+little pot, and over the pot bent a woman-face, the most wonderful, I
+thought, that I had ever beheld. For it was older than any countenance
+I had ever looked upon. There was not a spot in which a wrinkle could
+lie, where a wrinkle lay not. And the skin was ancient and brown, like
+old parchment. The woman’s form was tall and spare: and when she stood
+up to welcome me, I saw that she was straight as an arrow. Could that
+voice of sweetness have issued from those lips of age? Mild as they
+were, could they be the portals whence flowed such melody? But the
+moment I saw her eyes, I no longer wondered at her voice: they were
+absolutely young—those of a woman of five-and-twenty, large, and of a
+clear gray. Wrinkles had beset them all about; the eyelids themselves
+were old, and heavy, and worn; but the eyes were very incarnations of
+soft light. She held out her hand to me, and the voice of sweetness
+again greeted me, with the single word, “Welcome.” She set an old
+wooden chair for me, near the fire, and went on with her cooking. A
+wondrous sense of refuge and repose came upon me. I felt like a boy who
+has got home from school, miles across the hills, through a heavy storm
+of wind and snow. Almost, as I gazed on her, I sprang from my seat to
+kiss those old lips. And when, having finished her cooking, she brought
+some of the dish she had prepared, and set it on a little table by me,
+covered with a snow-white cloth, I could not help laying my head on her
+bosom, and bursting into happy tears. She put her arms round me,
+saying, “Poor child; poor child!”
+
+As I continued to weep, she gently disengaged herself, and, taking a
+spoon, put some of the food (I did not know what it was) to my lips,
+entreating me most endearingly to swallow it. To please her, I made an
+effort, and succeeded. She went on feeding me like a baby, with one arm
+round me, till I looked up in her face and smiled: then she gave me the
+spoon and told me to eat, for it would do me good. I obeyed her, and
+found myself wonderfully refreshed. Then she drew near the fire an
+old-fashioned couch that was in the cottage, and making me lie down
+upon it, sat at my feet, and began to sing. Amazing store of old
+ballads rippled from her lips, over the pebbles of ancient tunes; and
+the voice that sang was sweet as the voice of a tuneful maiden that
+singeth ever from very fulness of song. The songs were almost all sad,
+but with a sound of comfort. One I can faintly recall. It was something
+like this:
+
+Sir Aglovaile through the churchyard rode;
+        _Sing, All alone I lie:_
+Little recked he where’er he yode,
+        _All alone, up in the sky_.
+
+Swerved his courser, and plunged with fear
+        _All alone I lie:_
+His cry might have wakened the dead men near,
+        _All alone, up in the sky_.
+
+The very dead that lay at his feet,
+Lapt in the mouldy winding-sheet.
+
+But he curbed him and spurred him, until he stood
+Still in his place, like a horse of wood,
+
+With nostrils uplift, and eyes wide and wan;
+But the sweat in streams from his fetlocks ran.
+
+A ghost grew out of the shadowy air,
+And sat in the midst of her moony hair.
+
+In her gleamy hair she sat and wept;
+In the dreamful moon they lay and slept;
+
+The shadows above, and the bodies below,
+Lay and slept in the moonbeams slow.
+
+And she sang, like the moan of an autumn wind
+Over the stubble left behind:
+
+_Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+And life is never the same again.
+
+Alas, how hardly things go right!
+‘Tis hard to watch on a summer night,
+For the sigh will come and the kiss will stay,
+And the summer night is a winter day._
+
+“Oh, lovely ghosts my heart is woes
+To see thee weeping and wailing so.
+
+Oh, lovely ghost,” said the fearless knight,
+“Can the sword of a warrior set it right?
+
+Or prayer of bedesman, praying mild,
+As a cup of water a feverish child,
+
+Sooth thee at last, in dreamless mood
+To sleep the sleep a dead lady should?
+
+Thine eyes they fill me with longing sore,
+As if I had known thee for evermore.
+
+Oh, lovely ghost, I could leave the day
+To sit with thee in the moon away
+
+If thou wouldst trust me, and lay thy head
+To rest on a bosom that is not dead.”
+The lady sprang up with a strange ghost-cry,
+And she flung her white ghost-arms on high:
+
+And she laughed a laugh that was not gay,
+And it lengthened out till it died away;
+
+And the dead beneath turned and moaned,
+And the yew-trees above they shuddered and groaned.
+
+“Will he love me twice with a love that is vain?
+Will he kill the poor ghost yet again?
+
+I thought thou wert good; but I said, and wept:
+‘Can I have dreamed who have not slept?’
+
+And I knew, alas! or ever I would,
+Whether I dreamed, or thou wert good.
+
+When my baby died, my brain grew wild.
+I awoke, and found I was with my child.”
+
+“If thou art the ghost of my Adelaide,
+How is it? Thou wert but a village maid,
+
+And thou seemest an angel lady white,
+Though thin, and wan, and past delight.”
+
+The lady smiled a flickering smile,
+And she pressed her temples hard the while.
+
+“Thou seest that Death for a woman can
+Do more than knighthood for a man.”
+
+“But show me the child thou callest mine,
+Is she out to-night in the ghost’s sunshine?”
+
+“In St. Peter’s Church she is playing on,
+At hide-and-seek, with Apostle John.
+
+When the moonbeams right through the window go,
+Where the twelve are standing in glorious show,
+
+She says the rest of them do not stir,
+But one comes down to play with her.
+
+Then I can go where I list, and weep,
+For good St. John my child will keep.”
+
+“Thy beauty filleth the very air,
+Never saw I a woman so fair.”
+
+“Come, if thou darest, and sit by my side;
+But do not touch me, or woe will betide.
+
+Alas, I am weak: I might well know
+This gladness betokens some further woe.
+
+Yet come. It will come. I will bear it. I can.
+For thou lovest me yet—though but as a man.”
+
+The knight dismounted in earnest speed;
+Away through the tombstones thundered the steed,
+
+And fell by the outer wall, and died.
+But the knight he kneeled by the lady’s side;
+
+Kneeled beside her in wondrous bliss,
+Rapt in an everlasting kiss:
+
+Though never his lips come the lady nigh,
+And his eyes alone on her beauty lie.
+
+All the night long, till the cock crew loud,
+He kneeled by the lady, lapt in her shroud.
+
+And what they said, I may not say:
+Dead night was sweeter than living day.
+
+How she made him so blissful glad
+Who made her and found her so ghostly sad,
+
+I may not tell; but it needs no touch
+To make them blessed who love so much.
+
+“Come every night, my ghost, to me;
+And one night I will come to thee.
+
+‘Tis good to have a ghostly wife:
+She will not tremble at clang of strife;
+
+She will only hearken, amid the din,
+Behind the door, if he cometh in.”
+
+And this is how Sir Aglovaile
+Often walked in the moonlight pale.
+
+And oft when the crescent but thinned the gloom,
+Full orbed moonlight filled his room;
+
+And through beneath his chamber door,
+Fell a ghostly gleam on the outer floor;
+
+And they that passed, in fear averred
+That murmured words they often heard.
+
+‘Twas then that the eastern crescent shone
+Through the chancel window, and good St. John
+
+Played with the ghost-child all the night,
+And the mother was free till the morning light,
+
+And sped through the dawning night, to stay
+With Aglovaile till the break of day.
+
+And their love was a rapture, lone and high,
+And dumb as the moon in the topmost sky.
+
+One night Sir Aglovaile, weary, slept
+And dreamed a dream wherein he wept.
+
+A warrior he was, not often wept he,
+But this night he wept full bitterly.
+
+He woke—beside him the ghost-girl shone
+Out of the dark: ‘twas the eve of St. John.
+
+He had dreamed a dream of a still, dark wood,
+Where the maiden of old beside him stood;
+
+But a mist came down, and caught her away,
+And he sought her in vain through the pathless day,
+
+Till he wept with the grief that can do no more,
+And thought he had dreamt the dream before.
+
+From bursting heart the weeping flowed on;
+And lo! beside him the ghost-girl shone;
+
+Shone like the light on a harbour’s breast,
+Over the sea of his dream’s unrest;
+
+Shone like the wondrous, nameless boon,
+That the heart seeks ever, night or noon:
+
+Warnings forgotten, when needed most,
+He clasped to his bosom the radiant ghost.
+
+She wailed aloud, and faded, and sank.
+With upturn’d white face, cold and blank,
+
+In his arms lay the corpse of the maiden pale,
+And she came no more to Sir Aglovaile.
+
+Only a voice, when winds were wild,
+Sobbed and wailed like a chidden child.
+
+_Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+And life is never the same again._
+
+
+This was one of the simplest of her songs, which, perhaps, is the cause
+of my being able to remember it better than most of the others. While
+she sung, I was in Elysium, with the sense of a rich soul upholding,
+embracing, and overhanging mine, full of all plenty and bounty. I felt
+as if she could give me everything I wanted; as if I should never wish
+to leave her, but would be content to be sung to and fed by her, day
+after day, as years rolled by. At last I fell asleep while she sang.
+
+When I awoke, I knew not whether it was night or day. The fire had sunk
+to a few red embers, which just gave light enough to show me the woman
+standing a few feet from me, with her back towards me, facing the door
+by which I had entered. She was weeping, but very gently and
+plentifully. The tears seemed to come freely from her heart. Thus she
+stood for a few minutes; then, slowly turning at right angles to her
+former position, she faced another of the four sides of the cottage. I
+now observed, for the first time, that here was a door likewise; and
+that, indeed, there was one in the centre of every side of the cottage.
+
+When she looked towards the second door, her tears ceased to flow, but
+sighs took their place. She often closed her eyes as she stood; and
+every time she closed her eyes, a gentle sigh seemed to be born in her
+heart, and to escape at her lips. But when her eyes were open, her
+sighs were deep and very sad, and shook her whole frame. Then she
+turned towards the third door, and a cry as of fear or suppressed pain
+broke from her; but she seemed to hearten herself against the dismay,
+and to front it steadily; for, although I often heard a slight cry, and
+sometimes a moan, yet she never moved or bent her head, and I felt sure
+that her eyes never closed. Then she turned to the fourth door, and I
+saw her shudder, and then stand still as a statue; till at last she
+turned towards me and approached the fire. I saw that her face was
+white as death. But she gave one look upwards, and smiled the sweetest,
+most child-innocent smile; then heaped fresh wood on the fire, and,
+sitting down by the blaze, drew her wheel near her, and began to spin.
+While she spun, she murmured a low strange song, to which the hum of
+the wheel made a kind of infinite symphony. At length she paused in her
+spinning and singing, and glanced towards me, like a mother who looks
+whether or not her child gives signs of waking. She smiled when she saw
+that my eyes were open. I asked her whether it was day yet. She
+answered, “It is always day here, so long as I keep my fire burning.”
+
+I felt wonderfully refreshed; and a great desire to see more of the
+island awoke within me. I rose, and saying that I wished to look about
+me, went towards the door by which I had entered.
+
+“Stay a moment,” said my hostess, with some trepidation in her voice.
+“Listen to me. You will not see what you expect when you go out of that
+door. Only remember this: whenever you wish to come back to me, enter
+wherever you see this mark.”
+
+She held up her left hand between me and the fire. Upon the palm, which
+appeared almost transparent, I saw, in dark red, a mark like this —>
+which I took care to fix in my mind.
+
+She then kissed me, and bade me good-bye with a solemnity that awed me;
+and bewildered me too, seeing I was only going out for a little ramble
+in an island, which I did not believe larger than could easily be
+compassed in a few hours’ walk at most. As I went she resumed her
+spinning.
+
+I opened the door, and stepped out. The moment my foot touched the
+smooth sward, I seemed to issue from the door of an old barn on my
+father’s estate, where, in the hot afternoons, I used to go and lie
+amongst the straw, and read. It seemed to me now that I had been asleep
+there. At a little distance in the field, I saw two of my brothers at
+play. The moment they caught sight of me, they called out to me to come
+and join them, which I did; and we played together as we had done years
+ago, till the red sun went down in the west, and the gray fog began to
+rise from the river. Then we went home together with a strange
+happiness. As we went, we heard the continually renewed larum of a
+landrail in the long grass. One of my brothers and I separated to a
+little distance, and each commenced running towards the part whence the
+sound appeared to come, in the hope of approaching the spot where the
+bird was, and so getting at least a sight of it, if we should not be
+able to capture the little creature. My father’s voice recalled us from
+trampling down the rich long grass, soon to be cut down and laid aside
+for the winter. I had quite forgotten all about Fairy Land, and the
+wonderful old woman, and the curious red mark.
+
+My favourite brother and I shared the same bed. Some childish dispute
+arose between us; and our last words, ere we fell asleep, were not of
+kindness, notwithstanding the pleasures of the day. When I woke in the
+morning, I missed him. He had risen early, and had gone to bathe in the
+river. In another hour, he was brought home drowned. Alas! alas! if we
+had only gone to sleep as usual, the one with his arm about the other!
+Amidst the horror of the moment, a strange conviction flashed across my
+mind, that I had gone through the very same once before.
+
+I rushed out of the house, I knew not why, sobbing and crying bitterly.
+I ran through the fields in aimless distress, till, passing the old
+barn, I caught sight of a red mark on the door. The merest trifles
+sometimes rivet the attention in the deepest misery; the intellect has
+so little to do with grief. I went up to look at this mark, which I did
+not remember ever to have seen before. As I looked at it, I thought I
+would go in and lie down amongst the straw, for I was very weary with
+running about and weeping. I opened the door; and there in the cottage
+sat the old woman as I had left her, at her spinning-wheel.
+
+“I did not expect you quite so soon,” she said, as I shut the door
+behind me. I went up to the couch, and threw myself on it with that
+fatigue wherewith one awakes from a feverish dream of hopeless grief.
+
+The old woman sang:
+
+The great sun, benighted,
+    May faint from the sky;
+But love, once uplighted,
+    Will never more die.
+
+Form, with its brightness,
+    From eyes will depart:
+It walketh, in whiteness,
+    The halls of the heart.
+
+
+Ere she had ceased singing, my courage had returned. I started from the
+couch, and, without taking leave of the old woman, opened the door of
+Sighs, and sprang into what should appear.
+
+I stood in a lordly hall, where, by a blazing fire on the hearth, sat a
+lady, waiting, I knew, for some one long desired. A mirror was near me,
+but I saw that my form had no place within its depths, so I feared not
+that I should be seen. The lady wonderfully resembled my marble lady,
+but was altogether of the daughters of men, and I could not tell
+whether or not it was she.
+
+It was not for me she waited. The tramp of a great horse rang through
+the court without. It ceased, and the clang of armour told that his
+rider alighted, and the sound of his ringing heels approached the hall.
+The door opened; but the lady waited, for she would meet her lord
+alone. He strode in: she flew like a home-bound dove into his arms, and
+nestled on the hard steel. It was the knight of the soiled armour. But
+now the armour shone like polished glass; and strange to tell, though
+the mirror reflected not my form, I saw a dim shadow of myself in the
+shining steel.
+
+“O my beloved, thou art come, and I am blessed.”
+
+Her soft fingers speedily overcame the hard clasp of his helmet; one by
+one she undid the buckles of his armour; and she toiled under the
+weight of the mail, as she _would_ carry it aside. Then she unclasped
+his greaves, and unbuckled his spurs; and once more she sprang into his
+arms, and laid her head where she could now feel the beating of his
+heart. Then she disengaged herself from his embrace, and, moving back a
+step or two, gazed at him. He stood there a mighty form, crowned with a
+noble head, where all sadness had disappeared, or had been absorbed in
+solemn purpose. Yet I suppose that he looked more thoughtful than the
+lady had expected to see him, for she did not renew her caresses,
+although his face glowed with love, and the few words he spoke were as
+mighty deeds for strength; but she led him towards the hearth, and
+seated him in an ancient chair, and set wine before him, and sat at his
+feet.
+
+“I am sad,” he said, “when I think of the youth whom I met twice in the
+forests of Fairy Land; and who, you say, twice, with his songs, roused
+you from the death-sleep of an evil enchantment. There was something
+noble in him, but it was a nobleness of thought, and not of deed. He
+may yet perish of vile fear.”
+
+“Ah!” returned the lady, “you saved him once, and for that I thank you;
+for may I not say that I somewhat loved him? But tell me how you fared,
+when you struck your battle-axe into the ash-tree, and he came and
+found you; for so much of the story you had told me, when the
+beggar-child came and took you away.”
+
+“As soon as I saw him,” rejoined the knight, “I knew that earthly arms
+availed not against such as he; and that my soul must meet him in its
+naked strength. So I unclasped my helm, and flung it on the ground;
+and, holding my good axe yet in my hand, gazed at him with steady eyes.
+On he came, a horror indeed, but I did not flinch. Endurance must
+conquer, where force could not reach. He came nearer and nearer, till
+the ghastly face was close to mine. A shudder as of death ran through
+me; but I think I did not move, for he seemed to quail, and retreated.
+As soon as he gave back, I struck one more sturdy blow on the stem of
+his tree, that the forest rang; and then looked at him again. He
+writhed and grinned with rage and apparent pain, and again approached
+me, but retreated sooner than before. I heeded him no more, but hewed
+with a will at the tree, till the trunk creaked, and the head bowed,
+and with a crash it fell to the earth. Then I looked up from my labour,
+and lo! the spectre had vanished, and I saw him no more; nor ever in my
+wanderings have I heard of him again.”
+
+“Well struck! well withstood! my hero,” said the lady.
+
+“But,” said the knight, somewhat troubled, “dost thou love the youth
+still?”
+
+“Ah!” she replied, “how can I help it? He woke me from worse than
+death; he loved me. I had never been for thee, if he had not sought me
+first. But I love him not as I love thee. He was but the moon of my
+night; thou art the sun of my day, O beloved.”
+
+“Thou art right,” returned the noble man. “It were hard, indeed, not to
+have some love in return for such a gift as he hath given thee. I, too,
+owe him more than words can speak.”
+
+Humbled before them, with an aching and desolate heart, I yet could not
+restrain my words:
+
+“Let me, then, be the moon of thy night still, O woman! And when thy
+day is beclouded, as the fairest days will be, let some song of mine
+comfort thee, as an old, withered, half-forgotten thing, that belongs
+to an ancient mournful hour of uncompleted birth, which yet was
+beautiful in its time.”
+
+They sat silent, and I almost thought they were listening. The colour
+of the lady’s eyes grew deeper and deeper; the slow tears grew, and
+filled them, and overflowed. They rose, and passed, hand in hand, close
+to where I stood; and each looked towards me in passing. Then they
+disappeared through a door which closed behind them; but, ere it
+closed, I saw that the room into which it opened was a rich chamber,
+hung with gorgeous arras. I stood with an ocean of sighs frozen in my
+bosom. I could remain no longer. She was near me, and I could not see
+her; near me in the arms of one loved better than I, and I would not
+see her, and I would not be by her. But how to escape from the nearness
+of the best beloved? I had not this time forgotten the mark; for the
+fact that I could not enter the sphere of these living beings kept me
+aware that, for me, I moved in a vision, while they moved in life. I
+looked all about for the mark, but could see it nowhere; for I avoided
+looking just where it was. There the dull red cipher glowed, on the
+very door of their secret chamber. Struck with agony, I dashed it open,
+and fell at the feet of the ancient woman, who still spun on, the whole
+dissolved ocean of my sighs bursting from me in a storm of tearless
+sobs. Whether I fainted or slept, I do not know; but, as I returned to
+consciousness, before I seemed to have power to move, I heard the woman
+singing, and could distinguish the words:
+
+O light of dead and of dying days!
+    O Love! in thy glory go,
+In a rosy mist and a moony maze,
+    O’er the pathless peaks of snow.
+
+But what is left for the cold gray soul,
+    That moans like a wounded dove?
+One wine is left in the broken bowl!—
+    ‘Tis—_To love, and love and love_.
+
+
+Now I could weep. When she saw me weeping, she sang:
+
+Better to sit at the waters’ birth,
+    Than a sea of waves to win;
+To live in the love that floweth forth,
+    Than the love that cometh in.
+
+Be thy heart a well of love, my child,
+    Flowing, and free, and sure;
+For a cistern of love, though undefiled,
+    Keeps not the spirit pure.
+
+
+I rose from the earth, loving the white lady as I had never loved her
+before.
+
+Then I walked up to the door of Dismay, and opened it, and went out.
+And lo! I came forth upon a crowded street, where men and women went to
+and fro in multitudes. I knew it well; and, turning to one hand, walked
+sadly along the pavement. Suddenly I saw approaching me, a little way
+off, a form well known to me (_well-known!_—alas, how weak the word!)
+in the years when I thought my boyhood was left behind, and shortly
+before I entered the realm of Fairy Land. Wrong and Sorrow had gone
+together, hand-in-hand as it is well they do.
+
+Unchangeably dear was that face. It lay in my heart as a child lies in
+its own white bed; but I could not meet her.
+
+“Anything but that,” I said, and, turning aside, sprang up the steps to
+a door, on which I fancied I saw the mystic sign. I entered—not the
+mysterious cottage, but her home. I rushed wildly on, and stood by the
+door of her room.
+
+“She is out,” I said, “I will see the old room once more.”
+
+I opened the door gently, and stood in a great solemn church. A
+deep-toned bell, whose sounds throbbed and echoed and swam through the
+empty building, struck the hour of midnight. The moon shone through the
+windows of the clerestory, and enough of the ghostly radiance was
+diffused through the church to let me see, walking with a stately, yet
+somewhat trailing and stumbling step, down the opposite aisle, for I
+stood in one of the transepts, a figure dressed in a white robe,
+whether for the night, or for that longer night which lies too deep for
+the day, I could not tell. Was it she? and was this her chamber? I
+crossed the church, and followed. The figure stopped, seemed to ascend
+as it were a high bed, and lay down. I reached the place where it lay,
+glimmering white. The bed was a tomb. The light was too ghostly to see
+clearly, but I passed my hand over the face and the hands and the feet,
+which were all bare. They were cold—they were marble, but I knew them.
+It grew dark. I turned to retrace my steps, but found, ere long, that I
+had wandered into what seemed a little chapel. I groped about, seeking
+the door. Everything I touched belonged to the dead. My hands fell on
+the cold effigy of a knight who lay with his legs crossed and his sword
+broken beside him. He lay in his noble rest, and I lived on in ignoble
+strife. I felt for the left hand and a certain finger; I found there
+the ring I knew: he was one of my own ancestors. I was in the chapel
+over the burial-vault of my race. I called aloud: “If any of the dead
+are moving here, let them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am still
+alive; and let some dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in the
+land of the dead, and see no light.” A warm kiss alighted on my lips
+through the dark. And I said, “The dead kiss well; I will not be
+afraid.” And a great hand was reached out of the dark, and grasped mine
+for a moment, mightily and tenderly. I said to myself: “The veil
+between, though very dark, is very thin.”
+
+Groping my way further, I stumbled over the heavy stone that covered
+the entrance of the vault: and, in stumbling, descried upon the stone
+the mark, glowing in red fire. I caught the great ring. All my effort
+could not have moved the huge slab; but it opened the door of the
+cottage, and I threw myself once more, pale and speechless, on the
+couch beside the ancient dame. She sang once more:
+
+Thou dreamest: on a rock thou art,
+    High o’er the broken wave;
+Thou fallest with a fearful start
+    But not into thy grave;
+For, waking in the morning’s light,
+Thou smilest at the vanished night
+
+So wilt thou sink, all pale and dumb,
+    Into the fainting gloom;
+But ere the coming terrors come,
+    Thou wak’st—where is the tomb?
+Thou wak’st—the dead ones smile above,
+With hovering arms of sleepless love.
+
+
+She paused; then sang again:
+
+We weep for gladness, weep for grief;
+    The tears they are the same;
+We sigh for longing, and relief;
+    The sighs have but one name,
+
+And mingled in the dying strife,
+    Are moans that are not sad
+The pangs of death are throbs of life,
+    Its sighs are sometimes glad.
+
+The face is very strange and white:
+    It is Earth’s only spot
+That feebly flickers back the light
+    The living seeth not.
+
+
+I fell asleep, and slept a dreamless sleep, for I know not how long.
+When I awoke, I found that my hostess had moved from where she had been
+sitting, and now sat between me and the fourth door.
+
+I guessed that her design was to prevent my entering there. I sprang
+from the couch, and darted past her to the door. I opened it at once
+and went out. All I remember is a cry of distress from the woman:
+“Don’t go there, my child! Don’t go there!” But I was gone.
+
+I knew nothing more; or, if I did, I had forgot it all when I awoke to
+consciousness, lying on the floor of the cottage, with my head in the
+lap of the woman, who was weeping over me, and stroking my hair with
+both hands, talking to me as a mother might talk to a sick and
+sleeping, or a dead child. As soon as I looked up and saw her, she
+smiled through her tears; smiled with withered face and young eyes,
+till her countenance was irradiated with the light of the smile. Then
+she bathed my head and face and hands in an icy cold, colourless
+liquid, which smelt a little of damp earth. Immediately I was able to
+sit up. She rose and put some food before me. When I had eaten, she
+said: “Listen to me, my child. You must leave me directly!”
+
+“Leave you!” I said. “I am so happy with you. I never was so happy in
+my life.”
+
+“But you must go,” she rejoined sadly. “Listen! What do you hear?”
+
+“I hear the sound as of a great throbbing of water.”
+
+“Ah! you do hear it? Well, I had to go through that door—the door of
+the Timeless” (and she shuddered as she pointed to the fourth door)—“to
+find you; for if I had not gone, you would never have entered again;
+and because I went, the waters around my cottage will rise and rise,
+and flow and come, till they build a great firmament of waters over my
+dwelling. But as long as I keep my fire burning, they cannot enter. I
+have fuel enough for years; and after one year they will sink away
+again, and be just as they were before you came. I have not been buried
+for a hundred years now.” And she smiled and wept.
+
+“Alas! alas!” I cried. “I have brought this evil on the best and
+kindest of friends, who has filled my heart with great gifts.”
+
+“Do not think of that,” she rejoined. “I can bear it very well. You
+will come back to me some day, I know. But I beg you, for my sake, my
+dear child, to do one thing. In whatever sorrow you may be, however
+inconsolable and irremediable it may appear, believe me that the old
+woman in the cottage, with the young eyes” (and she smiled), “knows
+something, though she must not always tell it, that would quite satisfy
+you about it, even in the worst moments of your distress. Now you must
+go.”
+
+“But how can I go, if the waters are all about, and if the doors all
+lead into other regions and other worlds?”
+
+“This is not an island,” she replied; “but is joined to the land by a
+narrow neck; and for the door, I will lead you myself through the right
+one.”
+
+She took my hand, and led me through the third door; whereupon I found
+myself standing in the deep grassy turf on which I had landed from the
+little boat, but upon the opposite side of the cottage. She pointed out
+the direction I must take, to find the isthmus and escape the rising
+waters.
+
+Then putting her arms around me, she held me to her bosom; and as I
+kissed her, I felt as if I were leaving my mother for the first time,
+and could not help weeping bitterly. At length she gently pushed me
+away, and with the words, “Go, my son, and do something worth doing,”
+turned back, and, entering the cottage, closed the door behind her. I
+felt very desolate as I went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+“Thou hadst no fame; that which thou didst like good
+Was but thy appetite that swayed thy blood
+For that time to the best; for as a blast
+That through a house comes, usually doth cast
+Things out of order, yet by chance may come
+And blow some one thing to his proper room,
+So did thy appetite, and not thy zeal,
+Sway thee by chance to do some one thing well.”
+          FLETCHER’S _Faithful Shepherdess_.
+
+“The noble hart that harbours vertuous thought
+And is with childe of glorious great intent,
+Can never rest, until it forth have brought
+Th’ eternall brood of glorie excellent.”
+          SPENSER, _The Faerie Queene_.
+
+
+I had not gone very far before I felt that the turf beneath my feet was
+soaked with the rising waters. But I reached the isthmus in safety. It
+was rocky, and so much higher than the level of the peninsula, that I
+had plenty of time to cross. I saw on each side of me the water rising
+rapidly, altogether without wind, or violent motion, or broken waves,
+but as if a slow strong fire were glowing beneath it. Ascending a steep
+acclivity, I found myself at last in an open, rocky country. After
+travelling for some hours, as nearly in a straight line as I could, I
+arrived at a lonely tower, built on the top of a little hill, which
+overlooked the whole neighbouring country. As I approached, I heard the
+clang of an anvil; and so rapid were the blows, that I despaired of
+making myself heard till a pause in the work should ensue. It was some
+minutes before a cessation took place; but when it did, I knocked
+loudly, and had not long to wait; for, a moment after, the door was
+partly opened by a noble-looking youth, half-undressed, glowing with
+heat, and begrimed with the blackness of the forge. In one hand he held
+a sword, so lately from the furnace that it yet shone with a dull fire.
+As soon as he saw me, he threw the door wide open, and standing aside,
+invited me very cordially to enter. I did so; when he shut and bolted
+the door most carefully, and then led the way inwards. He brought me
+into a rude hall, which seemed to occupy almost the whole of the ground
+floor of the little tower, and which I saw was now being used as a
+workshop. A huge fire roared on the hearth, beside which was an anvil.
+By the anvil stood, in similar undress, and in a waiting attitude,
+hammer in hand, a second youth, tall as the former, but far more
+slightly built. Reversing the usual course of perception in such
+meetings, I thought them, at first sight, very unlike; and at the
+second glance, knew that they were brothers. The former, and apparently
+the elder, was muscular and dark, with curling hair, and large hazel
+eyes, which sometimes grew wondrously soft. The second was slender and
+fair, yet with a countenance like an eagle, and an eye which, though
+pale blue, shone with an almost fierce expression. He stood erect, as
+if looking from a lofty mountain crag, over a vast plain outstretched
+below. As soon as we entered the hall, the elder turned to me, and I
+saw that a glow of satisfaction shone on both their faces. To my
+surprise and great pleasure, he addressed me thus:
+
+“Brother, will you sit by the fire and rest, till we finish this part
+of our work?”
+
+I signified my assent; and, resolved to await any disclosure they might
+be inclined to make, seated myself in silence near the hearth.
+
+The elder brother then laid the sword in the fire, covered it well
+over, and when it had attained a sufficient degree of heat, drew it out
+and laid it on the anvil, moving it carefully about, while the younger,
+with a succession of quick smart blows, appeared either to be welding
+it, or hammering one part of it to a consenting shape with the rest.
+Having finished, they laid it carefully in the fire; and, when it was
+very hot indeed, plunged it into a vessel full of some liquid, whence a
+blue flame sprang upwards, as the glowing steel entered.
+
+There they left it; and drawing two stools to the fire, sat down, one
+on each side of me.
+
+“We are very glad to see you, brother. We have been expecting you for
+some days,” said the dark-haired youth.
+
+“I am proud to be called your brother,” I rejoined; “and you will not
+think I refuse the name, if I desire to know why you honour me with
+it?”
+
+“Ah! then he does not know about it,” said the younger. “We thought you
+had known of the bond betwixt us, and the work we have to do together.
+You must tell him, brother, from the first.”
+
+So the elder began:
+
+“Our father is king of this country. Before we were born, three giant
+brothers had appeared in the land. No one knew exactly when, and no one
+had the least idea whence they came. They took possession of a ruined
+castle that had stood unchanged and unoccupied within the memory of any
+of the country people. The vaults of this castle had remained uninjured
+by time, and these, I presume, they made use of at first. They were
+rarely seen, and never offered the least injury to any one; so that
+they were regarded in the neighbourhood as at least perfectly harmless,
+if not rather benevolent beings. But it began to be observed, that the
+old castle had assumed somehow or other, no one knew when or how, a
+somewhat different look from what it used to have. Not only were
+several breaches in the lower part of the walls built up, but actually
+some of the battlements which yet stood, had been repaired, apparently
+to prevent them from falling into worse decay, while the more important
+parts were being restored. Of course, every one supposed the giants
+must have a hand in the work, but no one ever saw them engaged in it.
+The peasants became yet more uneasy, after one, who had concealed
+himself, and watched all night, in the neighbourhood of the castle,
+reported that he had seen, in full moonlight, the three huge giants
+working with might and main, all night long, restoring to their former
+position some massive stones, formerly steps of a grand turnpike stair,
+a great portion of which had long since fallen, along with part of the
+wall of the round tower in which it had been built. This wall they were
+completing, foot by foot, along with the stair. But the people said
+they had no just pretext for interfering: although the real reason for
+letting the giants alone was, that everybody was far too much afraid of
+them to interrupt them.
+
+“At length, with the help of a neighbouring quarry, the whole of the
+external wall of the castle was finished. And now the country folks
+were in greater fear than before. But for several years the giants
+remained very peaceful. The reason of this was afterwards supposed to
+be the fact, that they were distantly related to several good people in
+the country; for, as long as these lived, they remained quiet; but as
+soon as they were all dead the real nature of the giants broke out.
+Having completed the outside of their castle, they proceeded, by
+spoiling the country houses around them, to make a quiet luxurious
+provision for their comfort within. Affairs reached such a pass, that
+the news of their robberies came to my father’s ears; but he, alas! was
+so crippled in his resources, by a war he was carrying on with a
+neighbouring prince, that he could only spare a very few men, to
+attempt the capture of their stronghold. Upon these the giants issued
+in the night, and slew every man of them. And now, grown bolder by
+success and impunity, they no longer confined their depredations to
+property, but began to seize the persons of their distinguished
+neighbours, knights and ladies, and hold them in durance, the misery of
+which was heightened by all manner of indignity, until they were
+redeemed by their friends, at an exorbitant ransom. Many knights have
+adventured their overthrow, but to their own instead; for they have all
+been slain, or captured, or forced to make a hasty retreat. To crown
+their enormities, if any man now attempts their destruction, they,
+immediately upon his defeat, put one or more of their captives to a
+shameful death, on a turret in sight of all passers-by; so that they
+have been much less molested of late; and we, although we have burned,
+for years, to attack these demons and destroy them, dared not, for the
+sake of their captives, risk the adventure, before we should have
+reached at least our earliest manhood. Now, however, we are preparing
+for the attempt; and the grounds of this preparation are these. Having
+only the resolution, and not the experience necessary for the
+undertaking, we went and consulted a lonely woman of wisdom, who lives
+not very far from here, in the direction of the quarter from which you
+have come. She received us most kindly, and gave us what seems to us
+the best of advice. She first inquired what experience we had had in
+arms. We told her we had been well exercised from our boyhood, and for
+some years had kept ourselves in constant practice, with a view to this
+necessity.
+
+“‘But you have not actually fought for life and death?’ said she.
+
+“We were forced to confess we had not.
+
+“‘So much the better in some respects,’ she replied. ‘Now listen to me.
+Go first and work with an armourer, for as long time as you find
+needful to obtain a knowledge of his craft; which will not be long,
+seeing your hearts will be all in the work. Then go to some lonely
+tower, you two alone. Receive no visits from man or woman. There forge
+for yourselves every piece of armour that you wish to wear, or to use,
+in your coming encounter. And keep up your exercises. As, however, two
+of you can be no match for the three giants, I will find you, if I can,
+a third brother, who will take on himself the third share of the fight,
+and the preparation. Indeed, I have already seen one who will, I think,
+be the very man for your fellowship, but it will be some time before he
+comes to me. He is wandering now without an aim. I will show him to you
+in a glass, and, when he comes, you will know him at once. If he will
+share your endeavours, you must teach him all you know, and he will
+repay you well, in present song, and in future deeds.’
+
+“She opened the door of a curious old cabinet that stood in the room.
+On the inside of this door was an oval convex mirror. Looking in it for
+some time, we at length saw reflected the place where we stood, and the
+old dame seated in her chair. Our forms were not reflected. But at the
+feet of the dame lay a young man, yourself, weeping.
+
+“‘Surely this youth will not serve our ends,’ said I, ‘for he weeps.’
+
+“The old woman smiled. ‘Past tears are present strength,’ said she.
+
+“‘Oh!’ said my brother, ‘I saw you weep once over an eagle you shot.’
+
+“‘That was because it was so like you, brother,’ I replied; ‘but
+indeed, this youth may have better cause for tears than that—I was
+wrong.’
+
+“‘Wait a while,’ said the woman; ‘if I mistake not, he will make you
+weep till your tears are dry for ever. Tears are the only cure for
+weeping. And you may have need of the cure, before you go forth to
+fight the giants. You must wait for him, in your tower, till he comes.’
+
+“Now if you will join us, we will soon teach you to make your armour;
+and we will fight together, and work together, and love each other as
+never three loved before. And you will sing to us, will you not?”
+
+“That I will, when I can,” I answered; “but it is only at times that
+the power of song comes upon me. For that I must wait; but I have a
+feeling that if I work well, song will not be far off to enliven the
+labour.”
+
+This was all the compact made: the brothers required nothing more, and
+I did not think of giving anything more. I rose, and threw off my upper
+garments.
+
+“I know the uses of the sword,” I said. “I am ashamed of my white hands
+beside yours so nobly soiled and hard; but that shame will soon be
+wiped away.”
+
+“No, no; we will not work to-day. Rest is as needful as toil. Bring the
+wine, brother; it is your turn to serve to-day.”
+
+The younger brother soon covered a table with rough viands, but good
+wine; and we ate and drank heartily, beside our work. Before the meal
+was over, I had learned all their story. Each had something in his
+heart which made the conviction, that he would victoriously perish in
+the coming conflict, a real sorrow to him. Otherwise they thought they
+would have lived enough. The causes of their trouble were respectively
+these:
+
+While they wrought with an armourer, in a city famed for workmanship in
+steel and silver, the elder had fallen in love with a lady as far
+beneath him in real rank, as she was above the station he had as
+apprentice to an armourer. Nor did he seek to further his suit by
+discovering himself; but there was simply so much manhood about him,
+that no one ever thought of rank when in his company. This is what his
+brother said about it. The lady could not help loving him in return. He
+told her when he left her, that he had a perilous adventure before him,
+and that when it was achieved, she would either see him return to claim
+her, or hear that he had died with honour. The younger brother’s grief
+arose from the fact, that, if they were both slain, his old father, the
+king, would be childless. His love for his father was so exceeding,
+that to one unable to sympathise with it, it would have appeared
+extravagant. Both loved him equally at heart; but the love of the
+younger had been more developed, because his thoughts and anxieties had
+not been otherwise occupied. When at home, he had been his constant
+companion; and, of late, had ministered to the infirmities of his
+growing age. The youth was never weary of listening to the tales of his
+sire’s youthful adventures; and had not yet in the smallest degree lost
+the conviction, that his father was the greatest man in the world. The
+grandest triumph possible to his conception was, to return to his
+father, laden with the spoils of one of the hated giants. But they both
+were in some dread, lest the thought of the loneliness of these two
+might occur to them, in the moment when decision was most necessary,
+and disturb, in some degree, the self-possession requisite for the
+success of their attempt. For, as I have said, they were yet untried in
+actual conflict. “Now,” thought I, “I see to what the powers of my gift
+must minister.” For my own part, I did not dread death, for I had
+nothing to care to live for; but I dreaded the encounter because of the
+responsibility connected with it. I resolved however to work hard, and
+thus grow cool, and quick, and forceful.
+
+The time passed away in work and song, in talk and ramble, in friendly
+fight and brotherly aid. I would not forge for myself armour of heavy
+mail like theirs, for I was not so powerful as they, and depended more
+for any success I might secure, upon nimbleness of motion, certainty of
+eye, and ready response of hand. Therefore I began to make for myself a
+shirt of steel plates and rings; which work, while more troublesome,
+was better suited to me than the heavier labour. Much assistance did
+the brothers give me, even after, by their instructions, I was able to
+make some progress alone. Their work was in a moment abandoned, to
+render any required aid to mine. As the old woman had promised, I tried
+to repay them with song; and many were the tears they both shed over my
+ballads and dirges. The songs they liked best to hear were two which I
+made for them. They were not half so good as many others I knew,
+especially some I had learned from the wise woman in the cottage; but
+what comes nearest to our needs we like the best.
+
+I
+
+
+The king sat on his throne
+    Glowing in gold and red;
+The crown in his right hand shone,
+    And the gray hairs crowned his head.
+
+His only son walks in,
+    And in walls of steel he stands:
+Make me, O father, strong to win,
+    With the blessing of holy hands.”
+
+He knelt before his sire,
+    Who blessed him with feeble smile
+His eyes shone out with a kingly fire,
+    But his old lips quivered the while.
+
+“Go to the fight, my son,
+    Bring back the giant’s head;
+And the crown with which my brows have done,
+    Shall glitter on thine instead.”
+
+“My father, I seek no crowns,
+    But unspoken praise from thee;
+For thy people’s good, and thy renown,
+    I will die to set them free.”
+
+The king sat down and waited there,
+    And rose not, night nor day;
+Till a sound of shouting filled the air,
+    And cries of a sore dismay.
+
+Then like a king he sat once more,
+    With the crown upon his head;
+And up to the throne the people bore
+    A mighty giant dead.
+
+And up to the throne the people bore
+    A pale and lifeless boy.
+The king rose up like a prophet of yore,
+    In a lofty, deathlike joy.
+
+He put the crown on the chilly brow:
+    “Thou should’st have reigned with me
+But Death is the king of both, and now
+    I go to obey with thee.
+
+“Surely some good in me there lay,
+    To beget the noble one.”
+The old man smiled like a winter day,
+    And fell beside his son.
+
+
+II
+
+
+“O lady, thy lover is dead,” they cried;
+    “He is dead, but hath slain the foe;
+He hath left his name to be magnified
+    In a song of wonder and woe.”
+
+“Alas! I am well repaid,” said she,
+    “With a pain that stings like joy:
+For I feared, from his tenderness to me,
+    That he was but a feeble boy.
+
+“Now I shall hold my head on high,
+    The queen among my kind;
+If ye hear a sound, ‘tis only a sigh
+    For a glory left behind.”
+
+
+The first three times I sang these songs they both wept passionately.
+But after the third time, they wept no more. Their eyes shone, and
+their faces grew pale, but they never wept at any of my songs again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+“I put my life in my hands.”
+          _The Book of Judges_.
+
+
+At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was finished.
+We armed each other, and tested the strength of the defence, with many
+blows of loving force. I was inferior in strength to both my brothers,
+but a little more agile than either; and upon this agility, joined to
+precision in hitting with the point of my weapon, I grounded my hopes
+of success in the ensuing combat. I likewise laboured to develop yet
+more the keenness of sight with which I was naturally gifted; and, from
+the remarks of my companions, I soon learned that my endeavours were
+not in vain.
+
+The morning arrived on which we had determined to make the attempt, and
+succeed or perish—perhaps both. We had resolved to fight on foot;
+knowing that the mishap of many of the knights who had made the
+attempt, had resulted from the fright of their horses at the appearance
+of the giants; and believing with Sir Gawain, that, though mare’s sons
+might be false to us, the earth would never prove a traitor. But most
+of our preparations were, in their immediate aim at least, frustrated.
+
+We rose, that fatal morning, by daybreak. We had rested from all labour
+the day before, and now were fresh as the lark. We bathed in cold
+spring water, and dressed ourselves in clean garments, with a sense of
+preparation, as for a solemn festivity. When we had broken our fast, I
+took an old lyre, which I had found in the tower and had myself
+repaired, and sung for the last time the two ballads of which I have
+said so much already. I followed them with this, for a closing song:
+
+Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+    With the blow that ends the strife
+And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+    Around the pain of life!
+
+We are dead, my brothers! Our bodies clasp,
+    As an armour, our souls about;
+This hand is the battle-axe I grasp,
+    And this my hammer stout.
+
+Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead;
+    No noise can break our rest;
+The calm of the grave is about the head,
+    And the heart heaves not the breast.
+
+And our life we throw to our people back,
+    To live with, a further store;
+We leave it them, that there be no lack
+    In the land where we live no more.
+
+Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+    With the blow that ends the strife
+And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+    Around the noise of life!
+
+
+As the last few tones of the instrument were following, like a dirge,
+the death of the song, we all sprang to our feet. For, through one of
+the little windows of the tower, towards which I had looked as I sang,
+I saw, suddenly rising over the edge of the slope on which our tower
+stood, three enormous heads. The brothers knew at once, by my looks,
+what caused my sudden movement. We were utterly unarmed, and there was
+no time to arm.
+
+But we seemed to adopt the same resolution simultaneously; for each
+caught up his favourite weapon, and, leaving his defence behind, sprang
+to the door. I snatched up a long rapier, abruptly, but very finely
+pointed, in my sword-hand, and in the other a sabre; the elder brother
+seized his heavy battle-axe; and the younger, a great, two-handed
+sword, which he wielded in one hand like a feather. We had just time to
+get clear of the tower, embrace and say good-bye, and part to some
+little distance, that we might not encumber each other’s motions, ere
+the triple giant-brotherhood drew near to attack us. They were about
+twice our height, and armed to the teeth. Through the visors of their
+helmets their monstrous eyes shone with a horrible ferocity. I was in
+the middle position, and the middle giant approached me. My eyes were
+busy with his armour, and I was not a moment in settling my mode of
+attack. I saw that his body-armour was somewhat clumsily made, and that
+the overlappings in the lower part had more play than necessary; and I
+hoped that, in a fortunate moment, some joint would open a little, in a
+visible and accessible part. I stood till he came near enough to aim a
+blow at me with the mace, which has been, in all ages, the favourite
+weapon of giants, when, of course, I leaped aside, and let the blow
+fall upon the spot where I had been standing. I expected this would
+strain the joints of his armour yet more. Full of fury, he made at me
+again; but I kept him busy, constantly eluding his blows, and hoping
+thus to fatigue him. He did not seem to fear any assault from me, and I
+attempted none as yet; but while I watched his motions in order to
+avoid his blows, I, at the same time, kept equal watch upon those
+joints of his armour, through some one of which I hoped to reach his
+life. At length, as if somewhat fatigued, he paused a moment, and drew
+himself slightly up; I bounded forward, foot and hand, ran my rapier
+right through to the armour of his back, let go the hilt, and passing
+under his right arm, turned as he fell, and flew at him with my sabre.
+At one happy blow I divided the band of his helmet, which fell off, and
+allowed me, with a second cut across the eyes, to blind him quite;
+after which I clove his head, and turned, uninjured, to see how my
+brothers had fared. Both the giants were down, but so were my brothers.
+I flew first to the one and then to the other couple. Both pairs of
+combatants were dead, and yet locked together, as in the
+death-struggle. The elder had buried his battle-axe in the body of his
+foe, and had fallen beneath him as he fell. The giant had strangled him
+in his own death-agonies. The younger had nearly hewn off the left leg
+of his enemy; and, grappled with in the act, had, while they rolled
+together on the earth, found for his dagger a passage betwixt the
+gorget and cuirass of the giant, and stabbed him mortally in the
+throat. The blood from the giant’s throat was yet pouring over the hand
+of his foe, which still grasped the hilt of the dagger sheathed in the
+wound. They lay silent. I, the least worthy, remained the sole survivor
+in the lists.
+
+As I stood exhausted amidst the dead, after the first worthy deed of my
+life, I suddenly looked behind me, and there lay the Shadow, black in
+the sunshine. I went into the lonely tower, and there lay the useless
+armour of the noble youths—supine as they.
+
+Ah, how sad it looked! It was a glorious death, but it was death. My
+songs could not comfort me now. I was almost ashamed that I was alive,
+when they, the true-hearted, were no more. And yet I breathed freer to
+think that I had gone through the trial, and had not failed. And
+perhaps I may be forgiven, if some feelings of pride arose in my bosom,
+when I looked down on the mighty form that lay dead by my hand.
+
+“After all, however,” I said to myself, and my heart sank, “it was only
+skill. Your giant was but a blunderer.”
+
+I left the bodies of friends and foes, peaceful enough when the
+death-fight was over, and, hastening to the country below, roused the
+peasants. They came with shouting and gladness, bringing waggons to
+carry the bodies. I resolved to take the princes home to their father,
+each as he lay, in the arms of his country’s foe. But first I searched
+the giants, and found the keys of their castle, to which I repaired,
+followed by a great company of the people. It was a place of wonderful
+strength. I released the prisoners, knights and ladies, all in a sad
+condition, from the cruelties and neglects of the giants. It humbled me
+to see them crowding round me with thanks, when in truth the glorious
+brothers, lying dead by their lonely tower, were those to whom the
+thanks belonged. I had but aided in carrying out the thought born in
+their brain, and uttered in visible form before ever I laid hold
+thereupon. Yet I did count myself happy to have been chosen for their
+brother in this great deed.
+
+After a few hours spent in refreshing and clothing the prisoners, we
+all commenced our journey towards the capital. This was slow at first;
+but, as the strength and spirits of the prisoners returned, it became
+more rapid; and in three days we reached the palace of the king. As we
+entered the city gates, with the huge bulks lying each on a waggon
+drawn by horses, and two of them inextricably intertwined with the dead
+bodies of their princes, the people raised a shout and then a cry, and
+followed in multitudes the solemn procession.
+
+I will not attempt to describe the behaviour of the grand old king. Joy
+and pride in his sons overcame his sorrow at their loss. On me he
+heaped every kindness that heart could devise or hand execute. He used
+to sit and question me, night after night, about everything that was in
+any way connected with them and their preparations. Our mode of life,
+and relation to each other, during the time we spent together, was a
+constant theme. He entered into the minutest details of the
+construction of the armour, even to a peculiar mode of riveting some of
+the plates, with unwearying interest. This armour I had intended to beg
+of the king, as my sole memorials of the contest; but, when I saw the
+delight he took in contemplating it, and the consolation it appeared to
+afford him in his sorrow, I could not ask for it; but, at his request,
+left my own, weapons and all, to be joined with theirs in a trophy,
+erected in the grand square of the palace. The king, with gorgeous
+ceremony, dubbed me knight with his own old hand, in which trembled the
+sword of his youth.
+
+During the short time I remained, my company was, naturally, much
+courted by the young nobles. I was in a constant round of gaiety and
+diversion, notwithstanding that the court was in mourning. For the
+country was so rejoiced at the death of the giants, and so many of
+their lost friends had been restored to the nobility and men of wealth,
+that the gladness surpassed the grief. “Ye have indeed left your lives
+to your people, my great brothers!” I said.
+
+But I was ever and ever haunted by the old shadow, which I had not seen
+all the time that I was at work in the tower. Even in the society of
+the ladies of the court, who seemed to think it only their duty to make
+my stay there as pleasant to me as possible, I could not help being
+conscious of its presence, although it might not be annoying me at the
+time. At length, somewhat weary of uninterrupted pleasure, and nowise
+strengthened thereby, either in body or mind, I put on a splendid suit
+of armour of steel inlaid with silver, which the old king had given me,
+and, mounting the horse on which it had been brought to me, took my
+leave of the palace, to visit the distant city in which the lady dwelt,
+whom the elder prince had loved. I anticipated a sore task, in
+conveying to her the news of his glorious fate: but this trial was
+spared me, in a manner as strange as anything that had happened to me
+in Fairy Land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+“No one has my form but the _I_.”
+          _Schoppe_, in JEAN PAUL’S _Titan_.
+
+“Joy’s a subtil elf.
+I think man’s happiest when he forgets himself.”
+          CYRIL TOURNEUR, _The Revenger’s Tragedy_.
+
+
+On the third day of my journey, I was riding gently along a road,
+apparently little frequented, to judge from the grass that grew upon
+it. I was approaching a forest. Everywhere in Fairy Land forests are
+the places where one may most certainly expect adventures. As I drew
+near, a youth, unarmed, gentle, and beautiful, who had just cut a
+branch from a yew growing on the skirts of the wood, evidently to make
+himself a bow, met me, and thus accosted me:
+
+“Sir knight, be careful as thou ridest through this forest; for it is
+said to be strangely enchanted, in a sort which even those who have
+been witnesses of its enchantment can hardly describe.”
+
+I thanked him for his advice, which I promised to follow, and rode on.
+But the moment I entered the wood, it seemed to me that, if enchantment
+there was, it must be of a good kind; for the Shadow, which had been
+more than usually dark and distressing, since I had set out on this
+journey, suddenly disappeared. I felt a wonderful elevation of spirits,
+and began to reflect on my past life, and especially on my combat with
+the giants, with such satisfaction, that I had actually to remind
+myself, that I had only killed one of them; and that, but for the
+brothers, I should never have had the idea of attacking them, not to
+mention the smallest power of standing to it. Still I rejoiced, and
+counted myself amongst the glorious knights of old; having even the
+unspeakable presumption—my shame and self-condemnation at the memory of
+it are such, that I write it as the only and sorest penance I can
+perform—to think of myself (will the world believe it?) as side by side
+with Sir Galahad! Scarcely had the thought been born in my mind, when,
+approaching me from the left, through the trees, I espied a resplendent
+knight, of mighty size, whose armour seemed to shine of itself, without
+the sun. When he drew near, I was astonished to see that this armour
+was like my own; nay, I could trace, line for line, the correspondence
+of the inlaid silver to the device on my own. His horse, too, was like
+mine in colour, form, and motion; save that, like his rider, he was
+greater and fiercer than his counterpart. The knight rode with beaver
+up. As he halted right opposite to me in the narrow path, barring my
+way, I saw the reflection of my countenance in the centre plate of
+shining steel on his breastplate. Above it rose the same face—his
+face—only, as I have said, larger and fiercer. I was bewildered. I
+could not help feeling some admiration of him, but it was mingled with
+a dim conviction that he was evil, and that I ought to fight with him.
+
+“Let me pass,” I said.
+
+“When I will,” he replied.
+
+Something within me said: “Spear in rest, and ride at him! else thou
+art for ever a slave.”
+
+I tried, but my arm trembled so much, that I could not couch my lance.
+To tell the truth, I, who had overcome the giant, shook like a coward
+before this knight. He gave a scornful laugh, that echoed through the
+wood, turned his horse, and said, without looking round, “Follow me.”
+
+I obeyed, abashed and stupefied. How long he led, and how long I
+followed, I cannot tell. “I never knew misery before,” I said to
+myself. “Would that I had at least struck him, and had had my
+death-blow in return! Why, then, do I not call to him to wheel and
+defend himself? Alas! I know not why, but I cannot. One look from him
+would cow me like a beaten hound.” I followed, and was silent.
+
+At length we came to a dreary square tower, in the middle of a dense
+forest. It looked as if scarce a tree had been cut down to make room
+for it. Across the very door, diagonally, grew the stem of a tree, so
+large that there was just room to squeeze past it in order to enter.
+One miserable square hole in the roof was the only visible suggestion
+of a window. Turret or battlement, or projecting masonry of any kind,
+it had none. Clear and smooth and massy, it rose from its base, and
+ended with a line straight and unbroken. The roof, carried to a centre
+from each of the four walls, rose slightly to the point where the
+rafters met. Round the base lay several little heaps of either bits of
+broken branches, withered and peeled, or half-whitened bones; I could
+not distinguish which. As I approached, the ground sounded hollow
+beneath my horse’s hoofs. The knight took a great key from his pocket,
+and reaching past the stem of the tree, with some difficulty opened the
+door. “Dismount,” he commanded. I obeyed. He turned my horse’s head
+away from the tower, gave him a terrible blow with the flat side of his
+sword, and sent him madly tearing through the forest.
+
+“Now,” said he, “enter, and take your companion with you.”
+
+I looked round: knight and horse had vanished, and behind me lay the
+horrible shadow. I entered, for I could not help myself; and the shadow
+followed me. I had a terrible conviction that the knight and he were
+one. The door closed behind me.
+
+Now I was indeed in pitiful plight. There was literally nothing in the
+tower but my shadow and me. The walls rose right up to the roof; in
+which, as I had seen from without, there was one little square opening.
+This I now knew to be the only window the tower possessed. I sat down
+on the floor, in listless wretchedness. I think I must have fallen
+asleep, and have slept for hours; for I suddenly became aware of
+existence, in observing that the moon was shining through the hole in
+the roof. As she rose higher and higher, her light crept down the wall
+over me, till at last it shone right upon my head. Instantaneously the
+walls of the tower seemed to vanish away like a mist. I sat beneath a
+beech, on the edge of a forest, and the open country lay, in the
+moonlight, for miles and miles around me, spotted with glimmering
+houses and spires and towers. I thought with myself, “Oh, joy! it was
+only a dream; the horrible narrow waste is gone, and I wake beneath a
+beech-tree, perhaps one that loves me, and I can go where I will.” I
+rose, as I thought, and walked about, and did what I would, but ever
+kept near the tree; for always, and, of course, since my meeting with
+the woman of the beech-tree far more than ever, I loved that tree. So
+the night wore on. I waited for the sun to rise, before I could venture
+to renew my journey. But as soon as the first faint light of the dawn
+appeared, instead of shining upon me from the eye of the morning, it
+stole like a fainting ghost through the little square hole above my
+head; and the walls came out as the light grew, and the glorious night
+was swallowed up of the hateful day. The long dreary day passed. My
+shadow lay black on the floor. I felt no hunger, no need of food. The
+night came. The moon shone. I watched her light slowly descending the
+wall, as I might have watched, adown the sky, the long, swift approach
+of a helping angel. Her rays touched me, and I was free. Thus night
+after night passed away. I should have died but for this. Every night
+the conviction returned, that I was free. Every morning I sat
+wretchedly disconsolate. At length, when the course of the moon no
+longer permitted her beams to touch me, the night was dreary as the
+day.
+
+When I slept, I was somewhat consoled by my dreams; but all the time I
+dreamed, I knew that I was only dreaming. But one night, at length, the
+moon, a mere shred of pallor, scattered a few thin ghostly rays upon
+me; and I think I fell asleep and dreamed. I sat in an autumn night
+before the vintage, on a hill overlooking my own castle. My heart
+sprang with joy. Oh, to be a child again, innocent, fearless, without
+shame or desire! I walked down to the castle. All were in consternation
+at my absence. My sisters were weeping for my loss. They sprang up and
+clung to me, with incoherent cries, as I entered. My old friends came
+flocking round me. A gray light shone on the roof of the hall. It was
+the light of the dawn shining through the square window of my tower.
+More earnestly than ever, I longed for freedom after this dream; more
+drearily than ever, crept on the next wretched day. I measured by the
+sunbeams, caught through the little window in the trap of my tower, how
+it went by, waiting only for the dreams of the night.
+
+About noon, I started as if something foreign to all my senses and all
+my experience, had suddenly invaded me; yet it was only the voice of a
+woman singing. My whole frame quivered with joy, surprise, and the
+sensation of the unforeseen. Like a living soul, like an incarnation of
+Nature, the song entered my prison-house. Each tone folded its wings,
+and laid itself, like a caressing bird, upon my heart. It bathed me
+like a sea; inwrapt me like an odorous vapour; entered my soul like a
+long draught of clear spring-water; shone upon me like essential
+sunlight; soothed me like a mother’s voice and hand. Yet, as the
+clearest forest-well tastes sometimes of the bitterness of decayed
+leaves, so to my weary, prisoned heart, its cheerfulness had a sting of
+cold, and its tenderness unmanned me with the faintness of
+long-departed joys. I wept half-bitterly, half-luxuriously; but not
+long. I dashed away the tears, ashamed of a weakness which I thought I
+had abandoned. Ere I knew, I had walked to the door, and seated myself
+with my ears against it, in order to catch every syllable of the
+revelation from the unseen outer world. And now I heard each word
+distinctly. The singer seemed to be standing or sitting near the tower,
+for the sounds indicated no change of place. The song was something
+like this:
+
+The sun, like a golden knot on high,
+Gathers the glories of the sky,
+And binds them into a shining tent,
+Roofing the world with the firmament.
+And through the pavilion the rich winds blow,
+And through the pavilion the waters go.
+And the birds for joy, and the trees for prayer,
+Bowing their heads in the sunny air,
+And for thoughts, the gently talking springs,
+That come from the centre with secret things—
+All make a music, gentle and strong,
+Bound by the heart into one sweet song.
+And amidst them all, the mother Earth
+Sits with the children of her birth;
+She tendeth them all, as a mother hen
+Her little ones round her, twelve or ten:
+Oft she sitteth, with hands on knee,
+Idle with love for her family.
+Go forth to her from the dark and the dust,
+And weep beside her, if weep thou must;
+If she may not hold thee to her breast,
+Like a weary infant, that cries for rest
+At least she will press thee to her knee,
+And tell a low, sweet tale to thee,
+Till the hue to thy cheeky and the light to thine eye,
+Strength to thy limbs, and courage high
+To thy fainting heart, return amain,
+And away to work thou goest again.
+From the narrow desert, O man of pride,
+Come into the house, so high and wide.
+
+
+Hardly knowing what I did, I opened the door. Why had I not done so
+before? I do not know.
+
+At first I could see no one; but when I had forced myself past the tree
+which grew across the entrance, I saw, seated on the ground, and
+leaning against the tree, with her back to my prison, a beautiful
+woman. Her countenance seemed known to me, and yet unknown. She looked
+at me and smiled, when I made my appearance.
+
+“Ah! were you the prisoner there? I am very glad I have wiled you out.”
+
+“Do you know me then?”
+
+“Do you not know me? But you hurt me, and that, I suppose, makes it
+easy for a man to forget. You broke my globe. Yet I thank you. Perhaps
+I owe you many thanks for breaking it. I took the pieces, all black,
+and wet with crying over them, to the Fairy Queen. There was no music
+and no light in them now. But she took them from me, and laid them
+aside; and made me go to sleep in a great hall of white, with black
+pillars, and many red curtains. When I woke in the morning, I went to
+her, hoping to have my globe again, whole and sound; but she sent me
+away without it, and I have not seen it since. Nor do I care for it
+now. I have something so much better. I do not need the globe to play
+to me; for I can sing. I could not sing at all before. Now I go about
+everywhere through Fairy Land, singing till my heart is like to break,
+just like my globe, for very joy at my own songs. And wherever I go, my
+songs do good, and deliver people. And now I have delivered you, and I
+am so happy.”
+
+She ceased, and the tears came into her eyes.
+
+All this time, I had been gazing at her; and now fully recognised the
+face of the child, glorified in the countenance of the woman.
+
+I was ashamed and humbled before her; but a great weight was lifted
+from my thoughts. I knelt before her, and thanked her, and begged her
+to forgive me.
+
+“Rise, rise,” she said; “I have nothing to forgive; I thank you. But
+now I must be gone, for I do not know how many may be waiting for me,
+here and there, through the dark forests; and they cannot come out till
+I come.”
+
+She rose, and with a smile and a farewell, turned and left me. I dared
+not ask her to stay; in fact, I could hardly speak to her. Between her
+and me, there was a great gulf. She was uplifted, by sorrow and
+well-doing, into a region I could hardly hope ever to enter. I watched
+her departure, as one watches a sunset. She went like a radiance
+through the dark wood, which was henceforth bright to me, from simply
+knowing that such a creature was in it.
+
+She was bearing the sun to the unsunned spots. The light and the music
+of her broken globe were now in her heart and her brain. As she went,
+she sang; and I caught these few words of her song; and the tones
+seemed to linger and wind about the trees after she had disappeared:
+
+Thou goest thine, and I go mine—
+    Many ways we wend;
+Many days, and many ways,
+    Ending in one end.
+
+Many a wrong, and its curing song;
+    Many a road, and many an inn;
+Room to roam, but only one home
+    For all the world to win.
+
+
+And so she vanished. With a sad heart, soothed by humility, and the
+knowledge of her peace and gladness, I bethought me what now I should
+do. First, I must leave the tower far behind me, lest, in some evil
+moment, I might be once more caged within its horrible walls. But it
+was ill walking in my heavy armour; and besides I had now no right to
+the golden spurs and the resplendent mail, fitly dulled with long
+neglect. I might do for a squire; but I honoured knighthood too highly,
+to call myself any longer one of the noble brotherhood. I stripped off
+all my armour, piled it under the tree, just where the lady had been
+seated, and took my unknown way, eastward through the woods. Of all my
+weapons, I carried only a short axe in my hand.
+
+Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to myself, “I
+am what I am, nothing more.” “I have failed,” I said, “I have lost
+myself—would it had been my shadow.” I looked round: the shadow was
+nowhere to be seen. Ere long, I learned that it was not myself, but
+only my shadow, that I had lost. I learned that it is better, a
+thousand-fold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up
+his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that
+will be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but
+a doer of his work, is sure of his manhood. In nothing was my ideal
+lowered, or dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly,
+to set myself for a moment beside it. Indeed, my ideal soon became my
+life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt to
+behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal. Now,
+however, I took, at first, what perhaps was a mistaken pleasure, in
+despising and degrading myself. Another self seemed to arise, like a
+white spirit from a dead man, from the dumb and trampled self of the
+past. Doubtless, this self must again die and be buried, and again,
+from its tomb, spring a winged child; but of this my history as yet
+bears not the record.
+
+Self will come to life even in the slaying of self; but there is ever
+something deeper and stronger than it, which will emerge at last from
+the unknown abysses of the soul: will it be as a solemn gloom, burning
+with eyes? or a clear morning after the rain? or a smiling child, that
+finds itself nowhere, and everywhere?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+“High erected thought, seated in a heart of courtesy.”
+          SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
+
+“A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
+    A full assurance given by lookes,
+Continuall comfort in a face,
+    The lineaments of Gospel bookes.”
+          MATTHEW ROYDON, on Sir Philip Sidney.
+
+
+I had not gone far, for I had but just lost sight of the hated tower,
+when a voice of another sort, sounding near or far, as the trees
+permitted or intercepted its passage, reached me. It was a full, deep,
+manly voice, but withal clear and melodious. Now it burst on the ear
+with a sudden swell, and anon, dying away as suddenly, seemed to come
+to me across a great space. Nevertheless, it drew nearer; till, at
+last, I could distinguish the words of the song, and get transient
+glimpses of the singer, between the columns of the trees. He came
+nearer, dawning upon me like a growing thought. He was a knight, armed
+from head to heel, mounted upon a strange-looking beast, whose form I
+could not understand. The words which I heard him sing were like these:
+
+Heart be stout,
+    And eye be true;
+Good blade out!
+    And ill shall rue.
+
+Courage, horse!
+    Thou lackst no skill;
+Well thy force
+    Hath matched my will.
+
+For the foe
+    With fiery breath,
+At a blow,
+    Is still in death.
+
+Gently, horse!
+    Tread fearlessly;
+‘Tis his corse
+    That burdens thee.
+
+The sun’s eye
+    Is fierce at noon;
+Thou and I
+    Will rest full soon.
+
+And new strength
+    New work will meet;
+Till, at length,
+    Long rest is sweet.
+
+
+And now horse and rider had arrived near enough for me to see, fastened
+by the long neck to the hinder part of the saddle, and trailing its
+hideous length on the ground behind, the body of a great dragon. It was
+no wonder that, with such a drag at his heels, the horse could make but
+slow progress, notwithstanding his evident dismay. The horrid,
+serpent-like head, with its black tongue, forked with red, hanging out
+of its jaws, dangled against the horse’s side. Its neck was covered
+with long blue hair, its sides with scales of green and gold. Its back
+was of corrugated skin, of a purple hue. Its belly was similar in
+nature, but its colour was leaden, dashed with blotches of livid blue.
+Its skinny, bat-like wings and its tail were of a dull gray. It was
+strange to see how so many gorgeous colours, so many curving lines, and
+such beautiful things as wings and hair and scales, combined to form
+the horrible creature, intense in ugliness.
+
+The knight was passing me with a salutation; but, as I walked towards
+him, he reined up, and I stood by his stirrup. When I came near him, I
+saw to my surprise and pleasure likewise, although a sudden pain, like
+a birth of fire, sprang up in my heart, that it was the knight of the
+soiled armour, whom I knew before, and whom I had seen in the vision,
+with the lady of the marble. But I could have thrown my arms around
+him, because she loved him. This discovery only strengthened the
+resolution I had formed, before I recognised him, of offering myself to
+the knight, to wait upon him as a squire, for he seemed to be
+unattended. I made my request in as few words as possible. He hesitated
+for a moment, and looked at me thoughtfully. I saw that he suspected
+who I was, but that he continued uncertain of his suspicion. No doubt
+he was soon convinced of its truth; but all the time I was with him,
+not a word crossed his lips with reference to what he evidently
+concluded I wished to leave unnoticed, if not to keep concealed.
+
+“Squire and knight should be friends,” said he: “can you take me by the
+hand?” And he held out the great gauntleted right hand. I grasped it
+willingly and strongly. Not a word more was said. The knight gave the
+sign to his horse, which again began his slow march, and I walked
+beside and a little behind.
+
+We had not gone very far before we arrived at a little cottage; from
+which, as we drew near, a woman rushed out with the cry:
+
+“My child! my child! have you found my child?”
+
+“I have found her,” replied the knight, “but she is sorely hurt. I was
+forced to leave her with the hermit, as I returned. You will find her
+there, and I think she will get better. You see I have brought you a
+present. This wretch will not hurt you again.” And he undid the
+creature’s neck, and flung the frightful burden down by the cottage
+door.
+
+The woman was now almost out of sight in the wood; but the husband
+stood at the door, with speechless thanks in his face.
+
+“You must bury the monster,” said the knight. “If I had arrived a
+moment later, I should have been too late. But now you need not fear,
+for such a creature as this very rarely appears, in the same part,
+twice during a lifetime.”
+
+“Will you not dismount and rest you, Sir Knight?” said the peasant, who
+had, by this time, recovered himself a little.
+
+“That I will, thankfully,” said he; and, dismounting, he gave the reins
+to me, and told me to unbridle the horse, and lead him into the shade.
+“You need not tie him up,” he added; “he will not run away.”
+
+When I returned, after obeying his orders, and entered the cottage, I
+saw the knight seated, without his helmet, and talking most familiarly
+with the simple host. I stood at the open door for a moment, and,
+gazing at him, inwardly justified the white lady in preferring him to
+me. A nobler countenance I never saw. Loving-kindness beamed from every
+line of his face. It seemed as if he would repay himself for the late
+arduous combat, by indulging in all the gentleness of a womanly heart.
+But when the talk ceased for a moment, he seemed to fall into a
+reverie. Then the exquisite curves of the upper lip vanished. The lip
+was lengthened and compressed at the same moment. You could have told
+that, within the lips, the teeth were firmly closed. The whole face
+grew stern and determined, all but fierce; only the eyes burned on like
+a holy sacrifice, uplift on a granite rock.
+
+The woman entered, with her mangled child in her arms. She was pale as
+her little burden. She gazed, with a wild love and despairing
+tenderness, on the still, all but dead face, white and clear from loss
+of blood and terror.
+
+The knight rose. The light that had been confined to his eyes, now
+shone from his whole countenance. He took the little thing in his arms,
+and, with the mother’s help, undressed her, and looked to her wounds.
+The tears flowed down his face as he did so. With tender hands he bound
+them up, kissed the pale cheek, and gave her back to her mother. When
+he went home, all his tale would be of the grief and joy of the
+parents; while to me, who had looked on, the gracious countenance of
+the armed man, beaming from the panoply of steel, over the seemingly
+dead child, while the powerful hands turned it and shifted it, and
+bound it, if possible even more gently than the mother’s, formed the
+centre of the story.
+
+After we had partaken of the best they could give us, the knight took
+his leave, with a few parting instructions to the mother as to how she
+should treat the child.
+
+I brought the knight his steed, held the stirrup while he mounted, and
+then followed him through the wood. The horse, delighted to be free of
+his hideous load, bounded beneath the weight of man and armour, and
+could hardly be restrained from galloping on. But the knight made him
+time his powers to mine, and so we went on for an hour or two. Then the
+knight dismounted, and compelled me to get into the saddle, saying:
+“Knight and squire must share the labour.”
+
+Holding by the stirrup, he walked along by my side, heavily clad as he
+was, with apparent ease. As we went, he led a conversation, in which I
+took what humble part my sense of my condition would permit me.
+
+“Somehow or other,” said he, “notwithstanding the beauty of this
+country of Faerie, in which we are, there is much that is wrong in it.
+If there are great splendours, there are corresponding horrors; heights
+and depths; beautiful women and awful fiends; noble men and weaklings.
+All a man has to do, is to better what he can. And if he will settle it
+with himself, that even renown and success are in themselves of no
+great value, and be content to be defeated, if so be that the fault is
+not his; and so go to his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he
+will get it done; and fare none the worse in the end, that he was not
+burdened with provision and precaution.”
+
+“But he will not always come off well,” I ventured to say.
+
+“Perhaps not,” rejoined the knight, “in the individual act; but the
+result of his lifetime will content him.”
+
+“So it will fare with you, doubtless,” thought I; “but for me—-”
+
+Venturing to resume the conversation after a pause, I said,
+hesitatingly:
+
+“May I ask for what the little beggar-girl wanted your aid, when she
+came to your castle to find you?”
+
+He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said—
+
+“I cannot help wondering how you know of that; but there is something
+about you quite strange enough to entitle you to the privilege of the
+country; namely, to go unquestioned. I, however, being only a man, such
+as you see me, am ready to tell you anything you like to ask me, as far
+as I can. The little beggar-girl came into the hall where I was
+sitting, and told me a very curious story, which I can only recollect
+very vaguely, it was so peculiar. What I can recall is, that she was
+sent to gather wings. As soon as she had gathered a pair of wings for
+herself, she was to fly away, she said, to the country she came from;
+but where that was, she could give no information.
+
+“She said she had to beg her wings from the butterflies and moths; and
+wherever she begged, no one refused her. But she needed a great many of
+the wings of butterflies and moths to make a pair for her; and so she
+had to wander about day after day, looking for butterflies, and night
+after night, looking for moths; and then she begged for their wings.
+But the day before, she had come into a part of the forest, she said,
+where there were multitudes of splendid butterflies flitting about,
+with wings which were just fit to make the eyes in the shoulders of
+hers; and she knew she could have as many of them as she liked for the
+asking; but as soon as she began to beg, there came a great creature
+right up to her, and threw her down, and walked over her. When she got
+up, she saw the wood was full of these beings stalking about, and
+seeming to have nothing to do with each other. As soon as ever she
+began to beg, one of them walked over her; till at last in dismay, and
+in growing horror of the senseless creatures, she had run away to look
+for somebody to help her. I asked her what they were like. She said,
+like great men, made of wood, without knee-or elbow-joints, and without
+any noses or mouths or eyes in their faces. I laughed at the little
+maiden, thinking she was making child’s game of me; but, although she
+burst out laughing too, she persisted in asserting the truth of her
+story.”
+
+“‘Only come, knight, come and see; I will lead you.’
+
+“So I armed myself, to be ready for anything that might happen, and
+followed the child; for, though I could make nothing of her story, I
+could see she was a little human being in need of some help or other.
+As she walked before me, I looked attentively at her. Whether or not it
+was from being so often knocked down and walked over, I could not tell,
+but her clothes were very much torn, and in several places her white
+skin was peeping through. I thought she was hump-backed; but on looking
+more closely, I saw, through the tatters of her frock—do not laugh at
+me—a bunch on each shoulder, of the most gorgeous colours. Looking yet
+more closely, I saw that they were of the shape of folded wings, and
+were made of all kinds of butterfly-wings and moth-wings, crowded
+together like the feathers on the individual butterfly pinion; but,
+like them, most beautifully arranged, and producing a perfect harmony
+of colour and shade. I could now more easily believe the rest of her
+story; especially as I saw, every now and then, a certain heaving
+motion in the wings, as if they longed to be uplifted and outspread.
+But beneath her scanty garments complete wings could not be concealed,
+and indeed, from her own story, they were yet unfinished.
+
+“After walking for two or three hours (how the little girl found her
+way, I could not imagine), we came to a part of the forest, the very
+air of which was quivering with the motions of multitudes of
+resplendent butterflies; as gorgeous in colour, as if the eyes of
+peacocks’ feathers had taken to flight, but of infinite variety of hue
+and form, only that the appearance of some kind of eye on each wing
+predominated. ‘There they are, there they are!’ cried the child, in a
+tone of victory mingled with terror. Except for this tone, I should
+have thought she referred to the butterflies, for I could see nothing
+else. But at that moment an enormous butterfly, whose wings had great
+eyes of blue surrounded by confused cloudy heaps of more dingy
+colouring, just like a break in the clouds on a stormy day towards
+evening, settled near us. The child instantly began murmuring:
+‘Butterfly, butterfly, give me your wings’; when, the moment after, she
+fell to the ground, and began crying as if hurt. I drew my sword and
+heaved a great blow in the direction in which the child had fallen. It
+struck something, and instantly the most grotesque imitation of a man
+became visible. You see this Fairy Land is full of oddities and all
+sorts of incredibly ridiculous things, which a man is compelled to meet
+and treat as real existences, although all the time he feels foolish
+for doing so. This being, if being it could be called, was like a block
+of wood roughly hewn into the mere outlines of a man; and hardly so,
+for it had but head, body, legs, and arms—the head without a face, and
+the limbs utterly formless. I had hewn off one of its legs, but the two
+portions moved on as best they could, quite independent of each other;
+so that I had done no good. I ran after it, and clove it in twain from
+the head downwards; but it could not be convinced that its vocation was
+not to walk over people; for, as soon as the little girl began her
+begging again, all three parts came bustling up; and if I had not
+interposed my weight between her and them, she would have been trampled
+again under them. I saw that something else must be done. If the wood
+was full of the creatures, it would be an endless work to chop them so
+small that they could do no injury; and then, besides, the parts would
+be so numerous, that the butterflies would be in danger from the drift
+of flying chips. I served this one so, however; and then told the girl
+to beg again, and point out the direction in which one was coming. I
+was glad to find, however, that I could now see him myself, and
+wondered how they could have been invisible before. I would not allow
+him to walk over the child; but while I kept him off, and she began
+begging again, another appeared; and it was all I could do, from the
+weight of my armour, to protect her from the stupid, persevering
+efforts of the two. But suddenly the right plan occurred to me. I
+tripped one of them up, and, taking him by the legs, set him up on his
+head, with his heels against a tree. I was delighted to find he could
+not move. Meantime the poor child was walked over by the other, but it
+was for the last time. Whenever one appeared, I followed the same
+plan—tripped him up and set him on his head; and so the little beggar
+was able to gather her wings without any trouble, which occupation she
+continued for several hours in my company.”
+
+“What became of her?” I asked.
+
+“I took her home with me to my castle, and she told me all her story;
+but it seemed to me, all the time, as if I were hearing a child talk in
+its sleep. I could not arrange her story in my mind at all, although it
+seemed to leave hers in some certain order of its own. My wife—-”
+
+Here the knight checked himself, and said no more. Neither did I urge
+the conversation farther.
+
+Thus we journeyed for several days, resting at night in such shelter as
+we could get; and when no better was to be had, lying in the forest
+under some tree, on a couch of old leaves.
+
+I loved the knight more and more. I believe never squire served his
+master with more care and joyfulness than I. I tended his horse; I
+cleaned his armour; my skill in the craft enabled me to repair it when
+necessary; I watched his needs; and was well repaid for all by the love
+itself which I bore him.
+
+“This,” I said to myself, “is a true man. I will serve him, and give
+him all worship, seeing in him the imbodiment of what I would fain
+become. If I cannot be noble myself, I will yet be servant to his
+nobleness.” He, in return, soon showed me such signs of friendship and
+respect, as made my heart glad; and I felt that, after all, mine would
+be no lost life, if I might wait on him to the world’s end, although no
+smile but his should greet me, and no one but him should say, “Well
+done! he was a good servant!” at last. But I burned to do something
+more for him than the ordinary routine of a squire’s duty permitted.
+
+One afternoon, we began to observe an appearance of roads in the wood.
+Branches had been cut down, and openings made, where footsteps had worn
+no path below. These indications increased as we passed on, till, at
+length, we came into a long, narrow avenue, formed by felling the trees
+in its line, as the remaining roots evidenced. At some little distance,
+on both hands, we observed signs of similar avenues, which appeared to
+converge with ours, towards one spot. Along these we indistinctly saw
+several forms moving, which seemed, with ourselves, to approach the
+common centre. Our path brought us, at last, up to a wall of yew-trees,
+growing close together, and intertwining their branches so, that
+nothing could be seen beyond it. An opening was cut in it like a door,
+and all the wall was trimmed smooth and perpendicular. The knight
+dismounted, and waited till I had provided for his horse’s comfort;
+upon which we entered the place together.
+
+It was a great space, bare of trees, and enclosed by four walls of yew,
+similar to that through which we had entered. These trees grew to a
+very great height, and did not divide from each other till close to the
+top, where their summits formed a row of conical battlements all around
+the walls. The space contained was a parallelogram of great length.
+Along each of the two longer sides of the interior, were ranged three
+ranks of men, in white robes, standing silent and solemn, each with a
+sword by his side, although the rest of his costume and bearing was
+more priestly than soldierly. For some distance inwards, the space
+between these opposite rows was filled with a company of men and women
+and children, in holiday attire. The looks of all were directed
+inwards, towards the further end. Far beyond the crowd, in a long
+avenue, seeming to narrow in the distance, went the long rows of the
+white-robed men. On what the attention of the multitude was fixed, we
+could not tell, for the sun had set before we arrived, and it was
+growing dark within. It grew darker and darker. The multitude waited in
+silence. The stars began to shine down into the enclosure, and they
+grew brighter and larger every moment. A wind arose, and swayed the
+pinnacles of the tree-tops; and made a strange sound, half like music,
+half like moaning, through the close branches and leaves of the
+tree-walls. A young girl who stood beside me, clothed in the same dress
+as the priests, bowed her head, and grew pale with awe.
+
+The knight whispered to me, “How solemn it is! Surely they wait to hear
+the voice of a prophet. There is something good near!”
+
+But I, though somewhat shaken by the feeling expressed by my master,
+yet had an unaccountable conviction that here was something bad. So I
+resolved to be keenly on the watch for what should follow.
+
+Suddenly a great star, like a sun, appeared high in the air over the
+temple, illuminating it throughout; and a great song arose from the men
+in white, which went rolling round and round the building, now receding
+to the end, and now approaching, down the other side, the place where
+we stood. For some of the singers were regularly ceasing, and the next
+to them as regularly taking up the song, so that it crept onwards with
+gradations produced by changes which could not themselves be detected,
+for only a few of those who were singing ceased at the same moment. The
+song paused; and I saw a company of six of the white-robed men walk up
+the centre of the human avenue, surrounding a youth gorgeously attired
+beneath his robe of white, and wearing a chaplet of flowers on his
+head. I followed them closely, with my keenest observation; and, by
+accompanying their slow progress with my eyes, I was able to perceive
+more clearly what took place when they arrived at the other end. I knew
+that my sight was so much more keen than that of most people, that I
+had good reason to suppose I should see more than the rest could, at
+such a distance. At the farther end a throne stood upon a platform,
+high above the heads of the surrounding priests. To this platform I saw
+the company begin to ascend, apparently by an inclined plane or gentle
+slope. The throne itself was elevated again, on a kind of square
+pedestal, to the top of which led a flight of steps. On the throne sat
+a majestic-looking figure, whose posture seemed to indicate a mixture
+of pride and benignity, as he looked down on the multitude below. The
+company ascended to the foot of the throne, where they all kneeled for
+some minutes; then they rose and passed round to the side of the
+pedestal upon which the throne stood. Here they crowded close behind
+the youth, putting him in the foremost place, and one of them opened a
+door in the pedestal, for the youth to enter. I was sure I saw him
+shrink back, and those crowding behind pushed him in. Then, again,
+arose a burst of song from the multitude in white, which lasted some
+time. When it ceased, a new company of seven commenced its march up the
+centre. As they advanced, I looked up at my master: his noble
+countenance was full of reverence and awe. Incapable of evil himself,
+he could scarcely suspect it in another, much less in a multitude such
+as this, and surrounded with such appearances of solemnity. I was
+certain it was the really grand accompaniments that overcame him; that
+the stars overhead, the dark towering tops of the yew-trees, and the
+wind that, like an unseen spirit, sighed through their branches, bowed
+his spirit to the belief, that in all these ceremonies lay some great
+mystical meaning which, his humility told him, his ignorance prevented
+him from understanding.
+
+More convinced than before, that there was evil here, I could not
+endure that my master should be deceived; that one like him, so pure
+and noble, should respect what, if my suspicions were true, was worse
+than the ordinary deceptions of priestcraft. I could not tell how far
+he might be led to countenance, and otherwise support their doings,
+before he should find cause to repent bitterly of his error. I watched
+the new procession yet more keenly, if possible, than the former. This
+time, the central figure was a girl; and, at the close, I observed, yet
+more indubitably, the shrinking back, and the crowding push. What
+happened to the victims, I never learned; but I had learned enough, and
+I could bear it no longer. I stooped, and whispered to the young girl
+who stood by me, to lend me her white garment. I wanted it, that I
+might not be entirely out of keeping with the solemnity, but might have
+at least this help to passing unquestioned. She looked up, half-amused
+and half-bewildered, as if doubting whether I was in earnest or not.
+But in her perplexity, she permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it
+down from her shoulders.
+
+I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in the
+crowd, I rose apparently in the habit of one of the worshippers.
+
+Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the return of
+her stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed, and, if it was a
+man that sat upon the throne, to attack him with hands bare, as I
+supposed his must be, I made my way through the crowd to the front,
+while the singing yet continued, desirous of reaching the platform
+while it was unoccupied by any of the priests. I was permitted to walk
+up the long avenue of white robes unmolested, though I saw questioning
+looks in many of the faces as I passed. I presume my coolness aided my
+passage; for I felt quite indifferent as to my own fate; not feeling,
+after the late events of my history, that I was at all worth taking
+care of; and enjoying, perhaps, something of an evil satisfaction, in
+the revenge I was thus taking upon the self which had fooled me so
+long. When I arrived on the platform, the song had just ceased, and I
+felt as if all were looking towards me. But instead of kneeling at its
+foot, I walked right up the stairs to the throne, laid hold of a great
+wooden image that seemed to sit upon it, and tried to hurl it from its
+seat. In this I failed at first, for I found it firmly fixed. But in
+dread lest, the first shock of amazement passing away, the guards would
+rush upon me before I had effected my purpose, I strained with all my
+might; and, with a noise as of the cracking, and breaking, and tearing
+of rotten wood, something gave way, and I hurled the image down the
+steps. Its displacement revealed a great hole in the throne, like the
+hollow of a decayed tree, going down apparently a great way. But I had
+no time to examine it, for, as I looked into it, up out of it rushed a
+great brute, like a wolf, but twice the size, and tumbled me headlong
+with itself, down the steps of the throne. As we fell, however, I
+caught it by the throat, and the moment we reached the platform, a
+struggle commenced, in which I soon got uppermost, with my hand upon
+its throat, and knee upon its heart. But now arose a wild cry of wrath
+and revenge and rescue. A universal hiss of steel, as every sword was
+swept from its scabbard, seemed to tear the very air in shreds. I heard
+the rush of hundreds towards the platform on which I knelt. I only
+tightened my grasp of the brute’s throat. His eyes were already
+starting from his head, and his tongue was hanging out. My anxious hope
+was, that, even after they had killed me, they would be unable to undo
+my gripe of his throat, before the monster was past breathing. I
+therefore threw all my will, and force, and purpose, into the grasping
+hand. I remember no blow. A faintness came over me, and my
+consciousness departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+“We are ne’er like angels till our passions die.”
+          DECKAR.
+
+“This wretched _Inn_, where we scarce stay to bait,
+        We call our _Dwelling-Place_:
+        We call one _Step a Race_:
+But angels in their full enlightened state,
+Angels, who _Live_, and know what ‘tis to _Be_,
+Who all the nonsense of our language see,
+Who speak _things_, and our _words_, their ill-drawn _pictures_, scorn,
+    When we, by a foolish figure, say,
+    _Behold an old man dead!_ then they
+Speak properly, and cry, _Behold a man-child born!_”
+          COWLEY.
+
+
+I was dead, and right content. I lay in my coffin, with my hands folded
+in peace. The knight, and the lady I loved, wept over me.
+
+Her tears fell on my face.
+
+“Ah!” said the knight, “I rushed amongst them like a madman. I hewed
+them down like brushwood. Their swords battered on me like hail, but
+hurt me not. I cut a lane through to my friend. He was dead. But he had
+throttled the monster, and I had to cut the handful out of its throat,
+before I could disengage and carry off his body. They dared not molest
+me as I brought him back.”
+
+“He has died well,” said the lady.
+
+My spirit rejoiced. They left me to my repose. I felt as if a cool hand
+had been laid upon my heart, and had stilled it. My soul was like a
+summer evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet
+glistening on the trees in the last rays of the down-going sun, and the
+wind of the twilight has begun to blow. The hot fever of life had gone
+by, and I breathed the clear mountain-air of the land of Death. I had
+never dreamed of such blessedness. It was not that I had in any way
+ceased to be what I had been. The very fact that anything can die,
+implies the existence of something that cannot die; which must either
+take to itself another form, as when the seed that is sown dies, and
+arises again; or, in conscious existence, may, perhaps, continue to
+lead a purely spiritual life. If my passions were dead, the souls of
+the passions, those essential mysteries of the spirit which had
+imbodied themselves in the passions, and had given to them all their
+glory and wonderment, yet lived, yet glowed, with a pure, undying fire.
+They rose above their vanishing earthly garments, and disclosed
+themselves angels of light. But oh, how beautiful beyond the old form!
+I lay thus for a time, and lived as it were an unradiating existence;
+my soul a motionless lake, that received all things and gave nothing
+back; satisfied in still contemplation, and spiritual consciousness.
+
+Ere long, they bore me to my grave. Never tired child lay down in his
+white bed, and heard the sound of his playthings being laid aside for
+the night, with a more luxurious satisfaction of repose than I knew,
+when I felt the coffin settle on the firm earth, and heard the sound of
+the falling mould upon its lid. It has not the same hollow rattle
+within the coffin, that it sends up to the edge of the grave. They
+buried me in no graveyard. They loved me too much for that, I thank
+them; but they laid me in the grounds of their own castle, amid many
+trees; where, as it was spring-time, were growing primroses, and
+blue-bells, and all the families of the woods
+
+Now that I lay in her bosom, the whole earth, and each of her many
+births, was as a body to me, at my will. I seemed to feel the great
+heart of the mother beating into mine, and feeding me with her own
+life, her own essential being and nature. I heard the footsteps of my
+friends above, and they sent a thrill through my heart. I knew that the
+helpers had gone, and that the knight and the lady remained, and spoke
+low, gentle, tearful words of him who lay beneath the yet wounded sod.
+I rose into a single large primrose that grew by the edge of the grave,
+and from the window of its humble, trusting face, looked full in the
+countenance of the lady. I felt that I could manifest myself in the
+primrose; that it said a part of what I wanted to say; just as in the
+old time, I had used to betake myself to a song for the same end. The
+flower caught her eye. She stooped and plucked it, saying, “Oh, you
+beautiful creature!” and, lightly kissing it, put it in her bosom. It
+was the first kiss she had ever given me. But the flower soon began to
+wither, and I forsook it.
+
+It was evening. The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet
+illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I
+arose, I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with
+it in sight of the sinking sun. He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but
+the grayness touched not my heart. It carried its rose-hue within; for
+now I could love without needing to be loved again. The moon came
+gliding up with all the past in her wan face. She changed my couch into
+a ghostly pallor, and threw all the earth below as to the bottom of a
+pale sea of dreams. But she could not make me sad. I knew now, that it
+is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the
+soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each
+other, and not the being loved by each other, that originates and
+perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him
+that loveth, power over any soul beloved, even if that soul know him
+not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be
+but for good; for in proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love
+ceases, and the power which springs therefrom dies. Yet all love will,
+one day, meet with its return. All true love will, one day, behold its
+own image in the eyes of the beloved, and be humbly glad. This is
+possible in the realms of lofty Death. “Ah! my friends,” thought I,
+“how I will tend you, and wait upon you, and haunt you with my love.”
+
+My floating chariot bore me over a great city. Its faint dull sound
+steamed up into the air—a sound—how composed? “How many hopeless
+cries,” thought I, “and how many mad shouts go to make up the tumult,
+here so faint where I float in eternal peace, knowing that they will
+one day be stilled in the surrounding calm, and that despair dies into
+infinite hope, and the seeming impossible there, is the law here!
+
+“But, O pale-faced women, and gloomy-browed men, and forgotten
+children, how I will wait on you, and minister to you, and, putting my
+arms about you in the dark, think hope into your hearts, when you fancy
+no one is near! Soon as my senses have all come back, and have grown
+accustomed to this new blessed life, I will be among you with the love
+that healeth.”
+
+With this, a pang and a terrible shudder went through me; a writhing as
+of death convulsed me; and I became once again conscious of a more
+limited, even a bodily and earthly life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+“Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps will.”
+          NOVALIS.
+
+“And on the ground, which is my modres gate,
+I knocke with my staf; erlich and late,
+And say to hire, Leve mother, let me in.”
+          CHAUCER, _The Pardoneres Tale_.
+
+
+Sinking from such a state of ideal bliss, into the world of shadows
+which again closed around and infolded me, my first dread was, not
+unnaturally, that my own shadow had found me again, and that my torture
+had commenced anew. It was a sad revulsion of feeling. This, indeed,
+seemed to correspond to what we think death is, before we die. Yet I
+felt within me a power of calm endurance to which I had hitherto been a
+stranger. For, in truth, that I should be able if only to think such
+things as I had been thinking, was an unspeakable delight. An hour of
+such peace made the turmoil of a lifetime worth striving through.
+
+I found myself lying in the open air, in the early morning, before
+sunrise. Over me rose the summer heaven, expectant of the sun. The
+clouds already saw him, coming from afar; and soon every dewdrop would
+rejoice in his individual presence within it.
+
+I lay motionless for a few minutes; and then slowly rose and looked
+about me. I was on the summit of a little hill; a valley lay beneath,
+and a range of mountains closed up the view upon that side. But, to my
+horror, across the valley, and up the height of the opposing mountains,
+stretched, from my very feet, a hugely expanding shade. There it lay,
+long and large, dark and mighty. I turned away with a sick despair;
+when lo! I beheld the sun just lifting his head above the eastern hill,
+and the shadow that fell from me, lay only where his beams fell not. I
+danced for joy. It was only the natural shadow, that goes with every
+man who walks in the sun. As he arose, higher and higher, the
+shadow-head sank down the side of the opposite hill, and crept in
+across the valley towards my feet.
+
+Now that I was so joyously delivered from this fear, I saw and
+recognised the country around me. In the valley below, lay my own
+castle, and the haunts of my childhood were all about me hastened home.
+My sisters received me with unspeakable joy; but I suppose they
+observed some change in me, for a kind of respect, with a slight touch
+of awe in it, mingled with their joy, and made me ashamed. They had
+been in great distress about me. On the morning of my disappearance,
+they had found the floor of my room flooded; and, all that day, a
+wondrous and nearly impervious mist had hung about the castle and
+grounds. I had been gone, they told me, twenty-one days. To me it
+seemed twenty-one years. Nor could I yet feel quite secure in my new
+experiences. When, at night, I lay down once more in my own bed, I did
+not feel at all sure that when I awoke, I should not find myself in
+some mysterious region of Fairy Land. My dreams were incessant and
+perturbed; but when I did awake, I saw clearly that I was in my own
+home.
+
+My mind soon grew calm; and I began the duties of my new position,
+somewhat instructed, I hoped, by the adventures that had befallen me in
+Fairy Land. Could I translate the experience of my travels there, into
+common life? This was the question. Or must I live it all over again,
+and learn it all over again, in the other forms that belong to the
+world of men, whose experience yet runs parallel to that of Fairy Land?
+These questions I cannot answer yet. But I fear.
+
+Even yet, I find myself looking round sometimes with anxiety, to see
+whether my shadow falls right away from the sun or no. I have never yet
+discovered any inclination to either side. And if I am not unfrequently
+sad, I yet cast no more of a shade on the earth, than most men who have
+lived in it as long as I. I have a strange feeling sometimes, that I am
+a ghost, sent into the world to minister to my fellow men, or, rather,
+to repair the wrongs I have already done.
+
+May the world be brighter for me, at least in those portions of it,
+where my darkness falls not.
+
+Thus I, who set out to find my Ideal, came back rejoicing that I had
+lost my Shadow.
+
+When the thought of the blessedness I experienced, after my death in
+Fairy Land, is too high for me to lay hold upon it and hope in it, I
+often think of the wise woman in the cottage, and of her solemn
+assurance that she knew something too good to be told. When I am
+oppressed by any sorrow or real perplexity, I often feel as if I had
+only left her cottage for a time, and would soon return out of the
+vision, into it again. Sometimes, on such occasions, I find myself,
+unconsciously almost, looking about for the mystic mark of red, with
+the vague hope of entering her door, and being comforted by her wise
+tenderness. I then console myself by saying: “I have come through the
+door of Dismay; and the way back from the world into which that has led
+me, is through my tomb. Upon that the red sign lies, and I shall find
+it one day, and be glad.”
+
+I will end my story with the relation of an incident which befell me a
+few days ago. I had been with my reapers, and, when they ceased their
+work at noon, I had lain down under the shadow of a great, ancient
+beech-tree, that stood on the edge of the field. As I lay, with my eyes
+closed, I began to listen to the sound of the leaves overhead. At
+first, they made sweet inarticulate music alone; but, by-and-by, the
+sound seemed to begin to take shape, and to be gradually moulding
+itself into words; till, at last, I seemed able to distinguish these,
+half-dissolved in a little ocean of circumfluent tones: “A great good
+is coming—is coming—is coming to thee, Anodos;” and so over and over
+again. I fancied that the sound reminded me of the voice of the ancient
+woman, in the cottage that was four-square. I opened my eyes, and, for
+a moment, almost believed that I saw her face, with its many wrinkles
+and its young eyes, looking at me from between two hoary branches of
+the beech overhead. But when I looked more keenly, I saw only twigs and
+leaves, and the infinite sky, in tiny spots, gazing through between.
+Yet I know that good is coming to me—that good is always coming; though
+few have at all times the simplicity and the courage to believe it.
+What we call evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person
+and his condition at the time, could be assumed by the best good. And
+so, _Farewell_.
+
+
+
+
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Phantastes, by George MacDonald</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Phantastes<br />
+A Faerie Romance for Men and Women</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George MacDonald</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September, 1995 [eBook #325]<br />
+[Most recently updated: May 6, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Mike Lough and David Widger</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PHANTASTES ***</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:55%;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>Phantastes</h1>
+
+<h3>A Faerie Romance for Men and Women</h3>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by George MacDonald</h2>
+
+<h5>A new Edition, with thirty-three new Illustrations by Arthur Hughes;<br/>
+edited by Greville MacDonald (Illustrations not available)</h5>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;In good sooth, my masters, this is no door.<br/>
+<br/>
+Yet is it a little window, that looketh upon a great world.&rdquo;<br/>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#pref01">PREFACE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap00"><b>PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE</b></a><br /><br /></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="pref01"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p>
+For offering this new edition of my father&rsquo;s Phantastes, my reasons are
+three. The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustrated without the
+author&rsquo;s sanction, and so unsuitably that all lovers of the book must
+have experienced some real grief in turning its pages. With the copyright I
+secured also the whole of that edition and turned it into pulp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My second reason is to pay a small tribute to my father by way of personal
+gratitude for this, his first prose work, which was published nearly fifty
+years ago. Though unknown to many lovers of his greater writings, none of these
+has exceeded it in imaginative insight and power of expression. To me it rings
+with the dominant chord of his life&rsquo;s purpose and work.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My third reason is that wider knowledge and love of the book should be made
+possible. To this end I have been most happy in the help of my father&rsquo;s
+old friend, who has illustrated the book. I know of no other living artist who
+is capable of portraying the spirit of Phantastes; and every reader of this
+edition will, I believe, feel that the illustrations are a part of the romance,
+and will gain through them some perception of the brotherhood between George
+MacDonald and Arthur Hughes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+GREVILLE MACDONALD.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+September 1905.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap00"></a>PHANTASTES<br />
+A FAERIE ROMANCE</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Phantastes from &lsquo;their fount&rsquo; all shapes deriving,<br/>
+In new habiliments can quickly dight.&rdquo;<br/>
+FLETCHER&rsquo;S <i>Purple Island</i>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="poem">
+Es lassen sich Erzählungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch mit Association, wie
+Träume, denken; Gedichte, die bloss wohlklingend und voll schöner Worte sind,
+aber auch ohne allen Sinn und Zusammenhang, höchstens einzelne Strophen
+verständlich, wie Bruchstücke aus den verschiedenartigsten Dingen. Diese wahre
+Poesie kann höchstens einen allegorischen Sinn in Grossen, und eine indirecte
+Wirkung, wie Musik, haben. Darum ist die Natur so rein poetisch, wie die Stube
+eines Zauberers, eines Physikers, eine Kinderstube, eine Polter- und
+Vorrathskammer.<br/>
+<br/>
+Ein Märchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammenhang. Ein Ensemble wunderbarer
+Dinge und Begebenheiten, z. B. eine musikalische Phantasie, die harmonischen
+Folgen einer Aeolsharfe, die Natur selbst...<br/>
+<br/>
+In einem echten Märchen muss alles wunderbar, geheimnissvoll und
+zusammenhängend sein; alles belebt, jeder auf eine andere Art. Die ganze Natur
+muss wunderlich mit der ganzen Geisterwelt gemischt sein; hier tritt die Zeit
+der Anarchie, der Gesetzlosigkeit, Freiheit, der Naturstand der Natur, die Zeit
+von der Welt ein . . . Die Welt des Märchens ist die, der Welt der Wahrheit
+durchaus entgegengesetzte, und eben darum ihr so durchaus ähnlich, wie das
+Chaos der vollendeten Schöpfung ähnlich ist.--NOVALIS.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;A spirit  .  .  .<br/>
+.  .  .  .  .  .<br/>
+The undulating and silent well,<br/>
+And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom,<br/>
+Now deepening the dark shades, for speech assuming,<br/>
+Held commune with him; as if he and it<br/>
+Were all that was.&rdquo;<br/>
+          S<small>HELLEY&rsquo;S</small> <i>Alastor</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies the
+return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern window of my
+room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing a cloud that just rose above the
+low swell of the horizon, announced the approach of the sun. As my thoughts,
+which a deep and apparently dreamless sleep had dissolved, began again to
+assume crystalline forms, the strange events of the foregoing night presented
+themselves anew to my wondering consciousness. The day before had been my
+one-and-twentieth birthday. Among other ceremonies investing me with my legal
+rights, the keys of an old secretary, in which my father had kept his private
+papers, had been delivered up to me. As soon as I was left alone, I ordered
+lights in the chamber where the secretary stood, the first lights that had been
+there for many a year; for, since my father&rsquo;s death, the room had been
+left undisturbed. But, as if the darkness had been too long an inmate to be
+easily expelled, and had dyed with blackness the walls to which, bat-like, it
+had clung, these tapers served but ill to light up the gloomy hangings, and
+seemed to throw yet darker shadows into the hollows of the deep-wrought
+cornice. All the further portions of the room lay shrouded in a mystery whose
+deepest folds were gathered around the dark oak cabinet which I now approached
+with a strange mingling of reverence and curiosity. Perhaps, like a geologist,
+I was about to turn up to the light some of the buried strata of the human
+world, with its fossil remains charred by passion and petrified by tears.
+Perhaps I was to learn how my father, whose personal history was unknown to me,
+had woven his web of story; how he had found the world, and how the world had
+left him. Perhaps I was to find only the records of lands and moneys, how
+gotten and how secured; coming down from strange men, and through troublous
+times, to me, who knew little or nothing of them all. To solve my speculations,
+and to dispel the awe which was fast gathering around me as if the dead were
+drawing near, I approached the secretary; and having found the key that fitted
+the upper portion, I opened it with some difficulty, drew near it a heavy
+high-backed chair, and sat down before a multitude of little drawers and slides
+and pigeon-holes. But the door of a little cupboard in the centre especially
+attracted my interest, as if there lay the secret of this long-hidden world.
+Its key I found.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the rusty hinges cracked and broke as I opened the door: it revealed a
+number of small pigeon-holes. These, however, being but shallow compared with
+the depth of those around the little cupboard, the outer ones reaching to the
+back of the desk, I concluded that there must be some accessible space behind;
+and found, indeed, that they were formed in a separate framework, which
+admitted of the whole being pulled out in one piece. Behind, I found a sort of
+flexible portcullis of small bars of wood laid close together horizontally.
+After long search, and trying many ways to move it, I discovered at last a
+scarcely projecting point of steel on one side. I pressed this repeatedly and
+hard with the point of an old tool that was lying near, till at length it
+yielded inwards; and the little slide, flying up suddenly, disclosed a
+chamber&mdash;empty, except that in one corner lay a little heap of withered
+rose-leaves, whose long-lived scent had long since departed; and, in another, a
+small packet of papers, tied with a bit of ribbon, whose colour had gone with
+the rose-scent. Almost fearing to touch them, they witnessed so mutely to the
+law of oblivion, I leaned back in my chair, and regarded them for a moment;
+when suddenly there stood on the threshold of the little chamber, as though she
+had just emerged from its depth, a tiny woman-form, as perfect in shape as if
+she had been a small Greek statuette roused to life and motion. Her dress was
+of a kind that could never grow old-fashioned, because it was simply natural: a
+robe plaited in a band around the neck, and confined by a belt about the waist,
+descended to her feet. It was only afterwards, however, that I took notice of
+her dress, although my surprise was by no means of so overpowering a degree as
+such an apparition might naturally be expected to excite. Seeing, however, as I
+suppose, some astonishment in my countenance, she came forward within a yard of
+me, and said, in a voice that strangely recalled a sensation of twilight, and
+reedy river banks, and a low wind, even in this deathly room:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Anodos, you never saw such a little creature before, did you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;and indeed I hardly believe I do now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! that is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the first
+time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of what you
+consider in itself unbelievable. I am not going to argue with you, however, but
+to grant you a wish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I could not help interrupting her with the foolish speech, of which,
+however, I had no cause to repent&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How can such a very little creature as you grant or refuse
+anything?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is that all the philosophy you have gained in one-and-twenty
+years?&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;Form is much, but size is nothing. It is a mere
+matter of relation. I suppose your six-foot lordship does not feel altogether
+insignificant, though to others you do look small beside your old Uncle Ralph,
+who rises above you a great half-foot at least. But size is of so little
+consequence with old me, that I may as well accommodate myself to your foolish
+prejudices.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So saying, she leapt from the desk upon the floor, where she stood a tall,
+gracious lady, with pale face and large blue eyes. Her dark hair flowed behind,
+wavy but uncurled, down to her waist, and against it her form stood clear in
+its robe of white.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;you will believe me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Overcome with the presence of a beauty which I could now perceive, and drawn
+towards her by an attraction irresistible as incomprehensible, I suppose I
+stretched out my arms towards her, for she drew back a step or two, and
+said&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Foolish boy, if you could touch me, I should hurt you. Besides, I was
+two hundred and thirty-seven years old, last Midsummer eve; and a man must not
+fall in love with his grandmother, you know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you are not my grandmother,&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you know that?&rdquo; she retorted. &ldquo;I dare say you know
+something of your great-grandfathers a good deal further back than that; but
+you know very little about your great-grandmothers on either side. Now, to the
+point. Your little sister was reading a fairy-tale to you last night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She was.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When she had finished, she said, as she closed the book, &lsquo;Is there
+a fairy-country, brother?&rsquo; You replied with a sigh, &lsquo;I suppose
+there is, if one could find the way into it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did; but I meant something quite different from what you seem to
+think.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never mind what I seem to think. You shall find the way into Fairy Land
+to-morrow. Now look in my eyes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eagerly I did so. They filled me with an unknown longing. I remembered somehow
+that my mother died when I was a baby. I looked deeper and deeper, till they
+spread around me like seas, and I sank in their waters. I forgot all the rest,
+till I found myself at the window, whose gloomy curtains were withdrawn, and
+where I stood gazing on a whole heaven of stars, small and sparkling in the
+moonlight. Below lay a sea, still as death and hoary in the moon, sweeping into
+bays and around capes and islands, away, away, I knew not whither. Alas! it was
+no sea, but a low bog burnished by the moon. &ldquo;Surely there is such a sea
+somewhere!&rdquo; said I to myself. A low sweet voice beside me replied&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In Fairy Land, Anodos.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turned, but saw no one. I closed the secretary, and went to my own room, and
+to bed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this I recalled as I lay with half-closed eyes. I was soon to find the
+truth of the lady&rsquo;s promise, that this day I should discover the road
+into Fairy Land.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Where is the stream?&rsquo; cried he, with tears. &lsquo;Seest
+thou not its blue waves above us?&rsquo; He looked up, and lo! the blue stream
+was flowing gently over their heads.&rdquo; &mdash;NOVALIS, <i>Heinrich von
+Ofterdingen</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While these strange events were passing through my mind, I suddenly, as one
+awakes to the consciousness that the sea has been moaning by him for hours, or
+that the storm has been howling about his window all night, became aware of the
+sound of running water near me; and, looking out of bed, I saw that a large
+green marble basin, in which I was wont to wash, and which stood on a low
+pedestal of the same material in a corner of my room, was overflowing like a
+spring; and that a stream of clear water was running over the carpet, all the
+length of the room, finding its outlet I knew not where. And, stranger still,
+where this carpet, which I had myself designed to imitate a field of grass and
+daisies, bordered the course of the little stream, the grass-blades and daisies
+seemed to wave in a tiny breeze that followed the water&rsquo;s flow; while
+under the rivulet they bent and swayed with every motion of the changeful
+current, as if they were about to dissolve with it, and, forsaking their fixed
+form, become fluent as the waters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My dressing-table was an old-fashioned piece of furniture of black oak, with
+drawers all down the front. These were elaborately carved in foliage, of which
+ivy formed the chief part. The nearer end of this table remained just as it had
+been, but on the further end a singular change had commenced. I happened to fix
+my eye on a little cluster of ivy-leaves. The first of these was evidently the
+work of the carver; the next looked curious; the third was unmistakable ivy;
+and just beyond it a tendril of clematis had twined itself about the gilt
+handle of one of the drawers. Hearing next a slight motion above me, I looked
+up, and saw that the branches and leaves designed upon the curtains of my bed
+were slightly in motion. Not knowing what change might follow next, I thought
+it high time to get up; and, springing from the bed, my bare feet alighted upon
+a cool green sward; and although I dressed in all haste, I found myself
+completing my toilet under the boughs of a great tree, whose top waved in the
+golden stream of the sunrise with many interchanging lights, and with shadows
+of leaf and branch gliding over leaf and branch, as the cool morning wind swung
+it to and fro, like a sinking sea-wave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After washing as well as I could in the clear stream, I rose and looked around
+me. The tree under which I seemed to have lain all night was one of the
+advanced guard of a dense forest, towards which the rivulet ran. Faint traces
+of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, and with here and there a
+pimpernel even, were discernible along the right bank. &ldquo;This,&rdquo;
+thought I, &ldquo;must surely be the path into Fairy Land, which the lady of
+last night promised I should so soon find.&rdquo; I crossed the rivulet, and
+accompanied it, keeping the footpath on its right bank, until it led me, as I
+expected, into the wood. Here I left it, without any good reason: and with a
+vague feeling that I ought to have followed its course, I took a more southerly
+direction.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Man doth usurp all space,<br/>
+Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in the face.<br/>
+Never thine eyes behold a tree;<br/>
+&lsquo;Tis no sea thou seest in the sea,<br/>
+&lsquo;Tis but a disguised humanity.<br/>
+To avoid thy fellow, vain thy plan;<br/>
+All that interests a man, is man.&rdquo;<br/>
+          H<small>ENRY</small> S<small>UTTON</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trees, which were far apart where I entered, giving free passage to the
+level rays of the sun, closed rapidly as I advanced, so that ere long their
+crowded stems barred the sunlight out, forming as it were a thick grating
+between me and the East. I seemed to be advancing towards a second midnight. In
+the midst of the intervening twilight, however, before I entered what appeared
+to be the darkest portion of the forest, I saw a country maiden coming towards
+me from its very depths. She did not seem to observe me, for she was apparently
+intent upon a bunch of wild flowers which she carried in her hand. I could
+hardly see her face; for, though she came direct towards me, she never looked
+up. But when we met, instead of passing, she turned and walked alongside of me
+for a few yards, still keeping her face downwards, and busied with her flowers.
+She spoke rapidly, however, all the time, in a low tone, as if talking to
+herself, but evidently addressing the purport of her words to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She seemed afraid of being observed by some lurking foe. &ldquo;Trust the
+Oak,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech.
+Take care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be
+changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre,&mdash;you
+will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with her web
+of hair, if you let her near you at night.&rdquo; All this was uttered without
+pause or alteration of tone. Then she turned suddenly and left me, walking
+still with the same unchanging gait. I could not conjecture what she meant, but
+satisfied myself with thinking that it would be time enough to find out her
+meaning when there was need to make use of her warning, and that the occasion
+would reveal the admonition. I concluded from the flowers that she carried,
+that the forest could not be everywhere so dense as it appeared from where I
+was now walking; and I was right in this conclusion. For soon I came to a more
+open part, and by-and-by crossed a wide grassy glade, on which were several
+circles of brighter green. But even here I was struck with the utter stillness.
+No bird sang. No insect hummed. Not a living creature crossed my way. Yet
+somehow the whole environment seemed only asleep, and to wear even in sleep an
+air of expectation. The trees seemed all to have an expression of conscious
+mystery, as if they said to themselves, &ldquo;we could, an&rsquo; if we
+would.&rdquo; They had all a meaning look about them. Then I remembered that
+night is the fairies&rsquo; day, and the moon their sun; and I
+thought&mdash;Everything sleeps and dreams now: when the night comes, it will
+be different. At the same time I, being a man and a child of the day, felt some
+anxiety as to how I should fare among the elves and other children of the night
+who wake when mortals dream, and find their common life in those wondrous hours
+that flow noiselessly over the moveless death-like forms of men and women and
+children, lying strewn and parted beneath the weight of the heavy waves of
+night, which flow on and beat them down, and hold them drowned and senseless,
+until the ebbtide comes, and the waves sink away, back into the ocean of the
+dark. But I took courage and went on. Soon, however, I became again anxious,
+though from another cause. I had eaten nothing that day, and for an hour past
+had been feeling the want of food. So I grew afraid lest I should find nothing
+to meet my human necessities in this strange place; but once more I comforted
+myself with hope and went on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before noon, I fancied I saw a thin blue smoke rising amongst the stems of
+larger trees in front of me; and soon I came to an open spot of ground in which
+stood a little cottage, so built that the stems of four great trees formed its
+corners, while their branches met and intertwined over its roof, heaping a
+great cloud of leaves over it, up towards the heavens. I wondered at finding a
+human dwelling in this neighbourhood; and yet it did not look altogether human,
+though sufficiently so to encourage me to expect to find some sort of food.
+Seeing no door, I went round to the other side, and there I found one, wide
+open. A woman sat beside it, preparing some vegetables for dinner. This was
+homely and comforting. As I came near, she looked up, and seeing me, showed no
+surprise, but bent her head again over her work, and said in a low tone:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did you see my daughter?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I believe I did,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Can you give me something to eat,
+for I am very hungry?&rdquo; &ldquo;With pleasure,&rdquo; she replied, in the
+same tone; &ldquo;but do not say anything more, till you come into the house,
+for the Ash is watching us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having said this, she rose and led the way into the cottage; which, I now saw,
+was built of the stems of small trees set closely together, and was furnished
+with rough chairs and tables, from which even the bark had not been removed. As
+soon as she had shut the door and set a chair&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have fairy blood in you,&rdquo; said she, looking hard at me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How do you know that?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You could not have got so far into this wood if it were not so; and I am
+trying to find out some trace of it in your countenance. I think I see
+it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What do you see?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, never mind: I may be mistaken in that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how then do you come to live here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I too have fairy blood in me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I, in my turn, looked hard at her, and thought I could perceive,
+notwithstanding the coarseness of her features, and especially the heaviness of
+her eyebrows, a something unusual&mdash;I could hardly call it grace, and yet
+it was an expression that strangely contrasted with the form of her features. I
+noticed too that her hands were delicately formed, though brown with work and
+exposure.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should be ill,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;if I did not live on the
+borders of the fairies&rsquo; country, and now and then eat of their food. And
+I see by your eyes that you are not quite free of the same need; though, from
+your education and the activity of your mind, you have felt it less than I. You
+may be further removed too from the fairy race.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I remembered what the lady had said about my grandmothers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here she placed some bread and some milk before me, with a kindly apology for
+the homeliness of the fare, with which, however, I was in no humour to quarrel.
+I now thought it time to try to get some explanation of the strange words both
+of her daughter and herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did you mean by speaking so about the Ash?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She rose and looked out of the little window. My eyes followed her; but as the
+window was too small to allow anything to be seen from where I was sitting, I
+rose and looked over her shoulder. I had just time to see, across the open
+space, on the edge of the denser forest, a single large ash-tree, whose foliage
+showed bluish, amidst the truer green of the other trees around it; when she
+pushed me back with an expression of impatience and terror, and then almost
+shut out the light from the window by setting up a large old book in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In general,&rdquo; said she, recovering her composure, &ldquo;there is
+no danger in the daytime, for then he is sound asleep; but there is something
+unusual going on in the woods; there must be some solemnity among the fairies
+to-night, for all the trees are restless, and although they cannot come awake,
+they see and hear in their sleep.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what danger is to be dreaded from him?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instead of answering the question, she went again to the window and looked out,
+saying she feared the fairies would be interrupted by foul weather, for a storm
+was brewing in the west.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And the sooner it grows dark, the sooner the Ash will be awake,&rdquo;
+added she.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I asked her how she knew that there was any unusual excitement in the woods.
+She replied&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Besides the look of the trees, the dog there is unhappy; and the eyes
+and ears of the white rabbit are redder than usual, and he frisks about as if
+he expected some fun. If the cat were at home, she would have her back up; for
+the young fairies pull the sparks out of her tail with bramble thorns, and she
+knows when they are coming. So do I, in another way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this instant, a grey cat rushed in like a demon, and disappeared in a hole
+in the wall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There, I told you!&rdquo; said the woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what of the ash-tree?&rdquo; said I, returning once more to the
+subject. Here, however, the young woman, whom I had met in the morning,
+entered. A smile passed between the mother and daughter; and then the latter
+began to help her mother in little household duties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I should like to stay here till the evening,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;and
+then go on my journey, if you will allow me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are welcome to do as you please; only it might be better to stay all
+night, than risk the dangers of the wood then. Where are you going?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, that I do not know,&rdquo; I replied, &ldquo;but I wish to see all
+that is to be seen, and therefore I should like to start just at
+sundown.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a bold youth, if you have any idea of what you are daring; but a
+rash one, if you know nothing about it; and, excuse me, you do not seem very
+well informed about the country and its manners. However, no one comes here but
+for some reason, either known to himself or to those who have charge of him; so
+you shall do just as you wish.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accordingly I sat down, and feeling rather tired, and disinclined for further
+talk, I asked leave to look at the old book which still screened the window.
+The woman brought it to me directly, but not before taking another look towards
+the forest, and then drawing a white blind over the window. I sat down opposite
+to it by the table, on which I laid the great old volume, and read. It
+contained many wondrous tales of Fairy Land, and olden times, and the Knights
+of King Arthur&rsquo;s table. I read on and on, till the shades of the
+afternoon began to deepen; for in the midst of the forest it gloomed earlier
+than in the open country. At length I came to this passage&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here it chanced, that upon their quest, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale
+rencountered in the depths of a great forest. Now, Sir Galahad was dight all in
+harness of silver, clear and shining; the which is a delight to look upon, but
+full hasty to tarnish, and withouten the labour of a ready squire, uneath to be
+kept fair and clean. And yet withouten squire or page, Sir Galahad&rsquo;s
+armour shone like the moon. And he rode a great white mare, whose bases and
+other housings were black, but all besprent with fair lilys of silver sheen.
+Whereas Sir Percivale bestrode a red horse, with a tawny mane and tail; whose
+trappings were all to-smirched with mud and mire; and his armour was wondrous
+rosty to behold, ne could he by any art furbish it again; so that as the sun in
+his going down shone twixt the bare trunks of the trees, full upon the knights
+twain, the one did seem all shining with light, and the other all to glow with
+ruddy fire. Now it came about in this wise. For Sir Percivale, after his escape
+from the demon lady, whenas the cross on the handle of his sword smote him to
+the heart, and he rove himself through the thigh, and escaped away, he came to
+a great wood; and, in nowise cured of his fault, yet bemoaning the same, the
+damosel of the alder tree encountered him, right fair to see; and with her fair
+words and false countenance she comforted him and beguiled him, until he
+followed her where she led him to a&mdash;-&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here a low hurried cry from my hostess caused me to look up from the book, and
+I read no more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Look there!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;look at his fingers!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just as I had been reading in the book, the setting sun was shining through a
+cleft in the clouds piled up in the west; and a shadow as of a large distorted
+hand, with thick knobs and humps on the fingers, so that it was much wider
+across the fingers than across the undivided part of the hand, passed slowly
+over the little blind, and then as slowly returned in the opposite direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He is almost awake, mother; and greedier than usual to-night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hush, child; you need not make him more angry with us than he is; for
+you do not know how soon something may happen to oblige us to be in the forest
+after nightfall.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you are in the forest,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;how is it that you are
+safe here?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He dares not come nearer than he is now,&rdquo; she replied; &ldquo;for
+any of those four oaks, at the corners of our cottage, would tear him to
+pieces; they are our friends. But he stands there and makes awful faces at us
+sometimes, and stretches out his long arms and fingers, and tries to kill us
+with fright; for, indeed, that is his favourite way of doing. Pray, keep out of
+his way to-night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shall I be able to see these things?&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I cannot tell yet, not knowing how much of the fairy nature there
+is in you. But we shall soon see whether you can discern the fairies in my
+little garden, and that will be some guide to us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are the trees fairies too, as well as the flowers?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They are of the same race,&rdquo; she replied; &ldquo;though those you
+call fairies in your country are chiefly the young children of the flower
+fairies. They are very fond of having fun with the thick people, as they call
+you; for, like most children, they like fun better than anything else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you have flowers so near you then? Do they not annoy you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no, they are very amusing, with their mimicries of grown people, and
+mock solemnities. Sometimes they will act a whole play through before my eyes,
+with perfect composure and assurance, for they are not afraid of me. Only, as
+soon as they have done, they burst into peals of tiny laughter, as if it was
+such a joke to have been serious over anything. These I speak of, however, are
+the fairies of the garden. They are more staid and educated than those of the
+fields and woods. Of course they have near relations amongst the wild flowers,
+but they patronise them, and treat them as country cousins, who know nothing of
+life, and very little of manners. Now and then, however, they are compelled to
+envy the grace and simplicity of the natural flowers.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do they live <i>in</i> the flowers?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot tell,&rdquo; she replied. &ldquo;There is something in it I do
+not understand. Sometimes they disappear altogether, even from me, though I
+know they are near. They seem to die always with the flowers they resemble, and
+by whose names they are called; but whether they return to life with the fresh
+flowers, or, whether it be new flowers, new fairies, I cannot tell. They have
+as many sorts of dispositions as men and women, while their moods are yet more
+variable; twenty different expressions will cross their little faces in half a
+minute. I often amuse myself with watching them, but I have never been able to
+make personal acquaintance with any of them. If I speak to one, he or she looks
+up in my face, as if I were not worth heeding, gives a little laugh, and runs
+away.&rdquo; Here the woman started, as if suddenly recollecting herself, and
+said in a low voice to her daughter, &ldquo;Make haste&mdash;go and watch him,
+and see in what direction he goes.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I may as well mention here, that the conclusion I arrived at from the
+observations I was afterwards able to make, was, that the flowers die because
+the fairies go away; not that the fairies disappear because the flowers die.
+The flowers seem a sort of houses for them, or outer bodies, which they can put
+on or off when they please. Just as you could form some idea of the nature of a
+man from the kind of house he built, if he followed his own taste, so you
+could, without seeing the fairies, tell what any one of them is like, by
+looking at the flower till you feel that you understand it. For just what the
+flower says to you, would the face and form of the fairy say; only so much more
+plainly as a face and human figure can express more than a flower. For the
+house or the clothes, though like the inhabitant or the wearer, cannot be
+wrought into an equal power of utterance. Yet you would see a strange
+resemblance, almost oneness, between the flower and the fairy, which you could
+not describe, but which described itself to you. Whether all the flowers have
+fairies, I cannot determine, any more than I can be sure whether all men and
+women have souls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The woman and I continued the conversation for a few minutes longer. I was much
+interested by the information she gave me, and astonished at the language in
+which she was able to convey it. It seemed that intercourse with the fairies
+was no bad education in itself. But now the daughter returned with the news,
+that the Ash had just gone away in a south-westerly direction; and, as my
+course seemed to lie eastward, she hoped I should be in no danger of meeting
+him if I departed at once. I looked out of the little window, and there stood
+the ash-tree, to my eyes the same as before; but I believed that they knew
+better than I did, and prepared to go. I pulled out my purse, but to my dismay
+there was nothing in it. The woman with a smile begged me not to trouble
+myself, for money was not of the slightest use there; and as I might meet with
+people in my journeys whom I could not recognise to be fairies, it was well I
+had no money to offer, for nothing offended them so much.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They would think,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;that you were making game of
+them; and that is their peculiar privilege with regard to us.&rdquo; So we went
+together into the little garden which sloped down towards a lower part of the
+wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, to my great pleasure, all was life and bustle. There was still light
+enough from the day to see a little; and the pale half-moon, halfway to the
+zenith, was reviving every moment. The whole garden was like a carnival, with
+tiny, gaily decorated forms, in groups, assemblies, processions, pairs or
+trios, moving stately on, running about wildly, or sauntering hither or
+thither. From the cups or bells of tall flowers, as from balconies, some looked
+down on the masses below, now bursting with laughter, now grave as owls; but
+even in their deepest solemnity, seeming only to be waiting for the arrival of
+the next laugh. Some were launched on a little marshy stream at the bottom, in
+boats chosen from the heaps of last year&rsquo;s leaves that lay about, curled
+and withered. These soon sank with them; whereupon they swam ashore and got
+others. Those who took fresh rose-leaves for their boats floated the longest;
+but for these they had to fight; for the fairy of the rose-tree complained
+bitterly that they were stealing her clothes, and defended her property
+bravely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t wear half you&rsquo;ve got,&rdquo; said some.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Never you mind; I don&rsquo;t choose you to have them: they are my
+property.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All for the good of the community!&rdquo; said one, and ran off with a
+great hollow leaf. But the rose-fairy sprang after him (what a beauty she was!
+only too like a drawing-room young lady), knocked him heels-over-head as he
+ran, and recovered her great red leaf. But in the meantime twenty had hurried
+off in different directions with others just as good; and the little creature
+sat down and cried, and then, in a pet, sent a perfect pink snowstorm of petals
+from her tree, leaping from branch to branch, and stamping and shaking and
+pulling. At last, after another good cry, she chose the biggest she could find,
+and ran away laughing, to launch her boat amongst the rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But my attention was first and chiefly attracted by a group of fairies near the
+cottage, who were talking together around what seemed a last dying primrose.
+They talked singing, and their talk made a song, something like this:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Sister Snowdrop died<br/>
+    Before we were born.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;She came like a bride<br/>
+    In a snowy morn.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;What&rsquo;s a bride?&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;What is snow?<br/>
+&ldquo;Never tried.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Do not know.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Who told you about her?&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Little Primrose there<br/>
+Cannot do without her.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Oh, so sweetly fair!&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Never fear,<br/>
+    She will come,<br/>
+Primrose dear.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Is she dumb?&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;She&rsquo;ll come by-and-by.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;You will never see her.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;She went home to die,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Till the new year.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Snowdrop!&rdquo; &ldquo;&lsquo;Tis no good<br/>
+    To invite her.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Primrose is very rude,<br/>
+    &ldquo;I will bite her.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Oh, you naughty Pocket!<br/>
+    &ldquo;Look, she drops her head.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;She deserved it, Rocket,<br/>
+    &ldquo;And she was nearly dead.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;To your hammock&mdash;off with you!&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;And swing alone.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;No one will laugh with you.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;No, not one.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Now let us moan.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;And cover her o&rsquo;er.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Primrose is gone.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;All but the flower.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Here is a leaf.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Lay her upon it.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Follow in grief.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Pocket has done it.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Deeper, poor creature!<br/>
+    Winter may come.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;He cannot reach her&mdash;<br/>
+    That is a hum.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;She is buried, the beauty!&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Now she is done.&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;That was the duty.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Now for the fun.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And with a wild laugh they sprang away, most of them towards the cottage.
+During the latter part of the song-talk, they had formed themselves into a
+funeral procession, two of them bearing poor Primrose, whose death Pocket had
+hastened by biting her stalk, upon one of her own great leaves. They bore her
+solemnly along some distance, and then buried her under a tree. Although I say
+<i>her</i> I saw nothing but the withered primrose-flower on its long stalk.
+Pocket, who had been expelled from the company by common consent, went sulkily
+away towards her hammock, for she was the fairy of the calceolaria, and looked
+rather wicked. When she reached its stem, she stopped and looked round. I could
+not help speaking to her, for I stood near her. I said, &ldquo;Pocket, how
+could you be so naughty?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am never naughty,&rdquo; she said, half-crossly, half-defiantly;
+&ldquo;only if you come near my hammock, I will bite you, and then you will go
+away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why did you bite poor Primrose?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because she said we should never see Snowdrop; as if we were not good
+enough to look at her, and she was, the proud thing!&mdash;served her
+right!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, Pocket, Pocket,&rdquo; said I; but by this time the party which had
+gone towards the house, rushed out again, shouting and screaming with laughter.
+Half of them were on the cat&rsquo;s back, and half held on by her fur and
+tail, or ran beside her; till, more coming to their help, the furious cat was
+held fast; and they proceeded to pick the sparks out of her with thorns and
+pins, which they handled like harpoons. Indeed, there were more instruments at
+work about her than there could have been sparks in her. One little fellow who
+held on hard by the tip of the tail, with his feet planted on the ground at an
+angle of forty-five degrees, helping to keep her fast, administered a
+continuous flow of admonitions to Pussy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, Pussy, be patient. You know quite well it is all for your good. You
+cannot be comfortable with all those sparks in you; and, indeed, I am
+charitably disposed to believe&rdquo; (here he became very pompous) &ldquo;that
+they are the cause of all your bad temper; so we must have them all out, every
+one; else we shall be reduced to the painful necessity of cutting your claws,
+and pulling out your eye-teeth. Quiet! Pussy, quiet!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But with a perfect hurricane of feline curses, the poor animal broke loose, and
+dashed across the garden and through the hedge, faster than even the fairies
+could follow. &ldquo;Never mind, never mind, we shall find her again; and by
+that time she will have laid in a fresh stock of sparks. Hooray!&rdquo; And off
+they set, after some new mischief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I will not linger to enlarge on the amusing display of these frolicsome
+creatures. Their manners and habits are now so well known to the world, having
+been so often described by eyewitnesses, that it would be only indulging
+self-conceit, to add my account in full to the rest. I cannot help wishing,
+however, that my readers could see them for themselves. Especially do I desire
+that they should see the fairy of the daisy; a little, chubby, round-eyed
+child, with such innocent trust in his look! Even the most mischievous of the
+fairies would not tease him, although he did not belong to their set at all,
+but was quite a little country bumpkin. He wandered about alone, and looked at
+everything, with his hands in his little pockets, and a white night-cap on, the
+darling! He was not so beautiful as many other wild flowers I saw afterwards,
+but so dear and loving in his looks and little confident ways.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;When bale is att hyest, boote is nyest.&rdquo;<br/>
+<i>Ballad of Sir Aldingar</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time, my hostess was quite anxious that I should be gone. So, with warm
+thanks for their hospitality, I took my leave, and went my way through the
+little garden towards the forest. Some of the garden flowers had wandered into
+the wood, and were growing here and there along the path, but the trees soon
+became too thick and shadowy for them. I particularly noticed some tall lilies,
+which grew on both sides of the way, with large dazzlingly white flowers, set
+off by the universal green. It was now dark enough for me to see that every
+flower was shining with a light of its own. Indeed it was by this light that I
+saw them, an internal, peculiar light, proceeding from each, and not reflected
+from a common source of light as in the daytime. This light sufficed only for
+the plant itself, and was not strong enough to cast any but the faintest
+shadows around it, or to illuminate any of the neighbouring objects with other
+than the faintest tinge of its own individual hue. From the lilies above
+mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped
+flower, curious little figures shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew
+back. They seemed to inhabit them, as snails their shells; but I was sure some
+of them were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who
+inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. From the cups of Arum lilies,
+creatures with great heads and grotesque faces shot up like Jack-in-the-box,
+and made grimaces at me; or rose slowly and slily over the edge of the cup, and
+spouted water at me, slipping suddenly back, like those little soldier-crabs
+that inhabit the shells of sea-snails. Passing a row of tall thistles, I saw
+them crowded with little faces, which peeped every one from behind its flower,
+and drew back as quickly; and I heard them saying to each other, evidently
+intending me to hear, but the speaker always hiding behind his tuft, when I
+looked in his direction, &ldquo;Look at him! Look at him! He has begun a story
+without a beginning, and it will never have any end. He! he! he! Look at
+him!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But as I went further into the wood, these sights and sounds became fewer,
+giving way to others of a different character. A little forest of wild
+hyacinths was alive with exquisite creatures, who stood nearly motionless, with
+drooping necks, holding each by the stem of her flower, and swaying gently with
+it, whenever a low breath of wind swung the crowded floral belfry. In like
+manner, though differing of course in form and meaning, stood a group of
+harebells, like little angels waiting, ready, till they were wanted to go on
+some yet unknown message. In darker nooks, by the mossy roots of the trees, or
+in little tufts of grass, each dwelling in a globe of its own green light,
+weaving a network of grass and its shadows, glowed the glowworms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were just like the glowworms of our own land, for they are fairies
+everywhere; worms in the day, and glowworms at night, when their own can
+appear, and they can be themselves to others as well as themselves. But they
+had their enemies here. For I saw great strong-armed beetles, hurrying about
+with most unwieldy haste, awkward as elephant-calves, looking apparently for
+glowworms; for the moment a beetle espied one, through what to it was a forest
+of grass, or an underwood of moss, it pounced upon it, and bore it away, in
+spite of its feeble resistance. Wondering what their object could be, I watched
+one of the beetles, and then I discovered a thing I could not account for. But
+it is no use trying to account for things in Fairy Land; and one who travels
+there soon learns to forget the very idea of doing so, and takes everything as
+it comes; like a child, who, being in a chronic condition of wonder, is
+surprised at nothing. What I saw was this. Everywhere, here and there over the
+ground, lay little, dark-looking lumps of something more like earth than
+anything else, and about the size of a chestnut. The beetles hunted in couples
+for these; and having found one, one of them stayed to watch it, while the
+other hurried to find a glowworm. By signals, I presume, between them, the
+latter soon found his companion again: they then took the glowworm and held its
+luminous tail to the dark earthly pellet; when lo, it shot up into the air like
+a sky-rocket, seldom, however, reaching the height of the highest tree. Just
+like a rocket too, it burst in the air, and fell in a shower of the most
+gorgeously coloured sparks of every variety of hue; golden and red, and purple
+and green, and blue and rosy fires crossed and inter-crossed each other,
+beneath the shadowy heads, and between the columnar stems of the forest trees.
+They never used the same glowworm twice, I observed; but let him go, apparently
+uninjured by the use they had made of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In other parts, the whole of the immediately surrounding foliage was
+illuminated by the interwoven dances in the air of splendidly coloured
+fire-flies, which sped hither and thither, turned, twisted, crossed, and
+recrossed, entwining every complexity of intervolved motion. Here and there,
+whole mighty trees glowed with an emitted phosphorescent light. You could trace
+the very course of the great roots in the earth by the faint light that came
+through; and every twig, and every vein on every leaf was a streak of pale
+fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this time, as I went through the wood, I was haunted with the feeling that
+other shapes, more like my own size and mien, were moving about at a little
+distance on all sides of me. But as yet I could discern none of them, although
+the moon was high enough to send a great many of her rays down between the
+trees, and these rays were unusually bright, and sight-giving, notwithstanding
+she was only a half-moon. I constantly imagined, however, that forms were
+visible in all directions except that to which my gaze was turned; and that
+they only became invisible, or resolved themselves into other woodland shapes,
+the moment my looks were directed towards them. However this may have been,
+except for this feeling of presence, the woods seemed utterly bare of anything
+like human companionship, although my glance often fell on some object which I
+fancied to be a human form; for I soon found that I was quite deceived; as, the
+moment I fixed my regard on it, it showed plainly that it was a bush, or a
+tree, or a rock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon a vague sense of discomfort possessed me. With variations of relief, this
+gradually increased; as if some evil thing were wandering about in my
+neighbourhood, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off, but still
+approaching. The feeling continued and deepened, until all my pleasure in the
+shows of various kinds that everywhere betokened the presence of the merry
+fairies vanished by degrees, and left me full of anxiety and fear, which I was
+unable to associate with any definite object whatever. At length the thought
+crossed my mind with horror: &ldquo;Can it be possible that the Ash is looking
+for me? or that, in his nightly wanderings, his path is gradually verging
+towards mine?&rdquo; I comforted myself, however, by remembering that he had
+started quite in another direction; one that would lead him, if he kept it, far
+apart from me; especially as, for the last two or three hours, I had been
+diligently journeying eastward. I kept on my way, therefore, striving by direct
+effort of the will against the encroaching fear; and to this end occupying my
+mind, as much as I could, with other thoughts. I was so far successful that,
+although I was conscious, if I yielded for a moment, I should be almost
+overwhelmed with horror, I was yet able to walk right on for an hour or more.
+What I feared I could not tell. Indeed, I was left in a state of the vaguest
+uncertainty as regarded the nature of my enemy, and knew not the mode or object
+of his attacks; for, somehow or other, none of my questions had succeeded in
+drawing a definite answer from the dame in the cottage. How then to defend
+myself I knew not; nor even by what sign I might with certainty recognise the
+presence of my foe; for as yet this vague though powerful fear was all the
+indication of danger I had. To add to my distress, the clouds in the west had
+risen nearly to the top of the skies, and they and the moon were travelling
+slowly towards each other. Indeed, some of their advanced guard had already met
+her, and she had begun to wade through a filmy vapour that gradually deepened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length she was for a moment almost entirely obscured. When she shone out
+again, with a brilliancy increased by the contrast, I saw plainly on the path
+before me&mdash;from around which at this spot the trees receded, leaving a
+small space of green sward&mdash;the shadow of a large hand, with knotty joints
+and protuberances here and there. Especially I remarked, even in the midst of
+my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers. I looked hurriedly all around, but
+could see nothing from which such a shadow should fall. Now, however, that I
+had a direction, however undetermined, in which to project my apprehension, the
+very sense of danger and need of action overcame that stifling which is the
+worst property of fear. I reflected in a moment, that if this were indeed a
+shadow, it was useless to look for the object that cast it in any other
+direction than between the shadow and the moon. I looked, and peered, and
+intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of that kind, not
+even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow remained; not steady,
+but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers close, and grind themselves
+close, like the claws of a wild animal, as if in uncontrollable longing for
+some anticipated prey. There seemed but one mode left of discovering the
+substance of this shadow. I went forward boldly, though with an inward shudder
+which I would not heed, to the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the
+ground, laid my head within the form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards
+the moon. Good heavens! what did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that
+the very shadow of the hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had frozen
+my brain. I saw the strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent, in
+the central parts, and gradually deepening in substance towards the outside,
+until it ended in extremities capable of casting such a shadow as fell from the
+hand, through the awful fingers of which I now saw the moon. The hand was
+uplifted in the attitude of a paw about to strike its prey. But the face, which
+throbbed with fluctuating and pulsatory visibility&mdash;not from changes in
+the light it reflected, but from changes in its own conditions of reflecting
+power, the alterations being from within, not from without&mdash;it was
+horrible. I do not know how to describe it. It caused a new sensation. Just as
+one cannot translate a horrible odour, or a ghastly pain, or a fearful sound,
+into words, so I cannot describe this new form of awful hideousness. I can only
+try to describe something that is not it, but seems somewhat parallel to it; or
+at least is suggested by it. It reminded me of what I had heard of vampires;
+for the face resembled that of a corpse more than anything else I can think of;
+especially when I can conceive such a face in motion, but not suggesting any
+life as the source of the motion. The features were rather handsome than
+otherwise, except the mouth, which had scarcely a curve in it. The lips were of
+equal thickness; but the thickness was not at all remarkable, even although
+they looked slightly swollen. They seemed fixedly open, but were not wide
+apart. Of course I did not <i>remark</i> these lineaments at the time: I was
+too horrified for that. I noted them afterwards, when the form returned on my
+inward sight with a vividness too intense to admit of my doubting the accuracy
+of the reflex. But the most awful of the features were the eyes. These were
+alive, yet not with life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They seemed lighted up with an infinite greed. A gnawing voracity, which
+devoured the devourer, seemed to be the indwelling and propelling power of the
+whole ghostly apparition. I lay for a few moments simply imbruted with terror;
+when another cloud, obscuring the moon, delivered me from the immediately
+paralysing effects of the presence to the vision of the object of horror, while
+it added the force of imagination to the power of fear within me; inasmuch as,
+knowing far worse cause for apprehension than before, I remained equally
+ignorant from what I had to defend myself, or how to take any precautions: he
+might be upon me in the darkness any moment. I sprang to my feet, and sped I
+knew not whither, only away from the spectre. I thought no longer of the path,
+and often narrowly escaped dashing myself against a tree, in my headlong flight
+of fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great drops of rain began to patter on the leaves. Thunder began to mutter,
+then growl in the distance. I ran on. The rain fell heavier. At length the
+thick leaves could hold it up no longer; and, like a second firmament, they
+poured their torrents on the earth. I was soon drenched, but that was nothing.
+I came to a small swollen stream that rushed through the woods. I had a vague
+hope that if I crossed this stream, I should be in safety from my pursuer; but
+I soon found that my hope was as false as it was vague. I dashed across the
+stream, ascended a rising ground, and reached a more open space, where stood
+only great trees. Through them I directed my way, holding eastward as nearly as
+I could guess, but not at all certain that I was not moving in an opposite
+direction. My mind was just reviving a little from its extreme terror, when,
+suddenly, a flash of lightning, or rather a cataract of successive flashes,
+behind me, seemed to throw on the ground in front of me, but far more faintly
+than before, from the extent of the source of the light, the shadow of the same
+horrible hand. I sprang forward, stung to yet wilder speed; but had not run
+many steps before my foot slipped, and, vainly attempting to recover myself, I
+fell at the foot of one of the large trees. Half-stunned, I yet raised myself,
+and almost involuntarily looked back. All I saw was the hand within three feet
+of my face. But, at the same moment, I felt two large soft arms thrown round me
+from behind; and a voice like a woman&rsquo;s said: &ldquo;Do not fear the
+goblin; he dares not hurt you now.&rdquo; With that, the hand was suddenly
+withdrawn as from a fire, and disappeared in the darkness and the rain.
+Overcome with the mingling of terror and joy, I lay for some time almost
+insensible. The first thing I remember is the sound of a voice above me, full
+and low, and strangely reminding me of the sound of a gentle wind amidst the
+leaves of a great tree. It murmured over and over again: &ldquo;I may love him,
+I may love him; for he is a man, and I am only a beech-tree.&rdquo; I found I
+was seated on the ground, leaning against a human form, and supported still by
+the arms around me, which I knew to be those of a woman who must be rather
+above the human size, and largely proportioned. I turned my head, but without
+moving otherwise, for I feared lest the arms should untwine themselves; and
+clear, somewhat mournful eyes met mine. At least that is how they impressed me;
+but I could see very little of colour or outline as we sat in the dark and
+rainy shadow of the tree. The face seemed very lovely, and solemn from its
+stillness; with the aspect of one who is quite content, but waiting for
+something. I saw my conjecture from her arms was correct: she was above the
+human scale throughout, but not greatly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why do you call yourself a beech-tree?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I am one,&rdquo; she replied, in the same low, musical,
+murmuring voice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a woman,&rdquo; I returned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you think so? Am I very like a woman then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are a very beautiful woman. Is it possible you should not know
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am very glad you think so. I fancy I feel like a woman sometimes. I do
+so to-night&mdash;and always when the rain drips from my hair. For there is an
+old prophecy in our woods that one day we shall all be men and women like you.
+Do you know anything about it in your region? Shall I be very happy when I am a
+woman? I fear not, for it is always in nights like these that I feel like one.
+But I long to be a woman for all that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had let her talk on, for her voice was like a solution of all musical sounds.
+I now told her that I could hardly say whether women were happy or not. I knew
+one who had not been happy; and for my part, I had often longed for Fairy Land,
+as she now longed for the world of men. But then neither of us had lived long,
+and perhaps people grew happier as they grew older. Only I doubted it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could not help sighing. She felt the sigh, for her arms were still round me.
+She asked me how old I was.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Twenty-one,&rdquo; said I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, you baby!&rdquo; said she, and kissed me with the sweetest kiss of
+winds and odours. There was a cool faithfulness in the kiss that revived my
+heart wonderfully. I felt that I feared the dreadful Ash no more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What did the horrible Ash want with me?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am not quite sure, but I think he wants to bury you at the foot of his
+tree. But he shall not touch you, my child.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are all the ash-trees as dreadful as he?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, no. They are all disagreeable selfish creatures&mdash;(what horrid
+men they will make, if it be true!)&mdash;but this one has a hole in his heart
+that nobody knows of but one or two; and he is always trying to fill it up, but
+he cannot. That must be what he wanted you for. I wonder if he will ever be a
+man. If he is, I hope they will kill him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How kind of you to save me from him!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will take care that he shall not come near you again. But there are
+some in the wood more like me, from whom, alas! I cannot protect you. Only if
+you see any of them very beautiful, try to walk round them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot tell you more. But now I must tie some of my hair about you,
+and then the Ash will not touch you. Here, cut some off. You men have strange
+cutting things about you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She shook her long hair loose over me, never moving her arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot cut your beautiful hair. It would be a shame.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not cut my hair! It will have grown long enough before any is wanted
+again in this wild forest. Perhaps it may never be of any use again&mdash;not
+till I am a woman.&rdquo; And she sighed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As gently as I could, I cut with a knife a long tress of flowing, dark hair,
+she hanging her beautiful head over me. When I had finished, she shuddered and
+breathed deep, as one does when an acute pain, steadfastly endured without sign
+of suffering, is at length relaxed. She then took the hair and tied it round
+me, singing a strange, sweet song, which I could not understand, but which left
+in me a feeling like this&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;I saw thee ne&rsquo;er before;<br/>
+I see thee never more;<br/>
+But love, and help, and pain, beautiful one,<br/>
+Have made thee mine, till all my years are done.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+I cannot put more of it into words. She closed her arms about me again, and
+went on singing. The rain in the leaves, and a light wind that had arisen, kept
+her song company. I was wrapt in a trance of still delight. It told me the
+secret of the woods, and the flowers, and the birds. At one time I felt as if I
+was wandering in childhood through sunny spring forests, over carpets of
+primroses, anemones, and little white starry things&mdash;I had almost said
+creatures, and finding new wonderful flowers at every turn. At another, I lay
+half dreaming in the hot summer noon, with a book of old tales beside me,
+beneath a great beech; or, in autumn, grew sad because I trod on the leaves
+that had sheltered me, and received their last blessing in the sweet odours of
+decay; or, in a winter evening, frozen still, looked up, as I went home to a
+warm fireside, through the netted boughs and twigs to the cold, snowy moon,
+with her opal zone around her. At last I had fallen asleep; for I know nothing
+more that passed till I found myself lying under a superb beech-tree, in the
+clear light of the morning, just before sunrise. Around me was a girdle of
+fresh beech-leaves. Alas! I brought nothing with me out of Fairy Land, but
+memories&mdash;memories. The great boughs of the beech hung drooping around me.
+At my head rose its smooth stem, with its great sweeps of curving surface that
+swelled like undeveloped limbs. The leaves and branches above kept on the song
+which had sung me asleep; only now, to my mind, it sounded like a farewell and
+a speedwell. I sat a long time, unwilling to go; but my unfinished story urged
+me on. I must act and wander. With the sun well risen, I rose, and put my arms
+as far as they would reach around the beech-tree, and kissed it, and said
+good-bye. A trembling went through the leaves; a few of the last drops of the
+night&rsquo;s rain fell from off them at my feet; and as I walked slowly away,
+I seemed to hear in a whisper once more the words: &ldquo;I may love him, I may
+love him; for he is a man, and I am only a beech-tree.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;And she was smooth and full, as if one gush<br/>
+Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep<br/>
+Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep<br/>
+Than bee from daisy.&rdquo;<br/>
+          B<small>EDDOES</small>&rsquo; <i>Pygmalion</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,<br/>
+Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day.&rdquo;<br/>
+          <i>Romance of Sir Launfal</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only thing that
+damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between sorrow and delight that
+crossed my mind with the frequently returning thought of my last night&rsquo;s
+hostess. &ldquo;But then,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;if she is sorry, I could not
+help it; and she has all the pleasures she ever had. Such a day as this is
+surely a joy to her, as much at least as to me. And her life will perhaps be
+the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what came, but could not
+stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows but we may meet somewhere? there is
+plenty of room for meeting in the universe.&rdquo; Comforting myself thus, yet
+with a vague compunction, as if I ought not to have left her, I went on. There
+was little to distinguish the woods to-day from those of my own land; except
+that all the wild things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and the numberless
+other inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they did not run away from me, but
+gazed at me as I passed, frequently coming nearer, as if to examine me more
+closely. Whether this came from utter ignorance, or from familiarity with the
+human appearance of beings who never hurt them, I could not tell. As I stood
+once, looking up to the splendid flower of a parasite, which hung from the
+branch of a tree over my head, a large white rabbit cantered slowly up, put one
+of its little feet on one of mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just
+as I had been looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it; but
+when I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind feet and
+scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look at me several times
+before I lost sight of it. Now and then, too, a dim human figure would appear
+and disappear, at some distance, amongst the trees, moving like a sleep-walker.
+But no one ever came near me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This day I found plenty of food in the forest&mdash;strange nuts and fruits I
+had never seen before. I hesitated to eat them; but argued that, if I could
+live on the air of Fairy Land, I could live on its food also. I found my
+reasoning correct, and the result was better than I had hoped; for it not only
+satisfied my hunger, but operated in such a way upon my senses that I was
+brought into far more complete relationship with the things around me. The
+human forms appeared much more dense and defined; more tangibly visible, if I
+may say so. I seemed to know better which direction to choose when any doubt
+arose. I began to feel in some degree what the birds meant in their songs,
+though I could not express it in words, any more than you can some landscapes.
+At times, to my surprise, I found myself listening attentively, and as if it
+were no unusual thing with me, to a conversation between two squirrels or
+monkeys. The subjects were not very interesting, except as associated with the
+individual life and necessities of the little creatures: where the best nuts
+were to be found in the neighbourhood, and who could crack them best, or who
+had most laid up for the winter, and such like; only they never said where the
+store was. There was no great difference in kind between their talk and our
+ordinary human conversation. Some of the creatures I never heard speak at all,
+and believe they never do so, except under the impulse of some great
+excitement. The mice talked; but the hedgehogs seemed very phlegmatic; and
+though I met a couple of moles above ground several times, they never said a
+word to each other in my hearing. There were no wild beasts in the forest; at
+least, I did not see one larger than a wild cat. There were plenty of snakes,
+however, and I do not think they were all harmless; but none ever bit me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great size, but very
+steep; and having no trees&mdash;scarcely even a bush&mdash;upon it, entirely
+exposed to the heat of the sun. Over this my way seemed to lie, and I
+immediately began the ascent. On reaching the top, hot and weary, I looked
+around me, and saw that the forest still stretched as far as the sight could
+reach on every side of me. I observed that the trees, in the direction in which
+I was about to descend, did not come so near the foot of the hill as on the
+other side, and was especially regretting the unexpected postponement of
+shelter, because this side of the hill seemed more difficult to descend than
+the other had been to climb, when my eye caught the appearance of a natural
+path, winding down through broken rocks and along the course of a tiny stream,
+which I hoped would lead me more easily to the foot. I tried it, and found the
+descent not at all laborious; nevertheless, when I reached the bottom, I was
+very tired and exhausted with the heat. But just where the path seemed to end,
+rose a great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs and creeping plants, some of
+them in full and splendid blossom: these almost concealed an opening in the
+rock, into which the path appeared to lead. I entered, thirsting for the shade
+which it promised. What was my delight to find a rocky cell, all the angles
+rounded away with rich moss, and every ledge and projection crowded with lovely
+ferns, the variety of whose forms, and groupings, and shades wrought in me like
+a poem; for such a harmony could not exist, except they all consented to some
+one end! A little well of the clearest water filled a mossy hollow in one
+corner. I drank, and felt as if I knew what the elixir of life must be; then
+threw myself on a mossy mound that lay like a couch along the inner end. Here I
+lay in a delicious reverie for some time; during which all lovely forms, and
+colours, and sounds seemed to use my brain as a common hall, where they could
+come and go, unbidden and unexcused. I had never imagined that such capacity
+for simple happiness lay in me, as was now awakened by this assembly of forms
+and spiritual sensations, which yet were far too vague to admit of being
+translated into any shape common to my own and another mind. I had lain for an
+hour, I should suppose, though it may have been far longer, when, the
+harmonious tumult in my mind having somewhat relaxed, I became aware that my
+eyes were fixed on a strange, time-worn bas-relief on the rock opposite to me.
+This, after some pondering, I concluded to represent Pygmalion, as he awaited
+the quickening of his statue. The sculptor sat more rigid than the figure to
+which his eyes were turned. That seemed about to step from its pedestal and
+embrace the man, who waited rather than expected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A lovely story,&rdquo; I said to myself. &ldquo;This cave, now, with the
+bushes cut away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place as
+he would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his block of
+marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already clothed with form in
+the unseen hall of the sculptor&rsquo;s brain. And, indeed, if I mistake
+not,&rdquo; I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived at that
+moment through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small portion of the
+rock, bare of vegetation, &ldquo;this very rock is marble, white enough and
+delicate enough for any statue, even if destined to become an ideal woman in
+the arms of the sculptor.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which I had
+been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster than ordinary
+marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it was alabaster. By an
+inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of impulse, I went on removing
+the moss from the surface of the stone; and soon saw that it was polished, or
+at least smooth, throughout. I continued my labour; and after clearing a space
+of about a couple of square feet, I observed what caused me to prosecute the
+work with more interest and care than before. For the ray of sunlight had now
+reached the spot I had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed its
+usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife had scratched
+the surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to have a definite
+limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more solid, white marble. I was
+careful to scratch no more. And first, a vague anticipation gave way to a
+startling sense of possibility; then, as I proceeded, one revelation after
+another produced the entrancing conviction, that under the crust of alabaster
+lay a dimly visible form in marble, but whether of man or woman I could not yet
+tell. I worked on as rapidly as the necessary care would permit; and when I had
+uncovered the whole mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a little way,
+so that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw before me with
+sufficient plainness&mdash;though at the same time with considerable
+indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light the place admitted, as
+well as from the nature of the object itself&mdash;a block of pure alabaster
+enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a reposing woman. She lay on one
+side, with her hand under her cheek, and her face towards me; but her hair had
+fallen partly over her face, so that I could not see the expression of the
+whole. What I did see appeared to me perfectly lovely; more near the face that
+had been born with me in my soul, than anything I had seen before in nature or
+art. The actual outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that the
+more than semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to account for the
+fact; and I conjectured that a light robe added its obscurity. Numberless
+histories passed through my mind of change of substance from enchantment and
+other causes, and of imprisonments such as this before me. I thought of the
+Prince of the Enchanted City, half marble and half a man; of Ariel; of Niobe;
+of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; of the bleeding trees; and many other
+histories. Even my adventure of the preceding evening with the lady of the
+beech-tree contributed to arouse the wild hope, that by some means life might
+be given to this form also, and that, breaking from her alabaster tomb, she
+might glorify my eyes with her presence. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; I argued,
+&ldquo;who can tell but this cave may be the home of Marble, and this,
+essential Marble&mdash;that spirit of marble which, present throughout, makes
+it capable of being moulded into any form? Then if she should awake! But how to
+awake her? A kiss awoke the Sleeping Beauty! a kiss cannot reach her through
+the incrusting alabaster.&rdquo; I kneeled, however, and kissed the pale
+coffin; but she slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, and the following
+stones&mdash;that trees should follow his music seemed nothing surprising now.
+Might not a song awake this form, that the glory of motion might for a time
+displace the loveliness of rest? Sweet sounds can go where kisses may not
+enter. I sat and thought. Now, although always delighting in music, I had never
+been gifted with the power of song, until I entered the fairy forest. I had a
+voice, and I had a true sense of sound; but when I tried to sing, the one would
+not content the other, and so I remained silent. This morning, however, I had
+found myself, ere I was aware, rejoicing in a song; but whether it was before
+or after I had eaten of the fruits of the forest, I could not satisfy myself. I
+concluded it was after, however; and that the increased impulse to sing I now
+felt, was in part owing to having drunk of the little well, which shone like a
+brilliant eye in a corner of the cave. I sat down on the ground by the
+&ldquo;antenatal tomb,&rdquo; leaned upon it with my face towards the head of
+the figure within, and sang&mdash;the words and tones coming together, and
+inseparably connected, as if word and tone formed one thing; or, as if each
+word could be uttered only in that tone, and was incapable of distinction from
+it, except in idea, by an acute analysis. I sang something like this: but the
+words are only a dull representation of a state whose very elevation precluded
+the possibility of remembrance; and in which I presume the words really
+employed were as far above these, as that state transcended this wherein I
+recall it:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Marble woman, vainly sleeping<br/>
+In the very death of dreams!<br/>
+Wilt thou&mdash;slumber from thee sweeping,<br/>
+All but what with vision teems&mdash;<br/>
+Hear my voice come through the golden<br/>
+Mist of memory and hope;<br/>
+And with shadowy smile embolden<br/>
+Me with primal Death to cope?<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Thee the sculptors all pursuing,<br/>
+Have embodied but their own;<br/>
+Round their visions, form enduring,<br/>
+Marble vestments thou hast thrown;<br/>
+But thyself, in silence winding,<br/>
+Thou hast kept eternally;<br/>
+Thee they found not, many finding&mdash;<br/>
+I have found thee: wake for me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I sang, I looked earnestly at the face so vaguely revealed before me. I
+fancied, yet believed it to be but fancy, that through the dim veil of the
+alabaster, I saw a motion of the head as if caused by a sinking sigh. I gazed
+more earnestly, and concluded that it was but fancy. Neverthless I could not
+help singing again&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Rest is now filled full of beauty,<br/>
+And can give thee up, I ween;<br/>
+Come thou forth, for other duty<br/>
+Motion pineth for her queen.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Or, if needing years to wake thee<br/>
+From thy slumbrous solitudes,<br/>
+Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee<br/>
+To the friendly, sleeping woods.<br/>
+<br/>
+Sweeter dreams are in the forest,<br/>
+Round thee storms would never rave;<br/>
+And when need of rest is sorest,<br/>
+Glide thou then into thy cave.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Or, if still thou choosest rather<br/>
+Marble, be its spell on me;<br/>
+Let thy slumber round me gather,<br/>
+Let another dream with thee!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again I paused, and gazed through the stony shroud, as if, by very force of
+penetrative sight, I would clear every lineament of the lovely face. And now I
+thought the hand that had lain under the cheek, had slipped a little downward.
+But then I could not be sure that I had at first observed its position
+accurately. So I sang again; for the longing had grown into a passionate need
+of seeing her alive&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I<br/>
+    Have set me singing by thy side,<br/>
+Life hath forsook the upper sky,<br/>
+    And all the outer world hath died.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Yea, I am dead; for thou hast drawn<br/>
+    My life all downward unto thee.<br/>
+Dead moon of love! let twilight dawn:<br/>
+    Awake! and let the darkness flee.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Cold lady of the lovely stone!<br/>
+    Awake! or I shall perish here;<br/>
+And thou be never more alone,<br/>
+    My form and I for ages near.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;But words are vain; reject them all&mdash;<br/>
+    They utter but a feeble part:<br/>
+Hear thou the depths from which they call,<br/>
+    The voiceless longing of my heart.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There arose a slightly crashing sound. Like a sudden apparition that comes and
+is gone, a white form, veiled in a light robe of whiteness, burst upwards from
+the stone, stood, glided forth, and gleamed away towards the woods. For I
+followed to the mouth of the cave, as soon as the amazement and concentration
+of delight permitted the nerves of motion again to act; and saw the white form
+amidst the trees, as it crossed a little glade on the edge of the forest where
+the sunlight fell full, seeming to gather with intenser radiance on the one
+object that floated rather than flitted through its lake of beams. I gazed
+after her in a kind of despair; found, freed, lost! It seemed useless to
+follow, yet follow I must. I marked the direction she took; and without once
+looking round to the forsaken cave, I hastened towards the forest.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, rain down<br/>
+upon him, and his happiness is unbounded.&rdquo;<br/>
+          &mdash;F<small>OUQUÉ</small>, <i>Der Zauberring</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Thy red lips, like worms,<br/>
+Travel over my cheek.&rdquo;<br/>
+          &mdash;M<small>OTHERWELL</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But as I crossed the space between the foot of the hill and the forest, a
+vision of another kind delayed my steps. Through an opening to the westward
+flowed, like a stream, the rays of the setting sun, and overflowed with a ruddy
+splendour the open space where I was. And riding as it were down this stream
+towards me, came a horseman in what appeared red armour. From frontlet to tail,
+the horse likewise shone red in the sunset. I felt as if I must have seen the
+knight before; but as he drew near, I could recall no feature of his
+countenance. Ere he came up to me, however, I remembered the legend of Sir
+Percival in the rusty armour, which I had left unfinished in the old book in
+the cottage: it was of Sir Percival that he reminded me. And no wonder; for
+when he came close up to me, I saw that, from crest to heel, the whole surface
+of his armour was covered with a light rust. The golden spurs shone, but the
+iron greaves glowed in the sunlight. The <i>morning star</i>, which hung from
+his wrist, glittered and glowed with its silver and bronze. His whole
+appearance was terrible; but his face did not answer to this appearance. It was
+sad, even to gloominess; and something of shame seemed to cover it. Yet it was
+noble and high, though thus beclouded; and the form looked lofty, although the
+head drooped, and the whole frame was bowed as with an inward grief. The horse
+seemed to share in his master&rsquo;s dejection, and walked spiritless and
+slow. I noticed, too, that the white plume on his helmet was discoloured and
+drooping. &ldquo;He has fallen in a joust with spears,&rdquo; I said to myself;
+&ldquo;yet it becomes not a noble knight to be conquered in spirit because his
+body hath fallen.&rdquo; He appeared not to observe me, for he was riding past
+without looking up, and started into a warlike attitude the moment the first
+sound of my voice reached him. Then a flush, as of shame, covered all of his
+face that the lifted beaver disclosed. He returned my greeting with distant
+courtesy, and passed on. But suddenly, he reined up, sat a moment still, and
+then turning his horse, rode back to where I stood looking after him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am ashamed,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to appear a knight, and in such a
+guise; but it behoves me to tell you to take warning from me, lest the same
+evil, in his kind, overtake the singer that has befallen the knight. Hast thou
+ever read the story of Sir Percival and the&rdquo;&mdash;(here he shuddered,
+that his armour rang)&mdash;&ldquo;Maiden of the Alder-tree?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In part, I have,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;for yesterday, at the entrance of
+this forest, I found in a cottage the volume wherein it is recorded.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Then take heed,&rdquo; he rejoined; &ldquo;for, see my armour&mdash;I
+put it off; and as it befell to him, so has it befallen to me. I that was proud
+am humble now. Yet is she terribly beautiful&mdash;beware. Never,&rdquo; he
+added, raising his head, &ldquo;shall this armour be furbished, but by the
+blows of knightly encounter, until the last speck has disappeared from every
+spot where the battle-axe and sword of evil-doers, or noble foes, might fall;
+when I shall again lift my head, and say to my squire, &lsquo;Do thy duty once
+more, and make this armour shine.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before I could inquire further, he had struck spurs into his horse and galloped
+away, shrouded from my voice in the noise of his armour. For I called after
+him, anxious to know more about this fearful enchantress; but in vain&mdash;he
+heard me not. &ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;I have now been often
+warned; surely I shall be well on my guard; and I am fully resolved I shall not
+be ensnared by any beauty, however beautiful. Doubtless, some one man may
+escape, and I shall be he.&rdquo; So I went on into the wood, still hoping to
+find, in some one of its mysterious recesses, my lost lady of the marble. The
+sunny afternoon died into the loveliest twilight. Great bats began to flit
+about with their own noiseless flight, seemingly purposeless, because its
+objects are unseen. The monotonous music of the owl issued from all unexpected
+quarters in the half-darkness around me. The glow-worm was alight here and
+there, burning out into the great universe. The night-hawk heightened all the
+harmony and stillness with his oft-recurring, discordant jar. Numberless
+unknown sounds came out of the unknown dusk; but all were of twilight-kind,
+oppressing the heart as with a condensed atmosphere of dreamy undefined love
+and longing. The odours of night arose, and bathed me in that luxurious
+mournfulness peculiar to them, as if the plants whence they floated had been
+watered with bygone tears. Earth drew me towards her bosom; I felt as if I
+could fall down and kiss her. I forgot I was in Fairy Land, and seemed to be
+walking in a perfect night of our own old nursing earth. Great stems rose about
+me, uplifting a thick multitudinous roof above me of branches, and twigs, and
+leaves&mdash;the bird and insect world uplifted over mine, with its own
+landscapes, its own thickets, and paths, and glades, and dwellings; its own
+bird-ways and insect-delights. Great boughs crossed my path; great roots based
+the tree-columns, and mightily clasped the earth, strong to lift and strong to
+uphold. It seemed an old, old forest, perfect in forest ways and pleasures. And
+when, in the midst of this ecstacy, I remembered that under some close canopy
+of leaves, by some giant stem, or in some mossy cave, or beside some leafy
+well, sat the lady of the marble, whom my songs had called forth into the outer
+world, waiting (might it not be?) to meet and thank her deliverer in a twilight
+which would veil her confusion, the whole night became one dream-realm of joy,
+the central form of which was everywhere present, although unbeheld. Then,
+remembering how my songs seemed to have called her from the marble, piercing
+through the pearly shroud of alabaster&mdash;&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; thought I,
+&ldquo;should not my voice reach her now, through the ebon night that inwraps
+her.&rdquo; My voice burst into song so spontaneously that it seemed
+involuntarily.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Not a sound<br/>
+But, echoing in me,<br/>
+Vibrates all around<br/>
+With a blind delight,<br/>
+Till it breaks on Thee,<br/>
+Queen of Night!<br/>
+<br/>
+Every tree,<br/>
+O&rsquo;ershadowing with gloom,<br/>
+Seems to cover thee<br/>
+Secret, dark, love-still&rsquo;d,<br/>
+In a holy room<br/>
+Silence-filled.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Let no moon<br/>
+Creep up the heaven to-night;<br/>
+I in darksome noon<br/>
+Walking hopefully,<br/>
+Seek my shrouded light&mdash;<br/>
+Grope for thee!<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Darker grow<br/>
+The borders of the dark!<br/>
+Through the branches glow,<br/>
+From the roof above,<br/>
+Star and diamond-sparks<br/>
+Light for love.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely had the last sounds floated away from the hearing of my own ears, when
+I heard instead a low delicious laugh near me. It was not the laugh of one who
+would not be heard, but the laugh of one who has just received something long
+and patiently desired&mdash;a laugh that ends in a low musical moan. I started,
+and, turning sideways, saw a dim white figure seated beside an intertwining
+thicket of smaller trees and underwood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is my white lady!&rdquo; I said, and flung myself on the ground
+beside her; striving, through the gathering darkness, to get a glimpse of the
+form which had broken its marble prison at my call.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is your white lady!&rdquo; said the sweetest voice, in reply, sending
+a thrill of speechless delight through a heart which all the love-charms of the
+preceding day and evening had been tempering for this culminating hour. Yet, if
+I would have confessed it, there was something either in the sound of the
+voice, although it seemed sweetness itself, or else in this yielding which
+awaited no gradation of gentle approaches, that did not vibrate harmoniously
+with the beat of my inward music. And likewise, when, taking her hand in mine,
+I drew closer to her, looking for the beauty of her face, which, indeed, I
+found too plenteously, a cold shiver ran through me; but &ldquo;it is the
+marble,&rdquo; I said to myself, and heeded it not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She withdrew her hand from mine, and after that would scarce allow me to touch
+her. It seemed strange, after the fulness of her first greeting, that she could
+not trust me to come close to her. Though her words were those of a lover, she
+kept herself withdrawn as if a mile of space interposed between us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why did you run away from me when you woke in the cave?&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Did I?&rdquo; she returned. &ldquo;That was very unkind of me; but I did
+not know better.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wish I could see you. The night is very dark.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So it is. Come to my grotto. There is light there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you another cave, then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come and see.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But she did not move until I rose first, and then she was on her feet before I
+could offer my hand to help her. She came close to my side, and conducted me
+through the wood. But once or twice, when, involuntarily almost, I was about to
+put my arm around her as we walked on through the warm gloom, she sprang away
+several paces, always keeping her face full towards me, and then stood looking
+at me, slightly stooping, in the attitude of one who fears some half-seen
+enemy. It was too dark to discern the expression of her face. Then she would
+return and walk close beside me again, as if nothing had happened. I thought
+this strange; but, besides that I had almost, as I said before, given up the
+attempt to account for appearances in Fairy Land, I judged that it would be
+very unfair to expect from one who had slept so long and had been so suddenly
+awakened, a behaviour correspondent to what I might unreflectingly look for. I
+knew not what she might have been dreaming about. Besides, it was possible
+that, while her words were free, her sense of touch might be exquisitely
+delicate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, after walking a long way in the woods, we arrived at another
+thicket, through the intertexture of which was glimmering a pale rosy light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Push aside the branches,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and make room for us to
+enter.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did as she told me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go in,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I will follow you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I did as she desired, and found myself in a little cave, not very unlike the
+marble cave. It was festooned and draperied with all kinds of green that cling
+to shady rocks. In the furthest corner, half-hidden in leaves, through which it
+glowed, mingling lovely shadows between them, burned a bright rosy flame on a
+little earthen lamp. The lady glided round by the wall from behind me, still
+keeping her face towards me, and seated herself in the furthest corner, with
+her back to the lamp, which she hid completely from my view. I then saw indeed
+a form of perfect loveliness before me. Almost it seemed as if the light of the
+rose-lamp shone through her (for it could not be reflected from her); such a
+delicate shade of pink seemed to shadow what in itself must be a marbly
+whiteness of hue. I discovered afterwards, however, that there was one thing in
+it I did not like; which was, that the white part of the eye was tinged with
+the same slight roseate hue as the rest of the form. It is strange that I
+cannot recall her features; but they, as well as her somewhat girlish figure,
+left on me simply and only the impression of intense loveliness. I lay down at
+her feet, and gazed up into her face as I lay. She began, and told me a strange
+tale, which, likewise, I cannot recollect; but which, at every turn and every
+pause, somehow or other fixed my eyes and thoughts upon her extreme beauty;
+seeming always to culminate in something that had a relation, revealed or
+hidden, but always operative, with her own loveliness. I lay entranced. It was
+a tale which brings back a feeling as of snows and tempests; torrents and
+water-sprites; lovers parted for long, and meeting at last; with a gorgeous
+summer night to close up the whole. I listened till she and I were blended with
+the tale; till she and I were the whole history. And we had met at last in this
+same cave of greenery, while the summer night hung round us heavy with love,
+and the odours that crept through the silence from the sleeping woods were the
+only signs of an outer world that invaded our solitude. What followed I cannot
+clearly remember. The succeeding horror almost obliterated it. I woke as a grey
+dawn stole into the cave. The damsel had disappeared; but in the shrubbery, at
+the mouth of the cave, stood a strange horrible object. It looked like an open
+coffin set up on one end; only that the part for the head and neck was defined
+from the shoulder-part. In fact, it was a rough representation of the human
+frame, only hollow, as if made of decaying bark torn from a tree.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It had arms, which were only slightly seamed, down from the shoulder-blade by
+the elbow, as if the bark had healed again from the cut of a knife. But the
+arms moved, and the hand and the fingers were tearing asunder a long silky
+tress of hair. The thing turned round&mdash;it had for a face and front those
+of my enchantress, but now of a pale greenish hue in the light of the morning,
+and with dead lustreless eyes. In the horror of the moment, another fear
+invaded me. I put my hand to my waist, and found indeed that my girdle of
+beech-leaves was gone. Hair again in her hands, she was tearing it fiercely.
+Once more, as she turned, she laughed a low laugh, but now full of scorn and
+derision; and then she said, as if to a companion with whom she had been
+talking while I slept, &ldquo;There he is; you can take him now.&rdquo; I lay
+still, petrified with dismay and fear; for I now saw another figure beside her,
+which, although vague and indistinct, I yet recognised but too well. It was the
+Ash-tree. My beauty was the Maid of the Alder! and she was giving me, spoiled
+of my only availing defence, into the hands of my awful foe. The Ash bent his
+Gorgon-head, and entered the cave. I could not stir. He drew near me. His
+ghoul-eyes and his ghastly face fascinated me. He came stooping, with the
+hideous hand outstretched, like a beast of prey. I had given myself up to a
+death of unfathomable horror, when, suddenly, and just as he was on the point
+of seizing me, the dull, heavy blow of an axe echoed through the wood, followed
+by others in quick repetition. The Ash shuddered and groaned, withdrew the
+outstretched hand, retreated backwards to the mouth of the cave, then turned
+and disappeared amongst the trees. The other walking Death looked at me once,
+with a careless dislike on her beautifully moulded features; then, heedless any
+more to conceal her hollow deformity, turned her frightful back and likewise
+vanished amid the green obscurity without. I lay and wept. The Maid of the
+Alder-tree had befooled me&mdash;nearly slain me&mdash;in spite of all the
+warnings I had received from those who knew my danger.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes,<br/>
+    A little I am hurt, but yett not slaine;<br/>
+I&rsquo;le but lye downe and bleede awhile,<br/>
+    And then I&rsquo;le rise and fight againe.&rdquo;<br/>
+          B<small>ALLAD</small> <i>of Sir Andrew Barton</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I could not remain where I was any longer, though the daylight was hateful
+to me, and the thought of the great, innocent, bold sunrise unendurable. Here
+there was no well to cool my face, smarting with the bitterness of my own
+tears. Nor would I have washed in the well of that grotto, had it flowed clear
+as the rivers of Paradise. I rose, and feebly left the sepulchral cave. I took
+my way I knew not whither, but still towards the sunrise. The birds were
+singing; but not for me. All the creatures spoke a language of their own, with
+which I had nothing to do, and to which I cared not to find the key any more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I walked listlessly along. What distressed me most&mdash;more even than my own
+folly&mdash;was the perplexing question, How can beauty and ugliness dwell so
+near? Even with her altered complexion and her face of dislike; disenchanted of
+the belief that clung around her; known for a living, walking sepulchre,
+faithless, deluding, traitorous; I felt notwithstanding all this, that she was
+beautiful. Upon this I pondered with undiminished perplexity, though not
+without some gain. Then I began to make surmises as to the mode of my
+deliverance; and concluded that some hero, wandering in search of adventure,
+had heard how the forest was infested; and, knowing it was useless to attack
+the evil thing in person, had assailed with his battle-axe the body in which he
+dwelt, and on which he was dependent for his power of mischief in the wood.
+&ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; I thought, &ldquo;the repentant-knight, who warned
+me of the evil which has befallen me, was busy retrieving his lost honour,
+while I was sinking into the same sorrow with himself; and, hearing of the
+dangerous and mysterious being, arrived at his tree in time to save me from
+being dragged to its roots, and buried like carrion, to nourish him for yet
+deeper insatiableness.&rdquo; I found afterwards that my conjecture was
+correct. I wondered how he had fared when his blows recalled the Ash himself,
+and that too I learned afterwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I walked on the whole day, with intervals of rest, but without food; for I
+could not have eaten, had any been offered me; till, in the afternoon, I seemed
+to approach the outskirts of the forest, and at length arrived at a farm-house.
+An unspeakable joy arose in my heart at beholding an abode of human beings once
+more, and I hastened up to the door, and knocked. A kind-looking, matronly
+woman, still handsome, made her appearance; who, as soon as she saw me, said
+kindly, &ldquo;Ah, my poor boy, you have come from the wood! Were you in it
+last night?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I should have ill endured, the day before, to be called <i>boy</i>; but now the
+motherly kindness of the word went to my heart; and, like a boy indeed, I burst
+into tears. She soothed me right gently; and, leading me into a room, made me
+lie down on a settle, while she went to find me some refreshment. She soon
+returned with food, but I could not eat. She almost compelled me to swallow
+some wine, when I revived sufficiently to be able to answer some of her
+questions. I told her the whole story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is just as I feared,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but you are now for the
+night beyond the reach of any of these dreadful creatures. It is no wonder they
+could delude a child like you. But I must beg you, when my husband comes in,
+not to say a word about these things; for he thinks me even half crazy for
+believing anything of the sort. But I must believe my senses, as he cannot
+believe beyond his, which give him no intimations of this kind. I think he
+could spend the whole of Midsummer-eve in the wood and come back with the
+report that he saw nothing worse than himself. Indeed, good man, he would
+hardly find anything better than himself, if he had seven more senses given
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any heart
+at all&mdash;without any place even for a heart to live in.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot quite tell,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but I am sure she would not
+look so beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful
+than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with her before you
+saw her beauty, mistaking her for the lady of the marble&mdash;another kind
+altogether, I should think. But the chief thing that makes her beautiful is
+this: that, although she loves no man, she loves the love of any man; and when
+she finds one in her power, her desire to bewitch him and gain his love (not
+for the sake of his love either, but that she may be conscious anew of her own
+beauty, through the admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely&mdash;with
+a self-destructive beauty, though; for it is that which is constantly wearing
+her away within, till, at last, the decay will reach her face, and her whole
+front, when all the lovely mask of nothing will fall to pieces, and she be
+vanished for ever. So a wise man, whom she met in the wood some years ago, and
+who, I think, for all his wisdom, fared no better than you, told me, when, like
+you, he spent the next night here, and recounted to me his adventures.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thanked her very warmly for her solution, though it was but partial;
+wondering much that in her, as in woman I met on my first entering the forest,
+there should be such superiority to her apparent condition. Here she left me to
+take some rest; though, indeed, I was too much agitated to rest in any other
+way than by simply ceasing to move.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In half an hour, I heard a heavy step approach and enter the house. A jolly
+voice, whose slight huskiness appeared to proceed from overmuch laughter,
+called out &ldquo;Betsy, the pigs&rsquo; trough is quite empty, and that is a
+pity. Let them swill, lass! They&rsquo;re of no use but to get fat. Ha! ha! ha!
+Gluttony is not forbidden in their commandments. Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo; The very
+voice, kind and jovial, seemed to disrobe the room of the strange look which
+all new places wear&mdash;to disenchant it out of the realm of the ideal into
+that of the actual. It began to look as if I had known every corner of it for
+twenty years; and when, soon after, the dame came and fetched me to partake of
+their early supper, the grasp of his great hand, and the harvest-moon of his
+benevolent face, which was needed to light up the rotundity of the globe
+beneath it, produced such a reaction in me, that, for a moment, I could hardly
+believe that there was a Fairy Land; and that all I had passed through since I
+left home, had not been the wandering dream of a diseased imagination,
+operating on a too mobile frame, not merely causing me indeed to travel, but
+peopling for me with vague phantoms the regions through which my actual steps
+had led me. But the next moment my eye fell upon a little girl who was sitting
+in the chimney-corner, with a little book open on her knee, from which she had
+apparently just looked up to fix great inquiring eyes upon me. I believed in
+Fairy Land again. She went on with her reading, as soon as she saw that I
+observed her looking at me. I went near, and peeping over her shoulder, saw
+that she was reading <i>The History of Graciosa and Percinet</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very improving book, sir,&rdquo; remarked the old farmer, with a
+good-humoured laugh. &ldquo;We are in the very hottest corner of Fairy Land
+here. Ha! ha! Stormy night, last night, sir.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Was it, indeed?&rdquo; I rejoined. &ldquo;It was not so with me. A
+lovelier night I never saw.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Indeed! Where were you last night?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I spent it in the forest. I had lost my way.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! then, perhaps, you will be able to convince my good woman, that
+there is nothing very remarkable about the forest; for, to tell the truth, it
+bears but a bad name in these parts. I dare say you saw nothing worse than
+yourself there?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hope I did,&rdquo; was my inward reply; but, for an audible one, I
+contented myself with saying, &ldquo;Why, I certainly did see some appearances
+I could hardly account for; but that is nothing to be wondered at in an unknown
+wild forest, and with the uncertain light of the moon alone to go by.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very true! you speak like a sensible man, sir. We have but few sensible
+folks round about us. Now, you would hardly credit it, but my wife believes
+every fairy-tale that ever was written. I cannot account for it. She is a most
+sensible woman in everything else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But should not that make you treat her belief with something of respect,
+though you cannot share in it yourself?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes, that is all very well in theory; but when you come to live every
+day in the midst of absurdity, it is far less easy to behave respectfully to
+it. Why, my wife actually believes the story of the &lsquo;White Cat.&rsquo;
+You know it, I dare say.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I read all these tales when a child, and know that one especially
+well.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, father,&rdquo; interposed the little girl in the chimney-corner,
+&ldquo;you know quite well that mother is descended from that very princess who
+was changed by the wicked fairy into a white cat. Mother has told me so a many
+times, and you ought to believe everything she says.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can easily believe that,&rdquo; rejoined the farmer, with another fit
+of laughter; &ldquo;for, the other night, a mouse came gnawing and scratching
+beneath the floor, and would not let us go to sleep. Your mother sprang out of
+bed, and going as near it as she could, mewed so infernally like a great cat,
+that the noise ceased instantly. I believe the poor mouse died of the fright,
+for we have never heard it again. Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The son, an ill-looking youth, who had entered during the conversation, joined
+in his father&rsquo;s laugh; but his laugh was very different from the old
+man&rsquo;s: it was polluted with a sneer. I watched him, and saw that, as soon
+as it was over, he looked scared, as if he dreaded some evil consequences to
+follow his presumption. The woman stood near, waiting till we should seat
+ourselves at the table, and listening to it all with an amused air, which had
+something in it of the look with which one listens to the sententious remarks
+of a pompous child. We sat down to supper, and I ate heartily. My bygone
+distresses began already to look far off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;In what direction are you going?&rdquo; asked the old man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eastward,&rdquo; I replied; nor could I have given a more definite
+answer. &ldquo;Does the forest extend much further in that direction?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh! for miles and miles; I do not know how far. For although I have
+lived on the borders of it all my life, I have been too busy to make journeys
+of discovery into it. Nor do I see what I could discover. It is only trees and
+trees, till one is sick of them. By the way, if you follow the eastward track
+from here, you will pass close to what the children say is the very house of
+the ogre that Hop-o&rsquo;-my-Thumb visited, and ate his little daughters with
+the crowns of gold.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, father! ate his little daughters! No; he only changed their gold
+crowns for nightcaps; and the great long-toothed ogre killed them in mistake;
+but I do not think even he ate them, for you know they were his own little
+ogresses.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, well, child; you know all about it a great deal better than I do.
+However, the house has, of course, in such a foolish neighbourhood as this, a
+bad enough name; and I must confess there is a woman living in it, with teeth
+long enough, and white enough too, for the lineal descendant of the greatest
+ogre that ever was made. I think you had better not go near her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In such talk as this the night wore on. When supper was finished, which lasted
+some time, my hostess conducted me to my chamber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If you had not had enough of it already,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I would
+have put you in another room, which looks towards the forest; and where you
+would most likely have seen something more of its inhabitants. For they
+frequently pass the window, and even enter the room sometimes. Strange
+creatures spend whole nights in it, at certain seasons of the year. I am used
+to it, and do not mind it. No more does my little girl, who sleeps in it
+always. But this room looks southward towards the open country, and they never
+show themselves here; at least I never saw any.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experience that I might have, of the
+inhabitants of Fairy Land; but the effect of the farmer&rsquo;s company, and of
+my own later adventures, was such, that I chose rather an undisturbed night in
+my more human quarters; which, with their clean white curtains and white linen,
+were very inviting to my weariness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the morning I awoke refreshed, after a profound and dreamless sleep. The sun
+was high, when I looked out of the window, shining over a wide, undulating,
+cultivated country. Various garden-vegetables were growing beneath my window.
+Everything was radiant with clear sunlight. The dew-drops were sparkling their
+busiest; the cows in a near-by field were eating as if they had not been at it
+all day yesterday; the maids were singing at their work as they passed to and
+fro between the out-houses: I did not believe in Fairy Land. I went down, and
+found the family already at breakfast. But before I entered the room where they
+sat, the little girl came to me, and looked up in my face, as though she wanted
+to say something to me. I stooped towards her; she put her arms round my neck,
+and her mouth to my ear, and whispered&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;A white lady has been flitting about the house all night.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No whispering behind doors!&rdquo; cried the farmer; and we entered
+together. &ldquo;Well, how have you slept? No bogies, eh?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not one, thank you; I slept uncommonly well.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am glad to hear it. Come and breakfast.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After breakfast, the farmer and his son went out; and I was left alone with the
+mother and daughter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When I looked out of the window this morning,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I
+felt almost certain that Fairy Land was all a delusion of my brain; but
+whenever I come near you or your little daughter, I feel differently. Yet I
+could persuade myself, after my last adventures, to go back, and have nothing
+more to do with such strange beings.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How will you go back?&rdquo; said the woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, that I do not know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I have heard, that, for those who enter Fairy Land, there is no
+way of going back. They must go on, and go through it. How, I do not in the
+least know.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That is quite the impression on my own mind. Something compels me to go
+on, as if my only path was onward, but I feel less inclined this morning to
+continue my adventures.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you come and see my little child&rsquo;s room? She sleeps in the
+one I told you of, looking towards the forest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Willingly,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we went together, the little girl running before to open the door for us. It
+was a large room, full of old-fashioned furniture, that seemed to have once
+belonged to some great house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The window was built with a low arch, and filled with lozenge-shaped panes. The
+wall was very thick, and built of solid stone. I could see that part of the
+house had been erected against the remains of some old castle or abbey, or
+other great building; the fallen stones of which had probably served to
+complete it. But as soon as I looked out of the window, a gush of wonderment
+and longing flowed over my soul like the tide of a great sea. Fairy Land lay
+before me, and drew me towards it with an irresistible attraction. The trees
+bathed their great heads in the waves of the morning, while their roots were
+planted deep in gloom; save where on the borders the sunshine broke against
+their stems, or swept in long streams through their avenues, washing with
+brighter hue all the leaves over which it flowed; revealing the rich brown of
+the decayed leaves and fallen pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the long
+grasses and tiny forests of moss that covered the channel over which it passed
+in motionless rivers of light. I turned hurriedly to bid my hostess farewell
+without further delay. She smiled at my haste, but with an anxious look.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You had better not go near the house of the ogre, I think. My son will
+show you into another path, which will join the first beyond it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not wishing to be headstrong or too confident any more, I agreed; and having
+taken leave of my kind entertainers, went into the wood, accompanied by the
+youth. He scarcely spoke as we went along; but he led me through the trees till
+we struck upon a path. He told me to follow it, and, with a muttered
+&ldquo;good morning&rdquo; left me.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole.&rdquo;<br/>
+          G<small>OETHE</small>.&mdash;<i>Mephistopheles in Faust</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not regain my
+former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like life
+itself&mdash;not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned, that the
+best way to manage some kinds of pain filled thoughts, is to dare them to do
+their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and
+you find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill. So, better and
+worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing in the forest. In the middle
+of this clearing stood a long, low hut, built with one end against a single
+tall cypress, which rose like a spire to the building. A vague misgiving
+crossed my mind when I saw it; but I must needs go closer, and look through a
+little half-open door, near the opposite end from the cypress. Window I saw
+none. On peeping in, and looking towards the further end, I saw a lamp burning,
+with a dim, reddish flame, and the head of a woman, bent downwards, as if
+reading by its light. I could see nothing more for a few moments. At length, as
+my eyes got used to the dimness of the place, I saw that the part of the rude
+building near me was used for household purposes; for several rough utensils
+lay here and there, and a bed stood in the corner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An irresistible attraction caused me to enter. The woman never raised her face,
+the upper part of which alone I could see distinctly; but, as soon as I stepped
+within the threshold, she began to read aloud, in a low and not altogether
+unpleasing voice, from an ancient little volume which she held open with one
+hand on the table upon which stood the lamp. What she read was something like
+this:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever have an
+end. So, then, is it eternal. The negation of aught else, is its affirmation.
+Where the light cannot come, there abideth the darkness. The light doth but
+hollow a mine out of the infinite extension of the darkness. And ever upon the
+steps of the light treadeth the darkness; yea, springeth in fountains and wells
+amidst it, from the secret channels of its mighty sea. Truly, man is but a
+passing flame, moving unquietly amid the surrounding rest of night; without
+which he yet could not be, and whereof he is in part compounded.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I drew nearer, and she read on, she moved a little to turn a leaf of the
+dark old volume, and I saw that her face was sallow and slightly forbidding.
+Her forehead was high, and her black eyes repressedly quiet. But she took no
+notice of me. This end of the cottage, if cottage it could be called, was
+destitute of furniture, except the table with the lamp, and the chair on which
+the woman sat. In one corner was a door, apparently of a cupboard in the wall,
+but which might lead to a room beyond. Still the irresistible desire which had
+made me enter the building urged me: I must open that door, and see what was
+beyond it. I approached, and laid my hand on the rude latch. Then the woman
+spoke, but without lifting her head or looking at me: &ldquo;You had better not
+open that door.&rdquo; This was uttered quite quietly; and she went on with her
+reading, partly in silence, partly aloud; but both modes seemed equally
+intended for herself alone. The prohibition, however, only increased my desire
+to see; and as she took no further notice, I gently opened the door to its full
+width, and looked in. At first, I saw nothing worthy of attention. It seemed a
+common closet, with shelves on each hand, on which stood various little
+necessaries for the humble uses of a cottage. In one corner stood one or two
+brooms, in another a hatchet and other common tools; showing that it was in use
+every hour of the day for household purposes. But, as I looked, I saw that
+there were no shelves at the back, and that an empty space went in further; its
+termination appearing to be a faintly glimmering wall or curtain, somewhat
+less, however, than the width and height of the doorway where I stood. But, as
+I continued looking, for a few seconds, towards this faintly luminous limit, my
+eyes came into true relation with their object. All at once, with such a shiver
+as when one is suddenly conscious of the presence of another in a room where he
+has, for hours, considered himself alone, I saw that the seemingly luminous
+extremity was a sky, as of night, beheld through the long perspective of a
+narrow, dark passage, through what, or built of what, I could not tell. As I
+gazed, I clearly discerned two or three stars glimmering faintly in the distant
+blue. But, suddenly, and as if it had been running fast from a far distance for
+this very point, and had turned the corner without abating its swiftness, a
+dark figure sped into and along the passage from the blue opening at the remote
+end. I started back and shuddered, but kept looking, for I could not help it.
+On and on it came, with a speedy approach but delayed arrival; till, at last,
+through the many gradations of approach, it seemed to come within the sphere of
+myself, rushed up to me, and passed me into the cottage. All I could tell of
+its appearance was, that it seemed to be a dark human figure. Its motion was
+entirely noiseless, and might be called a gliding, were it not that it appeared
+that of a runner, but with ghostly feet. I had moved back yet a little to let
+him pass me, and looked round after him instantly. I could not see him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where is he?&rdquo; I said, in some alarm, to the woman, who still sat
+reading.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;There, on the floor, behind you,&rdquo; she said, pointing with her arm
+half-outstretched, but not lifting her eyes. I turned and looked, but saw
+nothing. Then with a feeling that there was yet something behind me, I looked
+round over my shoulder; and there, on the ground, lay a black shadow, the size
+of a man. It was so dark, that I could see it in the dim light of the lamp,
+which shone full upon it, apparently without thinning at all the intensity of
+its hue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I told you,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;you had better not look into
+that closet.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I said, with a growing sense of horror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is only your shadow that has found you,&rdquo; she replied.
+&ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s shadow is ranging up and down looking for him. I
+believe you call it by a different name in your world: yours has found you, as
+every person&rsquo;s is almost certain to do who looks into that closet,
+especially after meeting one in the forest, whom I dare say you have
+met.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, for the first time, she lifted her head, and looked full at me: her mouth
+was full of long, white, shining teeth; and I knew that I was in the house of
+the ogre. I could not speak, but turned and left the house, with the shadow at
+my heels. &ldquo;A nice sort of valet to have,&rdquo; I said to myself
+bitterly, as I stepped into the sunshine, and, looking over my shoulder, saw
+that it lay yet blacker in the full blaze of the sunlight. Indeed, only when I
+stood between it and the sun, was the blackness at all diminished. I was so
+bewildered&mdash;stunned&mdash;both by the event itself and its suddenness,
+that I could not at all realise to myself what it would be to have such a
+constant and strange attendance; but with a dim conviction that my present
+dislike would soon grow to loathing, I took my dreary way through the wood.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;O lady! we receive but what we give,<br/>
+And in our life alone does nature live:<br/>
+Ours is her wedding garments ours her shroud!<br/>
+.  .  .  .  .<br/>
+    Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth,<br/>
+A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud,<br/>
+    Enveloping the Earth&mdash;<br/>
+And from the soul itself must there be sent<br/>
+    A sweet and potent voice of its own birth,<br/>
+Of all sweet sounds the life and element!&rdquo;<br/>
+          C<small>OLERIDGE</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this time, until I arrived at the palace of Fairy Land, I can attempt no
+consecutive account of my wanderings and adventures. Everything, henceforward,
+existed for me in its relation to my attendant. What influence he exercised
+upon everything into contact with which I was brought, may be understood from a
+few detached instances. To begin with this very day on which he first joined
+me: after I had walked heartlessly along for two or three hours, I was very
+weary, and lay down to rest in a most delightful part of the forest, carpeted
+with wild flowers. I lay for half an hour in a dull repose, and then got up to
+pursue my way. The flowers on the spot where I had lain were crushed to the
+earth: but I saw that they would soon lift their heads and rejoice again in the
+sun and air. Not so those on which my shadow had lain. The very outline of it
+could be traced in the withered lifeless grass, and the scorched and shrivelled
+flowers which stood there, dead, and hopeless of any resurrection. I shuddered,
+and hastened away with sad forebodings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a few days, I had reason to dread an extension of its baleful influences
+from the fact, that it was no longer confined to one position in regard to
+myself. Hitherto, when seized with an irresistible desire to look on my evil
+demon (which longing would unaccountably seize me at any moment, returning at
+longer or shorter intervals, sometimes every minute), I had to turn my head
+backwards, and look over my shoulder; in which position, as long as I could
+retain it, I was fascinated. But one day, having come out on a clear grassy
+hill, which commanded a glorious prospect, though of what I cannot now tell, my
+shadow moved round, and came in front of me. And, presently, a new
+manifestation increased my distress. For it began to coruscate, and shoot out
+on all sides a radiation of dim shadow. These rays of gloom issued from the
+central shadow as from a black sun, lengthening and shortening with continual
+change. But wherever a ray struck, that part of earth, or sea, or sky, became
+void, and desert, and sad to my heart. On this, the first development of its
+new power, one ray shot out beyond the rest, seeming to lengthen infinitely,
+until it smote the great sun on the face, which withered and darkened beneath
+the blow. I turned away and went on. The shadow retreated to its former
+position; and when I looked again, it had drawn in all its spears of darkness,
+and followed like a dog at my heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once, as I passed by a cottage, there came out a lovely fairy child, with two
+wondrous toys, one in each hand. The one was the tube through which the
+fairy-gifted poet looks when he beholds the same thing everywhere; the other
+that through which he looks when he combines into new forms of loveliness those
+images of beauty which his own choice has gathered from all regions wherein he
+has travelled. Round the child&rsquo;s head was an aureole of emanating rays.
+As I looked at him in wonder and delight, round crept from behind me the
+something dark, and the child stood in my shadow. Straightway he was a
+commonplace boy, with a rough broad-brimmed straw hat, through which brim the
+sun shone from behind. The toys he carried were a multiplying-glass and a
+kaleidoscope. I sighed and departed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One evening, as a great silent flood of western gold flowed through an avenue
+in the woods, down the stream, just as when I saw him first, came the sad
+knight, riding on his chestnut steed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But his armour did not shine half so red as when I saw him first.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many a blow of mighty sword and axe, turned aside by the strength of his mail,
+and glancing adown the surface, had swept from its path the fretted rust, and
+the glorious steel had answered the kindly blow with the thanks of returning
+light. These streaks and spots made his armour look like the floor of a forest
+in the sunlight. His forehead was higher than before, for the contracting
+wrinkles were nearly gone; and the sadness that remained on his face was the
+sadness of a dewy summer twilight, not that of a frosty autumn morn. He, too,
+had met the Alder-maiden as I, but he had plunged into the torrent of mighty
+deeds, and the stain was nearly washed away. No shadow followed him. He had not
+entered the dark house; he had not had time to open the closet door.
+&ldquo;Will he ever look in?&rdquo; I said to myself. &ldquo;<i>Must</i> his
+shadow find him some day?&rdquo; But I could not answer my own questions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We travelled together for two days, and I began to love him. It was plain that
+he suspected my story in some degree; and I saw him once or twice looking
+curiously and anxiously at my attendant gloom, which all this time had remained
+very obsequiously behind me; but I offered no explanation, and he asked none.
+Shame at my neglect of his warning, and a horror which shrunk from even
+alluding to its cause, kept me silent; till, on the evening of the second day,
+some noble words from my companion roused all my heart; and I was at the point
+of falling on his neck, and telling him the whole story; seeking, if not for
+helpful advice, for of that I was hopeless, yet for the comfort of
+sympathy&mdash;when round slid the shadow and inwrapt my friend; and I could
+not trust him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The glory of his brow vanished; the light of his eye grew cold; and I held my
+peace. The next morning we parted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the most dreadful thing of all was, that I now began to feel something like
+satisfaction in the presence of the shadow. I began to be rather vain of my
+attendant, saying to myself, &ldquo;In a land like this, with so many illusions
+everywhere, I need his aid to disenchant the things around me. He does away
+with all appearances, and shows me things in their true colour and form. And I
+am not one to be fooled with the vanities of the common crowd. I will not see
+beauty where there is none. I will dare to behold things as they are. And if I
+live in a waste instead of a paradise, I will live knowing where I live.&rdquo;
+But of this a certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite cured me,
+turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and distrust. It was
+thus:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the wood in a
+direction at right angles to my path. She came along singing and dancing, happy
+as a child, though she seemed almost a woman. In her hands&mdash;now in one,
+now in another&mdash;she carried a small globe, bright and clear as the purest
+crystal. This seemed at once her plaything and her greatest treasure. At one
+moment, you would have thought her utterly careless of it, and at another,
+overwhelmed with anxiety for its safety. But I believe she was taking care of
+it all the time, perhaps not least when least occupied about it. She stopped by
+me with a smile, and bade me good day with the sweetest voice. I felt a
+wonderful liking to the child&mdash;for she produced on me more the impression
+of a child, though my understanding told me differently. We talked a little,
+and then walked on together in the direction I had been pursuing. I asked her
+about the globe she carried, but getting no definite answer, I held out my hand
+to take it. She drew back, and said, but smiling almost invitingly the while,
+&ldquo;You must not touch it;&rdquo;&mdash;then, after a moment&rsquo;s
+pause&mdash;&ldquo;Or if you do, it must be very gently.&rdquo; I touched it
+with a finger. A slight vibratory motion arose in it, accompanied, or perhaps
+manifested, by a faint sweet sound. I touched it again, and the sound
+increased. I touched it the third time: a tiny torrent of harmony rolled out of
+the little globe. She would not let me touch it any more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We travelled on together all that day. She left me when twilight came on; but
+next day, at noon, she met me as before, and again we travelled till evening.
+The third day she came once more at noon, and we walked on together. Now,
+though we had talked about a great many things connected with Fairy Land, and
+the life she had led hitherto, I had never been able to learn anything about
+the globe. This day, however, as we went on, the shadow glided round and
+inwrapt the maiden. It could not change her. But my desire to know about the
+globe, which in his gloom began to waver as with an inward light, and to shoot
+out flashes of many-coloured flame, grew irresistible. I put out both my hands
+and laid hold of it. It began to sound as before. The sound rapidly increased,
+till it grew a low tempest of harmony, and the globe trembled, and quivered,
+and throbbed between my hands. I had not the heart to pull it away from the
+maiden, though I held it in spite of her attempts to take it from me; yes, I
+shame to say, in spite of her prayers, and, at last, her tears. The music went
+on growing in, intensity and complication of tones, and the globe vibrated and
+heaved; till at last it burst in our hands, and a black vapour broke upwards
+from out of it; then turned, as if blown sideways, and enveloped the maiden,
+hiding even the shadow in its blackness. She held fast the fragments, which I
+abandoned, and fled from me into the forest in the direction whence she had
+come, wailing like a child, and crying, &ldquo;You have broken my globe; my
+globe is broken&mdash;my globe is broken!&rdquo; I followed her, in the hope of
+comforting her; but had not pursued her far, before a sudden cold gust of wind
+bowed the tree-tops above us, and swept through their stems around us; a great
+cloud overspread the day, and a fierce tempest came on, in which I lost sight
+of her. It lies heavy on my heart to this hour. At night, ere I fall asleep,
+often, whatever I may be thinking about, I suddenly hear her voice, crying out,
+&ldquo;You have broken my globe; my globe is broken; ah, my globe!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I will mention one more strange thing; but whether this peculiarity was
+owing to my shadow at all, I am not able to assure myself. I came to a village,
+the inhabitants of which could not at first sight be distinguished from the
+dwellers in our land. They rather avoided than sought my company, though they
+were very pleasant when I addressed them. But at last I observed, that whenever
+I came within a certain distance of any one of them, which distance, however,
+varied with different individuals, the whole appearance of the person began to
+change; and this change increased in degree as I approached. When I receded to
+the former distance, the former appearance was restored. The nature of the
+change was grotesque, following no fixed rule. The nearest resemblance to it
+that I know, is the distortion produced in your countenance when you look at it
+as reflected in a concave or convex surface&mdash;say, either side of a bright
+spoon. Of this phenomenon I first became aware in rather a ludicrous way. My
+host&rsquo;s daughter was a very pleasant pretty girl, who made herself more
+agreeable to me than most of those about me. For some days my companion-shadow
+had been less obtrusive than usual; and such was the reaction of spirits
+occasioned by the simple mitigation of torment, that, although I had cause
+enough besides to be gloomy, I felt light and comparatively happy. My
+impression is, that she was quite aware of the law of appearances that existed
+between the people of the place and myself, and had resolved to amuse herself
+at my expense; for one evening, after some jesting and raillery, she, somehow
+or other, provoked me to attempt to kiss her. But she was well defended from
+any assault of the kind. Her countenance became, of a sudden, absurdly hideous;
+the pretty mouth was elongated and otherwise amplified sufficiently to have
+allowed of six simultaneous kisses. I started back in bewildered dismay; she
+burst into the merriest fit of laughter, and ran from the room. I soon found
+that the same undefinable law of change operated between me and all the other
+villagers; and that, to feel I was in pleasant company, it was absolutely
+necessary for me to discover and observe the right focal distance between
+myself and each one with whom I had to do. This done, all went pleasantly
+enough. Whether, when I happened to neglect this precaution, I presented to
+them an equally ridiculous appearance, I did not ascertain; but I presume that
+the alteration was common to the approximating parties. I was likewise unable
+to determine whether I was a necessary party to the production of this strange
+transformation, or whether it took place as well, under the given
+circumstances, between the inhabitants themselves.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;From Eden&rsquo;s bowers the full-fed rivers flow,<br/>
+To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:<br/>
+Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields.<br/>
+To guide the wanderers to the happy fields.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After leaving this village, where I had rested for nearly a week, I travelled
+through a desert region of dry sand and glittering rocks, peopled principally
+by goblin-fairies. When I first entered their domains, and, indeed, whenever I
+fell in with another tribe of them, they began mocking me with offered handfuls
+of gold and jewels, making hideous grimaces at me, and performing the most
+antic homage, as if they thought I expected reverence, and meant to humour me
+like a maniac. But ever, as soon as one cast his eyes on the shadow behind me,
+he made a wry face, partly of pity, partly of contempt, and looked ashamed, as
+if he had been caught doing something inhuman; then, throwing down his handful
+of gold, and ceasing all his grimaces, he stood aside to let me pass in peace,
+and made signs to his companions to do the like. I had no inclination to
+observe them much, for the shadow was in my heart as well as at my heels. I
+walked listlessly and almost hopelessly along, till I arrived one day at a
+small spring; which, bursting cool from the heart of a sun-heated rock, flowed
+somewhat southwards from the direction I had been taking. I drank of this
+spring, and found myself wonderfully refreshed. A kind of love to the cheerful
+little stream arose in my heart. It was born in a desert; but it seemed to say
+to itself, &ldquo;I will flow, and sing, and lave my banks, till I make my
+desert a paradise.&rdquo; I thought I could not do better than follow it, and
+see what it made of it. So down with the stream I went, over rocky lands,
+burning with sunbeams. But the rivulet flowed not far, before a few blades of
+grass appeared on its banks, and then, here and there, a stunted bush.
+Sometimes it disappeared altogether under ground; and after I had wandered some
+distance, as near as I could guess, in the direction it seemed to take, I would
+suddenly hear it again, singing, sometimes far away to my right or left,
+amongst new rocks, over which it made new cataracts of watery melodies. The
+verdure on its banks increased as it flowed; other streams joined it; and at
+last, after many days&rsquo; travel, I found myself, one gorgeous summer
+evening, resting by the side of a broad river, with a glorious horse-chestnut
+tree towering above me, and dropping its blossoms, milk-white and rosy-red, all
+about me. As I sat, a gush of joy sprang forth in my heart, and over flowed at
+my eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Through my tears, the whole landscape glimmered in such bewildering loveliness,
+that I felt as if I were entering Fairy Land for the first time, and some
+loving hand were waiting to cool my head, and a loving word to warm my heart.
+Roses, wild roses, everywhere! So plentiful were they, they not only perfumed
+the air, they seemed to dye it a faint rose-hue. The colour floated abroad with
+the scent, and clomb, and spread, until the whole west blushed and glowed with
+the gathered incense of roses. And my heart fainted with longing in my bosom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Could I but see the Spirit of the Earth, as I saw once the indwelling woman of
+the beech-tree, and my beauty of the pale marble, I should be content.
+Content!&mdash;Oh, how gladly would I die of the light of her eyes! Yea, I
+would cease to be, if that would bring me one word of love from the one mouth.
+The twilight sank around, and infolded me with sleep. I slept as I had not
+slept for months. I did not awake till late in the morning; when, refreshed in
+body and mind, I rose as from the death that wipes out the sadness of life, and
+then dies itself in the new morrow. Again I followed the stream; now climbing a
+steep rocky bank that hemmed it in; now wading through long grasses and wild
+flowers in its path; now through meadows; and anon through woods that crowded
+down to the very lip of the water.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, in a nook of the river, gloomy with the weight of overhanging
+foliage, and still and deep as a soul in which the torrent eddies of pain have
+hollowed a great gulf, and then, subsiding in violence, have left it full of a
+motionless, fathomless sorrow&mdash;I saw a little boat lying. So still was the
+water here, that the boat needed no fastening. It lay as if some one had just
+stepped ashore, and would in a moment return. But as there were no signs of
+presence, and no track through the thick bushes; and, moreover, as I was in
+Fairy Land where one does very much as he pleases, I forced my way to the
+brink, stepped into the boat, pushed it, with the help of the tree-branches,
+out into the stream, lay down in the bottom, and let my boat and me float
+whither the stream would carry us. I seemed to lose myself in the great flow of
+sky above me unbroken in its infinitude, except when now and then, coming
+nearer the shore at a bend in the river, a tree would sweep its mighty head
+silently above mine, and glide away back into the past, never more to fling its
+shadow over me. I fell asleep in this cradle, in which mother Nature was
+rocking her weary child; and while I slept, the sun slept not, but went round
+his arched way. When I awoke, he slept in the waters, and I went on my silent
+path beneath a round silvery moon. And a pale moon looked up from the floor of
+the great blue cave that lay in the abysmal silence beneath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call the reality?&mdash;not so
+grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the gliding
+sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting sail below is
+fairer still. Yea, the reflecting ocean itself, reflected in the mirror, has a
+wondrousness about its waters that somewhat vanishes when I turn towards
+itself. All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is a room in a poem
+when I turn to the glass. (And this reminds me, while I write, of a strange
+story which I read in the fairy palace, and of which I will try to make a
+feeble memorial in its place.) In whatever way it may be accounted for, of one
+thing we may be sure, that this feeling is no cheat; for there is no cheating
+in nature and the simple unsought feelings of the soul. There must be a truth
+involved in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning. Even the
+memories of past pain are beautiful; and past delights, though beheld only
+through clefts in the grey clouds of sorrow, are lovely as Fairy Land. But how
+have I wandered into the deeper fairyland of the soul, while as yet I only
+float towards the fairy palace of Fairy Land! The moon, which is the lovelier
+memory or reflex of the down-gone sun, the joyous day seen in the faint mirror
+of the brooding night, had rapt me away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sat up in the boat. Gigantic forest trees were about me; through which, like
+a silver snake, twisted and twined the great river. The little waves, when I
+moved in the boat, heaved and fell with a plash as of molten silver, breaking
+the image of the moon into a thousand morsels, fusing again into one, as the
+ripples of laughter die into the still face of joy. The sleeping woods, in
+undefined massiveness; the water that flowed in its sleep; and, above all, the
+enchantress moon, which had cast them all, with her pale eye, into the charmed
+slumber, sank into my soul, and I felt as if I had died in a dream, and should
+never more awake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this I was partly aroused by a glimmering of white, that, through the
+trees on the left, vaguely crossed my vision, as I gazed upwards. But the trees
+again hid the object; and at the moment, some strange melodious bird took up
+its song, and sang, not an ordinary bird-song, with constant repetitions of the
+same melody, but what sounded like a continuous strain, in which one thought
+was expressed, deepening in intensity as evolved in progress. It sounded like a
+welcome already overshadowed with the coming farewell. As in all sweetest
+music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the
+pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold
+the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh
+white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not
+enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for very love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the song concluded the stream bore my little boat with a gentle sweep round
+a bend of the river; and lo! on a broad lawn, which rose from the water&rsquo;s
+edge with a long green slope to a clear elevation from which the trees receded
+on all sides, stood a stately palace glimmering ghostly in the moonshine: it
+seemed to be built throughout of the whitest marble. There was no reflection of
+moonlight from windows&mdash;there seemed to be none; so there was no cold
+glitter; only, as I said, a ghostly shimmer. Numberless shadows tempered the
+shine, from column and balcony and tower. For everywhere galleries ran along
+the face of the buildings; wings were extended in many directions; and
+numberless openings, through which the moonbeams vanished into the interior,
+and which served both for doors and windows, had their separate balconies in
+front, communicating with a common gallery that rose on its own pillars. Of
+course, I did not discover all this from the river, and in the moonlight. But,
+though I was there for many days, I did not succeed in mastering the inner
+topography of the building, so extensive and complicated was it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here I wished to land, but the boat had no oars on board. However, I found that
+a plank, serving for a seat, was unfastened, and with that I brought the boat
+to the bank and scrambled on shore. Deep soft turf sank beneath my feet, as I
+went up the ascent towards the palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I reached it, I saw that it stood on a great platform of marble, with an
+ascent, by broad stairs of the same, all round it. Arrived on the platform, I
+found there was an extensive outlook over the forest, which, however, was
+rather veiled than revealed by the moonlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Entering by a wide gateway, but without gates, into an inner court, surrounded
+on all sides by great marble pillars supporting galleries above, I saw a large
+fountain of porphyry in the middle, throwing up a lofty column of water, which
+fell, with a noise as of the fusion of all sweet sounds, into a basin beneath;
+overflowing which, it ran into a single channel towards the interior of the
+building. Although the moon was by this time so low in the west, that not a ray
+of her light fell into the court, over the height of the surrounding buildings;
+yet was the court lighted by a second reflex from the sun of other lands. For
+the top of the column of water, just as it spread to fall, caught the
+moonbeams, and like a great pale lamp, hung high in the night air, threw a dim
+memory of light (as it were) over the court below. This court was paved in
+diamonds of white and red marble. According to my custom since I entered Fairy
+Land, of taking for a guide whatever I first found moving in any direction, I
+followed the stream from the basin of the fountain. It led me to a great open
+door, beneath the ascending steps of which it ran through a low arch and
+disappeared. Entering here, I found myself in a great hall, surrounded with
+white pillars, and paved with black and white. This I could see by the
+moonlight, which, from the other side, streamed through open windows into the
+hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Its height I could not distinctly see. As soon as I entered, I had the feeling
+so common to me in the woods, that there were others there besides myself,
+though I could see no one, and heard no sound to indicate a presence. Since my
+visit to the Church of Darkness, my power of seeing the fairies of the higher
+orders had gradually diminished, until it had almost ceased. But I could
+frequently believe in their presence while unable to see them. Still, although
+I had company, and doubtless of a safe kind, it seemed rather dreary to spend
+the night in an empty marble hall, however beautiful, especially as the moon
+was near the going down, and it would soon be dark. So I began at the place
+where I entered, and walked round the hall, looking for some door or passage
+that might lead me to a more hospitable chamber. As I walked, I was deliciously
+haunted with the feeling that behind some one of the seemingly innumerable
+pillars, one who loved me was waiting for me. Then I thought she was following
+me from pillar to pillar as I went along; but no arms came out of the faint
+moonlight, and no sigh assured me of her presence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length I came to an open corridor, into which I turned; notwithstanding
+that, in doing so, I left the light behind. Along this I walked with
+outstretched hands, groping my way, till, arriving at another corridor, which
+seemed to strike off at right angles to that in which I was, I saw at the end a
+faintly glimmering light, too pale even for moonshine, resembling rather a
+stray phosphorescence. However, where everything was white, a little light went
+a great way. So I walked on to the end, and a long corridor it was. When I came
+up to the light, I found that it proceeded from what looked like silver letters
+upon a door of ebony; and, to my surprise even in the home of wonder itself,
+the letters formed the words, <i>The Chamber of Sir Anodos</i>. Although I had
+as yet no right to the honours of a knight, I ventured to conclude that the
+chamber was indeed intended for me; and, opening the door without hesitation, I
+entered. Any doubt as to whether I was right in so doing, was soon dispelled.
+What to my dark eyes seemed a blaze of light, burst upon me. A fire of large
+pieces of some sweet-scented wood, supported by dogs of silver, was burning on
+the hearth, and a bright lamp stood on a table, in the midst of a plentiful
+meal, apparently awaiting my arrival. But what surprised me more than all, was,
+that the room was in every respect a copy of my own room, the room whence the
+little stream from my basin had led me into Fairy Land. There was the very
+carpet of grass and moss and daisies, which I had myself designed; the curtains
+of pale blue silk, that fell like a cataract over the windows; the
+old-fashioned bed, with the chintz furniture, on which I had slept from
+boyhood. &ldquo;Now I shall sleep,&rdquo; I said to myself. &ldquo;My shadow
+dares not come here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I sat down to the table, and began to help myself to the good things before me
+with confidence. And now I found, as in many instances before, how true the
+fairy tales are; for I was waited on, all the time of my meal, by invisible
+hands. I had scarcely to do more than look towards anything I wanted, when it
+was brought me, just as if it had come to me of itself. My glass was kept
+filled with the wine I had chosen, until I looked towards another bottle or
+decanter; when a fresh glass was substituted, and the other wine supplied. When
+I had eaten and drank more heartily and joyfully than ever since I entered
+Fairy Land, the whole was removed by several attendants, of whom some were male
+and some female, as I thought I could distinguish from the way the dishes were
+lifted from the table, and the motion with which they were carried out of the
+room. As soon as they were all taken away, I heard a sound as of the shutting
+of a door, and knew that I was left alone. I sat long by the fire, meditating,
+and wondering how it would all end; and when at length, wearied with thinking,
+I betook myself to my own bed, it was half with a hope that, when I awoke in
+the morning, I should awake not only in my own room, but in my own castle also;
+and that I should walk, out upon my own native soil, and find that Fairy Land
+was, after all, only a vision of the night. The sound of the falling waters of
+the fountain floated me into oblivion.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;A wilderness of building, sinking far<br/>
+And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth,<br/>
+Far sinking into splendour&mdash;without end:<br/>
+Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,<br/>
+With alabaster domes, and silver spires,<br/>
+And blazing terrace upon terrace, high<br/>
+Uplifted.&rdquo;<br/>
+          W<small>ORDSWORTH</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But when, after a sleep, which, although dreamless, yet left behind it a sense
+of past blessedness, I awoke in the full morning, I found, indeed, that the
+room was still my own; but that it looked abroad upon an unknown landscape of
+forest and hill and dale on the one side&mdash;and on the other, upon the
+marble court, with the great fountain, the crest of which now flashed glorious
+in the sun, and cast on the pavement beneath a shower of faint shadows from the
+waters that fell from it into the marble basin below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Agreeably to all authentic accounts of the treatment of travellers in Fairy
+Land, I found by my bedside a complete suit of fresh clothing, just such as I
+was in the habit of wearing; for, though varied sufficiently from the one
+removed, it was yet in complete accordance with my tastes. I dressed myself in
+this, and went out. The whole palace shone like silver in the sun. The marble
+was partly dull and partly polished; and every pinnacle, dome, and turret ended
+in a ball, or cone, or cusp of silver. It was like frost-work, and too
+dazzling, in the sun, for earthly eyes like mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will not attempt to describe the environs, save by saying, that all the
+pleasures to be found in the most varied and artistic arrangement of wood and
+river, lawn and wild forest, garden and shrubbery, rocky hill and luxurious
+vale; in living creatures wild and tame, in gorgeous birds, scattered
+fountains, little streams, and reedy lakes&mdash;all were here. Some parts of
+the palace itself I shall have occasion to describe more minutely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For this whole morning I never thought of my demon shadow; and not till the
+weariness which supervened on delight brought it again to my memory, did I look
+round to see if it was behind me: it was scarcely discernible. But its
+presence, however faintly revealed, sent a pang to my heart, for the pain of
+which, not all the beauties around me could compensate. It was followed,
+however, by the comforting reflection that, peradventure, I might here find the
+magic word of power to banish the demon and set me free, so that I should no
+longer be a man beside myself. The Queen of Fairy Land, thought I, must dwell
+here: surely she will put forth her power to deliver me, and send me singing
+through the further gates of her country back to my own land. &ldquo;Shadow of
+me!&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;which art not me, but which representest thyself to
+me as me; here I may find a shadow of light which will devour thee, the shadow
+of darkness! Here I may find a blessing which will fall on thee as a curse, and
+damn thee to the blackness whence thou hast emerged unbidden.&rdquo; I said
+this, stretched at length on the slope of the lawn above the river; and as the
+hope arose within me, the sun came forth from a light fleecy cloud that swept
+across his face; and hill and dale, and the great river winding on through the
+still mysterious forest, flashed back his rays as with a silent shout of joy;
+all nature lived and glowed; the very earth grew warm beneath me; a magnificent
+dragon-fly went past me like an arrow from a bow, and a whole concert of birds
+burst into choral song.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The heat of the sun soon became too intense even for passive support. I
+therefore rose, and sought the shelter of one of the arcades. Wandering along
+from one to another of these, wherever my heedless steps led me, and wondering
+everywhere at the simple magnificence of the building, I arrived at another
+hall, the roof of which was of a pale blue, spangled with constellations of
+silver stars, and supported by porphyry pillars of a paler red than
+ordinary.&mdash;In this house (I may remark in passing), silver seemed
+everywhere preferred to gold; and such was the purity of the air, that it
+showed nowhere signs of tarnishing.&mdash;The whole of the floor of this hall,
+except a narrow path behind the pillars, paved with black, was hollowed into a
+huge basin, many feet deep, and filled with the purest, most liquid and radiant
+water. The sides of the basin were white marble, and the bottom was paved with
+all kinds of refulgent stones, of every shape and hue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In their arrangement, you would have supposed, at first sight, that there was
+no design, for they seemed to lie as if cast there from careless and playful
+hands; but it was a most harmonious confusion; and as I looked at the play of
+their colours, especially when the waters were in motion, I came at last to
+feel as if not one little pebble could be displaced, without injuring the
+effect of the whole. Beneath this floor of the water, lay the reflection of the
+blue inverted roof, fretted with its silver stars, like a second deeper sea,
+clasping and upholding the first. The fairy bath was probably fed from the
+fountain in the court. Led by an irresistible desire, I undressed, and plunged
+into the water. It clothed me as with a new sense and its object both in one.
+The waters lay so close to me, they seemed to enter and revive my heart. I rose
+to the surface, shook the water from my hair, and swam as in a rainbow, amid
+the coruscations of the gems below seen through the agitation caused by my
+motion. Then, with open eyes, I dived, and swam beneath the surface. And here
+was a new wonder. For the basin, thus beheld, appeared to extend on all sides
+like a sea, with here and there groups as of ocean rocks, hollowed by ceaseless
+billows into wondrous caves and grotesque pinnacles. Around the caves grew
+sea-weeds of all hues, and the corals glowed between; while far off, I saw the
+glimmer of what seemed to be creatures of human form at home in the waters. I
+thought I had been enchanted; and that when I rose to the surface, I should
+find myself miles from land, swimming alone upon a heaving sea; but when my
+eyes emerged from the waters, I saw above me the blue spangled vault, and the
+red pillars around. I dived again, and found myself once more in the heart of a
+great sea. I then arose, and swam to the edge, where I got out easily, for the
+water reached the very brim, and, as I drew near washed in tiny waves over the
+black marble border. I dressed, and went out, deeply refreshed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now I began to discern faint, gracious forms, here and there throughout the
+building. Some walked together in earnest conversation. Others strayed alone.
+Some stood in groups, as if looking at and talking about a picture or a statue.
+None of them heeded me. Nor were they plainly visible to my eyes. Sometimes a
+group, or single individual, would fade entirely out of the realm of my vision
+as I gazed. When evening came, and the moon arose, clear as a round of a
+horizon-sea when the sun hangs over it in the west, I began to see them all
+more plainly; especially when they came between me and the moon; and yet more
+especially, when I myself was in the shade. But, even then, I sometimes saw
+only the passing wave of a white robe; or a lovely arm or neck gleamed by in
+the moonshine; or white feet went walking alone over the moony sward. Nor, I
+grieve to say, did I ever come much nearer to these glorious beings, or ever
+look upon the Queen of the Fairies herself. My destiny ordered otherwise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this palace of marble and silver, and fountains and moonshine, I spent many
+days; waited upon constantly in my room with everything desirable, and bathing
+daily in the fairy bath. All this time I was little troubled with my demon
+shadow I had a vague feeling that he was somewhere about the palace; but it
+seemed as if the hope that I should in this place be finally freed from his
+hated presence, had sufficed to banish him for a time. How and where I found
+him, I shall soon have to relate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The third day after my arrival, I found the library of the palace; and here,
+all the time I remained, I spent most of the middle of the day. For it was, not
+to mention far greater attractions, a luxurious retreat from the noontide sun.
+During the mornings and afternoons, I wandered about the lovely neighbourhood,
+or lay, lost in delicious day-dreams, beneath some mighty tree on the open
+lawn. My evenings were by-and-by spent in a part of the palace, the account of
+which, and of my adventures in connection with it, I must yet postpone for a
+little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The library was a mighty hall, lighted from the roof, which was formed of
+something like glass, vaulted over in a single piece, and stained throughout
+with a great mysterious picture in gorgeous colouring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The walls were lined from floor to roof with books and books: most of them in
+ancient bindings, but some in strange new fashions which I had never seen, and
+which, were I to make the attempt, I could ill describe. All around the walls,
+in front of the books, ran galleries in rows, communicating by stairs. These
+galleries were built of all kinds of coloured stones; all sorts of marble and
+granite, with porphyry, jasper, lapis lazuli, agate, and various others, were
+ranged in wonderful melody of successive colours. Although the material, then,
+of which these galleries and stairs were built, rendered necessary a certain
+degree of massiveness in the construction, yet such was the size of the place,
+that they seemed to run along the walls like cords.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Over some parts of the library, descended curtains of silk of various dyes,
+none of which I ever saw lifted while I was there; and I felt somehow that it
+would be presumptuous in me to venture to look within them. But the use of the
+other books seemed free; and day after day I came to the library, threw myself
+on one of the many sumptuous eastern carpets, which lay here and there on the
+floor, and read, and read, until weary; if that can be designated as weariness,
+which was rather the faintness of rapturous delight; or until, sometimes, the
+failing of the light invited me to go abroad, in the hope that a cool gentle
+breeze might have arisen to bathe, with an airy invigorating bath, the limbs
+which the glow of the burning spirit within had withered no less than the glow
+of the blazing sun without.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One peculiarity of these books, or at least most of those I looked into, I must
+make a somewhat vain attempt to describe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If, for instance, it was a book of metaphysics I opened, I had scarcely read
+two pages before I seemed to myself to be pondering over discovered truth, and
+constructing the intellectual machine whereby to communicate the discovery to
+my fellow men. With some books, however, of this nature, it seemed rather as if
+the process was removed yet a great way further back; and I was trying to find
+the root of a manifestation, the spiritual truth whence a material vision
+sprang; or to combine two propositions, both apparently true, either at once or
+in different remembered moods, and to find the point in which their invisibly
+converging lines would unite in one, revealing a truth higher than either and
+differing from both; though so far from being opposed to either, that it was
+that whence each derived its life and power. Or if the book was one of travels,
+I found myself the traveller. New lands, fresh experiences, novel customs, rose
+around me. I walked, I discovered, I fought, I suffered, I rejoiced in my
+success. Was it a history? I was the chief actor therein. I suffered my own
+blame; I was glad in my own praise. With a fiction it was the same. Mine was
+the whole story. For I took the place of the character who was most like
+myself, and his story was mine; until, grown weary with the life of years
+condensed in an hour, or arrived at my deathbed, or the end of the volume, I
+would awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the consciousness of my present
+life, recognising the walls and roof around me, and finding I joyed or sorrowed
+only in a book. If the book was a poem, the words disappeared, or took the
+subordinate position of an accompaniment to the succession of forms and images
+that rose and vanished with a soundless rhythm, and a hidden rime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In one, with a mystical title, which I cannot recall, I read of a world that is
+not like ours. The wondrous account, in such a feeble, fragmentary way as is
+possible to me, I would willingly impart. Whether or not it was all a poem, I
+cannot tell; but, from the impulse I felt, when I first contemplated writing
+it, to break into rime, to which impulse I shall give way if it comes upon me
+again, I think it must have been, partly at least, in verse.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Chained is the Spring. The night-wind bold<br/>
+    Blows over the hard earth;<br/>
+Time is not more confused and cold,<br/>
+    Nor keeps more wintry mirth.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Yet blow, and roll the world about;<br/>
+    Blow, Time&mdash;blow, winter&rsquo;s Wind!<br/>
+Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out,<br/>
+    And Spring the frost behind.&rdquo;<br/>
+          G. E. M.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They who believe in the influences of the stars over the fates of men, are, in
+feeling at least, nearer the truth than they who regard the heavenly bodies as
+related to them merely by a common obedience to an external law. All that man
+sees has to do with man. Worlds cannot be without an intermundane relationship.
+The community of the centre of all creation suggests an interradiating
+connection and dependence of the parts. Else a grander idea is conceivable than
+that which is already imbodied. The blank, which is only a forgotten life,
+lying behind the consciousness, and the misty splendour, which is an
+undeveloped life, lying before it, may be full of mysterious revelations of
+other connexions with the worlds around us, than those of science and poetry.
+No shining belt or gleaming moon, no red and green glory in a self-encircling
+twin-star, but has a relation with the hidden things of a man&rsquo;s soul,
+and, it may be, with the secret history of his body as well. They are portions
+of the living house wherein he abides.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Through the realms of the monarch Sun<br/>
+Creeps a world, whose course had begun,<br/>
+On a weary path with a weary pace,<br/>
+Before the Earth sprang forth on her race:<br/>
+But many a time the Earth had sped<br/>
+Around the path she still must tread,<br/>
+Ere the elder planet, on leaden wing,<br/>
+Once circled the court of the planet&rsquo;s king.<br/>
+<br/>
+There, in that lonely and distant star,<br/>
+The seasons are not as our seasons are;<br/>
+But many a year hath Autumn to dress<br/>
+The trees in their matron loveliness;<br/>
+As long hath old Winter in triumph to go<br/>
+O&rsquo;er beauties dead in his vaults below;<br/>
+And many a year the Spring doth wear<br/>
+Combing the icicles from her hair;<br/>
+And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,<br/>
+With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon:<br/>
+And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,<br/>
+Till a burst of tears is the heart&rsquo;s relief.<br/>
+<br/>
+Children, born when Winter is king,<br/>
+May never rejoice in the hoping Spring;<br/>
+Though their own heart-buds are bursting with joy,<br/>
+And the child hath grown to the girl or boy;<br/>
+But may die with cold and icy hours<br/>
+Watching them ever in place of flowers.<br/>
+And some who awake from their primal sleep,<br/>
+When the sighs of Summer through forests creep,<br/>
+Live, and love, and are loved again;<br/>
+Seek for pleasure, and find its pain;<br/>
+Sink to their last, their forsaken sleeping,<br/>
+With the same sweet odours around them creeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now the children, there, are not born as the children are born in worlds nearer
+to the sun. For they arrive no one knows how. A maiden, walking alone, hears a
+cry: for even there a cry is the first utterance; and searching about, she
+findeth, under an overhanging rock, or within a clump of bushes, or, it may be,
+betwixt gray stones on the side of a hill, or in any other sheltered and
+unexpected spot, a little child. This she taketh tenderly, and beareth home
+with joy, calling out, &ldquo;Mother, mother&rdquo;&mdash;if so be that her
+mother lives&mdash;&ldquo;I have got a baby&mdash;I have found a child!&rdquo;
+All the household gathers round to see;&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Where is it? What is it
+like? Where did you find it?</i>&rdquo; and such-like questions, abounding. And
+thereupon she relates the whole story of the discovery; for by the
+circumstances, such as season of the year, time of the day, condition of the
+air, and such like, and, especially, the peculiar and never-repeated aspect of
+the heavens and earth at the time, and the nature of the place of shelter
+wherein it is found, is determined, or at least indicated, the nature of the
+child thus discovered. Therefore, at certain seasons, and in certain states of
+the weather, according, in part, to their own fancy, the young women go out to
+look for children. They generally avoid seeking them, though they cannot help
+sometimes finding them, in places and with circumstances uncongenial to their
+peculiar likings. But no sooner is a child found, than its claim for protection
+and nurture obliterates all feeling of choice in the matter. Chiefly, however,
+in the season of summer, which lasts so long, coming as it does after such long
+intervals; and mostly in the warm evenings, about the middle of twilight; and
+principally in the woods and along the river banks, do the maidens go looking
+for children just as children look for flowers. And ever as the child grows,
+yea, more and more as he advances in years, will his face indicate to those who
+understand the spirit of Nature, and her utterances in the face of the world,
+the nature of the place of his birth, and the other circumstances thereof;
+whether a clear morning sun guided his mother to the nook whence issued the
+boy&rsquo;s low cry; or at eve the lonely maiden (for the same woman never
+finds a second, at least while the first lives) discovers the girl by the
+glimmer of her white skin, lying in a nest like that of the lark, amid long
+encircling grasses, and the upward-gazing eyes of the lowly daisies; whether
+the storm bowed the forest trees around, or the still frost fixed in silence
+the else flowing and babbling stream.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After they grow up, the men and women are but little together. There is this
+peculiar difference between them, which likewise distinguishes the women from
+those of the earth. The men alone have arms; the women have only wings.
+Resplendent wings are they, wherein they can shroud themselves from head to
+foot in a panoply of glistering glory. By these wings alone, it may frequently
+be judged in what seasons, and under what aspects, they were born. From those
+that came in winter, go great white wings, white as snow; the edge of every
+feather shining like the sheen of silver, so that they flash and glitter like
+frost in the sun. But underneath, they are tinged with a faint pink or
+rose-colour. Those born in spring have wings of a brilliant green, green as
+grass; and towards the edges the feathers are enamelled like the surface of the
+grass-blades. These again are white within. Those that are born in summer have
+wings of a deep rose-colour, lined with pale gold. And those born in autumn
+have purple wings, with a rich brown on the inside. But these colours are
+modified and altered in all varieties, corresponding to the mood of the day and
+hour, as well as the season of the year; and sometimes I found the various
+colours so intermingled, that I could not determine even the season, though
+doubtless the hieroglyphic could be deciphered by more experienced eyes. One
+splendour, in particular, I remember&mdash;wings of deep carmine, with an inner
+down of warm gray, around a form of brilliant whiteness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She had been found as the sun went down through a low sea-fog, casting crimson
+along a broad sea-path into a little cave on the shore, where a bathing maiden
+saw her lying.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But though I speak of sun and fog, and sea and shore, the world there is in
+some respects very different from the earth whereon men live. For instance, the
+waters reflect no forms. To the unaccustomed eye they appear, if undisturbed,
+like the surface of a dark metal, only that the latter would reflect
+indistinctly, whereas they reflect not at all, except light which falls
+immediately upon them. This has a great effect in causing the landscapes to
+differ from those on the earth. On the stillest evening, no tall ship on the
+sea sends a long wavering reflection almost to the feet of him on shore; the
+face of no maiden brightens at its own beauty in a still forest-well. The sun
+and moon alone make a glitter on the surface. The sea is like a sea of death,
+ready to ingulf and never to reveal: a visible shadow of oblivion. Yet the
+women sport in its waters like gorgeous sea-birds. The men more rarely enter
+them. But, on the contrary, the sky reflects everything beneath it, as if it
+were built of water like ours. Of course, from its concavity there is some
+distortion of the reflected objects; yet wondrous combinations of form are
+often to be seen in the overhanging depth. And then it is not shaped so much
+like a round dome as the sky of the earth, but, more of an egg-shape, rises to
+a great towering height in the middle, appearing far more lofty than the other.
+When the stars come out at night, it shows a mighty cupola, &ldquo;fretted with
+golden fires,&rdquo; wherein there is room for all tempests to rush and rave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One evening in early summer, I stood with a group of men and women on a steep
+rock that overhung the sea. They were all questioning me about my world and the
+ways thereof. In making reply to one of their questions, I was compelled to say
+that children are not born in the Earth as with them. Upon this I was assailed
+with a whole battery of inquiries, which at first I tried to avoid; but, at
+last, I was compelled, in the vaguest manner I could invent, to make some
+approach to the subject in question. Immediately a dim notion of what I meant,
+seemed to dawn in the minds of most of the women. Some of them folded their
+great wings all around them, as they generally do when in the least offended,
+and stood erect and motionless. One spread out her rosy pinions, and flashed
+from the promontory into the gulf at its foot. A great light shone in the eyes
+of one maiden, who turned and walked slowly away, with her purple and white
+wings half dispread behind her. She was found, the next morning, dead beneath a
+withered tree on a bare hill-side, some miles inland. They buried her where she
+lay, as is their custom; for, before they die, they instinctively search for a
+spot like the place of their birth, and having found one that satisfies them,
+they lie down, fold their wings around them, if they be women, or cross their
+arms over their breasts, if they are men, just as if they were going to sleep;
+and so sleep indeed. The sign or cause of coming death is an indescribable
+longing for something, they know not what, which seizes them, and drives them
+into solitude, consuming them within, till the body fails. When a youth and a
+maiden look too deep into each other&rsquo;s eyes, this longing seizes and
+possesses them; but instead of drawing nearer to each other, they wander away,
+each alone, into solitary places, and die of their desire. But it seems to me,
+that thereafter they are born babes upon our earth: where, if, when grown, they
+find each other, it goes well with them; if not, it will seem to go ill. But of
+this I know nothing. When I told them that the women on the Earth had not wings
+like them, but arms, they stared, and said how bold and masculine they must
+look; not knowing that their wings, glorious as they are, are but undeveloped
+arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But see the power of this book, that, while recounting what I can recall of its
+contents, I write as if myself had visited the far-off planet, learned its ways
+and appearances, and conversed with its men and women. And so, while writing,
+it seemed to me that I had.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The book goes on with the story of a maiden, who, born at the close of autumn,
+and living in a long, to her endless winter, set out at last to find the
+regions of spring; for, as in our earth, the seasons are divided over the
+globe. It begins something like this:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+She watched them dying for many a day,<br/>
+Dropping from off the old trees away,<br/>
+One by one; or else in a shower<br/>
+Crowding over the withered flower<br/>
+For as if they had done some grievous wrong,<br/>
+The sun, that had nursed them and loved them so long,<br/>
+Grew weary of loving, and, turning back,<br/>
+Hastened away on his southern track;<br/>
+And helplessly hung each shrivelled leaf,<br/>
+Faded away with an idle grief.<br/>
+And the gusts of wind, sad Autumn&rsquo;s sighs,<br/>
+Mournfully swept through their families;<br/>
+Casting away with a helpless moan<br/>
+All that he yet might call his own,<br/>
+As the child, when his bird is gone for ever,<br/>
+Flingeth the cage on the wandering river.<br/>
+And the giant trees, as bare as Death,<br/>
+Slowly bowed to the great Wind&rsquo;s breath;<br/>
+And groaned with trying to keep from groaning<br/>
+Amidst the young trees bending and moaning.<br/>
+And the ancient planet&rsquo;s mighty sea<br/>
+Was heaving and falling most restlessly,<br/>
+And the tops of the waves were broken and white,<br/>
+Tossing about to ease their might;<br/>
+And the river was striving to reach the main,<br/>
+And the ripple was hurrying back again.<br/>
+Nature lived in sadness now;<br/>
+Sadness lived on the maiden&rsquo;s brow,<br/>
+As she watched, with a fixed, half-conscious eye,<br/>
+One lonely leaf that trembled on high,<br/>
+Till it dropped at last from the desolate bough&mdash;<br/>
+Sorrow, oh, sorrow! &lsquo;tis winter now.<br/>
+And her tears gushed forth, though it was but a leaf,<br/>
+For little will loose the swollen fountain of grief:<br/>
+When up to the lip the water goes,<br/>
+It needs but a drop, and it overflows.<br/>
+<br/>
+Oh! many and many a dreary year<br/>
+Must pass away ere the buds appear:<br/>
+Many a night of darksome sorrow<br/>
+Yield to the light of a joyless morrow,<br/>
+Ere birds again, on the clothed trees,<br/>
+Shall fill the branches with melodies.<br/>
+She will dream of meadows with wakeful streams;<br/>
+Of wavy grass in the sunny beams;<br/>
+Of hidden wells that soundless spring,<br/>
+Hoarding their joy as a holy thing;<br/>
+Of founts that tell it all day long<br/>
+To the listening woods, with exultant song;<br/>
+She will dream of evenings that die into nights,<br/>
+Where each sense is filled with its own delights,<br/>
+And the soul is still as the vaulted sky,<br/>
+Lulled with an inner harmony;<br/>
+<br/>
+And the flowers give out to the dewy night,<br/>
+Changed into perfume, the gathered light;<br/>
+And the darkness sinks upon all their host,<br/>
+Till the sun sail up on the eastern coast&mdash;<br/>
+She will wake and see the branches bare,<br/>
+Weaving a net in the frozen air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The story goes on to tell how, at last, weary with wintriness, she travelled
+towards the southern regions of her globe, to meet the spring on its slow way
+northwards; and how, after many sad adventures, many disappointed hopes, and
+many tears, bitter and fruitless, she found at last, one stormy afternoon, in a
+leafless forest, a single snowdrop growing betwixt the borders of the winter
+and spring. She lay down beside it and died. I almost believe that a child,
+pale and peaceful as a snowdrop, was born in the Earth within a fixed season
+from that stormy afternoon.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;I saw a ship sailing upon the sea<br/>
+Deeply laden as ship could be;<br/>
+But not so deep as in love I am<br/>
+For I care not whether I sink or swim.&rdquo;<br/>
+          O<small>LD</small> B<small>ALLAD</small>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;But Love is such a Mystery<br/>
+    I cannot find it out:<br/>
+For when I think I&rsquo;m best resolv&rsquo;d,<br/>
+    I then am in most doubt.&rdquo;<br/>
+          S<small>IR</small> J<small>OHN</small> S<small>UCKLING</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One story I will try to reproduce. But, alas! it is like trying to reconstruct
+a forest out of broken branches and withered leaves. In the fairy book,
+everything was just as it should be, though whether in words or something else,
+I cannot tell. It glowed and flashed the thoughts upon the soul, with such a
+power that the medium disappeared from the consciousness, and it was occupied
+only with the things themselves. My representation of it must resemble a
+translation from a rich and powerful language, capable of embodying the
+thoughts of a splendidly developed people, into the meagre and half-articulate
+speech of a savage tribe. Of course, while I read it, I was Cosmo, and his
+history was mine. Yet, all the time, I seemed to have a kind of double
+consciousness, and the story a double meaning. Sometimes it seemed only to
+represent a simple story of ordinary life, perhaps almost of universal life;
+wherein two souls, loving each other and longing to come nearer, do, after all,
+but behold each other as in a glass darkly.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+As through the hard rock go the branching silver veins; as into the solid land
+run the creeks and gulfs from the unresting sea; as the lights and influences
+of the upper worlds sink silently through the earth&rsquo;s atmosphere; so doth
+Faerie invade the world of men, and sometimes startle the common eye with an
+association as of cause and effect, when between the two no connecting links
+can be traced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo von Wehrstahl was a student at the University of Prague. Though of a
+noble family, he was poor, and prided himself upon the independence that
+poverty gives; for what will not a man pride himself upon, when he cannot get
+rid of it? A favourite with his fellow students, he yet had no companions; and
+none of them had ever crossed the threshold of his lodging in the top of one of
+the highest houses in the old town. Indeed, the secret of much of that
+complaisance which recommended him to his fellows, was the thought of his
+unknown retreat, whither in the evening he could betake himself and indulge
+undisturbed in his own studies and reveries. These studies, besides those
+subjects necessary to his course at the University, embraced some less commonly
+known and approved; for in a secret drawer lay the works of Albertus Magnus and
+Cornelius Agrippa, along with others less read and more abstruse. As yet,
+however, he had followed these researches only from curiosity, and had turned
+them to no practical purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His lodging consisted of one large low-ceiled room, singularly bare of
+furniture; for besides a couple of wooden chairs, a couch which served for
+dreaming on both by day and night, and a great press of black oak, there was
+very little in the room that could be called furniture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But curious instruments were heaped in the corners; and in one stood a
+skeleton, half-leaning against the wall, half-supported by a string about its
+neck. One of its hands, all of fingers, rested on the heavy pommel of a great
+sword that stood beside it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Various weapons were scattered about over the floor. The walls were utterly
+bare of adornment; for the few strange things, such as a large dried bat with
+wings dispread, the skin of a porcupine, and a stuffed sea-mouse, could hardly
+be reckoned as such. But although his fancy delighted in vagaries like these,
+he indulged his imagination with far different fare. His mind had never yet
+been filled with an absorbing passion; but it lay like a still twilight open to
+any wind, whether the low breath that wafts but odours, or the storm that bows
+the great trees till they strain and creak. He saw everything as through a
+rose-coloured glass. When he looked from his window on the street below, not a
+maiden passed but she moved as in a story, and drew his thoughts after her till
+she disappeared in the vista. When he walked in the streets, he always felt as
+if reading a tale, into which he sought to weave every face of interest that
+went by; and every sweet voice swept his soul as with the wing of a passing
+angel. He was in fact a poet without words; the more absorbed and endangered,
+that the springing-waters were dammed back into his soul, where, finding no
+utterance, they grew, and swelled, and undermined. He used to lie on his hard
+couch, and read a tale or a poem, till the book dropped from his hand; but he
+dreamed on, he knew not whether awake or asleep, until the opposite roof grew
+upon his sense, and turned golden in the sunrise. Then he arose too; and the
+impulses of vigorous youth kept him ever active, either in study or in sport,
+until again the close of the day left him free; and the world of night, which
+had lain drowned in the cataract of the day, rose up in his soul, with all its
+stars, and dim-seen phantom shapes. But this could hardly last long. Some one
+form must sooner or later step within the charmed circle, enter the house of
+life, and compel the bewildered magician to kneel and worship.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One afternoon, towards dusk, he was wandering dreamily in one of the principal
+streets, when a fellow student roused him by a slap on the shoulder, and asked
+him to accompany him into a little back alley to look at some old armour which
+he had taken a fancy to possess. Cosmo was considered an authority in every
+matter pertaining to arms, ancient or modern. In the use of weapons, none of
+the students could come near him; and his practical acquaintance with some had
+principally contributed to establish his authority in reference to all. He
+accompanied him willingly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They entered a narrow alley, and thence a dirty little court, where a low
+arched door admitted them into a heterogeneous assemblage of everything musty,
+and dusty, and old, that could well be imagined. His verdict on the armour was
+satisfactory, and his companion at once concluded the purchase. As they were
+leaving the place, Cosmo&rsquo;s eye was attracted by an old mirror of an
+elliptical shape, which leaned against the wall, covered with dust. Around it
+was some curious carving, which he could see but very indistinctly by the
+glimmering light which the owner of the shop carried in his hand. It was this
+carving that attracted his attention; at least so it appeared to him. He left
+the place, however, with his friend, taking no further notice of it. They
+walked together to the main street, where they parted and took opposite
+directions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No sooner was Cosmo left alone, than the thought of the curious old mirror
+returned to him. A strong desire to see it more plainly arose within him, and
+he directed his steps once more towards the shop. The owner opened the door
+when he knocked, as if he had expected him. He was a little, old, withered man,
+with a hooked nose, and burning eyes constantly in a slow restless motion, and
+looking here and there as if after something that eluded them. Pretending to
+examine several other articles, Cosmo at last approached the mirror, and
+requested to have it taken down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take it down yourself, master; I cannot reach it,&rdquo; said the old
+man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo took it down carefully, when he saw that the carving was indeed delicate
+and costly, being both of admirable design and execution; containing withal
+many devices which seemed to embody some meaning to which he had no clue. This,
+naturally, in one of his tastes and temperament, increased the interest he felt
+in the old mirror; so much, indeed, that he now longed to possess it, in order
+to study its frame at his leisure. He pretended, however, to want it only for
+use; and saying he feared the plate could be of little service, as it was
+rather old, he brushed away a little of the dust from its face, expecting to
+see a dull reflection within. His surprise was great when he found the
+reflection brilliant, revealing a glass not only uninjured by age, but
+wondrously clear and perfect (should the whole correspond to this part) even
+for one newly from the hands of the maker. He asked carelessly what the owner
+wanted for the thing. The old man replied by mentioning a sum of money far
+beyond the reach of poor Cosmo, who proceeded to replace the mirror where it
+had stood before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You think the price too high?&rdquo; said the old man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not know that it is too much for you to ask,&rdquo; replied Cosmo;
+&ldquo;but it is far too much for me to give.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old man held up his light towards Cosmo&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;I like your
+look,&rdquo; said he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo could not return the compliment. In fact, now he looked closely at him
+for the first time, he felt a kind of repugnance to him, mingled with a strange
+feeling of doubt whether a man or a woman stood before him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; he continued.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cosmo von Wehrstahl.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, ah! I thought as much. I see your father in you. I knew your father
+very well, young sir. I dare say in some odd corners of my house, you might
+find some old things with his crest and cipher upon them still. Well, I like
+you: you shall have the mirror at the fourth part of what I asked for it; but
+upon one condition.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; said Cosmo; for, although the price was still a
+great deal for him to give, he could just manage it; and the desire to possess
+the mirror had increased to an altogether unaccountable degree, since it had
+seemed beyond his reach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That if you should ever want to get rid of it again, you will let me
+have the first offer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; replied Cosmo, with a smile; adding, &ldquo;a moderate
+condition indeed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;On your honour?&rdquo; insisted the seller.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;On my honour,&rdquo; said the buyer; and the bargain was concluded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will carry it home for you,&rdquo; said the old man, as Cosmo took it
+in his hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no; I will carry it myself,&rdquo; said he; for he had a peculiar
+dislike to revealing his residence to any one, and more especially to this
+person, to whom he felt every moment a greater antipathy. &ldquo;Just as you
+please,&rdquo; said the old creature, and muttered to himself as he held his
+light at the door to show him out of the court: &ldquo;Sold for the sixth time!
+I wonder what will be the upshot of it this time. I should think my lady had
+enough of it by now!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo carried his prize carefully home. But all the way he had an uncomfortable
+feeling that he was watched and dogged. Repeatedly he looked about, but saw
+nothing to justify his suspicions. Indeed, the streets were too crowded and too
+ill lighted to expose very readily a careful spy, if such there should be at
+his heels. He reached his lodging in safety, and leaned his purchase against
+the wall, rather relieved, strong as he was, to be rid of its weight; then,
+lighting his pipe, threw himself on the couch, and was soon lapt in the folds
+of one of his haunting dreams.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He returned home earlier than usual the next day, and fixed the mirror to the
+wall, over the hearth, at one end of his long room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He then carefully wiped away the dust from its face, and, clear as the water of
+a sunny spring, the mirror shone out from beneath the envious covering. But his
+interest was chiefly occupied with the curious carving of the frame. This he
+cleaned as well as he could with a brush; and then he proceeded to a minute
+examination of its various parts, in the hope of discovering some index to the
+intention of the carver. In this, however, he was unsuccessful; and, at length,
+pausing with some weariness and disappointment, he gazed vacantly for a few
+moments into the depth of the reflected room. But ere long he said, half aloud:
+&ldquo;What a strange thing a mirror is! and what a wondrous affinity exists
+between it and a man&rsquo;s imagination! For this room of mine, as I behold it
+in the glass, is the same, and yet not the same. It is not the mere
+representation of the room I live in, but it looks just as if I were reading
+about it in a story I like. All its commonness has disappeared. The mirror has
+lifted it out of the region of fact into the realm of art; and the very
+representing of it to me has clothed with interest that which was otherwise
+hard and bare; just as one sees with delight upon the stage the representation
+of a character from which one would escape in life as from something
+unendurably wearisome. But is it not rather that art rescues nature from the
+weary and sated regards of our senses, and the degrading injustice of our
+anxious everyday life, and, appealing to the imagination, which dwells apart,
+reveals Nature in some degree as she really is, and as she represents herself
+to the eye of the child, whose every-day life, fearless and unambitious, meets
+the true import of the wonder-teeming world around him, and rejoices therein
+without questioning? That skeleton, now&mdash;I almost fear it, standing there
+so still, with eyes only for the unseen, like a watch-tower looking across all
+the waste of this busy world into the quiet regions of rest beyond. And yet I
+know every bone and every joint in it as well as my own fist. And that old
+battle-axe looks as if any moment it might be caught up by a mailed hand, and,
+borne forth by the mighty arm, go crashing through casque, and skull, and
+brain, invading the Unknown with yet another bewildered ghost. I should like to
+live in <i>that</i> room if I could only get into it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Scarcely had the half-moulded words floated from him, as he stood gazing into
+the mirror, when, striking him as with a flash of amazement that fixed him in
+his posture, noiseless and unannounced, glided suddenly through the door into
+the reflected room, with stately motion, yet reluctant and faltering step, the
+graceful form of a woman, clothed all in white. Her back only was visible as
+she walked slowly up to the couch in the further end of the room, on which she
+laid herself wearily, turning towards him a face of unutterable loveliness, in
+which suffering, and dislike, and a sense of compulsion, strangely mingled with
+the beauty. He stood without the power of motion for some moments, with his
+eyes irrecoverably fixed upon her; and even after he was conscious of the
+ability to move, he could not summon up courage to turn and look on her, face
+to face, in the veritable chamber in which he stood. At length, with a sudden
+effort, in which the exercise of the will was so pure, that it seemed
+involuntary, he turned his face to the couch. It was vacant. In bewilderment,
+mingled with terror, he turned again to the mirror: there, on the reflected
+couch, lay the exquisite lady-form. She lay with closed eyes, whence two large
+tears were just welling from beneath the veiling lids; still as death, save for
+the convulsive motion of her bosom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo himself could not have described what he felt. His emotions were of a
+kind that destroyed consciousness, and could never be clearly recalled. He
+could not help standing yet by the mirror, and keeping his eyes fixed on the
+lady, though he was painfully aware of his rudeness, and feared every moment
+that she would open hers, and meet his fixed regard. But he was, ere long, a
+little relieved; for, after a while, her eyelids slowly rose, and her eyes
+remained uncovered, but unemployed for a time; and when, at length, they began
+to wander about the room, as if languidly seeking to make some acquaintance
+with her environment, they were never directed towards him: it seemed nothing
+but what was in the mirror could affect her vision; and, therefore, if she saw
+him at all, it could only be his back, which, of necessity, was turned towards
+her in the glass. The two figures in the mirror could not meet face to face,
+except he turned and looked at her, present in his room; and, as she was not
+there, he concluded that if he were to turn towards the part in his room
+corresponding to that in which she lay, his reflection would either be
+invisible to her altogether, or at least it must appear to her to gaze vacantly
+towards her, and no meeting of the eyes would produce the impression of
+spiritual proximity. By-and-by her eyes fell upon the skeleton, and he saw her
+shudder and close them. She did not open them again, but signs of repugnance
+continued evident on her countenance. Cosmo would have removed the obnoxious
+thing at once, but he feared to discompose her yet more by the assertion of his
+presence which the act would involve. So he stood and watched her. The eyelids
+yet shrouded the eyes, as a costly case the jewels within; the troubled
+expression gradually faded from the countenance, leaving only a faint sorrow
+behind; the features settled into an unchanging expression of rest; and by
+these signs, and the slow regular motion of her breathing, Cosmo knew that she
+slept. He could now gaze on her without embarrassment. He saw that her figure,
+dressed in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of her face; and so
+harmonious, that either the delicately moulded foot, or any finger of the
+equally delicate hand, was an index to the whole. As she lay, her whole form
+manifested the relaxation of perfect repose. He gazed till he was weary, and at
+last seated himself near the new-found shrine, and mechanically took up a book,
+like one who watches by a sick-bed. But his eyes gathered no thoughts from the
+page before him. His intellect had been stunned by the bold contradiction, to
+its face, of all its experience, and now lay passive, without assertion, or
+speculation, or even conscious astonishment; while his imagination sent one
+wild dream of blessedness after another coursing through his soul. How long he
+sat he knew not; but at length he roused himself, rose, and, trembling in every
+portion of his frame, looked again into the mirror. She was gone. The mirror
+reflected faithfully what his room presented, and nothing more. It stood there
+like a golden setting whence the central jewel has been stolen away&mdash;like
+a night-sky without the glory of its stars. She had carried with her all the
+strangeness of the reflected room. It had sunk to the level of the one without.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But when the first pangs of his disappointment had passed, Cosmo began to
+comfort himself with the hope that she might return, perhaps the next evening,
+at the same hour. Resolving that if she did, she should not at least be scared
+by the hateful skeleton, he removed that and several other articles of
+questionable appearance into a recess by the side of the hearth, whence they
+could not possibly cast any reflection into the mirror; and having made his
+poor room as tidy as he could, sought the solace of the open sky and of a night
+wind that had begun to blow, for he could not rest where he was. When he
+returned, somewhat composed, he could hardly prevail with himself to lie down
+on his bed; for he could not help feeling as if she had lain upon it; and for
+him to lie there now would be something like sacrilege. However, weariness
+prevailed; and laying himself on the couch, dressed as he was, he slept till
+day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a beating heart, beating till he could hardly breathe, he stood in dumb
+hope before the mirror, on the following evening. Again the reflected room
+shone as through a purple vapour in the gathering twilight. Everything seemed
+waiting like himself for a coming splendour to glorify its poor earthliness
+with the presence of a heavenly joy. And just as the room vibrated with the
+strokes of the neighbouring church bell, announcing the hour of six, in glided
+the pale beauty, and again laid herself on the couch. Poor Cosmo nearly lost
+his senses with delight. She was there once more! Her eyes sought the corner
+where the skeleton had stood, and a faint gleam of satisfaction crossed her
+face, apparently at seeing it empty. She looked suffering still, but there was
+less of discomfort expressed in her countenance than there had been the night
+before. She took more notice of the things about her, and seemed to gaze with
+some curiosity on the strange apparatus standing here and there in her room. At
+length, however, drowsiness seemed to overtake her, and again she fell asleep.
+Resolved not to lose sight of her this time, Cosmo watched the sleeping form.
+Her slumber was so deep and absorbing that a fascinating repose seemed to pass
+contagiously from her to him as he gazed upon her; and he started as if from a
+dream, when the lady moved, and, without opening her eyes, rose, and passed
+from the room with the gait of a somnambulist.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo was now in a state of extravagant delight. Most men have a secret
+treasure somewhere. The miser has his golden hoard; the virtuoso his pet ring;
+the student his rare book; the poet his favourite haunt; the lover his secret
+drawer; but Cosmo had a mirror with a lovely lady in it. And now that he knew
+by the skeleton, that she was affected by the things around her, he had a new
+object in life: he would turn the bare chamber in the mirror into a room such
+as no lady need disdain to call her own. This he could effect only by
+furnishing and adorning his. And Cosmo was poor. Yet he possessed
+accomplishments that could be turned to account; although, hitherto, he had
+preferred living on his slender allowance, to increasing his means by what his
+pride considered unworthy of his rank. He was the best swordsman in the
+University; and now he offered to give lessons in fencing and similar
+exercises, to such as chose to pay him well for the trouble. His proposal was
+heard with surprise by the students; but it was eagerly accepted by many; and
+soon his instructions were not confined to the richer students, but were
+anxiously sought by many of the young nobility of Prague and its neighbourhood.
+So that very soon he had a good deal of money at his command. The first thing
+he did was to remove his apparatus and oddities into a closet in the room. Then
+he placed his bed and a few other necessaries on each side of the hearth, and
+parted them from the rest of the room by two screens of Indian fabric. Then he
+put an elegant couch for the lady to lie upon, in the corner where his bed had
+formerly stood; and, by degrees, every day adding some article of luxury,
+converted it, at length, into a rich boudoir.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every night, about the same time, the lady entered. The first time she saw the
+new couch, she started with a half-smile; then her face grew very sad, the
+tears came to her eyes, and she laid herself upon the couch, and pressed her
+face into the silken cushions, as if to hide from everything. She took notice
+of each addition and each change as the work proceeded; and a look of
+acknowledgment, as if she knew that some one was ministering to her, and was
+grateful for it, mingled with the constant look of suffering. At length, after
+she had lain down as usual one evening, her eyes fell upon some paintings with
+which Cosmo had just finished adorning the walls. She rose, and to his great
+delight, walked across the room, and proceeded to examine them carefully,
+testifying much pleasure in her looks as she did so. But again the sorrowful,
+tearful expression returned, and again she buried her face in the pillows of
+her couch. Gradually, however, her countenance had grown more composed; much of
+the suffering manifest on her first appearance had vanished, and a kind of
+quiet, hopeful expression had taken its place; which, however, frequently gave
+way to an anxious, troubled look, mingled with something of sympathetic pity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime, how fared Cosmo? As might be expected in one of his temperament, his
+interest had blossomed into love, and his love&mdash;shall I call it
+<i>ripened</i>, or&mdash;<i>withered</i> into passion. But, alas! he loved a
+shadow. He could not come near her, could not speak to her, could not hear a
+sound from those sweet lips, to which his longing eyes would cling like bees to
+their honey-founts. Ever and anon he sang to himself:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;I shall die for love of the maiden;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+and ever he looked again, and died not, though his heart seemed ready to break
+with intensity of life and longing. And the more he did for her, the more he
+loved her; and he hoped that, although she never appeared to see him, yet she
+was pleased to think that one unknown would give his life to her. He tried to
+comfort himself over his separation from her, by thinking that perhaps some day
+she would see him and make signs to him, and that would satisfy him;
+&ldquo;for,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;is not this all that a loving soul can do
+to enter into communion with another? Nay, how many who love never come nearer
+than to behold each other as in a mirror; seem to know and yet never know the
+inward life; never enter the other soul; and part at last, with but the vaguest
+notion of the universe on the borders of which they have been hovering for
+years? If I could but speak to her, and knew that she heard me, I should be
+satisfied.&rdquo; Once he contemplated painting a picture on the wall, which
+should, of necessity, convey to the lady a thought of himself; but, though he
+had some skill with the pencil, he found his hand tremble so much when he began
+the attempt, that he was forced to give it up. . . . . .
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Who lives, he dies; who dies, he is alive.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One evening, as he stood gazing on his treasure, he thought he saw a faint
+expression of self-consciousness on her countenance, as if she surmised that
+passionate eyes were fixed upon her. This grew; till at last the red blood rose
+over her neck, and cheek, and brow. Cosmo&rsquo;s longing to approach her
+became almost delirious. This night she was dressed in an evening costume,
+resplendent with diamonds. This could add nothing to her beauty, but it
+presented it in a new aspect; enabled her loveliness to make a new
+manifestation of itself in a new embodiment. For essential beauty is infinite;
+and, as the soul of Nature needs an endless succession of varied forms to
+embody her loveliness, countless faces of beauty springing forth, not any two
+the same, at any one of her heart-throbs; so the individual form needs an
+infinite change of its environments, to enable it to uncover all the phases of
+its loveliness. Diamonds glittered from amidst her hair, half hidden in its
+luxuriance, like stars through dark rain-clouds; and the bracelets on her white
+arms flashed all the colours of a rainbow of lightnings, as she lifted her
+snowy hands to cover her burning face. But her beauty shone down all its
+adornment. &ldquo;If I might have but one of her feet to kiss,&rdquo; thought
+Cosmo, &ldquo;I should be content.&rdquo; Alas! he deceived himself, for
+passion is never content. Nor did he know that there are <i>two</i> ways out of
+her enchanted house. But, suddenly, as if the pang had been driven into his
+heart from without, revealing itself first in pain, and afterwards in definite
+form, the thought darted into his mind, &ldquo;She has a lover somewhere.
+Remembered words of his bring the colour on her face now. I am nowhere to her.
+She lives in another world all day, and all night, after she leaves me. Why
+does she come and make me love her, till I, a strong man, am too faint to look
+upon her more?&rdquo; He looked again, and her face was pale as a lily. A
+sorrowful compassion seemed to rebuke the glitter of the restless jewels, and
+the slow tears rose in her eyes. She left her room sooner this evening than was
+her wont. Cosmo remained alone, with a feeling as if his bosom had been
+suddenly left empty and hollow, and the weight of the whole world was crushing
+in its walls. The next evening, for the first time since she began to come, she
+came not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now Cosmo was in wretched plight. Since the thought of a rival had occurred
+to him, he could not rest for a moment. More than ever he longed to see the
+lady face to face. He persuaded himself that if he but knew the worst he would
+be satisfied; for then he could abandon Prague, and find that relief in
+constant motion, which is the hope of all active minds when invaded by
+distress. Meantime he waited with unspeakable anxiety for the next night,
+hoping she would return: but she did not appear. And now he fell really ill.
+Rallied by his fellow students on his wretched looks, he ceased to attend the
+lectures. His engagements were neglected. He cared for nothing. The sky, with
+the great sun in it, was to him a heartless, burning desert. The men and women
+in the streets were mere puppets, without motives in themselves, or interest to
+him. He saw them all as on the ever-changing field of a <i>camera obscura</i>.
+She&mdash;she alone and altogether&mdash;was his universe, his well of life,
+his incarnate good. For six evenings she came not. Let his absorbing passion,
+and the slow fever that was consuming his brain, be his excuse for the
+resolution which he had taken and begun to execute, before that time had
+expired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reasoning with himself, that it must be by some enchantment connected with the
+mirror, that the form of the lady was to be seen in it, he determined to
+attempt to turn to account what he had hitherto studied principally from
+curiosity. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; said he to himself, &ldquo;if a spell can force
+her presence in that glass (and she came unwillingly at first), may not a
+stronger spell, such as I know, especially with the aid of her half-presence in
+the mirror, if ever she appears again, compel her living form to come to me
+here? If I do her wrong, let love be my excuse. I want only to know my doom
+from her own lips.&rdquo; He never doubted, all the time, that she was a real
+earthly woman; or, rather, that there was a woman, who, somehow or other, threw
+this reflection of her form into the magic mirror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He opened his secret drawer, took out his books of magic, lighted his lamp, and
+read and made notes from midnight till three in the morning, for three
+successive nights. Then he replaced his books; and the next night went out in
+quest of the materials necessary for the conjuration. These were not easy to
+find; for, in love-charms and all incantations of this nature, ingredients are
+employed scarcely fit to be mentioned, and for the thought even of which, in
+connexion with her, he could only excuse himself on the score of his bitter
+need. At length he succeeded in procuring all he required; and on the seventh
+evening from that on which she had last appeared, he found himself prepared for
+the exercise of unlawful and tyrannical power.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He cleared the centre of the room; stooped and drew a circle of red on the
+floor, around the spot where he stood; wrote in the four quarters mystical
+signs, and numbers which were all powers of seven or nine; examined the whole
+ring carefully, to see that no smallest break had occurred in the
+circumference; and then rose from his bending posture. As he rose, the church
+clock struck seven; and, just as she had appeared the first time, reluctant,
+slow, and stately, glided in the lady. Cosmo trembled; and when, turning, she
+revealed a countenance worn and wan, as with sickness or inward trouble, he
+grew faint, and felt as if he dared not proceed. But as he gazed on the face
+and form, which now possessed his whole soul, to the exclusion of all other
+joys and griefs, the longing to speak to her, to know that she heard him, to
+hear from her one word in return, became so unendurable, that he suddenly and
+hastily resumed his preparations. Stepping carefully from the circle, he put a
+small brazier into its centre. He then set fire to its contents of charcoal,
+and while it burned up, opened his window and seated himself, waiting, beside
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a sultry evening. The air was full of thunder. A sense of luxurious
+depression filled the brain. The sky seemed to have grown heavy, and to
+compress the air beneath it. A kind of purplish tinge pervaded the atmosphere,
+and through the open window came the scents of the distant fields, which all
+the vapours of the city could not quench. Soon the charcoal glowed. Cosmo
+sprinkled upon it the incense and other substances which he had compounded,
+and, stepping within the circle, turned his face from the brazier and towards
+the mirror. Then, fixing his eyes upon the face of the lady, he began with a
+trembling voice to repeat a powerful incantation. He had not gone far, before
+the lady grew pale; and then, like a returning wave, the blood washed all its
+banks with its crimson tide, and she hid her face in her hands. Then he passed
+to a conjuration stronger yet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lady rose and walked uneasily to and fro in her room. Another spell; and
+she seemed seeking with her eyes for some object on which they wished to rest.
+At length it seemed as if she suddenly espied him; for her eyes fixed
+themselves full and wide upon his, and she drew gradually, and somewhat
+unwillingly, close to her side of the mirror, just as if his eyes had
+fascinated her. Cosmo had never seen her so near before. Now at least, eyes met
+eyes; but he could not quite understand the expression of hers. They were full
+of tender entreaty, but there was something more that he could not interpret.
+Though his heart seemed to labour in his throat, he would allow no delight or
+agitation to turn him from his task. Looking still in her face, he passed on to
+the mightiest charm he knew. Suddenly the lady turned and walked out of the
+door of her reflected chamber. A moment after she entered his room with
+veritable presence; and, forgetting all his precautions, he sprang from the
+charmed circle, and knelt before her. There she stood, the living lady of his
+passionate visions, alone beside him, in a thundery twilight, and the glow of a
+magic fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said the lady, with a trembling voice, &ldquo;didst thou
+bring a poor maiden through the rainy streets alone?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the
+mirror there.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, the mirror!&rdquo; and she looked up at it, and shuddered.
+&ldquo;Alas! I am but a slave, while that mirror exists. But do not think it
+was the power of thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing desire to see me,
+that beat at the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Canst thou love me then?&rdquo; said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death,
+but almost inarticulate with emotion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; she replied sadly; &ldquo;that I cannot tell, so
+long as I am bewildered with enchantments. It were indeed a joy too great, to
+lay my head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think thou lovest me, though
+I do not know;&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cosmo rose from his knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I love thee as&mdash;nay, I know not what&mdash;for since I have loved
+thee, there is nothing else.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He seized her hand: she withdrew it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the
+mirror.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And shall I see thyself instead?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet
+again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo&rsquo;s bosom. Now she was in his power. She
+did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To break the
+mirror would be to destroy his very life, to banish out of his universe the
+only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but a prison, if he
+annihilated the one window that looked into the paradise of love. Not yet pure
+in love, he hesitated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a wail of sorrow the lady rose to her feet. &ldquo;Ah! he loves me not; he
+loves me not even as I love him; and alas! I care more for his love than even
+for the freedom I ask.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will not wait to be willing,&rdquo; cried Cosmo; and sprang to the
+corner where the great sword stood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime it had grown very dark; only the embers cast a red glow through the
+room. He seized the sword by the steel scabbard, and stood before the mirror;
+but as he heaved a great blow at it with the heavy pommel, the blade slipped
+half-way out of the scabbard, and the pommel struck the wall above the mirror.
+At that moment, a terrible clap of thunder seemed to burst in the very room
+beside them; and ere Cosmo could repeat the blow, he fell senseless on the
+hearth. When he came to himself, he found that the lady and the mirror had both
+disappeared. He was seized with a brain fever, which kept him to his couch for
+weeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he recovered his reason, he began to think what could have become of the
+mirror. For the lady, he hoped she had found her way back as she came; but as
+the mirror involved her fate with its own, he was more immediately anxious
+about that. He could not think she had carried it away. It was much too heavy,
+even if it had not been too firmly fixed in the wall, for her to remove it.
+Then again, he remembered the thunder; which made him believe that it was not
+the lightning, but some other blow that had struck him down. He concluded that,
+either by supernatural agency, he having exposed himself to the vengeance of
+the demons in leaving the circle of safety, or in some other mode, the mirror
+had probably found its way back to its former owner; and, horrible to think of,
+might have been by this time once more disposed of, delivering up the lady into
+the power of another man; who, if he used his power no worse than he himself
+had done, might yet give Cosmo abundant cause to curse the selfish indecision
+which prevented him from shattering the mirror at once. Indeed, to think that
+she whom he loved, and who had prayed to him for freedom, should be still at
+the mercy, in some degree, of the possessor of the mirror, and was at least
+exposed to his constant observation, was in itself enough to madden a chary
+lover.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Anxiety to be well retarded his recovery; but at length he was able to creep
+abroad. He first made his way to the old broker&rsquo;s, pretending to be in
+search of something else. A laughing sneer on the creature&rsquo;s face
+convinced him that he knew all about it; but he could not see it amongst his
+furniture, or get any information out of him as to what had become of it. He
+expressed the utmost surprise at hearing it had been stolen, a surprise which
+Cosmo saw at once to be counterfeited; while, at the same time, he fancied that
+the old wretch was not at all anxious to have it mistaken for genuine. Full of
+distress, which he concealed as well as he could, he made many searches, but
+with no avail. Of course he could ask no questions; but he kept his ears awake
+for any remotest hint that might set him in a direction of search. He never
+went out without a short heavy hammer of steel about him, that he might shatter
+the mirror the moment he was made happy by the sight of his lost treasure, if
+ever that blessed moment should arrive. Whether he should see the lady again,
+was now a thought altogether secondary, and postponed to the achievement of her
+freedom. He wandered here and there, like an anxious ghost, pale and haggard;
+gnawed ever at the heart, by the thought of what she might be
+suffering&mdash;all from his fault.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One night, he mingled with a crowd that filled the rooms of one of the most
+distinguished mansions in the city; for he accepted every invitation, that he
+might lose no chance, however poor, of obtaining some information that might
+expedite his discovery. Here he wandered about, listening to every stray word
+that he could catch, in the hope of a revelation. As he approached some ladies
+who were talking quietly in a corner, one said to another:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you heard of the strange illness of the Princess von
+Hohenweiss?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes; she has been ill for more than a year now. It is very sad for so
+fine a creature to have such a terrible malady. She was better for some weeks
+lately, but within the last few days the same attacks have returned, apparently
+accompanied with more suffering than ever. It is altogether an inexplicable
+story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is there a story connected with her illness?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have only heard imperfect reports of it; but it is said that she gave
+offence some eighteen months ago to an old woman who had held an office of
+trust in the family, and who, after some incoherent threats, disappeared. This
+peculiar affection followed soon after. But the strangest part of the story is
+its association with the loss of an antique mirror, which stood in her
+dressing-room, and of which she constantly made use.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here the speaker&rsquo;s voice sank to a whisper; and Cosmo, although his very
+soul sat listening in his ears, could hear no more. He trembled too much to
+dare to address the ladies, even if it had been advisable to expose himself to
+their curiosity. The name of the Princess was well known to him, but he had
+never seen her; except indeed it was she, which now he hardly doubted, who had
+knelt before him on that dreadful night. Fearful of attracting attention, for,
+from the weak state of his health, he could not recover an appearance of
+calmness, he made his way to the open air, and reached his lodgings; glad in
+this, that he at least knew where she lived, although he never dreamed of
+approaching her openly, even if he should be happy enough to free her from her
+hateful bondage. He hoped, too, that as he had unexpectedly learned so much,
+the other and far more important part might be revealed to him ere long.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you seen Steinwald lately?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, I have not seen him for some time. He is almost a match for me at
+the rapier, and I suppose he thinks he needs no more lessons.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I wonder what has become of him. I want to see him very much. Let me
+see; the last time I saw him he was coming out of that old broker&rsquo;s den,
+to which, if you remember, you accompanied me once, to look at some armour.
+That is fully three weeks ago.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This hint was enough for Cosmo. Von Steinwald was a man of influence in the
+court, well known for his reckless habits and fierce passions. The very
+possibility that the mirror should be in his possession was hell itself to
+Cosmo. But violent or hasty measures of any sort were most unlikely to succeed.
+All that he wanted was an opportunity of breaking the fatal glass; and to
+obtain this he must bide his time. He revolved many plans in his mind, but
+without being able to fix upon any.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, one evening, as he was passing the house of Von Steinwald, he saw
+the windows more than usually brilliant. He watched for a while, and seeing
+that company began to arrive, hastened home, and dressed as richly as he could,
+in the hope of mingling with the guests unquestioned: in effecting which, there
+could be no difficulty for a man of his carriage.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+In a lofty, silent chamber, in another part of the city, lay a form more like
+marble than a living woman. The loveliness of death seemed frozen upon her
+face, for her lips were rigid, and her eyelids closed. Her long white hands
+were crossed over her breast, and no breathing disturbed their repose. Beside
+the dead, men speak in whispers, as if the deepest rest of all could be broken
+by the sound of a living voice. Just so, though the soul was evidently beyond
+the reach of all intimations from the senses, the two ladies, who sat beside
+her, spoke in the gentlest tones of subdued sorrow. &ldquo;She has lain so for
+an hour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This cannot last long, I fear.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;How much thinner she has grown within the last few weeks! If she would
+only speak, and explain what she suffers, it would be better for her. I think
+she has visions in her trances, but nothing can induce her to refer to them
+when she is awake.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Does she ever speak in these trances?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have never heard her; but they say she walks sometimes, and once put
+the whole household in a terrible fright by disappearing for a whole hour, and
+returning drenched with rain, and almost dead with exhaustion and fright. But
+even then she would give no account of what had happened.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A scarce audible murmur from the yet motionless lips of the lady here startled
+her attendants. After several ineffectual attempts at articulation, the word
+&ldquo;<i>Cosmo!</i>&rdquo; burst from her. Then she lay still as before; but
+only for a moment. With a wild cry, she sprang from the couch erect on the
+floor, flung her arms above her head, with clasped and straining hands, and,
+her wide eyes flashing with light, called aloud, with a voice exultant as that
+of a spirit bursting from a sepulchre, &ldquo;I am free! I am free! I thank
+thee!&rdquo; Then she flung herself on the couch, and sobbed; then rose, and
+paced wildly up and down the room, with gestures of mingled delight and
+anxiety. Then turning to her motionless attendants&mdash;&ldquo;Quick, Lisa, my
+cloak and hood!&rdquo; Then lower&mdash;&ldquo;I must go to him. Make haste,
+Lisa! You may come with me, if you will.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In another moment they were in the street, hurrying along towards one of the
+bridges over the Moldau. The moon was near the zenith, and the streets were
+almost empty. The Princess soon outstripped her attendant, and was half-way
+over the bridge, before the other reached it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Are you free, lady? The mirror is broken: are you free?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The words were spoken close beside her, as she hurried on. She turned; and
+there, leaning on the parapet in a recess of the bridge, stood Cosmo, in a
+splendid dress, but with a white and quivering face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Cosmo!&mdash;I am free&mdash;and thy servant for ever. I was coming to
+you now.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And I to you, for Death made me bold; but I could get no further. Have I
+atoned at all? Do I love you a little&mdash;truly?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah, I know now that you love me, my Cosmo; but what do you say about
+death?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He did not reply. His hand was pressed against his side. She looked more
+closely: the blood was welling from between the fingers. She flung her arms
+around him with a faint bitter wail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Lisa came up, she found her mistress kneeling above a wan dead face, which
+smiled on in the spectral moonbeams.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+And now I will say no more about these wondrous volumes; though I could tell
+many a tale out of them, and could, perhaps, vaguely represent some entrancing
+thoughts of a deeper kind which I found within them. From many a sultry noon
+till twilight, did I sit in that grand hall, buried and risen again in these
+old books. And I trust I have carried away in my soul some of the exhalations
+of their undying leaves. In after hours of deserved or needful sorrow, portions
+of what I read there have often come to me again, with an unexpected
+comforting; which was not fruitless, even though the comfort might seem in
+itself groundless and vain.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Your gallery<br/>
+Have we pass&rsquo;d through, not without much content<br/>
+In many singularities; but we saw not<br/>
+That which my daughter came to look upon,<br/>
+The state of her mother.&rdquo;<br/>
+          <i>Winter&rsquo;s Tale</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed to me strange, that all this time I had heard no music in the fairy
+palace. I was convinced there must be music in it, but that my sense was as yet
+too gross to receive the influence of those mysterious motions that beget
+sound. Sometimes I felt sure, from the way the few figures of which I got such
+transitory glimpses passed me, or glided into vacancy before me, that they were
+moving to the law of music; and, in fact, several times I fancied for a moment
+that I heard a few wondrous tones coming I knew not whence. But they did not
+last long enough to convince me that I had heard them with the bodily sense.
+Such as they were, however, they took strange liberties with me, causing me to
+burst suddenly into tears, of which there was no presence to make me ashamed,
+or casting me into a kind of trance of speechless delight, which, passing as
+suddenly, left me faint and longing for more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, on an evening, before I had been a week in the palace, I was wandering
+through one lighted arcade and corridor after another. At length I arrived,
+through a door that closed behind me, in another vast hall of the palace. It
+was filled with a subdued crimson light; by which I saw that slender pillars of
+black, built close to walls of white marble, rose to a great height, and then,
+dividing into innumerable divergent arches, supported a roof, like the walls,
+of white marble, upon which the arches intersected intricately, forming a
+fretting of black upon the white, like the network of a skeleton-leaf. The
+floor was black.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Between several pairs of the pillars upon every side, the place of the wall
+behind was occupied by a crimson curtain of thick silk, hanging in heavy and
+rich folds. Behind each of these curtains burned a powerful light, and these
+were the sources of the glow that filled the hall. A peculiar delicious odour
+pervaded the place. As soon as I entered, the old inspiration seemed to return
+to me, for I felt a strong impulse to sing; or rather, it seemed as if some one
+else was singing a song in my soul, which wanted to come forth at my lips,
+imbodied in my breath. But I kept silence; and feeling somewhat overcome by the
+red light and the perfume, as well as by the emotion within me, and seeing at
+one end of the hall a great crimson chair, more like a throne than a chair,
+beside a table of white marble, I went to it, and, throwing myself in it, gave
+myself up to a succession of images of bewildering beauty, which passed before
+my inward eye, in a long and occasionally crowded train. Here I sat for hours,
+I suppose; till, returning somewhat to myself, I saw that the red light had
+paled away, and felt a cool gentle breath gliding over my forehead. I rose and
+left the hall with unsteady steps, finding my way with some difficulty to my
+own chamber, and faintly remembering, as I went, that only in the marble cave,
+before I found the sleeping statue, had I ever had a similar experience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After this, I repaired every morning to the same hall; where I sometimes sat in
+the chair and dreamed deliciously, and sometimes walked up and down over the
+black floor. Sometimes I acted within myself a whole drama, during one of these
+perambulations; sometimes walked deliberately through the whole epic of a tale;
+sometimes ventured to sing a song, though with a shrinking fear of I knew not
+what. I was astonished at the beauty of my own voice as it rang through the
+place, or rather crept undulating, like a serpent of sound, along the walls and
+roof of this superb music-hall. Entrancing verses arose within me as of their
+own accord, chanting themselves to their own melodies, and requiring no
+addition of music to satisfy the inward sense. But, ever in the pauses of
+these, when the singing mood was upon me, I seemed to hear something like the
+distant sound of multitudes of dancers, and felt as if it was the unheard
+music, moving their rhythmic motion, that within me blossomed in verse and
+song. I felt, too, that could I but see the dance, I should, from the harmony
+of complicated movements, not of the dancers in relation to each other merely,
+but of each dancer individually in the manifested plastic power that moved the
+consenting harmonious form, understand the whole of the music on the billows of
+which they floated and swung.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, one night, suddenly, when this feeling of dancing came upon me, I
+bethought me of lifting one of the crimson curtains, and looking if, perchance,
+behind it there might not be hid some other mystery, which might at least
+remove a step further the bewilderment of the present one. Nor was I altogether
+disappointed. I walked to one of the magnificent draperies, lifted a corner,
+and peeped in. There, burned a great, crimson, globe-shaped light, high in the
+cubical centre of another hall, which might be larger or less than that in
+which I stood, for its dimensions were not easily perceived, seeing that floor
+and roof and walls were entirely of black marble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The roof was supported by the same arrangement of pillars radiating in arches,
+as that of the first hall; only, here, the pillars and arches were of dark red.
+But what absorbed my delighted gaze, was an innumerable assembly of white
+marble statues, of every form, and in multitudinous posture, filling the hall
+throughout. These stood, in the ruddy glow of the great lamp, upon pedestals of
+jet black. Around the lamp shone in golden letters, plainly legible from where
+I stood, the two words&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+TOUCH NOT!
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+There was in all this, however, no solution to the sound of dancing; and now I
+was aware that the influence on my mind had ceased. I did not go in that
+evening, for I was weary and faint, but I hoarded up the expectation of
+entering, as of a great coming joy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next night I walked, as on the preceding, through the hall. My mind was filled
+with pictures and songs, and therewith so much absorbed, that I did not for
+some time think of looking within the curtain I had last night lifted. When the
+thought of doing so occurred to me first, I happened to be within a few yards
+of it. I became conscious, at the same moment, that the sound of dancing had
+been for some time in my ears. I approached the curtain quickly, and, lifting
+it, entered the black hall. Everything was still as death. I should have
+concluded that the sound must have proceeded from some other more distant
+quarter, which conclusion its faintness would, in ordinary circumstances, have
+necessitated from the first; but there was a something about the statues that
+caused me still to remain in doubt. As I said, each stood perfectly still upon
+its black pedestal: but there was about every one a certain air, not of motion,
+but as if it had just ceased from movement; as if the rest were not altogether
+of the marbly stillness of thousands of years. It was as if the peculiar
+atmosphere of each had yet a kind of invisible tremulousness; as if its
+agitated wavelets had not yet subsided into a perfect calm. I had the suspicion
+that they had anticipated my appearance, and had sprung, each, from the living
+joy of the dance, to the death-silence and blackness of its isolated pedestal,
+just before I entered. I walked across the central hall to the curtain opposite
+the one I had lifted, and, entering there, found all the appearances similar;
+only that the statues were different, and differently grouped. Neither did they
+produce on my mind that impression&mdash;of motion just expired, which I had
+experienced from the others. I found that behind every one of the crimson
+curtains was a similar hall, similarly lighted, and similarly occupied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next night, I did not allow my thoughts to be absorbed as before with
+inward images, but crept stealthily along to the furthest curtain in the hall,
+from behind which, likewise, I had formerly seemed to hear the sound of
+dancing. I drew aside its edge as suddenly as I could, and, looking in, saw
+that the utmost stillness pervaded the vast place. I walked in, and passed
+through it to the other end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There I found that it communicated with a circular corridor, divided from it
+only by two rows of red columns. This corridor, which was black, with red
+niches holding statues, ran entirely about the statue-halls, forming a
+communication between the further ends of them all; further, that is, as
+regards the central hall of white whence they all diverged like radii, finding
+their circumference in the corridor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Round this corridor I now went, entering all the halls, of which there were
+twelve, and finding them all similarly constructed, but filled with quite
+various statues, of what seemed both ancient and modern sculpture. After I had
+simply walked through them, I found myself sufficiently tired to long for rest,
+and went to my own room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the night I dreamed that, walking close by one of the curtains, I was
+suddenly seized with the desire to enter, and darted in. This time I was too
+quick for them. All the statues were in motion, statues no longer, but men and
+women&mdash;all shapes of beauty that ever sprang from the brain of the
+sculptor, mingled in the convolutions of a complicated dance. Passing through
+them to the further end, I almost started from my sleep on beholding, not
+taking part in the dance with the others, nor seemingly endued with life like
+them, but standing in marble coldness and rigidity upon a black pedestal in the
+extreme left corner&mdash;my lady of the cave; the marble beauty who sprang
+from her tomb or her cradle at the call of my songs. While I gazed in
+speechless astonishment and admiration, a dark shadow, descending from above
+like the curtain of a stage, gradually hid her entirely from my view. I felt
+with a shudder that this shadow was perchance my missing demon, whom I had not
+seen for days. I awoke with a stifled cry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course, the next evening I began my journey through the halls (for I knew
+not to which my dream had carried me), in the hope of proving the dream to be a
+true one, by discovering my marble beauty upon her black pedestal. At length,
+on reaching the tenth hall, I thought I recognised some of the forms I had seen
+dancing in my dream; and to my bewilderment, when I arrived at the extreme
+corner on the left, there stood, the only one I had yet seen, a vacant
+pedestal. It was exactly in the position occupied, in my dream, by the pedestal
+on which the white lady stood. Hope beat violently in my heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said I to myself, &ldquo;if yet another part of the dream
+would but come true, and I should succeed in surprising these forms in their
+nightly dance; it might be the rest would follow, and I should see on the
+pedestal my marble queen. Then surely if my songs sufficed to give her life
+before, when she lay in the bonds of alabaster, much more would they be
+sufficient then to give her volition and motion, when she alone of assembled
+crowds of marble forms, would be standing rigid and cold.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the difficulty was, to surprise the dancers. I had found that a
+premeditated attempt at surprise, though executed with the utmost care and
+rapidity, was of no avail. And, in my dream, it was effected by a sudden
+thought suddenly executed. I saw, therefore, that there was no plan of
+operation offering any probability of success, but this: to allow my mind to be
+occupied with other thoughts, as I wandered around the great centre-hall; and
+so wait till the impulse to enter one of the others should happen to arise in
+me just at the moment when I was close to one of the crimson curtains. For I
+hoped that if I entered any one of the twelve halls at the right moment, that
+would as it were give me the right of entrance to all the others, seeing they
+all had communication behind. I would not diminish the hope of the right
+chance, by supposing it necessary that a desire to enter should awake within
+me, precisely when I was close to the curtains of the tenth hall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first the impulses to see recurred so continually, in spite of the crowded
+imagery that kept passing through my mind, that they formed too nearly a
+continuous chain, for the hope that any one of them would succeed as a
+surprise. But as I persisted in banishing them, they recurred less and less
+often; and after two or three, at considerable intervals, had come when the
+spot where I happened to be was unsuitable, the hope strengthened, that soon
+one might arise just at the right moment; namely, when, in walking round the
+hall, I should be close to one of the curtains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length the right moment and the impulse coincided. I darted into the ninth
+hall. It was full of the most exquisite moving forms. The whole space wavered
+and swam with the involutions of an intricate dance. It seemed to break
+suddenly as I entered, and all made one or two bounds towards their pedestals;
+but, apparently on finding that they were thoroughly overtaken, they returned
+to their employment (for it seemed with them earnest enough to be called such)
+without further heeding me. Somewhat impeded by the floating crowd, I made what
+haste I could towards the bottom of the hall; whence, entering the corridor, I
+turned towards the tenth. I soon arrived at the corner I wanted to reach, for
+the corridor was comparatively empty; but, although the dancers here, after a
+little confusion, altogether disregarded my presence, I was dismayed at
+beholding, even yet, a vacant pedestal. But I had a conviction that she was
+near me. And as I looked at the pedestal, I thought I saw upon it, vaguely
+revealed as if through overlapping folds of drapery, the indistinct outlines of
+white feet. Yet there was no sign of drapery or concealing shadow whatever. But
+I remembered the descending shadow in my dream. And I hoped still in the power
+of my songs; thinking that what could dispel alabaster, might likewise be
+capable of dispelling what concealed my beauty now, even if it were the demon
+whose darkness had overshadowed all my life.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;<i>Alexander</i>. &lsquo;When will you finish Campaspe?&rsquo;<br/>
+<i>Apelles</i>. &lsquo;Never finish: for always in absolute beauty there is
+somewhat above art.&rsquo;&rdquo;<br/>
+          L<small>YLY</small>&rsquo;S <i>Campaspe</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was present
+unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless of the
+innumerable forms of beauty that crowded my way: these might cross my eyes, but
+the unseen filled my brain. I wandered long, up and down the silent space: no
+songs came. My soul was not still enough for songs. Only in the silence and
+darkness of the soul&rsquo;s night, do those stars of the inward firmament sink
+to its lower surface from the singing realms beyond, and shine upon the
+conscious spirit. Here all effort was unavailing. If they came not, they could
+not be found.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next night, it was just the same. I walked through the red glimmer of the
+silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as lonely trod my soul up and down
+the halls of the brain. At last I entered one of the statue-halls. The dance
+had just commenced, and I was delighted to find that I was free of their
+assembly. I walked on till I came to the sacred corner. There I found the
+pedestal just as I had left it, with the faint glimmer as of white feet still
+resting on the dead black. As soon as I saw it, I seemed to feel a presence
+which longed to become visible; and, as it were, called to me to gift it with
+self-manifestation, that it might shine on me. The power of song came to me.
+But the moment my voice, though I sang low and soft, stirred the air of the
+hall, the dancers started; the quick interweaving crowd shook, lost its form,
+divided; each figure sprang to its pedestal, and stood, a self-evolving life no
+more, but a rigid, life-like, marble shape, with the whole form composed into
+the expression of a single state or act. Silence rolled like a spiritual
+thunder through the grand space. My song had ceased, scared at its own
+influences. But I saw in the hand of one of the statues close by me, a harp
+whose chords yet quivered. I remembered that as she bounded past me, her harp
+had brushed against my arm; so the spell of the marble had not infolded it. I
+sprang to her, and with a gesture of entreaty, laid my hand on the harp. The
+marble hand, probably from its contact with the uncharmed harp, had strength
+enough to relax its hold, and yield the harp to me. No other motion indicated
+life. Instinctively I struck the chords and sang. And not to break upon the
+record of my song, I mention here, that as I sang the first four lines, the
+loveliest feet became clear upon the black pedestal; and ever as I sang, it was
+as if a veil were being lifted up from before the form, but an invisible veil,
+so that the statue appeared to grow before me, not so much by evolution, as by
+infinitesimal degrees of added height. And, while I sang, I did not feel that I
+stood by a statue, as indeed it appeared to be, but that a real woman-soul was
+revealing itself by successive stages of imbodiment, and consequent
+manifestatlon and expression.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Feet of beauty, firmly planting<br/>
+    Arches white on rosy heel!<br/>
+Whence the life-spring, throbbing, panting,<br/>
+    Pulses upward to reveal!<br/>
+Fairest things know least despising;<br/>
+    Foot and earth meet tenderly:<br/>
+&lsquo;Tis the woman, resting, rising<br/>
+    Upward to sublimity,<br/>
+<br/>
+Rise the limbs, sedately sloping,<br/>
+    Strong and gentle, full and free;<br/>
+Soft and slow, like certain hoping,<br/>
+    Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.<br/>
+Up to speech! As up to roses<br/>
+    Pants the life from leaf to flower,<br/>
+So each blending change discloses,<br/>
+    Nearer still, expression&rsquo;s power.<br/>
+<br/>
+Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining<br/>
+    Up and outward fearlessly!<br/>
+Temple columns, close combining,<br/>
+    Lift a holy mystery.<br/>
+Heart of mine! what strange surprises<br/>
+    Mount aloft on such a stair!<br/>
+Some great vision upward rises,<br/>
+    Curving, bending, floating fair.<br/>
+<br/>
+Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow<br/>
+    Lead my fascinated eye;<br/>
+Some apocalypse will follow,<br/>
+    Some new world of deity.<br/>
+Zoned unseen, and outward swelling,<br/>
+    With new thoughts and wonders rife,<br/>
+Queenly majesty foretelling,<br/>
+    See the expanding house of life!<br/>
+<br/>
+Sudden heaving, unforbidden<br/>
+    Sighs eternal, still the same&mdash;<br/>
+Mounts of snow have summits hidden<br/>
+    In the mists of uttered flame.<br/>
+But the spirit, dawning nearly<br/>
+    Finds no speech for earnest pain;<br/>
+Finds a soundless sighing merely&mdash;<br/>
+    Builds its stairs, and mounts again.<br/>
+<br/>
+Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,<br/>
+    Sendeth out her waiting pair;<br/>
+Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,<br/>
+    Half inclasping visions rare;<br/>
+And the great arms, heartways bending;<br/>
+    Might of Beauty, drawing home<br/>
+There returning, and re-blending,<br/>
+    Where from roots of love they roam.<br/>
+<br/>
+Build thy slopes of radiance beamy<br/>
+    Spirit, fair with womanhood!<br/>
+Tower thy precipice, white-gleamy,<br/>
+    Climb unto the hour of good.<br/>
+Dumb space will be rent asunder,<br/>
+    Now the shining column stands<br/>
+Ready to be crowned with wonder<br/>
+    By the builder&rsquo;s joyous hands.<br/>
+<br/>
+All the lines abroad are spreading,<br/>
+    Like a fountain&rsquo;s falling race.<br/>
+Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,<br/>
+    Airy foot to rest the face!<br/>
+Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,<br/>
+    Sweet approach of lip and breath!<br/>
+Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,<br/>
+    Waits to die ecstatic death.<br/>
+<br/>
+Span across in treble curving,<br/>
+    Bow of promise, upper lip!<br/>
+Set them free, with gracious swerving;<br/>
+    Let the wing-words float and dip.<br/>
+<i>Dumb art thou?</i> O Love immortal,<br/>
+    More than words thy speech must be;<br/>
+Childless yet the tender portal<br/>
+    Of the home of melody.<br/>
+<br/>
+Now the nostrils open fearless,<br/>
+    Proud in calm unconsciousness,<br/>
+Sure it must be something peerless<br/>
+    That the great Pan would express!<br/>
+Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,<br/>
+    In the pure, dear lady-face.<br/>
+Lo, a blinding burst of splendour!&mdash;<br/>
+    &rsquo;Tis the free soul&rsquo;s issuing grace.<br/>
+<br/>
+Two calm lakes of molten glory<br/>
+    Circling round unfathomed deeps!<br/>
+Lightning-flashes, transitory,<br/>
+    Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.<br/>
+This the gate, at last, of gladness,<br/>
+    To the outward striving <i>me</i>:<br/>
+In a rain of light and sadness,<br/>
+    Out its loves and longings flee!<br/>
+<br/>
+With a presence I am smitten<br/>
+    Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;<br/>
+Presence greater yet than written<br/>
+    Even in the glorious eyes.<br/>
+Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,<br/>
+    I may look till I am lost;<br/>
+Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,<br/>
+    In a sea without a coast.<br/>
+<br/>
+Windows open to the glorious!<br/>
+    Time and space, oh, far beyond!<br/>
+Woman, ah! thou art victorious,<br/>
+    And I perish, overfond.<br/>
+Springs aloft the yet Unspoken<br/>
+    In the forehead&rsquo;s endless grace,<br/>
+Full of silences unbroken;<br/>
+    Infinite, unfeatured face.<br/>
+<br/>
+Domes above, the mount of wonder;<br/>
+    Height and hollow wrapt in night;<br/>
+Hiding in its caverns under<br/>
+    Woman-nations in their might.<br/>
+Passing forms, the highest Human<br/>
+    Faints away to the Divine<br/>
+Features none, of man or woman,<br/>
+    Can unveil the holiest shine.<br/>
+<br/>
+Sideways, grooved porches only<br/>
+    Visible to passing eye,<br/>
+Stand the silent, doorless, lonely<br/>
+    Entrance-gates of melody.<br/>
+But all sounds fly in as boldly,<br/>
+    Groan and song, and kiss and cry<br/>
+At their galleries, lifted coldly,<br/>
+    Darkly, &lsquo;twixt the earth and sky.<br/>
+<br/>
+Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest<br/>
+    So, in faint, half-glad despair,<br/>
+From the summit thou o&rsquo;erflowest<br/>
+    In a fall of torrent hair;<br/>
+Hiding what thou hast created<br/>
+    In a half-transparent shroud:<br/>
+Thus, with glory soft-abated,<br/>
+    Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Ev&rsquo;n the Styx, which ninefold her infoldeth<br/>
+    Hems not Ceres&rsquo; daughter in its flow;<br/>
+But she grasps the apple&mdash;ever holdeth<br/>
+    Her, sad Orcus, down below.&rdquo;<br/>
+          S<small>CHILLER</small>, <i>Das Ideal und das Leben</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ever as I sang, the veil was uplifted; ever as I sang, the signs of life grew;
+till, when the eyes dawned upon me, it was with that sunrise of splendour which
+my feeble song attempted to re-imbody.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wonder is, that I was not altogether overcome, but was able to complete my
+song as the unseen veil continued to rise. This ability came solely from the
+state of mental elevation in which I found myself. Only because uplifted in
+song, was I able to endure the blaze of the dawn. But I cannot tell whether she
+looked more of statue or more of woman; she seemed removed into that region of
+phantasy where all is intensely vivid, but nothing clearly defined. At last, as
+I sang of her descending hair, the glow of soul faded away, like a dying
+sunset. A lamp within had been extinguished, and the house of life shone blank
+in a winter morn. She was a statue once more&mdash;but visible, and that was
+much gained. Yet the revulsion from hope and fruition was such, that, unable to
+restrain myself, I sprang to her, and, in defiance of the law of the place,
+flung my arms around her, as if I would tear her from the grasp of a visible
+Death, and lifted her from the pedestal down to my heart. But no sooner had her
+feet ceased to be in contact with the black pedestal, than she shuddered and
+trembled all over; then, writhing from my arms, before I could tighten their
+hold, she sprang into the corridor, with the reproachful cry, &ldquo;You should
+not have touched me!&rdquo; darted behind one of the exterior pillars of the
+circle, and disappeared. I followed almost as fast; but ere I could reach the
+pillar, the sound of a closing door, the saddest of all sounds sometimes, fell
+on my ear; and, arriving at the spot where she had vanished, I saw, lighted by
+a pale yellow lamp which hung above it, a heavy, rough door, altogether unlike
+any others I had seen in the palace; for they were all of ebony, or ivory, or
+covered with silver-plates, or of some odorous wood, and very ornate; whereas
+this seemed of old oak, with heavy nails and iron studs. Notwithstanding the
+precipitation of my pursuit, I could not help reading, in silver letters
+beneath the lamp: &ldquo;<i>No one enters here without the leave of the
+Queen</i>.&rdquo; But what was the Queen to me, when I followed my white lady?
+I dashed the door to the wall and sprang through. Lo! I stood on a waste windy
+hill. Great stones like tombstones stood all about me. No door, no palace was
+to be seen. A white figure gleamed past me, wringing her hands, and crying,
+&ldquo;Ah! you should have sung to me; you should have sung to me!&rdquo; and
+disappeared behind one of the stones. I followed. A cold gust of wind met me
+from behind the stone; and when I looked, I saw nothing but a great hole in the
+earth, into which I could find no way of entering. Had she fallen in? I could
+not tell. I must wait for the daylight. I sat down and wept, for there was no
+help.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;First, I thought, almost despairing,<br/>
+    This must crush my spirit now;<br/>
+Yet I bore it, and am bearing&mdash;<br/>
+    Only do not ask me how.&rdquo;<br/>
+          H<small>EINE</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the daylight came, it brought the possibility of action, but with it
+little of consolation. With the first visible increase of light, I gazed into
+the chasm, but could not, for more than an hour, see sufficiently well to
+discover its nature. At last I saw it was almost a perpendicular opening, like
+a roughly excavated well, only very large. I could perceive no bottom; and it
+was not till the sun actually rose, that I discovered a sort of natural
+staircase, in many parts little more than suggested, which led round and round
+the gulf, descending spirally into its abyss. I saw at once that this was my
+path; and without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation, glad to quit the sunlight, which
+stared at me most heartlessly, I commenced my tortuous descent. It was very
+difficult. In some parts I had to cling to the rocks like a bat. In one place,
+I dropped from the track down upon the next returning spire of the stair; which
+being broad in this particular portion, and standing out from the wall at right
+angles, received me upon my feet safe, though somewhat stupefied by the shock.
+After descending a great way, I found the stair ended at a narrow opening which
+entered the rock horizontally. Into this I crept, and, having entered, had just
+room to turn round. I put my head out into the shaft by which I had come down,
+and surveyed the course of my descent. Looking up, I saw the stars; although
+the sun must by this time have been high in the heavens. Looking below, I saw
+that the sides of the shaft went sheer down, smooth as glass; and far beneath
+me, I saw the reflection of the same stars I had seen in the heavens when I
+looked up. I turned again, and crept inwards some distance, when the passage
+widened, and I was at length able to stand and walk upright. Wider and loftier
+grew the way; new paths branched off on every side; great open halls appeared;
+till at last I found myself wandering on through an underground country, in
+which the sky was of rock, and instead of trees and flowers, there were only
+fantastic rocks and stones. And ever as I went, darker grew my thoughts, till
+at last I had no hope whatever of finding the white lady: I no longer called
+her to myself <i>my</i> white lady. Whenever a choice was necessary, I always
+chose the path which seemed to lead downwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length I began to find that these regions were inhabited. From behind a rock
+a peal of harsh grating laughter, full of evil humour, rang through my ears,
+and, looking round, I saw a queer, goblin creature, with a great head and
+ridiculous features, just such as those described, in German histories and
+travels, as Kobolds. &ldquo;What do you want with me?&rdquo; I said. He pointed
+at me with a long forefinger, very thick at the root, and sharpened to a point,
+and answered, &ldquo;He! he! he! what do <i>you</i> want here?&rdquo; Then,
+changing his tone, he continued, with mock humility&mdash;&ldquo;Honoured sir,
+vouchsafe to withdraw from thy slaves the lustre of thy august presence, for
+thy slaves cannot support its brightness.&rdquo; A second appeared, and struck
+in: &ldquo;You are so big, you keep the sun from us. We can&rsquo;t see for
+you, and we&rsquo;re so cold.&rdquo; Thereupon arose, on all sides, the most
+terrific uproar of laughter, from voices like those of children in volume, but
+scrannel and harsh as those of decrepit age, though, unfortunately, without its
+weakness. The whole pandemonium of fairy devils, of all varieties of fantastic
+ugliness, both in form and feature, and of all sizes from one to four feet,
+seemed to have suddenly assembled about me. At length, after a great babble of
+talk among themselves, in a language unknown to me, and after seemingly endless
+gesticulation, consultation, elbow-nudging, and unmitigated peals of laughter,
+they formed into a circle about one of their number, who scrambled upon a
+stone, and, much to my surprise, and somewhat to my dismay, began to sing, in a
+voice corresponding in its nature to his talking one, from beginning to end,
+the song with which I had brought the light into the eyes of the white lady. He
+sang the same air too; and, all the time, maintained a face of mock entreaty
+and worship; accompanying the song with the travestied gestures of one playing
+on the lute. The whole assembly kept silence, except at the close of every
+verse, when they roared, and danced, and shouted with laughter, and flung
+themselves on the ground, in real or pretended convulsions of delight. When he
+had finished, the singer threw himself from the top of the stone, turning heels
+over head several times in his descent; and when he did alight, it was on the
+top of his head, on which he hopped about, making the most grotesque
+gesticulations with his legs in the air. Inexpressible laughter followed, which
+broke up in a shower of tiny stones from innumerable hands. They could not
+materially injure me, although they cut me on the head and face. I attempted to
+run away, but they all rushed upon me, and, laying hold of every part that
+afforded a grasp, held me tight. Crowding about me like bees, they shouted an
+insect-swarm of exasperating speeches up into my face, among which the most
+frequently recurring were&mdash;&ldquo;You shan&rsquo;t have her; you
+shan&rsquo;t have her; he! he! he! She&rsquo;s for a better man; how
+he&rsquo;ll kiss her! how he&rsquo;ll kiss her!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The galvanic torrent of this battery of malevolence stung to life within me a
+spark of nobleness, and I said aloud, &ldquo;Well, if he is a better man, let
+him have her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They instantly let go their hold of me, and fell back a step or two, with a
+whole broadside of grunts and humphs, as of unexpected and disappointed
+approbation. I made a step or two forward, and a lane was instantly opened for
+me through the midst of the grinning little antics, who bowed most politely to
+me on every side as I passed. After I had gone a few yards, I looked back, and
+saw them all standing quite still, looking after me, like a great school of
+boys; till suddenly one turned round, and with a loud whoop, rushed into the
+midst of the others. In an instant, the whole was one writhing and tumbling
+heap of contortion, reminding me of the live pyramids of intertwined snakes of
+which travellers make report. As soon as one was worked out of the mass, he
+bounded off a few paces, and then, with a somersault and a run, threw himself
+gyrating into the air, and descended with all his weight on the summit of the
+heaving and struggling chaos of fantastic figures. I left them still busy at
+this fierce and apparently aimless amusement. And as I went, I sang&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+If a nobler waits for thee,<br/>
+    I will weep aside;<br/>
+It is well that thou should&rsquo;st be,<br/>
+    Of the nobler, bride.<br/>
+<br/>
+For if love builds up the home,<br/>
+    Where the heart is free,<br/>
+Homeless yet the heart must roam,<br/>
+    That has not found thee.<br/>
+<br/>
+One must suffer: I, for her<br/>
+    Yield in her my part<br/>
+Take her, thou art worthier&mdash;<br/>
+    Still I be still, my heart!<br/>
+<br/>
+Gift ungotten! largess high<br/>
+    Of a frustrate will!<br/>
+But to yield it lovingly<br/>
+    Is a something still.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Then a little song arose of itself in my soul; and I felt for the moment, while
+it sank sadly within me, as if I was once more walking up and down the white
+hall of Phantasy in the Fairy Palace. But this lasted no longer than the song;
+as will be seen.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Do not vex thy violet<br/>
+    Perfume to afford:<br/>
+Else no odour thou wilt get<br/>
+    From its little hoard.<br/>
+<br/>
+In thy lady&rsquo;s gracious eyes<br/>
+    Look not thou too long;<br/>
+Else from them the glory flies,<br/>
+    And thou dost her wrong.<br/>
+<br/>
+Come not thou too near the maid,<br/>
+    Clasp her not too wild;<br/>
+Else the splendour is allayed,<br/>
+    And thy heart beguiled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A crash of laughter, more discordant and deriding than any I had yet heard,
+invaded my ears. Looking on in the direction of the sound, I saw a little
+elderly woman, much taller, however, than the goblins I had just left, seated
+upon a stone by the side of the path. She rose, as I drew near, and came
+forward to meet me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was very plain and commonplace in appearance, without being hideously ugly.
+Looking up in my face with a stupid sneer, she said: &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it a
+pity you haven&rsquo;t a pretty girl to walk all alone with you through this
+sweet country? How different everything would look? wouldn&rsquo;t it? Strange
+that one can never have what one would like best! How the roses would bloom and
+all that, even in this infernal hole! wouldn&rsquo;t they, Anodos? Her eyes
+would light up the old cave, wouldn&rsquo;t they?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That depends on who the pretty girl should be,&rdquo; replied I.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Not so very much matter that,&rdquo; she answered; &ldquo;look
+here.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had turned to go away as I gave my reply, but now I stopped and looked at
+her. As a rough unsightly bud might suddenly blossom into the most lovely
+flower; or rather, as a sunbeam bursts through a shapeless cloud, and
+transfigures the earth; so burst a face of resplendent beauty, as it were
+<i>through</i> the unsightly visage of the woman, destroying it with light as
+it dawned through it. A summer sky rose above me, gray with heat; across a
+shining slumberous landscape, looked from afar the peaks of snow-capped
+mountains; and down from a great rock beside me fell a sheet of water mad with
+its own delight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stay with me,&rdquo; she said, lifting up her exquisite face, and
+looking full in mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I drew back. Again the infernal laugh grated upon my ears; again the rocks
+closed in around me, and the ugly woman looked at me with wicked, mocking hazel
+eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You shall have your reward,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;You shall see your
+white lady again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That lies not with you,&rdquo; I replied, and turned and left her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She followed me with shriek upon shriek of laughter, as I went on my way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I may mention here, that although there was always light enough to see my path
+and a few yards on every side of me, I never could find out the source of this
+sad sepulchral illumination.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;In the wind&rsquo;s uproar, the sea&rsquo;s raging grim,<br/>
+And the sighs that are born in him.&rdquo;<br/>
+          H<small>EINE</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;From dreams of bliss shall men awake<br/>
+One day, but not to weep:<br/>
+The dreams remain; they only break<br/>
+The mirror of the sleep.&rdquo;<br/>
+          J<small>EAN</small> P<small>AUL</small>, <i>Hesperus</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How I got through this dreary part of my travels, I do not know. I do not think
+I was upheld by the hope that any moment the light might break in upon me; for
+I scarcely thought about that. I went on with a dull endurance, varied by
+moments of uncontrollable sadness; for more and more the conviction grew upon
+me that I should never see the white lady again. It may seem strange that one
+with whom I had held so little communion should have so engrossed my thoughts;
+but benefits conferred awaken love in some minds, as surely as benefits
+received in others. Besides being delighted and proud that <i>my</i> songs had
+called the beautiful creature to life, the same fact caused me to feel a
+tenderness unspeakable for her, accompanied with a kind of feeling of property
+in her; for so the goblin Selfishness would reward the angel Love. When to all
+this is added, an overpowering sense of her beauty, and an unquestioning
+conviction that this was a true index to inward loveliness, it may be
+understood how it came to pass that my imagination filled my whole soul with
+the play of its own multitudinous colours and harmonies around the form which
+yet stood, a gracious marble radiance, in the midst of <i>its</i> white hall of
+phantasy. The time passed by unheeded; for my thoughts were busy. Perhaps this
+was also in part the cause of my needing no food, and never thinking how I
+should find any, during this subterraneous part of my travels. How long they
+endured I could not tell, for I had no means of measuring time; and when I
+looked back, there was such a discrepancy between the decisions of my
+imagination and my judgment, as to the length of time that had passed, that I
+was bewildered, and gave up all attempts to arrive at any conclusion on the
+point.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A gray mist continually gathered behind me. When I looked back towards the
+past, this mist was the medium through which my eyes had to strain for a vision
+of what had gone by; and the form of the white lady had receded into an unknown
+region. At length the country of rock began to close again around me, gradually
+and slowly narrowing, till I found myself walking in a gallery of rock once
+more, both sides of which I could touch with my outstretched hands. It narrowed
+yet, until I was forced to move carefully, in order to avoid striking against
+the projecting pieces of rock. The roof sank lower and lower, until I was
+compelled, first to stoop, and then to creep on my hands and knees. It recalled
+terrible dreams of childhood; but I was not much afraid, because I felt sure
+that this was my path, and my only hope of leaving Fairy Land, of which I was
+now almost weary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, on getting past an abrupt turn in the passage, through which I had
+to force myself, I saw, a few yards ahead of me, the long-forgotten daylight
+shining through a small opening, to which the path, if path it could now be
+called, led me. With great difficulty I accomplished these last few yards, and
+came forth to the day. I stood on the shore of a wintry sea, with a wintry sun
+just a few feet above its horizon-edge. It was bare, and waste, and gray.
+Hundreds of hopeless waves rushed constantly shorewards, falling exhausted upon
+a beach of great loose stones, that seemed to stretch miles and miles in both
+directions. There was nothing for the eye but mingling shades of gray; nothing
+for the ear but the rush of the coming, the roar of the breaking, and the moan
+of the retreating wave. No rock lifted up a sheltering severity above the
+dreariness around; even that from which I had myself emerged rose scarcely a
+foot above the opening by which I had reached the dismal day, more dismal even
+than the tomb I had left. A cold, death-like wind swept across the shore,
+seeming to issue from a pale mouth of cloud upon the horizon. Sign of life was
+nowhere visible. I wandered over the stones, up and down the beach, a human
+imbodiment of the nature around me. The wind increased; its keen waves flowed
+through my soul; the foam rushed higher up the stones; a few dead stars began
+to gleam in the east; the sound of the waves grew louder and yet more
+despairing. A dark curtain of cloud was lifted up, and a pale blue rent shone
+between its foot and the edge of the sea, out from which rushed an icy storm of
+frozen wind, that tore the waters into spray as it passed, and flung the
+billows in raving heaps upon the desolate shore. I could bear it no longer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I will not be tortured to death,&rdquo; I cried; &ldquo;I will meet it
+half-way. The life within me is yet enough to bear me up to the face of Death,
+and then I die unconquered.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before it had grown so dark, I had observed, though without any particular
+interest, that on one part of the shore a low platform of rock seemed to run
+out far into the midst of the breaking waters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Towards this I now went, scrambling over smooth stones, to which scarce even a
+particle of sea-weed clung; and having found it, I got on it, and followed its
+direction, as near as I could guess, out into the tumbling chaos. I could
+hardly keep my feet against the wind and sea. The waves repeatedly all but
+swept me off my path; but I kept on my way, till I reached the end of the low
+promontory, which, in the fall of the waves, rose a good many feet above the
+surface, and, in their rise, was covered with their waters. I stood one moment
+and gazed into the heaving abyss beneath me; then plunged headlong into the
+mounting wave below. A blessing, like the kiss of a mother, seemed to alight on
+my soul; a calm, deeper than that which accompanies a hope deferred, bathed my
+spirit. I sank far into the waters, and sought not to return. I felt as if once
+more the great arms of the beech-tree were around me, soothing me after the
+miseries I had passed through, and telling me, like a little sick child, that I
+should be better to-morrow. The waters of themselves lifted me, as with loving
+arms, to the surface. I breathed again, but did not unclose my eyes. I would
+not look on the wintry sea, and the pitiless gray sky. Thus I floated, till
+something gently touched me. It was a little boat floating beside me. How it
+came there I could not tell; but it rose and sank on the waters, and kept
+touching me in its fall, as if with a human will to let me know that help was
+by me. It was a little gay-coloured boat, seemingly covered with glistering
+scales like those of a fish, all of brilliant rainbow hues. I scrambled into
+it, and lay down in the bottom, with a sense of exquisite repose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I drew over me a rich, heavy, purple cloth that was beside me; and, lying
+still, knew, by the sound of the waters, that my little bark was fleeting
+rapidly onwards. Finding, however, none of that stormy motion which the sea had
+manifested when I beheld it from the shore, I opened my eyes; and, looking
+first up, saw above me the deep violet sky of a warm southern night; and then,
+lifting my head, saw that I was sailing fast upon a summer sea, in the last
+border of a southern twilight. The aureole of the sun yet shot the extreme
+faint tips of its longest rays above the horizon-waves, and withdrew them not.
+It was a perpetual twilight. The stars, great and earnest, like
+children&rsquo;s eyes, bent down lovingly towards the waters; and the reflected
+stars within seemed to float up, as if longing to meet their embraces. But when
+I looked down, a new wonder met my view. For, vaguely revealed beneath the
+wave, I floated above my whole Past. The fields of my childhood flitted by; the
+halls of my youthful labours; the streets of great cities where I had dwelt;
+and the assemblies of men and women wherein I had wearied myself seeking for
+rest. But so indistinct were the visions, that sometimes I thought I was
+sailing on a shallow sea, and that strange rocks and forests of sea-plants
+beguiled my eye, sufficiently to be transformed, by the magic of the phantasy,
+into well-known objects and regions. Yet, at times, a beloved form seemed to
+lie close beneath me in sleep; and the eyelids would tremble as if about to
+forsake the conscious eye; and the arms would heave upwards, as if in dreams
+they sought for a satisfying presence. But these motions might come only from
+the heaving of the waters between those forms and me. Soon I fell asleep,
+overcome with fatigue and delight. In dreams of unspeakable joy&mdash;of
+restored friendships; of revived embraces; of love which said it had never
+died; of faces that had vanished long ago, yet said with smiling lips that they
+knew nothing of the grave; of pardons implored, and granted with such bursting
+floods of love, that I was almost glad I had sinned&mdash;thus I passed through
+this wondrous twilight. I awoke with the feeling that I had been kissed and
+loved to my heart&rsquo;s content; and found that my boat was floating
+motionless by the grassy shore of a little island.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;In still rest, in changeless simplicity, I bear,<br/>
+uninterrupted, the consciousness of the whole of Humanity within me.&rdquo;<br/>
+          S<small>CHLEIERMACHER</small>, <i>Monologen</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;... such a sweetness, such a grace,<br/>
+    In all thy speech appear,<br/>
+That what to th&rsquo;eye a beauteous face,<br/>
+    That thy tongue is to the ear.&rdquo;<br/>
+          C<small>OWLEY</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The water was deep to the very edge; and I sprang from the little boat upon a
+soft grassy turf. The island seemed rich with a profusion of all grasses and
+low flowers. All delicate lowly things were most plentiful; but no trees rose
+skywards, not even a bush overtopped the tall grasses, except in one place near
+the cottage I am about to describe, where a few plants of the gum-cistus, which
+drops every night all the blossoms that the day brings forth, formed a kind of
+natural arbour. The whole island lay open to the sky and sea. It rose nowhere
+more than a few feet above the level of the waters, which flowed deep all
+around its border. Here there seemed to be neither tide nor storm. A sense of
+persistent calm and fulness arose in the mind at the sight of the slow,
+pulse-like rise and fall of the deep, clear, unrippled waters against the bank
+of the island, for shore it could hardly be called, being so much more like the
+edge of a full, solemn river. As I walked over the grass towards the cottage,
+which stood at a little distance from the bank, all the flowers of childhood
+looked at me with perfect child-eyes out of the grass. My heart, softened by
+the dreams through which it had passed, overflowed in a sad, tender love
+towards them. They looked to me like children impregnably fortified in a
+helpless confidence. The sun stood half-way down the western sky, shining very
+soft and golden; and there grew a second world of shadows amidst the world of
+grasses and wild flowers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cottage was square, with low walls, and a high pyramidal roof thatched with
+long reeds, of which the withered blossoms hung over all the eaves. It is
+noticeable that most of the buildings I saw in Fairy Land were cottages. There
+was no path to a door, nor, indeed, was there any track worn by footsteps in
+the island.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cottage rose right out of the smooth turf. It had no windows that I could
+see; but there was a door in the centre of the side facing me, up to which I
+went. I knocked, and the sweetest voice I had ever heard said, &ldquo;Come
+in.&rdquo; I entered. A bright fire was burning on a hearth in the centre of
+the earthern floor, and the smoke found its way out at an opening in the centre
+of the pyramidal roof. Over the fire hung a little pot, and over the pot bent a
+woman-face, the most wonderful, I thought, that I had ever beheld. For it was
+older than any countenance I had ever looked upon. There was not a spot in
+which a wrinkle could lie, where a wrinkle lay not. And the skin was ancient
+and brown, like old parchment. The woman&rsquo;s form was tall and spare: and
+when she stood up to welcome me, I saw that she was straight as an arrow. Could
+that voice of sweetness have issued from those lips of age? Mild as they were,
+could they be the portals whence flowed such melody? But the moment I saw her
+eyes, I no longer wondered at her voice: they were absolutely young&mdash;those
+of a woman of five-and-twenty, large, and of a clear gray. Wrinkles had beset
+them all about; the eyelids themselves were old, and heavy, and worn; but the
+eyes were very incarnations of soft light. She held out her hand to me, and the
+voice of sweetness again greeted me, with the single word,
+&ldquo;Welcome.&rdquo; She set an old wooden chair for me, near the fire, and
+went on with her cooking. A wondrous sense of refuge and repose came upon me. I
+felt like a boy who has got home from school, miles across the hills, through a
+heavy storm of wind and snow. Almost, as I gazed on her, I sprang from my seat
+to kiss those old lips. And when, having finished her cooking, she brought some
+of the dish she had prepared, and set it on a little table by me, covered with
+a snow-white cloth, I could not help laying my head on her bosom, and bursting
+into happy tears. She put her arms round me, saying, &ldquo;Poor child; poor
+child!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I continued to weep, she gently disengaged herself, and, taking a spoon, put
+some of the food (I did not know what it was) to my lips, entreating me most
+endearingly to swallow it. To please her, I made an effort, and succeeded. She
+went on feeding me like a baby, with one arm round me, till I looked up in her
+face and smiled: then she gave me the spoon and told me to eat, for it would do
+me good. I obeyed her, and found myself wonderfully refreshed. Then she drew
+near the fire an old-fashioned couch that was in the cottage, and making me lie
+down upon it, sat at my feet, and began to sing. Amazing store of old ballads
+rippled from her lips, over the pebbles of ancient tunes; and the voice that
+sang was sweet as the voice of a tuneful maiden that singeth ever from very
+fulness of song. The songs were almost all sad, but with a sound of comfort.
+One I can faintly recall. It was something like this:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Sir Aglovaile through the churchyard rode;<br/>
+        <i>Sing, All alone I lie:</i><br/>
+Little recked he where&rsquo;er he yode,<br/>
+        <i>All alone, up in the sky</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Swerved his courser, and plunged with fear<br/>
+        <i>All alone I lie:</i><br/>
+His cry might have wakened the dead men near,<br/>
+        <i>All alone, up in the sky</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+The very dead that lay at his feet,<br/>
+Lapt in the mouldy winding-sheet.<br/>
+<br/>
+But he curbed him and spurred him, until he stood<br/>
+Still in his place, like a horse of wood,<br/>
+<br/>
+With nostrils uplift, and eyes wide and wan;<br/>
+But the sweat in streams from his fetlocks ran.<br/>
+<br/>
+A ghost grew out of the shadowy air,<br/>
+And sat in the midst of her moony hair.<br/>
+<br/>
+In her gleamy hair she sat and wept;<br/>
+In the dreamful moon they lay and slept;<br/>
+<br/>
+The shadows above, and the bodies below,<br/>
+Lay and slept in the moonbeams slow.<br/>
+<br/>
+And she sang, like the moan of an autumn wind<br/>
+Over the stubble left behind:<br/>
+<br/>
+<i>Alas, how easily things go wrong!<br/>
+A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,<br/>
+And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,<br/>
+And life is never the same again.<br/>
+<br/>
+Alas, how hardly things go right!<br/>
+&lsquo;Tis hard to watch on a summer night,<br/>
+For the sigh will come and the kiss will stay,<br/>
+And the summer night is a winter day.</i><br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Oh, lovely ghosts my heart is woes<br/>
+To see thee weeping and wailing so.<br/>
+<br/>
+Oh, lovely ghost,&rdquo; said the fearless knight,<br/>
+&ldquo;Can the sword of a warrior set it right?<br/>
+<br/>
+Or prayer of bedesman, praying mild,<br/>
+As a cup of water a feverish child,<br/>
+<br/>
+Sooth thee at last, in dreamless mood<br/>
+To sleep the sleep a dead lady should?<br/>
+<br/>
+Thine eyes they fill me with longing sore,<br/>
+As if I had known thee for evermore.<br/>
+<br/>
+Oh, lovely ghost, I could leave the day<br/>
+To sit with thee in the moon away<br/>
+<br/>
+If thou wouldst trust me, and lay thy head<br/>
+To rest on a bosom that is not dead.&rdquo;<br/>
+The lady sprang up with a strange ghost-cry,<br/>
+And she flung her white ghost-arms on high:<br/>
+<br/>
+And she laughed a laugh that was not gay,<br/>
+And it lengthened out till it died away;<br/>
+<br/>
+And the dead beneath turned and moaned,<br/>
+And the yew-trees above they shuddered and groaned.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Will he love me twice with a love that is vain?<br/>
+Will he kill the poor ghost yet again?<br/>
+<br/>
+I thought thou wert good; but I said, and wept:<br/>
+&lsquo;Can I have dreamed who have not slept?&rsquo; <br/>
+<br/>
+And I knew, alas! or ever I would,<br/>
+Whether I dreamed, or thou wert good.<br/>
+<br/>
+When my baby died, my brain grew wild.<br/>
+I awoke, and found I was with my child.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;If thou art the ghost of my Adelaide,<br/>
+How is it? Thou wert but a village maid,<br/>
+<br/>
+And thou seemest an angel lady white,<br/>
+Though thin, and wan, and past delight.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+The lady smiled a flickering smile,<br/>
+And she pressed her temples hard the while.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Thou seest that Death for a woman can<br/>
+Do more than knighthood for a man.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;But show me the child thou callest mine,<br/>
+Is she out to-night in the ghost&rsquo;s sunshine?&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;In St. Peter&rsquo;s Church she is playing on,<br/>
+At hide-and-seek, with Apostle John.<br/>
+<br/>
+When the moonbeams right through the window go,<br/>
+Where the twelve are standing in glorious show,<br/>
+<br/>
+She says the rest of them do not stir,<br/>
+But one comes down to play with her.<br/>
+<br/>
+Then I can go where I list, and weep,<br/>
+For good St. John my child will keep.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Thy beauty filleth the very air,<br/>
+Never saw I a woman so fair.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Come, if thou darest, and sit by my side;<br/>
+But do not touch me, or woe will betide.<br/>
+<br/>
+Alas, I am weak: I might well know<br/>
+This gladness betokens some further woe.<br/>
+<br/>
+Yet come. It will come. I will bear it. I can.<br/>
+For thou lovest me yet&mdash;though but as a man.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+The knight dismounted in earnest speed;<br/>
+Away through the tombstones thundered the steed,<br/>
+<br/>
+And fell by the outer wall, and died.<br/>
+But the knight he kneeled by the lady&rsquo;s side;<br/>
+<br/>
+Kneeled beside her in wondrous bliss,<br/>
+Rapt in an everlasting kiss:<br/>
+<br/>
+Though never his lips come the lady nigh,<br/>
+And his eyes alone on her beauty lie.<br/>
+<br/>
+All the night long, till the cock crew loud,<br/>
+He kneeled by the lady, lapt in her shroud.<br/>
+<br/>
+And what they said, I may not say:<br/>
+Dead night was sweeter than living day.<br/>
+<br/>
+How she made him so blissful glad<br/>
+Who made her and found her so ghostly sad,<br/>
+<br/>
+I may not tell; but it needs no touch<br/>
+To make them blessed who love so much.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Come every night, my ghost, to me;<br/>
+And one night I will come to thee.<br/>
+<br/>
+&lsquo;Tis good to have a ghostly wife:<br/>
+She will not tremble at clang of strife;<br/>
+<br/>
+She will only hearken, amid the din,<br/>
+Behind the door, if he cometh in.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+And this is how Sir Aglovaile<br/>
+Often walked in the moonlight pale.<br/>
+<br/>
+And oft when the crescent but thinned the gloom,<br/>
+Full orbed moonlight filled his room;<br/>
+<br/>
+And through beneath his chamber door,<br/>
+Fell a ghostly gleam on the outer floor;<br/>
+<br/>
+And they that passed, in fear averred<br/>
+That murmured words they often heard.<br/>
+<br/>
+&lsquo;Twas then that the eastern crescent shone<br/>
+Through the chancel window, and good St. John<br/>
+<br/>
+Played with the ghost-child all the night,<br/>
+And the mother was free till the morning light,<br/>
+<br/>
+And sped through the dawning night, to stay<br/>
+With Aglovaile till the break of day.<br/>
+<br/>
+And their love was a rapture, lone and high,<br/>
+And dumb as the moon in the topmost sky.<br/>
+<br/>
+One night Sir Aglovaile, weary, slept<br/>
+And dreamed a dream wherein he wept.<br/>
+<br/>
+A warrior he was, not often wept he,<br/>
+But this night he wept full bitterly.<br/>
+<br/>
+He woke&mdash;beside him the ghost-girl shone<br/>
+Out of the dark: &lsquo;twas the eve of St. John.<br/>
+<br/>
+He had dreamed a dream of a still, dark wood,<br/>
+Where the maiden of old beside him stood;<br/>
+<br/>
+But a mist came down, and caught her away,<br/>
+And he sought her in vain through the pathless day,<br/>
+<br/>
+Till he wept with the grief that can do no more,<br/>
+And thought he had dreamt the dream before.<br/>
+<br/>
+From bursting heart the weeping flowed on;<br/>
+And lo! beside him the ghost-girl shone;<br/>
+<br/>
+Shone like the light on a harbour&rsquo;s breast,<br/>
+Over the sea of his dream&rsquo;s unrest;<br/>
+<br/>
+Shone like the wondrous, nameless boon,<br/>
+That the heart seeks ever, night or noon:<br/>
+<br/>
+Warnings forgotten, when needed most,<br/>
+He clasped to his bosom the radiant ghost.<br/>
+<br/>
+She wailed aloud, and faded, and sank.<br/>
+With upturn&rsquo;d white face, cold and blank,<br/>
+<br/>
+In his arms lay the corpse of the maiden pale,<br/>
+And she came no more to Sir Aglovaile.<br/>
+<br/>
+Only a voice, when winds were wild,<br/>
+Sobbed and wailed like a chidden child.<br/>
+<br/>
+<i>Alas, how easily things go wrong!<br/>
+A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,<br/>
+And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,<br/>
+And life is never the same again.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was one of the simplest of her songs, which, perhaps, is the cause of my
+being able to remember it better than most of the others. While she sung, I was
+in Elysium, with the sense of a rich soul upholding, embracing, and overhanging
+mine, full of all plenty and bounty. I felt as if she could give me everything
+I wanted; as if I should never wish to leave her, but would be content to be
+sung to and fed by her, day after day, as years rolled by. At last I fell
+asleep while she sang.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I awoke, I knew not whether it was night or day. The fire had sunk to a
+few red embers, which just gave light enough to show me the woman standing a
+few feet from me, with her back towards me, facing the door by which I had
+entered. She was weeping, but very gently and plentifully. The tears seemed to
+come freely from her heart. Thus she stood for a few minutes; then, slowly
+turning at right angles to her former position, she faced another of the four
+sides of the cottage. I now observed, for the first time, that here was a door
+likewise; and that, indeed, there was one in the centre of every side of the
+cottage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When she looked towards the second door, her tears ceased to flow, but sighs
+took their place. She often closed her eyes as she stood; and every time she
+closed her eyes, a gentle sigh seemed to be born in her heart, and to escape at
+her lips. But when her eyes were open, her sighs were deep and very sad, and
+shook her whole frame. Then she turned towards the third door, and a cry as of
+fear or suppressed pain broke from her; but she seemed to hearten herself
+against the dismay, and to front it steadily; for, although I often heard a
+slight cry, and sometimes a moan, yet she never moved or bent her head, and I
+felt sure that her eyes never closed. Then she turned to the fourth door, and I
+saw her shudder, and then stand still as a statue; till at last she turned
+towards me and approached the fire. I saw that her face was white as death. But
+she gave one look upwards, and smiled the sweetest, most child-innocent smile;
+then heaped fresh wood on the fire, and, sitting down by the blaze, drew her
+wheel near her, and began to spin. While she spun, she murmured a low strange
+song, to which the hum of the wheel made a kind of infinite symphony. At length
+she paused in her spinning and singing, and glanced towards me, like a mother
+who looks whether or not her child gives signs of waking. She smiled when she
+saw that my eyes were open. I asked her whether it was day yet. She answered,
+&ldquo;It is always day here, so long as I keep my fire burning.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I felt wonderfully refreshed; and a great desire to see more of the island
+awoke within me. I rose, and saying that I wished to look about me, went
+towards the door by which I had entered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Stay a moment,&rdquo; said my hostess, with some trepidation in her
+voice. &ldquo;Listen to me. You will not see what you expect when you go out of
+that door. Only remember this: whenever you wish to come back to me, enter
+wherever you see this mark.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She held up her left hand between me and the fire. Upon the palm, which
+appeared almost transparent, I saw, in dark red, a mark like this &mdash;>
+which I took care to fix in my mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She then kissed me, and bade me good-bye with a solemnity that awed me; and
+bewildered me too, seeing I was only going out for a little ramble in an
+island, which I did not believe larger than could easily be compassed in a few
+hours&rsquo; walk at most. As I went she resumed her spinning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I opened the door, and stepped out. The moment my foot touched the smooth
+sward, I seemed to issue from the door of an old barn on my father&rsquo;s
+estate, where, in the hot afternoons, I used to go and lie amongst the straw,
+and read. It seemed to me now that I had been asleep there. At a little
+distance in the field, I saw two of my brothers at play. The moment they caught
+sight of me, they called out to me to come and join them, which I did; and we
+played together as we had done years ago, till the red sun went down in the
+west, and the gray fog began to rise from the river. Then we went home together
+with a strange happiness. As we went, we heard the continually renewed larum of
+a landrail in the long grass. One of my brothers and I separated to a little
+distance, and each commenced running towards the part whence the sound appeared
+to come, in the hope of approaching the spot where the bird was, and so getting
+at least a sight of it, if we should not be able to capture the little
+creature. My father&rsquo;s voice recalled us from trampling down the rich long
+grass, soon to be cut down and laid aside for the winter. I had quite forgotten
+all about Fairy Land, and the wonderful old woman, and the curious red mark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My favourite brother and I shared the same bed. Some childish dispute arose
+between us; and our last words, ere we fell asleep, were not of kindness,
+notwithstanding the pleasures of the day. When I woke in the morning, I missed
+him. He had risen early, and had gone to bathe in the river. In another hour,
+he was brought home drowned. Alas! alas! if we had only gone to sleep as usual,
+the one with his arm about the other! Amidst the horror of the moment, a
+strange conviction flashed across my mind, that I had gone through the very
+same once before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I rushed out of the house, I knew not why, sobbing and crying bitterly. I ran
+through the fields in aimless distress, till, passing the old barn, I caught
+sight of a red mark on the door. The merest trifles sometimes rivet the
+attention in the deepest misery; the intellect has so little to do with grief.
+I went up to look at this mark, which I did not remember ever to have seen
+before. As I looked at it, I thought I would go in and lie down amongst the
+straw, for I was very weary with running about and weeping. I opened the door;
+and there in the cottage sat the old woman as I had left her, at her
+spinning-wheel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I did not expect you quite so soon,&rdquo; she said, as I shut the door
+behind me. I went up to the couch, and threw myself on it with that fatigue
+wherewith one awakes from a feverish dream of hopeless grief.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The old woman sang:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+The great sun, benighted,<br/>
+    May faint from the sky;<br/>
+But love, once uplighted,<br/>
+    Will never more die.<br/>
+<br/>
+Form, with its brightness,<br/>
+    From eyes will depart:<br/>
+It walketh, in whiteness,<br/>
+    The halls of the heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ere she had ceased singing, my courage had returned. I started from the couch,
+and, without taking leave of the old woman, opened the door of Sighs, and
+sprang into what should appear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stood in a lordly hall, where, by a blazing fire on the hearth, sat a lady,
+waiting, I knew, for some one long desired. A mirror was near me, but I saw
+that my form had no place within its depths, so I feared not that I should be
+seen. The lady wonderfully resembled my marble lady, but was altogether of the
+daughters of men, and I could not tell whether or not it was she.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not for me she waited. The tramp of a great horse rang through the court
+without. It ceased, and the clang of armour told that his rider alighted, and
+the sound of his ringing heels approached the hall. The door opened; but the
+lady waited, for she would meet her lord alone. He strode in: she flew like a
+home-bound dove into his arms, and nestled on the hard steel. It was the knight
+of the soiled armour. But now the armour shone like polished glass; and strange
+to tell, though the mirror reflected not my form, I saw a dim shadow of myself
+in the shining steel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;O my beloved, thou art come, and I am blessed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her soft fingers speedily overcame the hard clasp of his helmet; one by one she
+undid the buckles of his armour; and she toiled under the weight of the mail,
+as she <i>would</i> carry it aside. Then she unclasped his greaves, and
+unbuckled his spurs; and once more she sprang into his arms, and laid her head
+where she could now feel the beating of his heart. Then she disengaged herself
+from his embrace, and, moving back a step or two, gazed at him. He stood there
+a mighty form, crowned with a noble head, where all sadness had disappeared, or
+had been absorbed in solemn purpose. Yet I suppose that he looked more
+thoughtful than the lady had expected to see him, for she did not renew her
+caresses, although his face glowed with love, and the few words he spoke were
+as mighty deeds for strength; but she led him towards the hearth, and seated
+him in an ancient chair, and set wine before him, and sat at his feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am sad,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;when I think of the youth whom I met
+twice in the forests of Fairy Land; and who, you say, twice, with his songs,
+roused you from the death-sleep of an evil enchantment. There was something
+noble in him, but it was a nobleness of thought, and not of deed. He may yet
+perish of vile fear.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; returned the lady, &ldquo;you saved him once, and for that I
+thank you; for may I not say that I somewhat loved him? But tell me how you
+fared, when you struck your battle-axe into the ash-tree, and he came and found
+you; for so much of the story you had told me, when the beggar-child came and
+took you away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As soon as I saw him,&rdquo; rejoined the knight, &ldquo;I knew that
+earthly arms availed not against such as he; and that my soul must meet him in
+its naked strength. So I unclasped my helm, and flung it on the ground; and,
+holding my good axe yet in my hand, gazed at him with steady eyes. On he came,
+a horror indeed, but I did not flinch. Endurance must conquer, where force
+could not reach. He came nearer and nearer, till the ghastly face was close to
+mine. A shudder as of death ran through me; but I think I did not move, for he
+seemed to quail, and retreated. As soon as he gave back, I struck one more
+sturdy blow on the stem of his tree, that the forest rang; and then looked at
+him again. He writhed and grinned with rage and apparent pain, and again
+approached me, but retreated sooner than before. I heeded him no more, but
+hewed with a will at the tree, till the trunk creaked, and the head bowed, and
+with a crash it fell to the earth. Then I looked up from my labour, and lo! the
+spectre had vanished, and I saw him no more; nor ever in my wanderings have I
+heard of him again.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well struck! well withstood! my hero,&rdquo; said the lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the knight, somewhat troubled, &ldquo;dost thou love
+the youth still?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she replied, &ldquo;how can I help it? He woke me from worse
+than death; he loved me. I had never been for thee, if he had not sought me
+first. But I love him not as I love thee. He was but the moon of my night; thou
+art the sun of my day, O beloved.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Thou art right,&rdquo; returned the noble man. &ldquo;It were hard,
+indeed, not to have some love in return for such a gift as he hath given thee.
+I, too, owe him more than words can speak.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Humbled before them, with an aching and desolate heart, I yet could not
+restrain my words:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let me, then, be the moon of thy night still, O woman! And when thy day
+is beclouded, as the fairest days will be, let some song of mine comfort thee,
+as an old, withered, half-forgotten thing, that belongs to an ancient mournful
+hour of uncompleted birth, which yet was beautiful in its time.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They sat silent, and I almost thought they were listening. The colour of the
+lady&rsquo;s eyes grew deeper and deeper; the slow tears grew, and filled them,
+and overflowed. They rose, and passed, hand in hand, close to where I stood;
+and each looked towards me in passing. Then they disappeared through a door
+which closed behind them; but, ere it closed, I saw that the room into which it
+opened was a rich chamber, hung with gorgeous arras. I stood with an ocean of
+sighs frozen in my bosom. I could remain no longer. She was near me, and I
+could not see her; near me in the arms of one loved better than I, and I would
+not see her, and I would not be by her. But how to escape from the nearness of
+the best beloved? I had not this time forgotten the mark; for the fact that I
+could not enter the sphere of these living beings kept me aware that, for me, I
+moved in a vision, while they moved in life. I looked all about for the mark,
+but could see it nowhere; for I avoided looking just where it was. There the
+dull red cipher glowed, on the very door of their secret chamber. Struck with
+agony, I dashed it open, and fell at the feet of the ancient woman, who still
+spun on, the whole dissolved ocean of my sighs bursting from me in a storm of
+tearless sobs. Whether I fainted or slept, I do not know; but, as I returned to
+consciousness, before I seemed to have power to move, I heard the woman
+singing, and could distinguish the words:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+O light of dead and of dying days!<br/>
+    O Love! in thy glory go,<br/>
+In a rosy mist and a moony maze,<br/>
+    O&rsquo;er the pathless peaks of snow.<br/>
+<br/>
+But what is left for the cold gray soul,<br/>
+    That moans like a wounded dove?<br/>
+One wine is left in the broken bowl!&mdash;<br/>
+    &lsquo;Tis&mdash;<i>To love, and love and love</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I could weep. When she saw me weeping, she sang:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Better to sit at the waters&rsquo; birth,<br/>
+    Than a sea of waves to win;<br/>
+To live in the love that floweth forth,<br/>
+    Than the love that cometh in.<br/>
+<br/>
+Be thy heart a well of love, my child,<br/>
+    Flowing, and free, and sure;<br/>
+For a cistern of love, though undefiled,<br/>
+    Keeps not the spirit pure.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+I rose from the earth, loving the white lady as I had never loved her before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I walked up to the door of Dismay, and opened it, and went out. And lo! I
+came forth upon a crowded street, where men and women went to and fro in
+multitudes. I knew it well; and, turning to one hand, walked sadly along the
+pavement. Suddenly I saw approaching me, a little way off, a form well known to
+me (<i>well-known!</i>&mdash;alas, how weak the word!) in the years when I
+thought my boyhood was left behind, and shortly before I entered the realm of
+Fairy Land. Wrong and Sorrow had gone together, hand-in-hand as it is well they
+do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unchangeably dear was that face. It lay in my heart as a child lies in its own
+white bed; but I could not meet her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Anything but that,&rdquo; I said, and, turning aside, sprang up the
+steps to a door, on which I fancied I saw the mystic sign. I entered&mdash;not
+the mysterious cottage, but her home. I rushed wildly on, and stood by the door
+of her room.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She is out,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I will see the old room once
+more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I opened the door gently, and stood in a great solemn church. A deep-toned
+bell, whose sounds throbbed and echoed and swam through the empty building,
+struck the hour of midnight. The moon shone through the windows of the
+clerestory, and enough of the ghostly radiance was diffused through the church
+to let me see, walking with a stately, yet somewhat trailing and stumbling
+step, down the opposite aisle, for I stood in one of the transepts, a figure
+dressed in a white robe, whether for the night, or for that longer night which
+lies too deep for the day, I could not tell. Was it she? and was this her
+chamber? I crossed the church, and followed. The figure stopped, seemed to
+ascend as it were a high bed, and lay down. I reached the place where it lay,
+glimmering white. The bed was a tomb. The light was too ghostly to see clearly,
+but I passed my hand over the face and the hands and the feet, which were all
+bare. They were cold&mdash;they were marble, but I knew them. It grew dark. I
+turned to retrace my steps, but found, ere long, that I had wandered into what
+seemed a little chapel. I groped about, seeking the door. Everything I touched
+belonged to the dead. My hands fell on the cold effigy of a knight who lay with
+his legs crossed and his sword broken beside him. He lay in his noble rest, and
+I lived on in ignoble strife. I felt for the left hand and a certain finger; I
+found there the ring I knew: he was one of my own ancestors. I was in the
+chapel over the burial-vault of my race. I called aloud: &ldquo;If any of the
+dead are moving here, let them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am still alive;
+and let some dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in the land of the
+dead, and see no light.&rdquo; A warm kiss alighted on my lips through the
+dark. And I said, &ldquo;The dead kiss well; I will not be afraid.&rdquo; And a
+great hand was reached out of the dark, and grasped mine for a moment, mightily
+and tenderly. I said to myself: &ldquo;The veil between, though very dark, is
+very thin.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Groping my way further, I stumbled over the heavy stone that covered the
+entrance of the vault: and, in stumbling, descried upon the stone the mark,
+glowing in red fire. I caught the great ring. All my effort could not have
+moved the huge slab; but it opened the door of the cottage, and I threw myself
+once more, pale and speechless, on the couch beside the ancient dame. She sang
+once more:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Thou dreamest: on a rock thou art,<br/>
+    High o&rsquo;er the broken wave;<br/>
+Thou fallest with a fearful start<br/>
+    But not into thy grave;<br/>
+For, waking in the morning&rsquo;s light,<br/>
+Thou smilest at the vanished night<br/>
+<br/>
+So wilt thou sink, all pale and dumb,<br/>
+    Into the fainting gloom;<br/>
+But ere the coming terrors come,<br/>
+    Thou wak&rsquo;st&mdash;where is the tomb?<br/>
+Thou wak&rsquo;st&mdash;the dead ones smile above,<br/>
+With hovering arms of sleepless love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She paused; then sang again:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+We weep for gladness, weep for grief;<br/>
+    The tears they are the same;<br/>
+We sigh for longing, and relief;<br/>
+    The sighs have but one name,<br/>
+<br/>
+And mingled in the dying strife,<br/>
+    Are moans that are not sad<br/>
+The pangs of death are throbs of life,<br/>
+    Its sighs are sometimes glad.<br/>
+<br/>
+The face is very strange and white:<br/>
+    It is Earth&rsquo;s only spot<br/>
+That feebly flickers back the light<br/>
+    The living seeth not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I fell asleep, and slept a dreamless sleep, for I know not how long. When I
+awoke, I found that my hostess had moved from where she had been sitting, and
+now sat between me and the fourth door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I guessed that her design was to prevent my entering there. I sprang from the
+couch, and darted past her to the door. I opened it at once and went out. All I
+remember is a cry of distress from the woman: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t go there, my
+child! Don&rsquo;t go there!&rdquo; But I was gone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I knew nothing more; or, if I did, I had forgot it all when I awoke to
+consciousness, lying on the floor of the cottage, with my head in the lap of
+the woman, who was weeping over me, and stroking my hair with both hands,
+talking to me as a mother might talk to a sick and sleeping, or a dead child.
+As soon as I looked up and saw her, she smiled through her tears; smiled with
+withered face and young eyes, till her countenance was irradiated with the
+light of the smile. Then she bathed my head and face and hands in an icy cold,
+colourless liquid, which smelt a little of damp earth. Immediately I was able
+to sit up. She rose and put some food before me. When I had eaten, she said:
+&ldquo;Listen to me, my child. You must leave me directly!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Leave you!&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I am so happy with you. I never was so
+happy in my life.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But you must go,&rdquo; she rejoined sadly. &ldquo;Listen! What do you
+hear?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I hear the sound as of a great throbbing of water.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! you do hear it? Well, I had to go through that door&mdash;the door
+of the Timeless&rdquo; (and she shuddered as she pointed to the fourth
+door)&mdash;&ldquo;to find you; for if I had not gone, you would never have
+entered again; and because I went, the waters around my cottage will rise and
+rise, and flow and come, till they build a great firmament of waters over my
+dwelling. But as long as I keep my fire burning, they cannot enter. I have fuel
+enough for years; and after one year they will sink away again, and be just as
+they were before you came. I have not been buried for a hundred years
+now.&rdquo; And she smiled and wept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Alas! alas!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;I have brought this evil on the best
+and kindest of friends, who has filled my heart with great gifts.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do not think of that,&rdquo; she rejoined. &ldquo;I can bear it very
+well. You will come back to me some day, I know. But I beg you, for my sake, my
+dear child, to do one thing. In whatever sorrow you may be, however
+inconsolable and irremediable it may appear, believe me that the old woman in
+the cottage, with the young eyes&rdquo; (and she smiled), &ldquo;knows
+something, though she must not always tell it, that would quite satisfy you
+about it, even in the worst moments of your distress. Now you must go.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But how can I go, if the waters are all about, and if the doors all lead
+into other regions and other worlds?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This is not an island,&rdquo; she replied; &ldquo;but is joined to the
+land by a narrow neck; and for the door, I will lead you myself through the
+right one.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She took my hand, and led me through the third door; whereupon I found myself
+standing in the deep grassy turf on which I had landed from the little boat,
+but upon the opposite side of the cottage. She pointed out the direction I must
+take, to find the isthmus and escape the rising waters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then putting her arms around me, she held me to her bosom; and as I kissed her,
+I felt as if I were leaving my mother for the first time, and could not help
+weeping bitterly. At length she gently pushed me away, and with the words,
+&ldquo;Go, my son, and do something worth doing,&rdquo; turned back, and,
+entering the cottage, closed the door behind her. I felt very desolate as I
+went.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Thou hadst no fame; that which thou didst like good<br/>
+Was but thy appetite that swayed thy blood<br/>
+For that time to the best; for as a blast<br/>
+That through a house comes, usually doth cast<br/>
+Things out of order, yet by chance may come<br/>
+And blow some one thing to his proper room,<br/>
+So did thy appetite, and not thy zeal,<br/>
+Sway thee by chance to do some one thing well.&rdquo;<br/>
+          F<small>LETCHER&rsquo;S</small> <i>Faithful Shepherdess</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;The noble hart that harbours vertuous thought<br/>
+And is with childe of glorious great intent,<br/>
+Can never rest, until it forth have brought<br/>
+Th&rsquo; eternall brood of glorie excellent.&rdquo;<br/>
+          S<small>PENSER</small>, <i>The Faerie Queene</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had not gone very far before I felt that the turf beneath my feet was soaked
+with the rising waters. But I reached the isthmus in safety. It was rocky, and
+so much higher than the level of the peninsula, that I had plenty of time to
+cross. I saw on each side of me the water rising rapidly, altogether without
+wind, or violent motion, or broken waves, but as if a slow strong fire were
+glowing beneath it. Ascending a steep acclivity, I found myself at last in an
+open, rocky country. After travelling for some hours, as nearly in a straight
+line as I could, I arrived at a lonely tower, built on the top of a little
+hill, which overlooked the whole neighbouring country. As I approached, I heard
+the clang of an anvil; and so rapid were the blows, that I despaired of making
+myself heard till a pause in the work should ensue. It was some minutes before
+a cessation took place; but when it did, I knocked loudly, and had not long to
+wait; for, a moment after, the door was partly opened by a noble-looking youth,
+half-undressed, glowing with heat, and begrimed with the blackness of the
+forge. In one hand he held a sword, so lately from the furnace that it yet
+shone with a dull fire. As soon as he saw me, he threw the door wide open, and
+standing aside, invited me very cordially to enter. I did so; when he shut and
+bolted the door most carefully, and then led the way inwards. He brought me
+into a rude hall, which seemed to occupy almost the whole of the ground floor
+of the little tower, and which I saw was now being used as a workshop. A huge
+fire roared on the hearth, beside which was an anvil. By the anvil stood, in
+similar undress, and in a waiting attitude, hammer in hand, a second youth,
+tall as the former, but far more slightly built. Reversing the usual course of
+perception in such meetings, I thought them, at first sight, very unlike; and
+at the second glance, knew that they were brothers. The former, and apparently
+the elder, was muscular and dark, with curling hair, and large hazel eyes,
+which sometimes grew wondrously soft. The second was slender and fair, yet with
+a countenance like an eagle, and an eye which, though pale blue, shone with an
+almost fierce expression. He stood erect, as if looking from a lofty mountain
+crag, over a vast plain outstretched below. As soon as we entered the hall, the
+elder turned to me, and I saw that a glow of satisfaction shone on both their
+faces. To my surprise and great pleasure, he addressed me thus:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Brother, will you sit by the fire and rest, till we finish this part of
+our work?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I signified my assent; and, resolved to await any disclosure they might be
+inclined to make, seated myself in silence near the hearth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The elder brother then laid the sword in the fire, covered it well over, and
+when it had attained a sufficient degree of heat, drew it out and laid it on
+the anvil, moving it carefully about, while the younger, with a succession of
+quick smart blows, appeared either to be welding it, or hammering one part of
+it to a consenting shape with the rest. Having finished, they laid it carefully
+in the fire; and, when it was very hot indeed, plunged it into a vessel full of
+some liquid, whence a blue flame sprang upwards, as the glowing steel entered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There they left it; and drawing two stools to the fire, sat down, one on each
+side of me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We are very glad to see you, brother. We have been expecting you for
+some days,&rdquo; said the dark-haired youth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I am proud to be called your brother,&rdquo; I rejoined; &ldquo;and you
+will not think I refuse the name, if I desire to know why you honour me with
+it?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! then he does not know about it,&rdquo; said the younger. &ldquo;We
+thought you had known of the bond betwixt us, and the work we have to do
+together. You must tell him, brother, from the first.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the elder began:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Our father is king of this country. Before we were born, three giant
+brothers had appeared in the land. No one knew exactly when, and no one had the
+least idea whence they came. They took possession of a ruined castle that had
+stood unchanged and unoccupied within the memory of any of the country people.
+The vaults of this castle had remained uninjured by time, and these, I presume,
+they made use of at first. They were rarely seen, and never offered the least
+injury to any one; so that they were regarded in the neighbourhood as at least
+perfectly harmless, if not rather benevolent beings. But it began to be
+observed, that the old castle had assumed somehow or other, no one knew when or
+how, a somewhat different look from what it used to have. Not only were several
+breaches in the lower part of the walls built up, but actually some of the
+battlements which yet stood, had been repaired, apparently to prevent them from
+falling into worse decay, while the more important parts were being restored.
+Of course, every one supposed the giants must have a hand in the work, but no
+one ever saw them engaged in it. The peasants became yet more uneasy, after
+one, who had concealed himself, and watched all night, in the neighbourhood of
+the castle, reported that he had seen, in full moonlight, the three huge giants
+working with might and main, all night long, restoring to their former position
+some massive stones, formerly steps of a grand turnpike stair, a great portion
+of which had long since fallen, along with part of the wall of the round tower
+in which it had been built. This wall they were completing, foot by foot, along
+with the stair. But the people said they had no just pretext for interfering:
+although the real reason for letting the giants alone was, that everybody was
+far too much afraid of them to interrupt them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At length, with the help of a neighbouring quarry, the whole of the
+external wall of the castle was finished. And now the country folks were in
+greater fear than before. But for several years the giants remained very
+peaceful. The reason of this was afterwards supposed to be the fact, that they
+were distantly related to several good people in the country; for, as long as
+these lived, they remained quiet; but as soon as they were all dead the real
+nature of the giants broke out. Having completed the outside of their castle,
+they proceeded, by spoiling the country houses around them, to make a quiet
+luxurious provision for their comfort within. Affairs reached such a pass, that
+the news of their robberies came to my father&rsquo;s ears; but he, alas! was
+so crippled in his resources, by a war he was carrying on with a neighbouring
+prince, that he could only spare a very few men, to attempt the capture of
+their stronghold. Upon these the giants issued in the night, and slew every man
+of them. And now, grown bolder by success and impunity, they no longer confined
+their depredations to property, but began to seize the persons of their
+distinguished neighbours, knights and ladies, and hold them in durance, the
+misery of which was heightened by all manner of indignity, until they were
+redeemed by their friends, at an exorbitant ransom. Many knights have
+adventured their overthrow, but to their own instead; for they have all been
+slain, or captured, or forced to make a hasty retreat. To crown their
+enormities, if any man now attempts their destruction, they, immediately upon
+his defeat, put one or more of their captives to a shameful death, on a turret
+in sight of all passers-by; so that they have been much less molested of late;
+and we, although we have burned, for years, to attack these demons and destroy
+them, dared not, for the sake of their captives, risk the adventure, before we
+should have reached at least our earliest manhood. Now, however, we are
+preparing for the attempt; and the grounds of this preparation are these.
+Having only the resolution, and not the experience necessary for the
+undertaking, we went and consulted a lonely woman of wisdom, who lives not very
+far from here, in the direction of the quarter from which you have come. She
+received us most kindly, and gave us what seems to us the best of advice. She
+first inquired what experience we had had in arms. We told her we had been well
+exercised from our boyhood, and for some years had kept ourselves in constant
+practice, with a view to this necessity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;But you have not actually fought for life and death?&rsquo; said
+she.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;We were forced to confess we had not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;So much the better in some respects,&rsquo; she replied.
+&lsquo;Now listen to me. Go first and work with an armourer, for as long time
+as you find needful to obtain a knowledge of his craft; which will not be long,
+seeing your hearts will be all in the work. Then go to some lonely tower, you
+two alone. Receive no visits from man or woman. There forge for yourselves
+every piece of armour that you wish to wear, or to use, in your coming
+encounter. And keep up your exercises. As, however, two of you can be no match
+for the three giants, I will find you, if I can, a third brother, who will take
+on himself the third share of the fight, and the preparation. Indeed, I have
+already seen one who will, I think, be the very man for your fellowship, but it
+will be some time before he comes to me. He is wandering now without an aim. I
+will show him to you in a glass, and, when he comes, you will know him at once.
+If he will share your endeavours, you must teach him all you know, and he will
+repay you well, in present song, and in future deeds.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She opened the door of a curious old cabinet that stood in the room. On
+the inside of this door was an oval convex mirror. Looking in it for some time,
+we at length saw reflected the place where we stood, and the old dame seated in
+her chair. Our forms were not reflected. But at the feet of the dame lay a
+young man, yourself, weeping.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Surely this youth will not serve our ends,&rsquo; said I,
+&lsquo;for he weeps.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The old woman smiled. &lsquo;Past tears are present strength,&rsquo;
+said she.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said my brother, &lsquo;I saw you weep once over an
+eagle you shot.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;That was because it was so like you, brother,&rsquo; I replied;
+&lsquo;but indeed, this youth may have better cause for tears than that&mdash;I
+was wrong.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Wait a while,&rsquo; said the woman; &lsquo;if I mistake not, he
+will make you weep till your tears are dry for ever. Tears are the only cure
+for weeping. And you may have need of the cure, before you go forth to fight
+the giants. You must wait for him, in your tower, till he comes.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now if you will join us, we will soon teach you to make your armour; and
+we will fight together, and work together, and love each other as never three
+loved before. And you will sing to us, will you not?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I will, when I can,&rdquo; I answered; &ldquo;but it is only at
+times that the power of song comes upon me. For that I must wait; but I have a
+feeling that if I work well, song will not be far off to enliven the
+labour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was all the compact made: the brothers required nothing more, and I did
+not think of giving anything more. I rose, and threw off my upper garments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I know the uses of the sword,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I am ashamed of my
+white hands beside yours so nobly soiled and hard; but that shame will soon be
+wiped away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, no; we will not work to-day. Rest is as needful as toil. Bring the
+wine, brother; it is your turn to serve to-day.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The younger brother soon covered a table with rough viands, but good wine; and
+we ate and drank heartily, beside our work. Before the meal was over, I had
+learned all their story. Each had something in his heart which made the
+conviction, that he would victoriously perish in the coming conflict, a real
+sorrow to him. Otherwise they thought they would have lived enough. The causes
+of their trouble were respectively these:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While they wrought with an armourer, in a city famed for workmanship in steel
+and silver, the elder had fallen in love with a lady as far beneath him in real
+rank, as she was above the station he had as apprentice to an armourer. Nor did
+he seek to further his suit by discovering himself; but there was simply so
+much manhood about him, that no one ever thought of rank when in his company.
+This is what his brother said about it. The lady could not help loving him in
+return. He told her when he left her, that he had a perilous adventure before
+him, and that when it was achieved, she would either see him return to claim
+her, or hear that he had died with honour. The younger brother&rsquo;s grief
+arose from the fact, that, if they were both slain, his old father, the king,
+would be childless. His love for his father was so exceeding, that to one
+unable to sympathise with it, it would have appeared extravagant. Both loved
+him equally at heart; but the love of the younger had been more developed,
+because his thoughts and anxieties had not been otherwise occupied. When at
+home, he had been his constant companion; and, of late, had ministered to the
+infirmities of his growing age. The youth was never weary of listening to the
+tales of his sire&rsquo;s youthful adventures; and had not yet in the smallest
+degree lost the conviction, that his father was the greatest man in the world.
+The grandest triumph possible to his conception was, to return to his father,
+laden with the spoils of one of the hated giants. But they both were in some
+dread, lest the thought of the loneliness of these two might occur to them, in
+the moment when decision was most necessary, and disturb, in some degree, the
+self-possession requisite for the success of their attempt. For, as I have
+said, they were yet untried in actual conflict. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; thought I,
+&ldquo;I see to what the powers of my gift must minister.&rdquo; For my own
+part, I did not dread death, for I had nothing to care to live for; but I
+dreaded the encounter because of the responsibility connected with it. I
+resolved however to work hard, and thus grow cool, and quick, and forceful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The time passed away in work and song, in talk and ramble, in friendly fight
+and brotherly aid. I would not forge for myself armour of heavy mail like
+theirs, for I was not so powerful as they, and depended more for any success I
+might secure, upon nimbleness of motion, certainty of eye, and ready response
+of hand. Therefore I began to make for myself a shirt of steel plates and
+rings; which work, while more troublesome, was better suited to me than the
+heavier labour. Much assistance did the brothers give me, even after, by their
+instructions, I was able to make some progress alone. Their work was in a
+moment abandoned, to render any required aid to mine. As the old woman had
+promised, I tried to repay them with song; and many were the tears they both
+shed over my ballads and dirges. The songs they liked best to hear were two
+which I made for them. They were not half so good as many others I knew,
+especially some I had learned from the wise woman in the cottage; but what
+comes nearest to our needs we like the best.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+I
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+The king sat on his throne<br/>
+    Glowing in gold and red;<br/>
+The crown in his right hand shone,<br/>
+    And the gray hairs crowned his head.<br/>
+<br/>
+His only son walks in,<br/>
+    And in walls of steel he stands:<br/>
+Make me, O father, strong to win,<br/>
+    With the blessing of holy hands.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+He knelt before his sire,<br/>
+    Who blessed him with feeble smile<br/>
+His eyes shone out with a kingly fire,<br/>
+    But his old lips quivered the while.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Go to the fight, my son,<br/>
+    Bring back the giant&rsquo;s head;<br/>
+And the crown with which my brows have done,<br/>
+    Shall glitter on thine instead.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;My father, I seek no crowns,<br/>
+    But unspoken praise from thee;<br/>
+For thy people&rsquo;s good, and thy renown,<br/>
+    I will die to set them free.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+The king sat down and waited there,<br/>
+    And rose not, night nor day;<br/>
+Till a sound of shouting filled the air,<br/>
+    And cries of a sore dismay.<br/>
+<br/>
+Then like a king he sat once more,<br/>
+    With the crown upon his head;<br/>
+And up to the throne the people bore<br/>
+    A mighty giant dead.<br/>
+<br/>
+And up to the throne the people bore<br/>
+    A pale and lifeless boy.<br/>
+The king rose up like a prophet of yore,<br/>
+    In a lofty, deathlike joy.<br/>
+<br/>
+He put the crown on the chilly brow:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Thou should&rsquo;st have reigned with me<br/>
+But Death is the king of both, and now<br/>
+    I go to obey with thee.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Surely some good in me there lay,<br/>
+    To beget the noble one.&rdquo;<br/>
+The old man smiled like a winter day,<br/>
+    And fell beside his son.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+II
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;O lady, thy lover is dead,&rdquo; they cried;<br/>
+    &ldquo;He is dead, but hath slain the foe;<br/>
+He hath left his name to be magnified<br/>
+    In a song of wonder and woe.&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Alas! I am well repaid,&rdquo; said she,<br/>
+    &ldquo;With a pain that stings like joy:<br/>
+For I feared, from his tenderness to me,<br/>
+    That he was but a feeble boy.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Now I shall hold my head on high,<br/>
+    The queen among my kind;<br/>
+If ye hear a sound, &lsquo;tis only a sigh<br/>
+    For a glory left behind.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first three times I sang these songs they both wept passionately. But after
+the third time, they wept no more. Their eyes shone, and their faces grew pale,
+but they never wept at any of my songs again.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap21"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;I put my life in my hands.&rdquo;<br/>
+          <i>The Book of Judges</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was finished. We armed
+each other, and tested the strength of the defence, with many blows of loving
+force. I was inferior in strength to both my brothers, but a little more agile
+than either; and upon this agility, joined to precision in hitting with the
+point of my weapon, I grounded my hopes of success in the ensuing combat. I
+likewise laboured to develop yet more the keenness of sight with which I was
+naturally gifted; and, from the remarks of my companions, I soon learned that
+my endeavours were not in vain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The morning arrived on which we had determined to make the attempt, and succeed
+or perish&mdash;perhaps both. We had resolved to fight on foot; knowing that
+the mishap of many of the knights who had made the attempt, had resulted from
+the fright of their horses at the appearance of the giants; and believing with
+Sir Gawain, that, though mare&rsquo;s sons might be false to us, the earth
+would never prove a traitor. But most of our preparations were, in their
+immediate aim at least, frustrated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We rose, that fatal morning, by daybreak. We had rested from all labour the day
+before, and now were fresh as the lark. We bathed in cold spring water, and
+dressed ourselves in clean garments, with a sense of preparation, as for a
+solemn festivity. When we had broken our fast, I took an old lyre, which I had
+found in the tower and had myself repaired, and sung for the last time the two
+ballads of which I have said so much already. I followed them with this, for a
+closing song:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Oh, well for him who breaks his dream<br/>
+    With the blow that ends the strife<br/>
+And, waking, knows the peace that flows<br/>
+    Around the pain of life!<br/>
+<br/>
+We are dead, my brothers! Our bodies clasp,<br/>
+    As an armour, our souls about;<br/>
+This hand is the battle-axe I grasp,<br/>
+    And this my hammer stout.<br/>
+<br/>
+Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead;<br/>
+    No noise can break our rest;<br/>
+The calm of the grave is about the head,<br/>
+    And the heart heaves not the breast.<br/>
+<br/>
+And our life we throw to our people back,<br/>
+    To live with, a further store;<br/>
+We leave it them, that there be no lack<br/>
+    In the land where we live no more.<br/>
+<br/>
+Oh, well for him who breaks his dream<br/>
+    With the blow that ends the strife<br/>
+And, waking, knows the peace that flows<br/>
+    Around the noise of life!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the last few tones of the instrument were following, like a dirge, the death
+of the song, we all sprang to our feet. For, through one of the little windows
+of the tower, towards which I had looked as I sang, I saw, suddenly rising over
+the edge of the slope on which our tower stood, three enormous heads. The
+brothers knew at once, by my looks, what caused my sudden movement. We were
+utterly unarmed, and there was no time to arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But we seemed to adopt the same resolution simultaneously; for each caught up
+his favourite weapon, and, leaving his defence behind, sprang to the door. I
+snatched up a long rapier, abruptly, but very finely pointed, in my sword-hand,
+and in the other a sabre; the elder brother seized his heavy battle-axe; and
+the younger, a great, two-handed sword, which he wielded in one hand like a
+feather. We had just time to get clear of the tower, embrace and say good-bye,
+and part to some little distance, that we might not encumber each other&rsquo;s
+motions, ere the triple giant-brotherhood drew near to attack us. They were
+about twice our height, and armed to the teeth. Through the visors of their
+helmets their monstrous eyes shone with a horrible ferocity. I was in the
+middle position, and the middle giant approached me. My eyes were busy with his
+armour, and I was not a moment in settling my mode of attack. I saw that his
+body-armour was somewhat clumsily made, and that the overlappings in the lower
+part had more play than necessary; and I hoped that, in a fortunate moment,
+some joint would open a little, in a visible and accessible part. I stood till
+he came near enough to aim a blow at me with the mace, which has been, in all
+ages, the favourite weapon of giants, when, of course, I leaped aside, and let
+the blow fall upon the spot where I had been standing. I expected this would
+strain the joints of his armour yet more. Full of fury, he made at me again;
+but I kept him busy, constantly eluding his blows, and hoping thus to fatigue
+him. He did not seem to fear any assault from me, and I attempted none as yet;
+but while I watched his motions in order to avoid his blows, I, at the same
+time, kept equal watch upon those joints of his armour, through some one of
+which I hoped to reach his life. At length, as if somewhat fatigued, he paused
+a moment, and drew himself slightly up; I bounded forward, foot and hand, ran
+my rapier right through to the armour of his back, let go the hilt, and passing
+under his right arm, turned as he fell, and flew at him with my sabre. At one
+happy blow I divided the band of his helmet, which fell off, and allowed me,
+with a second cut across the eyes, to blind him quite; after which I clove his
+head, and turned, uninjured, to see how my brothers had fared. Both the giants
+were down, but so were my brothers. I flew first to the one and then to the
+other couple. Both pairs of combatants were dead, and yet locked together, as
+in the death-struggle. The elder had buried his battle-axe in the body of his
+foe, and had fallen beneath him as he fell. The giant had strangled him in his
+own death-agonies. The younger had nearly hewn off the left leg of his enemy;
+and, grappled with in the act, had, while they rolled together on the earth,
+found for his dagger a passage betwixt the gorget and cuirass of the giant, and
+stabbed him mortally in the throat. The blood from the giant&rsquo;s throat was
+yet pouring over the hand of his foe, which still grasped the hilt of the
+dagger sheathed in the wound. They lay silent. I, the least worthy, remained
+the sole survivor in the lists.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I stood exhausted amidst the dead, after the first worthy deed of my life, I
+suddenly looked behind me, and there lay the Shadow, black in the sunshine. I
+went into the lonely tower, and there lay the useless armour of the noble
+youths&mdash;supine as they.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah, how sad it looked! It was a glorious death, but it was death. My songs
+could not comfort me now. I was almost ashamed that I was alive, when they, the
+true-hearted, were no more. And yet I breathed freer to think that I had gone
+through the trial, and had not failed. And perhaps I may be forgiven, if some
+feelings of pride arose in my bosom, when I looked down on the mighty form that
+lay dead by my hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;After all, however,&rdquo; I said to myself, and my heart sank,
+&ldquo;it was only skill. Your giant was but a blunderer.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I left the bodies of friends and foes, peaceful enough when the death-fight was
+over, and, hastening to the country below, roused the peasants. They came with
+shouting and gladness, bringing waggons to carry the bodies. I resolved to take
+the princes home to their father, each as he lay, in the arms of his
+country&rsquo;s foe. But first I searched the giants, and found the keys of
+their castle, to which I repaired, followed by a great company of the people.
+It was a place of wonderful strength. I released the prisoners, knights and
+ladies, all in a sad condition, from the cruelties and neglects of the giants.
+It humbled me to see them crowding round me with thanks, when in truth the
+glorious brothers, lying dead by their lonely tower, were those to whom the
+thanks belonged. I had but aided in carrying out the thought born in their
+brain, and uttered in visible form before ever I laid hold thereupon. Yet I did
+count myself happy to have been chosen for their brother in this great deed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a few hours spent in refreshing and clothing the prisoners, we all
+commenced our journey towards the capital. This was slow at first; but, as the
+strength and spirits of the prisoners returned, it became more rapid; and in
+three days we reached the palace of the king. As we entered the city gates,
+with the huge bulks lying each on a waggon drawn by horses, and two of them
+inextricably intertwined with the dead bodies of their princes, the people
+raised a shout and then a cry, and followed in multitudes the solemn
+procession.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will not attempt to describe the behaviour of the grand old king. Joy and
+pride in his sons overcame his sorrow at their loss. On me he heaped every
+kindness that heart could devise or hand execute. He used to sit and question
+me, night after night, about everything that was in any way connected with them
+and their preparations. Our mode of life, and relation to each other, during
+the time we spent together, was a constant theme. He entered into the minutest
+details of the construction of the armour, even to a peculiar mode of riveting
+some of the plates, with unwearying interest. This armour I had intended to beg
+of the king, as my sole memorials of the contest; but, when I saw the delight
+he took in contemplating it, and the consolation it appeared to afford him in
+his sorrow, I could not ask for it; but, at his request, left my own, weapons
+and all, to be joined with theirs in a trophy, erected in the grand square of
+the palace. The king, with gorgeous ceremony, dubbed me knight with his own old
+hand, in which trembled the sword of his youth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the short time I remained, my company was, naturally, much courted by
+the young nobles. I was in a constant round of gaiety and diversion,
+notwithstanding that the court was in mourning. For the country was so rejoiced
+at the death of the giants, and so many of their lost friends had been restored
+to the nobility and men of wealth, that the gladness surpassed the grief.
+&ldquo;Ye have indeed left your lives to your people, my great brothers!&rdquo;
+I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I was ever and ever haunted by the old shadow, which I had not seen all the
+time that I was at work in the tower. Even in the society of the ladies of the
+court, who seemed to think it only their duty to make my stay there as pleasant
+to me as possible, I could not help being conscious of its presence, although
+it might not be annoying me at the time. At length, somewhat weary of
+uninterrupted pleasure, and nowise strengthened thereby, either in body or
+mind, I put on a splendid suit of armour of steel inlaid with silver, which the
+old king had given me, and, mounting the horse on which it had been brought to
+me, took my leave of the palace, to visit the distant city in which the lady
+dwelt, whom the elder prince had loved. I anticipated a sore task, in conveying
+to her the news of his glorious fate: but this trial was spared me, in a manner
+as strange as anything that had happened to me in Fairy Land.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap22"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;No one has my form but the <i>I</i>.&rdquo;<br/>
+          <i>Schoppe</i>, in J<small>EAN</small> P<small>AUL&rsquo;S</small> <i>Titan</i>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Joy&rsquo;s a subtil elf.<br/>
+I think man&rsquo;s happiest when he forgets himself.&rdquo;<br/>
+          C<small>YRIL</small> T<small>OURNEUR</small>, <i>The Revenger&rsquo;s Tragedy</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the third day of my journey, I was riding gently along a road, apparently
+little frequented, to judge from the grass that grew upon it. I was approaching
+a forest. Everywhere in Fairy Land forests are the places where one may most
+certainly expect adventures. As I drew near, a youth, unarmed, gentle, and
+beautiful, who had just cut a branch from a yew growing on the skirts of the
+wood, evidently to make himself a bow, met me, and thus accosted me:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Sir knight, be careful as thou ridest through this forest; for it is
+said to be strangely enchanted, in a sort which even those who have been
+witnesses of its enchantment can hardly describe.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thanked him for his advice, which I promised to follow, and rode on. But the
+moment I entered the wood, it seemed to me that, if enchantment there was, it
+must be of a good kind; for the Shadow, which had been more than usually dark
+and distressing, since I had set out on this journey, suddenly disappeared. I
+felt a wonderful elevation of spirits, and began to reflect on my past life,
+and especially on my combat with the giants, with such satisfaction, that I had
+actually to remind myself, that I had only killed one of them; and that, but
+for the brothers, I should never have had the idea of attacking them, not to
+mention the smallest power of standing to it. Still I rejoiced, and counted
+myself amongst the glorious knights of old; having even the unspeakable
+presumption&mdash;my shame and self-condemnation at the memory of it are such,
+that I write it as the only and sorest penance I can perform&mdash;to think of
+myself (will the world believe it?) as side by side with Sir Galahad! Scarcely
+had the thought been born in my mind, when, approaching me from the left,
+through the trees, I espied a resplendent knight, of mighty size, whose armour
+seemed to shine of itself, without the sun. When he drew near, I was astonished
+to see that this armour was like my own; nay, I could trace, line for line, the
+correspondence of the inlaid silver to the device on my own. His horse, too,
+was like mine in colour, form, and motion; save that, like his rider, he was
+greater and fiercer than his counterpart. The knight rode with beaver up. As he
+halted right opposite to me in the narrow path, barring my way, I saw the
+reflection of my countenance in the centre plate of shining steel on his
+breastplate. Above it rose the same face&mdash;his face&mdash;only, as I have
+said, larger and fiercer. I was bewildered. I could not help feeling some
+admiration of him, but it was mingled with a dim conviction that he was evil,
+and that I ought to fight with him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let me pass,&rdquo; I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;When I will,&rdquo; he replied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Something within me said: &ldquo;Spear in rest, and ride at him! else thou art
+for ever a slave.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I tried, but my arm trembled so much, that I could not couch my lance. To tell
+the truth, I, who had overcome the giant, shook like a coward before this
+knight. He gave a scornful laugh, that echoed through the wood, turned his
+horse, and said, without looking round, &ldquo;Follow me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I obeyed, abashed and stupefied. How long he led, and how long I followed, I
+cannot tell. &ldquo;I never knew misery before,&rdquo; I said to myself.
+&ldquo;Would that I had at least struck him, and had had my death-blow in
+return! Why, then, do I not call to him to wheel and defend himself? Alas! I
+know not why, but I cannot. One look from him would cow me like a beaten
+hound.&rdquo; I followed, and was silent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At length we came to a dreary square tower, in the middle of a dense forest. It
+looked as if scarce a tree had been cut down to make room for it. Across the
+very door, diagonally, grew the stem of a tree, so large that there was just
+room to squeeze past it in order to enter. One miserable square hole in the
+roof was the only visible suggestion of a window. Turret or battlement, or
+projecting masonry of any kind, it had none. Clear and smooth and massy, it
+rose from its base, and ended with a line straight and unbroken. The roof,
+carried to a centre from each of the four walls, rose slightly to the point
+where the rafters met. Round the base lay several little heaps of either bits
+of broken branches, withered and peeled, or half-whitened bones; I could not
+distinguish which. As I approached, the ground sounded hollow beneath my
+horse&rsquo;s hoofs. The knight took a great key from his pocket, and reaching
+past the stem of the tree, with some difficulty opened the door.
+&ldquo;Dismount,&rdquo; he commanded. I obeyed. He turned my horse&rsquo;s head
+away from the tower, gave him a terrible blow with the flat side of his sword,
+and sent him madly tearing through the forest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;enter, and take your companion with
+you.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked round: knight and horse had vanished, and behind me lay the horrible
+shadow. I entered, for I could not help myself; and the shadow followed me. I
+had a terrible conviction that the knight and he were one. The door closed
+behind me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I was indeed in pitiful plight. There was literally nothing in the tower
+but my shadow and me. The walls rose right up to the roof; in which, as I had
+seen from without, there was one little square opening. This I now knew to be
+the only window the tower possessed. I sat down on the floor, in listless
+wretchedness. I think I must have fallen asleep, and have slept for hours; for
+I suddenly became aware of existence, in observing that the moon was shining
+through the hole in the roof. As she rose higher and higher, her light crept
+down the wall over me, till at last it shone right upon my head.
+Instantaneously the walls of the tower seemed to vanish away like a mist. I sat
+beneath a beech, on the edge of a forest, and the open country lay, in the
+moonlight, for miles and miles around me, spotted with glimmering houses and
+spires and towers. I thought with myself, &ldquo;Oh, joy! it was only a dream;
+the horrible narrow waste is gone, and I wake beneath a beech-tree, perhaps one
+that loves me, and I can go where I will.&rdquo; I rose, as I thought, and
+walked about, and did what I would, but ever kept near the tree; for always,
+and, of course, since my meeting with the woman of the beech-tree far more than
+ever, I loved that tree. So the night wore on. I waited for the sun to rise,
+before I could venture to renew my journey. But as soon as the first faint
+light of the dawn appeared, instead of shining upon me from the eye of the
+morning, it stole like a fainting ghost through the little square hole above my
+head; and the walls came out as the light grew, and the glorious night was
+swallowed up of the hateful day. The long dreary day passed. My shadow lay
+black on the floor. I felt no hunger, no need of food. The night came. The moon
+shone. I watched her light slowly descending the wall, as I might have watched,
+adown the sky, the long, swift approach of a helping angel. Her rays touched
+me, and I was free. Thus night after night passed away. I should have died but
+for this. Every night the conviction returned, that I was free. Every morning I
+sat wretchedly disconsolate. At length, when the course of the moon no longer
+permitted her beams to touch me, the night was dreary as the day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I slept, I was somewhat consoled by my dreams; but all the time I dreamed,
+I knew that I was only dreaming. But one night, at length, the moon, a mere
+shred of pallor, scattered a few thin ghostly rays upon me; and I think I fell
+asleep and dreamed. I sat in an autumn night before the vintage, on a hill
+overlooking my own castle. My heart sprang with joy. Oh, to be a child again,
+innocent, fearless, without shame or desire! I walked down to the castle. All
+were in consternation at my absence. My sisters were weeping for my loss. They
+sprang up and clung to me, with incoherent cries, as I entered. My old friends
+came flocking round me. A gray light shone on the roof of the hall. It was the
+light of the dawn shining through the square window of my tower. More earnestly
+than ever, I longed for freedom after this dream; more drearily than ever,
+crept on the next wretched day. I measured by the sunbeams, caught through the
+little window in the trap of my tower, how it went by, waiting only for the
+dreams of the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About noon, I started as if something foreign to all my senses and all my
+experience, had suddenly invaded me; yet it was only the voice of a woman
+singing. My whole frame quivered with joy, surprise, and the sensation of the
+unforeseen. Like a living soul, like an incarnation of Nature, the song entered
+my prison-house. Each tone folded its wings, and laid itself, like a caressing
+bird, upon my heart. It bathed me like a sea; inwrapt me like an odorous
+vapour; entered my soul like a long draught of clear spring-water; shone upon
+me like essential sunlight; soothed me like a mother&rsquo;s voice and hand.
+Yet, as the clearest forest-well tastes sometimes of the bitterness of decayed
+leaves, so to my weary, prisoned heart, its cheerfulness had a sting of cold,
+and its tenderness unmanned me with the faintness of long-departed joys. I wept
+half-bitterly, half-luxuriously; but not long. I dashed away the tears, ashamed
+of a weakness which I thought I had abandoned. Ere I knew, I had walked to the
+door, and seated myself with my ears against it, in order to catch every
+syllable of the revelation from the unseen outer world. And now I heard each
+word distinctly. The singer seemed to be standing or sitting near the tower,
+for the sounds indicated no change of place. The song was something like this:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+The sun, like a golden knot on high,<br/>
+Gathers the glories of the sky,<br/>
+And binds them into a shining tent,<br/>
+Roofing the world with the firmament.<br/>
+And through the pavilion the rich winds blow,<br/>
+And through the pavilion the waters go.<br/>
+And the birds for joy, and the trees for prayer,<br/>
+Bowing their heads in the sunny air,<br/>
+And for thoughts, the gently talking springs,<br/>
+That come from the centre with secret things&mdash;<br/>
+All make a music, gentle and strong,<br/>
+Bound by the heart into one sweet song.<br/>
+And amidst them all, the mother Earth<br/>
+Sits with the children of her birth;<br/>
+She tendeth them all, as a mother hen<br/>
+Her little ones round her, twelve or ten:<br/>
+Oft she sitteth, with hands on knee,<br/>
+Idle with love for her family.<br/>
+Go forth to her from the dark and the dust,<br/>
+And weep beside her, if weep thou must;<br/>
+If she may not hold thee to her breast,<br/>
+Like a weary infant, that cries for rest<br/>
+At least she will press thee to her knee,<br/>
+And tell a low, sweet tale to thee,<br/>
+Till the hue to thy cheeky and the light to thine eye,<br/>
+Strength to thy limbs, and courage high<br/>
+To thy fainting heart, return amain,<br/>
+And away to work thou goest again.<br/>
+From the narrow desert, O man of pride,<br/>
+Come into the house, so high and wide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hardly knowing what I did, I opened the door. Why had I not done so before? I
+do not know.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first I could see no one; but when I had forced myself past the tree which
+grew across the entrance, I saw, seated on the ground, and leaning against the
+tree, with her back to my prison, a beautiful woman. Her countenance seemed
+known to me, and yet unknown. She looked at me and smiled, when I made my
+appearance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! were you the prisoner there? I am very glad I have wiled you
+out.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you know me then?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Do you not know me? But you hurt me, and that, I suppose, makes it easy
+for a man to forget. You broke my globe. Yet I thank you. Perhaps I owe you
+many thanks for breaking it. I took the pieces, all black, and wet with crying
+over them, to the Fairy Queen. There was no music and no light in them now. But
+she took them from me, and laid them aside; and made me go to sleep in a great
+hall of white, with black pillars, and many red curtains. When I woke in the
+morning, I went to her, hoping to have my globe again, whole and sound; but she
+sent me away without it, and I have not seen it since. Nor do I care for it
+now. I have something so much better. I do not need the globe to play to me;
+for I can sing. I could not sing at all before. Now I go about everywhere
+through Fairy Land, singing till my heart is like to break, just like my globe,
+for very joy at my own songs. And wherever I go, my songs do good, and deliver
+people. And now I have delivered you, and I am so happy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She ceased, and the tears came into her eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All this time, I had been gazing at her; and now fully recognised the face of
+the child, glorified in the countenance of the woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was ashamed and humbled before her; but a great weight was lifted from my
+thoughts. I knelt before her, and thanked her, and begged her to forgive me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Rise, rise,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I have nothing to forgive; I thank
+you. But now I must be gone, for I do not know how many may be waiting for me,
+here and there, through the dark forests; and they cannot come out till I
+come.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She rose, and with a smile and a farewell, turned and left me. I dared not ask
+her to stay; in fact, I could hardly speak to her. Between her and me, there
+was a great gulf. She was uplifted, by sorrow and well-doing, into a region I
+could hardly hope ever to enter. I watched her departure, as one watches a
+sunset. She went like a radiance through the dark wood, which was henceforth
+bright to me, from simply knowing that such a creature was in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was bearing the sun to the unsunned spots. The light and the music of her
+broken globe were now in her heart and her brain. As she went, she sang; and I
+caught these few words of her song; and the tones seemed to linger and wind
+about the trees after she had disappeared:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Thou goest thine, and I go mine&mdash;<br/>
+    Many ways we wend;<br/>
+Many days, and many ways,<br/>
+    Ending in one end.<br/>
+<br/>
+Many a wrong, and its curing song;<br/>
+    Many a road, and many an inn;<br/>
+Room to roam, but only one home<br/>
+    For all the world to win.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so she vanished. With a sad heart, soothed by humility, and the knowledge
+of her peace and gladness, I bethought me what now I should do. First, I must
+leave the tower far behind me, lest, in some evil moment, I might be once more
+caged within its horrible walls. But it was ill walking in my heavy armour; and
+besides I had now no right to the golden spurs and the resplendent mail, fitly
+dulled with long neglect. I might do for a squire; but I honoured knighthood
+too highly, to call myself any longer one of the noble brotherhood. I stripped
+off all my armour, piled it under the tree, just where the lady had been
+seated, and took my unknown way, eastward through the woods. Of all my weapons,
+I carried only a short axe in my hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to myself, &ldquo;I am
+what I am, nothing more.&rdquo; &ldquo;I have failed,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I
+have lost myself&mdash;would it had been my shadow.&rdquo; I looked round: the
+shadow was nowhere to be seen. Ere long, I learned that it was not myself, but
+only my shadow, that I had lost. I learned that it is better, a thousand-fold,
+for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride
+and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a
+man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his
+manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or dimmed, or grown less precious; I
+only saw it too plainly, to set myself for a moment beside it. Indeed, my ideal
+soon became my life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt
+to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal. Now,
+however, I took, at first, what perhaps was a mistaken pleasure, in despising
+and degrading myself. Another self seemed to arise, like a white spirit from a
+dead man, from the dumb and trampled self of the past. Doubtless, this self
+must again die and be buried, and again, from its tomb, spring a winged child;
+but of this my history as yet bears not the record.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Self will come to life even in the slaying of self; but there is ever something
+deeper and stronger than it, which will emerge at last from the unknown abysses
+of the soul: will it be as a solemn gloom, burning with eyes? or a clear
+morning after the rain? or a smiling child, that finds itself nowhere, and
+everywhere?
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap23"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;High erected thought, seated in a heart of courtesy.&rdquo;<br/>
+          S<small>IR</small> P<small>HILIP</small> S<small>IDNEY</small>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;A sweet attractive kinde of grace,<br/>
+    A full assurance given by lookes,<br/>
+Continuall comfort in a face,<br/>
+    The lineaments of Gospel bookes.&rdquo;<br/>
+          M<small>ATTHEW</small> R<small>OYDON</small>, on Sir Philip Sidney.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had not gone far, for I had but just lost sight of the hated tower, when a
+voice of another sort, sounding near or far, as the trees permitted or
+intercepted its passage, reached me. It was a full, deep, manly voice, but
+withal clear and melodious. Now it burst on the ear with a sudden swell, and
+anon, dying away as suddenly, seemed to come to me across a great space.
+Nevertheless, it drew nearer; till, at last, I could distinguish the words of
+the song, and get transient glimpses of the singer, between the columns of the
+trees. He came nearer, dawning upon me like a growing thought. He was a knight,
+armed from head to heel, mounted upon a strange-looking beast, whose form I
+could not understand. The words which I heard him sing were like these:
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Heart be stout,<br/>
+    And eye be true;<br/>
+Good blade out!<br/>
+    And ill shall rue.<br/>
+<br/>
+Courage, horse!<br/>
+    Thou lackst no skill;<br/>
+Well thy force<br/>
+    Hath matched my will.<br/>
+<br/>
+For the foe<br/>
+    With fiery breath,<br/>
+At a blow,<br/>
+    Is still in death.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gently, horse!<br/>
+    Tread fearlessly;<br/>
+&lsquo;Tis his corse<br/>
+    That burdens thee.<br/>
+<br/>
+The sun&rsquo;s eye<br/>
+    Is fierce at noon;<br/>
+Thou and I<br/>
+    Will rest full soon.<br/>
+<br/>
+And new strength<br/>
+    New work will meet;<br/>
+Till, at length,<br/>
+    Long rest is sweet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now horse and rider had arrived near enough for me to see, fastened by the
+long neck to the hinder part of the saddle, and trailing its hideous length on
+the ground behind, the body of a great dragon. It was no wonder that, with such
+a drag at his heels, the horse could make but slow progress, notwithstanding
+his evident dismay. The horrid, serpent-like head, with its black tongue,
+forked with red, hanging out of its jaws, dangled against the horse&rsquo;s
+side. Its neck was covered with long blue hair, its sides with scales of green
+and gold. Its back was of corrugated skin, of a purple hue. Its belly was
+similar in nature, but its colour was leaden, dashed with blotches of livid
+blue. Its skinny, bat-like wings and its tail were of a dull gray. It was
+strange to see how so many gorgeous colours, so many curving lines, and such
+beautiful things as wings and hair and scales, combined to form the horrible
+creature, intense in ugliness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The knight was passing me with a salutation; but, as I walked towards him, he
+reined up, and I stood by his stirrup. When I came near him, I saw to my
+surprise and pleasure likewise, although a sudden pain, like a birth of fire,
+sprang up in my heart, that it was the knight of the soiled armour, whom I knew
+before, and whom I had seen in the vision, with the lady of the marble. But I
+could have thrown my arms around him, because she loved him. This discovery
+only strengthened the resolution I had formed, before I recognised him, of
+offering myself to the knight, to wait upon him as a squire, for he seemed to
+be unattended. I made my request in as few words as possible. He hesitated for
+a moment, and looked at me thoughtfully. I saw that he suspected who I was, but
+that he continued uncertain of his suspicion. No doubt he was soon convinced of
+its truth; but all the time I was with him, not a word crossed his lips with
+reference to what he evidently concluded I wished to leave unnoticed, if not to
+keep concealed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Squire and knight should be friends,&rdquo; said he: &ldquo;can you take
+me by the hand?&rdquo; And he held out the great gauntleted right hand. I
+grasped it willingly and strongly. Not a word more was said. The knight gave
+the sign to his horse, which again began his slow march, and I walked beside
+and a little behind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had not gone very far before we arrived at a little cottage; from which, as
+we drew near, a woman rushed out with the cry:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My child! my child! have you found my child?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have found her,&rdquo; replied the knight, &ldquo;but she is sorely
+hurt. I was forced to leave her with the hermit, as I returned. You will find
+her there, and I think she will get better. You see I have brought you a
+present. This wretch will not hurt you again.&rdquo; And he undid the
+creature&rsquo;s neck, and flung the frightful burden down by the cottage door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The woman was now almost out of sight in the wood; but the husband stood at the
+door, with speechless thanks in his face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You must bury the monster,&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;If I had
+arrived a moment later, I should have been too late. But now you need not fear,
+for such a creature as this very rarely appears, in the same part, twice during
+a lifetime.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you not dismount and rest you, Sir Knight?&rdquo; said the peasant,
+who had, by this time, recovered himself a little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I will, thankfully,&rdquo; said he; and, dismounting, he gave the
+reins to me, and told me to unbridle the horse, and lead him into the shade.
+&ldquo;You need not tie him up,&rdquo; he added; &ldquo;he will not run
+away.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I returned, after obeying his orders, and entered the cottage, I saw the
+knight seated, without his helmet, and talking most familiarly with the simple
+host. I stood at the open door for a moment, and, gazing at him, inwardly
+justified the white lady in preferring him to me. A nobler countenance I never
+saw. Loving-kindness beamed from every line of his face. It seemed as if he
+would repay himself for the late arduous combat, by indulging in all the
+gentleness of a womanly heart. But when the talk ceased for a moment, he seemed
+to fall into a reverie. Then the exquisite curves of the upper lip vanished.
+The lip was lengthened and compressed at the same moment. You could have told
+that, within the lips, the teeth were firmly closed. The whole face grew stern
+and determined, all but fierce; only the eyes burned on like a holy sacrifice,
+uplift on a granite rock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The woman entered, with her mangled child in her arms. She was pale as her
+little burden. She gazed, with a wild love and despairing tenderness, on the
+still, all but dead face, white and clear from loss of blood and terror.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The knight rose. The light that had been confined to his eyes, now shone from
+his whole countenance. He took the little thing in his arms, and, with the
+mother&rsquo;s help, undressed her, and looked to her wounds. The tears flowed
+down his face as he did so. With tender hands he bound them up, kissed the pale
+cheek, and gave her back to her mother. When he went home, all his tale would
+be of the grief and joy of the parents; while to me, who had looked on, the
+gracious countenance of the armed man, beaming from the panoply of steel, over
+the seemingly dead child, while the powerful hands turned it and shifted it,
+and bound it, if possible even more gently than the mother&rsquo;s, formed the
+centre of the story.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After we had partaken of the best they could give us, the knight took his
+leave, with a few parting instructions to the mother as to how she should treat
+the child.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I brought the knight his steed, held the stirrup while he mounted, and then
+followed him through the wood. The horse, delighted to be free of his hideous
+load, bounded beneath the weight of man and armour, and could hardly be
+restrained from galloping on. But the knight made him time his powers to mine,
+and so we went on for an hour or two. Then the knight dismounted, and compelled
+me to get into the saddle, saying: &ldquo;Knight and squire must share the
+labour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Holding by the stirrup, he walked along by my side, heavily clad as he was,
+with apparent ease. As we went, he led a conversation, in which I took what
+humble part my sense of my condition would permit me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Somehow or other,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;notwithstanding the beauty of
+this country of Faerie, in which we are, there is much that is wrong in it. If
+there are great splendours, there are corresponding horrors; heights and
+depths; beautiful women and awful fiends; noble men and weaklings. All a man
+has to do, is to better what he can. And if he will settle it with himself,
+that even renown and success are in themselves of no great value, and be
+content to be defeated, if so be that the fault is not his; and so go to his
+work with a cool brain and a strong will, he will get it done; and fare none
+the worse in the end, that he was not burdened with provision and
+precaution.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But he will not always come off well,&rdquo; I ventured to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Perhaps not,&rdquo; rejoined the knight, &ldquo;in the individual act;
+but the result of his lifetime will content him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So it will fare with you, doubtless,&rdquo; thought I; &ldquo;but for
+me&mdash;-&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Venturing to resume the conversation after a pause, I said, hesitatingly:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;May I ask for what the little beggar-girl wanted your aid, when she came
+to your castle to find you?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I cannot help wondering how you know of that; but there is something
+about you quite strange enough to entitle you to the privilege of the country;
+namely, to go unquestioned. I, however, being only a man, such as you see me,
+am ready to tell you anything you like to ask me, as far as I can. The little
+beggar-girl came into the hall where I was sitting, and told me a very curious
+story, which I can only recollect very vaguely, it was so peculiar. What I can
+recall is, that she was sent to gather wings. As soon as she had gathered a
+pair of wings for herself, she was to fly away, she said, to the country she
+came from; but where that was, she could give no information.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;She said she had to beg her wings from the butterflies and moths; and
+wherever she begged, no one refused her. But she needed a great many of the
+wings of butterflies and moths to make a pair for her; and so she had to wander
+about day after day, looking for butterflies, and night after night, looking
+for moths; and then she begged for their wings. But the day before, she had
+come into a part of the forest, she said, where there were multitudes of
+splendid butterflies flitting about, with wings which were just fit to make the
+eyes in the shoulders of hers; and she knew she could have as many of them as
+she liked for the asking; but as soon as she began to beg, there came a great
+creature right up to her, and threw her down, and walked over her. When she got
+up, she saw the wood was full of these beings stalking about, and seeming to
+have nothing to do with each other. As soon as ever she began to beg, one of
+them walked over her; till at last in dismay, and in growing horror of the
+senseless creatures, she had run away to look for somebody to help her. I asked
+her what they were like. She said, like great men, made of wood, without
+knee-or elbow-joints, and without any noses or mouths or eyes in their faces. I
+laughed at the little maiden, thinking she was making child&rsquo;s game of me;
+but, although she burst out laughing too, she persisted in asserting the truth
+of her story.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;Only come, knight, come and see; I will lead you.&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;So I armed myself, to be ready for anything that might happen, and
+followed the child; for, though I could make nothing of her story, I could see
+she was a little human being in need of some help or other. As she walked
+before me, I looked attentively at her. Whether or not it was from being so
+often knocked down and walked over, I could not tell, but her clothes were very
+much torn, and in several places her white skin was peeping through. I thought
+she was hump-backed; but on looking more closely, I saw, through the tatters of
+her frock&mdash;do not laugh at me&mdash;a bunch on each shoulder, of the most
+gorgeous colours. Looking yet more closely, I saw that they were of the shape
+of folded wings, and were made of all kinds of butterfly-wings and moth-wings,
+crowded together like the feathers on the individual butterfly pinion; but,
+like them, most beautifully arranged, and producing a perfect harmony of colour
+and shade. I could now more easily believe the rest of her story; especially as
+I saw, every now and then, a certain heaving motion in the wings, as if they
+longed to be uplifted and outspread. But beneath her scanty garments complete
+wings could not be concealed, and indeed, from her own story, they were yet
+unfinished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;After walking for two or three hours (how the little girl found her way,
+I could not imagine), we came to a part of the forest, the very air of which
+was quivering with the motions of multitudes of resplendent butterflies; as
+gorgeous in colour, as if the eyes of peacocks&rsquo; feathers had taken to
+flight, but of infinite variety of hue and form, only that the appearance of
+some kind of eye on each wing predominated. &lsquo;There they are, there they
+are!&rsquo; cried the child, in a tone of victory mingled with terror. Except
+for this tone, I should have thought she referred to the butterflies, for I
+could see nothing else. But at that moment an enormous butterfly, whose wings
+had great eyes of blue surrounded by confused cloudy heaps of more dingy
+colouring, just like a break in the clouds on a stormy day towards evening,
+settled near us. The child instantly began murmuring: &lsquo;Butterfly,
+butterfly, give me your wings&rsquo;; when, the moment after, she fell to the
+ground, and began crying as if hurt. I drew my sword and heaved a great blow in
+the direction in which the child had fallen. It struck something, and instantly
+the most grotesque imitation of a man became visible. You see this Fairy Land
+is full of oddities and all sorts of incredibly ridiculous things, which a man
+is compelled to meet and treat as real existences, although all the time he
+feels foolish for doing so. This being, if being it could be called, was like a
+block of wood roughly hewn into the mere outlines of a man; and hardly so, for
+it had but head, body, legs, and arms&mdash;the head without a face, and the
+limbs utterly formless. I had hewn off one of its legs, but the two portions
+moved on as best they could, quite independent of each other; so that I had
+done no good. I ran after it, and clove it in twain from the head downwards;
+but it could not be convinced that its vocation was not to walk over people;
+for, as soon as the little girl began her begging again, all three parts came
+bustling up; and if I had not interposed my weight between her and them, she
+would have been trampled again under them. I saw that something else must be
+done. If the wood was full of the creatures, it would be an endless work to
+chop them so small that they could do no injury; and then, besides, the parts
+would be so numerous, that the butterflies would be in danger from the drift of
+flying chips. I served this one so, however; and then told the girl to beg
+again, and point out the direction in which one was coming. I was glad to find,
+however, that I could now see him myself, and wondered how they could have been
+invisible before. I would not allow him to walk over the child; but while I
+kept him off, and she began begging again, another appeared; and it was all I
+could do, from the weight of my armour, to protect her from the stupid,
+persevering efforts of the two. But suddenly the right plan occurred to me. I
+tripped one of them up, and, taking him by the legs, set him up on his head,
+with his heels against a tree. I was delighted to find he could not move.
+Meantime the poor child was walked over by the other, but it was for the last
+time. Whenever one appeared, I followed the same plan&mdash;tripped him up and
+set him on his head; and so the little beggar was able to gather her wings
+without any trouble, which occupation she continued for several hours in my
+company.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What became of her?&rdquo; I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I took her home with me to my castle, and she told me all her story; but
+it seemed to me, all the time, as if I were hearing a child talk in its sleep.
+I could not arrange her story in my mind at all, although it seemed to leave
+hers in some certain order of its own. My wife&mdash;-&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here the knight checked himself, and said no more. Neither did I urge the
+conversation farther.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus we journeyed for several days, resting at night in such shelter as we
+could get; and when no better was to be had, lying in the forest under some
+tree, on a couch of old leaves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I loved the knight more and more. I believe never squire served his master with
+more care and joyfulness than I. I tended his horse; I cleaned his armour; my
+skill in the craft enabled me to repair it when necessary; I watched his needs;
+and was well repaid for all by the love itself which I bore him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;This,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;is a true man. I will serve him,
+and give him all worship, seeing in him the imbodiment of what I would fain
+become. If I cannot be noble myself, I will yet be servant to his
+nobleness.&rdquo; He, in return, soon showed me such signs of friendship and
+respect, as made my heart glad; and I felt that, after all, mine would be no
+lost life, if I might wait on him to the world&rsquo;s end, although no smile
+but his should greet me, and no one but him should say, &ldquo;Well done! he
+was a good servant!&rdquo; at last. But I burned to do something more for him
+than the ordinary routine of a squire&rsquo;s duty permitted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One afternoon, we began to observe an appearance of roads in the wood. Branches
+had been cut down, and openings made, where footsteps had worn no path below.
+These indications increased as we passed on, till, at length, we came into a
+long, narrow avenue, formed by felling the trees in its line, as the remaining
+roots evidenced. At some little distance, on both hands, we observed signs of
+similar avenues, which appeared to converge with ours, towards one spot. Along
+these we indistinctly saw several forms moving, which seemed, with ourselves,
+to approach the common centre. Our path brought us, at last, up to a wall of
+yew-trees, growing close together, and intertwining their branches so, that
+nothing could be seen beyond it. An opening was cut in it like a door, and all
+the wall was trimmed smooth and perpendicular. The knight dismounted, and
+waited till I had provided for his horse&rsquo;s comfort; upon which we entered
+the place together.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a great space, bare of trees, and enclosed by four walls of yew, similar
+to that through which we had entered. These trees grew to a very great height,
+and did not divide from each other till close to the top, where their summits
+formed a row of conical battlements all around the walls. The space contained
+was a parallelogram of great length. Along each of the two longer sides of the
+interior, were ranged three ranks of men, in white robes, standing silent and
+solemn, each with a sword by his side, although the rest of his costume and
+bearing was more priestly than soldierly. For some distance inwards, the space
+between these opposite rows was filled with a company of men and women and
+children, in holiday attire. The looks of all were directed inwards, towards
+the further end. Far beyond the crowd, in a long avenue, seeming to narrow in
+the distance, went the long rows of the white-robed men. On what the attention
+of the multitude was fixed, we could not tell, for the sun had set before we
+arrived, and it was growing dark within. It grew darker and darker. The
+multitude waited in silence. The stars began to shine down into the enclosure,
+and they grew brighter and larger every moment. A wind arose, and swayed the
+pinnacles of the tree-tops; and made a strange sound, half like music, half
+like moaning, through the close branches and leaves of the tree-walls. A young
+girl who stood beside me, clothed in the same dress as the priests, bowed her
+head, and grew pale with awe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The knight whispered to me, &ldquo;How solemn it is! Surely they wait to hear
+the voice of a prophet. There is something good near!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I, though somewhat shaken by the feeling expressed by my master, yet had an
+unaccountable conviction that here was something bad. So I resolved to be
+keenly on the watch for what should follow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suddenly a great star, like a sun, appeared high in the air over the temple,
+illuminating it throughout; and a great song arose from the men in white, which
+went rolling round and round the building, now receding to the end, and now
+approaching, down the other side, the place where we stood. For some of the
+singers were regularly ceasing, and the next to them as regularly taking up the
+song, so that it crept onwards with gradations produced by changes which could
+not themselves be detected, for only a few of those who were singing ceased at
+the same moment. The song paused; and I saw a company of six of the white-robed
+men walk up the centre of the human avenue, surrounding a youth gorgeously
+attired beneath his robe of white, and wearing a chaplet of flowers on his
+head. I followed them closely, with my keenest observation; and, by
+accompanying their slow progress with my eyes, I was able to perceive more
+clearly what took place when they arrived at the other end. I knew that my
+sight was so much more keen than that of most people, that I had good reason to
+suppose I should see more than the rest could, at such a distance. At the
+farther end a throne stood upon a platform, high above the heads of the
+surrounding priests. To this platform I saw the company begin to ascend,
+apparently by an inclined plane or gentle slope. The throne itself was elevated
+again, on a kind of square pedestal, to the top of which led a flight of steps.
+On the throne sat a majestic-looking figure, whose posture seemed to indicate a
+mixture of pride and benignity, as he looked down on the multitude below. The
+company ascended to the foot of the throne, where they all kneeled for some
+minutes; then they rose and passed round to the side of the pedestal upon which
+the throne stood. Here they crowded close behind the youth, putting him in the
+foremost place, and one of them opened a door in the pedestal, for the youth to
+enter. I was sure I saw him shrink back, and those crowding behind pushed him
+in. Then, again, arose a burst of song from the multitude in white, which
+lasted some time. When it ceased, a new company of seven commenced its march up
+the centre. As they advanced, I looked up at my master: his noble countenance
+was full of reverence and awe. Incapable of evil himself, he could scarcely
+suspect it in another, much less in a multitude such as this, and surrounded
+with such appearances of solemnity. I was certain it was the really grand
+accompaniments that overcame him; that the stars overhead, the dark towering
+tops of the yew-trees, and the wind that, like an unseen spirit, sighed through
+their branches, bowed his spirit to the belief, that in all these ceremonies
+lay some great mystical meaning which, his humility told him, his ignorance
+prevented him from understanding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+More convinced than before, that there was evil here, I could not endure that
+my master should be deceived; that one like him, so pure and noble, should
+respect what, if my suspicions were true, was worse than the ordinary
+deceptions of priestcraft. I could not tell how far he might be led to
+countenance, and otherwise support their doings, before he should find cause to
+repent bitterly of his error. I watched the new procession yet more keenly, if
+possible, than the former. This time, the central figure was a girl; and, at
+the close, I observed, yet more indubitably, the shrinking back, and the
+crowding push. What happened to the victims, I never learned; but I had learned
+enough, and I could bear it no longer. I stooped, and whispered to the young
+girl who stood by me, to lend me her white garment. I wanted it, that I might
+not be entirely out of keeping with the solemnity, but might have at least this
+help to passing unquestioned. She looked up, half-amused and half-bewildered,
+as if doubting whether I was in earnest or not. But in her perplexity, she
+permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it down from her shoulders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in the crowd, I
+rose apparently in the habit of one of the worshippers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the return of her
+stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed, and, if it was a man that sat
+upon the throne, to attack him with hands bare, as I supposed his must be, I
+made my way through the crowd to the front, while the singing yet continued,
+desirous of reaching the platform while it was unoccupied by any of the
+priests. I was permitted to walk up the long avenue of white robes unmolested,
+though I saw questioning looks in many of the faces as I passed. I presume my
+coolness aided my passage; for I felt quite indifferent as to my own fate; not
+feeling, after the late events of my history, that I was at all worth taking
+care of; and enjoying, perhaps, something of an evil satisfaction, in the
+revenge I was thus taking upon the self which had fooled me so long. When I
+arrived on the platform, the song had just ceased, and I felt as if all were
+looking towards me. But instead of kneeling at its foot, I walked right up the
+stairs to the throne, laid hold of a great wooden image that seemed to sit upon
+it, and tried to hurl it from its seat. In this I failed at first, for I found
+it firmly fixed. But in dread lest, the first shock of amazement passing away,
+the guards would rush upon me before I had effected my purpose, I strained with
+all my might; and, with a noise as of the cracking, and breaking, and tearing
+of rotten wood, something gave way, and I hurled the image down the steps. Its
+displacement revealed a great hole in the throne, like the hollow of a decayed
+tree, going down apparently a great way. But I had no time to examine it, for,
+as I looked into it, up out of it rushed a great brute, like a wolf, but twice
+the size, and tumbled me headlong with itself, down the steps of the throne. As
+we fell, however, I caught it by the throat, and the moment we reached the
+platform, a struggle commenced, in which I soon got uppermost, with my hand
+upon its throat, and knee upon its heart. But now arose a wild cry of wrath and
+revenge and rescue. A universal hiss of steel, as every sword was swept from
+its scabbard, seemed to tear the very air in shreds. I heard the rush of
+hundreds towards the platform on which I knelt. I only tightened my grasp of
+the brute&rsquo;s throat. His eyes were already starting from his head, and his
+tongue was hanging out. My anxious hope was, that, even after they had killed
+me, they would be unable to undo my gripe of his throat, before the monster was
+past breathing. I therefore threw all my will, and force, and purpose, into the
+grasping hand. I remember no blow. A faintness came over me, and my
+consciousness departed.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap24"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;We are ne&rsquo;er like angels till our passions die.&rdquo;<br/>
+          D<small>ECKAR</small>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;This wretched <i>Inn</i>, where we scarce stay to bait,<br/>
+        We call our <i>Dwelling-Place</i>:<br/>
+        We call one <i>Step a Race</i>:<br/>
+But angels in their full enlightened state,<br/>
+Angels, who <i>Live</i>, and know what &lsquo;tis to <i>Be</i>,<br/>
+Who all the nonsense of our language see,<br/>
+Who speak <i>things</i>, and our <i>words</i>, their ill-drawn <i>pictures</i>, scorn,<br/>
+    When we, by a foolish figure, say,<br/>
+    <i>Behold an old man dead!</i> then they<br/>
+Speak properly, and cry, <i>Behold a man-child born!</i>&rdquo;<br/>
+          C<small>OWLEY</small>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was dead, and right content. I lay in my coffin, with my hands folded in
+peace. The knight, and the lady I loved, wept over me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her tears fell on my face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said the knight, &ldquo;I rushed amongst them like a madman.
+I hewed them down like brushwood. Their swords battered on me like hail, but
+hurt me not. I cut a lane through to my friend. He was dead. But he had
+throttled the monster, and I had to cut the handful out of its throat, before I
+could disengage and carry off his body. They dared not molest me as I brought
+him back.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He has died well,&rdquo; said the lady.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My spirit rejoiced. They left me to my repose. I felt as if a cool hand had
+been laid upon my heart, and had stilled it. My soul was like a summer evening,
+after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet glistening on the trees in
+the last rays of the down-going sun, and the wind of the twilight has begun to
+blow. The hot fever of life had gone by, and I breathed the clear mountain-air
+of the land of Death. I had never dreamed of such blessedness. It was not that
+I had in any way ceased to be what I had been. The very fact that anything can
+die, implies the existence of something that cannot die; which must either take
+to itself another form, as when the seed that is sown dies, and arises again;
+or, in conscious existence, may, perhaps, continue to lead a purely spiritual
+life. If my passions were dead, the souls of the passions, those essential
+mysteries of the spirit which had imbodied themselves in the passions, and had
+given to them all their glory and wonderment, yet lived, yet glowed, with a
+pure, undying fire. They rose above their vanishing earthly garments, and
+disclosed themselves angels of light. But oh, how beautiful beyond the old
+form! I lay thus for a time, and lived as it were an unradiating existence; my
+soul a motionless lake, that received all things and gave nothing back;
+satisfied in still contemplation, and spiritual consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ere long, they bore me to my grave. Never tired child lay down in his white
+bed, and heard the sound of his playthings being laid aside for the night, with
+a more luxurious satisfaction of repose than I knew, when I felt the coffin
+settle on the firm earth, and heard the sound of the falling mould upon its
+lid. It has not the same hollow rattle within the coffin, that it sends up to
+the edge of the grave. They buried me in no graveyard. They loved me too much
+for that, I thank them; but they laid me in the grounds of their own castle,
+amid many trees; where, as it was spring-time, were growing primroses, and
+blue-bells, and all the families of the woods
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now that I lay in her bosom, the whole earth, and each of her many births, was
+as a body to me, at my will. I seemed to feel the great heart of the mother
+beating into mine, and feeding me with her own life, her own essential being
+and nature. I heard the footsteps of my friends above, and they sent a thrill
+through my heart. I knew that the helpers had gone, and that the knight and the
+lady remained, and spoke low, gentle, tearful words of him who lay beneath the
+yet wounded sod. I rose into a single large primrose that grew by the edge of
+the grave, and from the window of its humble, trusting face, looked full in the
+countenance of the lady. I felt that I could manifest myself in the primrose;
+that it said a part of what I wanted to say; just as in the old time, I had
+used to betake myself to a song for the same end. The flower caught her eye.
+She stooped and plucked it, saying, &ldquo;Oh, you beautiful creature!&rdquo;
+and, lightly kissing it, put it in her bosom. It was the first kiss she had
+ever given me. But the flower soon began to wither, and I forsook it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was evening. The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet
+illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I arose, I
+reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with it in sight of
+the sinking sun. He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but the grayness touched not
+my heart. It carried its rose-hue within; for now I could love without needing
+to be loved again. The moon came gliding up with all the past in her wan face.
+She changed my couch into a ghostly pallor, and threw all the earth below as to
+the bottom of a pale sea of dreams. But she could not make me sad. I knew now,
+that it is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the
+soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and
+not the being loved by each other, that originates and perfects and assures
+their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any
+soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to
+that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in proportion as
+selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power which springs therefrom
+dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return. All true love will, one
+day, behold its own image in the eyes of the beloved, and be humbly glad. This
+is possible in the realms of lofty Death. &ldquo;Ah! my friends,&rdquo; thought
+I, &ldquo;how I will tend you, and wait upon you, and haunt you with my
+love.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My floating chariot bore me over a great city. Its faint dull sound steamed up
+into the air&mdash;a sound&mdash;how composed? &ldquo;How many hopeless
+cries,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;and how many mad shouts go to make up the
+tumult, here so faint where I float in eternal peace, knowing that they will
+one day be stilled in the surrounding calm, and that despair dies into infinite
+hope, and the seeming impossible there, is the law here!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But, O pale-faced women, and gloomy-browed men, and forgotten children,
+how I will wait on you, and minister to you, and, putting my arms about you in
+the dark, think hope into your hearts, when you fancy no one is near! Soon as
+my senses have all come back, and have grown accustomed to this new blessed
+life, I will be among you with the love that healeth.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this, a pang and a terrible shudder went through me; a writhing as of
+death convulsed me; and I became once again conscious of a more limited, even a
+bodily and earthly life.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap25"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps
+will.&rdquo;<br/>
+          N<small>OVALIS</small>.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;And on the ground, which is my modres gate,<br/>
+I knocke with my staf; erlich and late,<br/>
+And say to hire, Leve mother, let me in.&rdquo;<br/>
+          C<small>HAUCER</small>, <i>The Pardoneres Tale</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sinking from such a state of ideal bliss, into the world of shadows which again
+closed around and infolded me, my first dread was, not unnaturally, that my own
+shadow had found me again, and that my torture had commenced anew. It was a sad
+revulsion of feeling. This, indeed, seemed to correspond to what we think death
+is, before we die. Yet I felt within me a power of calm endurance to which I
+had hitherto been a stranger. For, in truth, that I should be able if only to
+think such things as I had been thinking, was an unspeakable delight. An hour
+of such peace made the turmoil of a lifetime worth striving through.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I found myself lying in the open air, in the early morning, before sunrise.
+Over me rose the summer heaven, expectant of the sun. The clouds already saw
+him, coming from afar; and soon every dewdrop would rejoice in his individual
+presence within it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I lay motionless for a few minutes; and then slowly rose and looked about me. I
+was on the summit of a little hill; a valley lay beneath, and a range of
+mountains closed up the view upon that side. But, to my horror, across the
+valley, and up the height of the opposing mountains, stretched, from my very
+feet, a hugely expanding shade. There it lay, long and large, dark and mighty.
+I turned away with a sick despair; when lo! I beheld the sun just lifting his
+head above the eastern hill, and the shadow that fell from me, lay only where
+his beams fell not. I danced for joy. It was only the natural shadow, that goes
+with every man who walks in the sun. As he arose, higher and higher, the
+shadow-head sank down the side of the opposite hill, and crept in across the
+valley towards my feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now that I was so joyously delivered from this fear, I saw and recognised the
+country around me. In the valley below, lay my own castle, and the haunts of my
+childhood were all about me hastened home. My sisters received me with
+unspeakable joy; but I suppose they observed some change in me, for a kind of
+respect, with a slight touch of awe in it, mingled with their joy, and made me
+ashamed. They had been in great distress about me. On the morning of my
+disappearance, they had found the floor of my room flooded; and, all that day,
+a wondrous and nearly impervious mist had hung about the castle and grounds. I
+had been gone, they told me, twenty-one days. To me it seemed twenty-one years.
+Nor could I yet feel quite secure in my new experiences. When, at night, I lay
+down once more in my own bed, I did not feel at all sure that when I awoke, I
+should not find myself in some mysterious region of Fairy Land. My dreams were
+incessant and perturbed; but when I did awake, I saw clearly that I was in my
+own home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My mind soon grew calm; and I began the duties of my new position, somewhat
+instructed, I hoped, by the adventures that had befallen me in Fairy Land.
+Could I translate the experience of my travels there, into common life? This
+was the question. Or must I live it all over again, and learn it all over
+again, in the other forms that belong to the world of men, whose experience yet
+runs parallel to that of Fairy Land? These questions I cannot answer yet. But I
+fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even yet, I find myself looking round sometimes with anxiety, to see whether my
+shadow falls right away from the sun or no. I have never yet discovered any
+inclination to either side. And if I am not unfrequently sad, I yet cast no
+more of a shade on the earth, than most men who have lived in it as long as I.
+I have a strange feeling sometimes, that I am a ghost, sent into the world to
+minister to my fellow men, or, rather, to repair the wrongs I have already
+done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+May the world be brighter for me, at least in those portions of it, where my
+darkness falls not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus I, who set out to find my Ideal, came back rejoicing that I had lost my
+Shadow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the thought of the blessedness I experienced, after my death in Fairy
+Land, is too high for me to lay hold upon it and hope in it, I often think of
+the wise woman in the cottage, and of her solemn assurance that she knew
+something too good to be told. When I am oppressed by any sorrow or real
+perplexity, I often feel as if I had only left her cottage for a time, and
+would soon return out of the vision, into it again. Sometimes, on such
+occasions, I find myself, unconsciously almost, looking about for the mystic
+mark of red, with the vague hope of entering her door, and being comforted by
+her wise tenderness. I then console myself by saying: &ldquo;I have come
+through the door of Dismay; and the way back from the world into which that has
+led me, is through my tomb. Upon that the red sign lies, and I shall find it
+one day, and be glad.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will end my story with the relation of an incident which befell me a few days
+ago. I had been with my reapers, and, when they ceased their work at noon, I
+had lain down under the shadow of a great, ancient beech-tree, that stood on
+the edge of the field. As I lay, with my eyes closed, I began to listen to the
+sound of the leaves overhead. At first, they made sweet inarticulate music
+alone; but, by-and-by, the sound seemed to begin to take shape, and to be
+gradually moulding itself into words; till, at last, I seemed able to
+distinguish these, half-dissolved in a little ocean of circumfluent tones:
+&ldquo;A great good is coming&mdash;is coming&mdash;is coming to thee,
+Anodos;&rdquo; and so over and over again. I fancied that the sound reminded me
+of the voice of the ancient woman, in the cottage that was four-square. I
+opened my eyes, and, for a moment, almost believed that I saw her face, with
+its many wrinkles and its young eyes, looking at me from between two hoary
+branches of the beech overhead. But when I looked more keenly, I saw only twigs
+and leaves, and the infinite sky, in tiny spots, gazing through between. Yet I
+know that good is coming to me&mdash;that good is always coming; though few
+have at all times the simplicity and the courage to believe it. What we call
+evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person and his condition at
+the time, could be assumed by the best good. And so, <i>Farewell</i>.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
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diff --git a/325-h/images/cover.jpg b/325-h/images/cover.jpg
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #325 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/325)
diff --git a/old/325-8.txt b/old/325-8.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Phantastes, by George MacDonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Phantastes
+       A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
+
+Author: George MacDonald
+
+Release Date: July 8, 2008 [EBook #325]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PHANTASTES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mike Lough
+
+
+
+
+
+PHANTASTES
+
+A FAERIE ROMANCE FOR MEN AND WOMEN
+
+
+By George Macdonald
+
+
+A new Edition, with thirty-three new Illustrations by Arthur Hughes;
+edited by Greville MacDonald
+
+
+     "In good sooth, my masters, this is no door.
+      Yet is it a little window, that looketh upon a great world."
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  THE MEETING OF SIR GALAHAD AND SIX PERCIVALE
+  SUDDENLY THERE STOOD ON THE THRESHOLD A TINY WOMAN-FORM
+  THE BRANCHES AND LEAVES ON THE CURTAINS OF MY BED WERE IN MOTION
+  I SAW A COUNTRY MAIDEN COMING TOWARDS ME
+  TAILPIECE TO CHAPTER III
+  HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER IV
+  TWO LARGE SOFT ARMS WERE THROWN AROUND ME FROM BEHIND
+  I GAZED AFTER HER IN A KIND OF DESPAIR
+  I FOUND MYSELF IN A LITTLE CAVE
+  THE ASH SHUDDERED AND GROANED
+  TAILPIECE TO CHAPTER VI
+  I COULD HARDLY BELIEVE THAT THERE WAS A FAIRY LAND
+  I DID NOT BELIEVE IN FAIRY LAND
+  A RUNNER WITH GHOSTLY FEET
+  THE MAIDEN CAME ALONG, SINGING AND DANCING,HAPPY AS A CHILD
+  THE GOBLINS PERFORMED THE MOST ANTIC HOMAGE
+  THE FAIRY PALACE IN THE MOONLIGHT
+  TOO DAZZLING FOR EARTHLY EYES
+  IN THE WOODS AND ALONG THE RIVER BANKS DO THE MAIDENS GO LOOKING
+       FOR CHILDREN
+  SHE LAY WITH CLOSED EYES, WHENCE TWO TEARS WERE FAST WELLING
+  HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER XIV
+  I SPRANG TO HER, AND LAID MY HAND ON THE HARP
+  A WHITE FIGURE GLEAMED PAST ME, WRINGING HER HANDS
+  THEY ALL RUSHED UPON ME, AND HELD ME TIGHT
+  A WINTRY SEA, BARE, AND WASTE, AND GRAY
+  SHOW ME THE CHILD THOU CALLEST MINE
+  THE TIME PASSED AWAY IN WORK AND SONG
+  HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER XXI
+  WE REACHED THE PALACE OF THE KING
+  I SAW, LEANING AGAINST THE TREE, A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
+  FASTENED TO THE SADDLE, WAS THE BODY OF A GREAT DRAGON
+  I WAS DEAD, AND RIGHT CONTENT
+  A VALLEY LAY BENEATH ME
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+For offering this new edition of my father's Phantastes, my reasons
+are three. The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustrated
+without the author's sanction, and so unsuitably that all lovers of the
+book must have experienced some real grief in turning its pages. With
+the copyright I secured also the whole of that edition and turned it
+into pulp.
+
+My second reason is to pay a small tribute to my father by way of
+personal gratitude for this, his first prose work, which was published
+nearly fifty years ago. Though unknown to many lovers of his greater
+writings, none of these has exceeded it in imaginative insight and power
+of expression. To me it rings with the dominant chord of his life's
+purpose and work.
+
+My third reason is that wider knowledge and love of the book should
+be made possible. To this end I have been most happy in the help of my
+father's old friend, who has illustrated the book. I know of no other
+living artist who is capable of portraying the spirit of Phantastes;
+and every reader of this edition will, I believe, feel that the
+illustrations are a part of the romance, and will gain through them
+some perception of the brotherhood between George MacDonald and Arthur
+Hughes.
+
+GREVILLE MACDONALD.
+
+September 1905.
+
+
+
+
+
+PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE
+
+
+    "Phantastes from 'their fount all shapes deriving,
+    In new habiliments can quickly dight."
+                            FLETCHER'S Purple Island
+
+
+     Es lassen sich Erz�hlungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch mit
+     Association, wie Tr�ume, denken; Gedichte, die bloss
+     wohlklingend und voll sch�ner Worte sind, aber auch ohne
+     allen Sinn und Zusammenhang, h�chstens einzelne Strophen
+     verst�ndlich, wie Bruchst�cke aus den verschiedenartigsten
+     Dingen. Diese wahre Poesie kann h�chstens einen
+     allegorischen Sinn in Grossen, und eine indirecte Wirkung,
+     wie Musik, haben. Darum ist die Natur so rein poetisch, wie
+     die Stube eines Zauberers, eines Physikers, eine
+     Kinderstube, eine Polter- und Vorrathskammer.
+
+     Ein M�rchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammenhang. Ein
+     Ensemble wunderbarer Dinge und Begebenheiten, z. B. eine
+     musikalische Phantasie, die harmonischen Folgen einer
+     Aeolsharfe, die Natur selbst...
+
+     In einem echten M�rchen muss alles wunderbar, geheimnissvoll
+     und zusammenh�ngend sein; alles belebt, jeder auf eine
+     andere Art. Die ganze Natur muss wunderlich mit der ganzen
+     Geisterwelt gemischt sein; hier tritt die Zeit der Anarchie,
+     der Gesetzlosigkeit, Freiheit, der Naturstand der Natur, die
+     Zeit von der Welt ein . . . Die Welt des M�rchens ist die,
+     der Welt der Wahrheit durchaus entgegengesetzte, und eben
+     darum ihr so durchaus �hnlich, wie das Chaos der vollendeten
+     Sch�pfung �hnlich ist.--NOVALIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+                       "A spirit  .  .  .
+                    .  .  .  .  .  .
+    The undulating and silent well,
+    And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom,
+    Now deepening the dark shades, for speech assuming,
+    Held commune with him; as if he and it
+    Were all that was."
+                            SHELLEY'S Alastor.
+
+
+I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies
+the return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern
+window of my room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing a cloud that
+just rose above the low swell of the horizon, announced the approach of
+the sun. As my thoughts, which a deep and apparently dreamless sleep had
+dissolved, began again to assume crystalline forms, the strange events
+of the foregoing night presented themselves anew to my wondering
+consciousness. The day before had been my one-and-twentieth birthday.
+Among other ceremonies investing me with my legal rights, the keys of an
+old secretary, in which my father had kept his private papers, had been
+delivered up to me. As soon as I was left alone, I ordered lights in the
+chamber where the secretary stood, the first lights that had been there
+for many a year; for, since my father's death, the room had been left
+undisturbed. But, as if the darkness had been too long an inmate to
+be easily expelled, and had dyed with blackness the walls to which,
+bat-like, it had clung, these tapers served but ill to light up the
+gloomy hangings, and seemed to throw yet darker shadows into the hollows
+of the deep-wrought cornice. All the further portions of the room lay
+shrouded in a mystery whose deepest folds were gathered around the dark
+oak cabinet which I now approached with a strange mingling of reverence
+and curiosity. Perhaps, like a geologist, I was about to turn up to
+the light some of the buried strata of the human world, with its fossil
+remains charred by passion and petrified by tears. Perhaps I was to
+learn how my father, whose personal history was unknown to me, had woven
+his web of story; how he had found the world, and how the world had left
+him. Perhaps I was to find only the records of lands and moneys, how
+gotten and how secured; coming down from strange men, and through
+troublous times, to me, who knew little or nothing of them all. To solve
+my speculations, and to dispel the awe which was fast gathering around
+me as if the dead were drawing near, I approached the secretary; and
+having found the key that fitted the upper portion, I opened it with
+some difficulty, drew near it a heavy high-backed chair, and sat down
+before a multitude of little drawers and slides and pigeon-holes. But
+the door of a little cupboard in the centre especially attracted my
+interest, as if there lay the secret of this long-hidden world. Its key
+I found.
+
+One of the rusty hinges cracked and broke as I opened the door: it
+revealed a number of small pigeon-holes. These, however, being but
+shallow compared with the depth of those around the little cupboard, the
+outer ones reaching to the back of the desk, I concluded that there
+must be some accessible space behind; and found, indeed, that they were
+formed in a separate framework, which admitted of the whole being pulled
+out in one piece. Behind, I found a sort of flexible portcullis of small
+bars of wood laid close together horizontally. After long search, and
+trying many ways to move it, I discovered at last a scarcely projecting
+point of steel on one side. I pressed this repeatedly and hard with
+the point of an old tool that was lying near, till at length it
+yielded inwards; and the little slide, flying up suddenly, disclosed a
+chamber--empty, except that in one corner lay a little heap of withered
+rose-leaves, whose long-lived scent had long since departed; and, in
+another, a small packet of papers, tied with a bit of ribbon, whose
+colour had gone with the rose-scent. Almost fearing to touch them, they
+witnessed so mutely to the law of oblivion, I leaned back in my chair,
+and regarded them for a moment; when suddenly there stood on the
+threshold of the little chamber, as though she had just emerged from its
+depth, a tiny woman-form, as perfect in shape as if she had been a small
+Greek statuette roused to life and motion. Her dress was of a kind that
+could never grow old-fashioned, because it was simply natural: a robe
+plaited in a band around the neck, and confined by a belt about the
+waist, descended to her feet. It was only afterwards, however, that I
+took notice of her dress, although my surprise was by no means of so
+overpowering a degree as such an apparition might naturally be expected
+to excite. Seeing, however, as I suppose, some astonishment in my
+countenance, she came forward within a yard of me, and said, in a voice
+that strangely recalled a sensation of twilight, and reedy river banks,
+and a low wind, even in this deathly room:--
+
+"Anodos, you never saw such a little creature before, did you?"
+
+"No," said I; "and indeed I hardly believe I do now."
+
+"Ah! that is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the first
+time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of
+what you consider in itself unbelievable. I am not going to argue with
+you, however, but to grant you a wish."
+
+ Here I could not help interrupting her with the foolish speech,
+of which, however, I had no cause to repent--
+
+"How can such a very little creature as you grant or refuse anything?"
+
+"Is that all the philosophy you have gained in one-and-twenty years?"
+said she. "Form is much, but size is nothing. It is a mere matter of
+relation. I suppose your six-foot lordship does not feel altogether
+insignificant, though to others you do look small beside your old Uncle
+Ralph, who rises above you a great half-foot at least. But size is of so
+little consequence with old me, that I may as well accommodate myself to
+your foolish prejudices."
+
+So saying, she leapt from the desk upon the floor, where she stood a
+tall, gracious lady, with pale face and large blue eyes. Her dark hair
+flowed behind, wavy but uncurled, down to her waist, and against it her
+form stood clear in its robe of white.
+
+"Now," said she, "you will believe me."
+
+Overcome with the presence of a beauty which I could now perceive, and
+drawn towards her by an attraction irresistible as incomprehensible, I
+suppose I stretched out my arms towards her, for she drew back a step or
+two, and said--
+
+"Foolish boy, if you could touch me, I should hurt you. Besides, I was
+two hundred and thirty-seven years old, last Midsummer eve; and a man
+must not fall in love with his grandmother, you know."
+
+"But you are not my grandmother," said I.
+
+"How do you know that?" she retorted. "I dare say you know something of
+your great-grandfathers a good deal further back than that; but you know
+very little about your great-grandmothers on either side. Now, to the
+point. Your little sister was reading a fairy-tale to you last night."
+
+"She was."
+
+"When she had finished, she said, as she closed the book, 'Is there a
+fairy-country, brother?' You replied with a sigh, 'I suppose there is,
+if one could find the way into it.'"
+
+"I did; but I meant something quite different from what you seem to
+think."
+
+"Never mind what I seem to think. You shall find the way into Fairy Land
+to-morrow. Now look in my eyes."
+
+Eagerly I did so. They filled me with an unknown longing. I remembered
+somehow that my mother died when I was a baby. I looked deeper and
+deeper, till they spread around me like seas, and I sank in their
+waters. I forgot all the rest, till I found myself at the window, whose
+gloomy curtains were withdrawn, and where I stood gazing on a whole
+heaven of stars, small and sparkling in the moonlight. Below lay a sea,
+still as death and hoary in the moon, sweeping into bays and around
+capes and islands, away, away, I knew not whither. Alas! it was no
+sea, but a low bog burnished by the moon. "Surely there is such a sea
+somewhere!" said I to myself. A low sweet voice beside me replied--
+
+"In Fairy Land, Anodos."
+
+I turned, but saw no one. I closed the secretary, and went to my own
+room, and to bed.
+
+All this I recalled as I lay with half-closed eyes. I was soon to find
+the truth of the lady's promise, that this day I should discover the
+road into Fairy Land.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+     "'Where is the stream?' cried he, with tears. 'Seest thou
+     its not in blue waves above us?' He looked up, and lo! the
+     blue stream was flowing gently over their heads."
+     --NOVALIS, Heinrich von Ofterdingen.
+
+While these strange events were passing through my mind, I suddenly, as
+one awakes to the consciousness that the sea has been moaning by him for
+hours, or that the storm has been howling about his window all night,
+became aware of the sound of running water near me; and, looking out of
+bed, I saw that a large green marble basin, in which I was wont to wash,
+and which stood on a low pedestal of the same material in a corner of
+my room, was overflowing like a spring; and that a stream of clear water
+was running over the carpet, all the length of the room, finding its
+outlet I knew not where. And, stranger still, where this carpet, which
+I had myself designed to imitate a field of grass and daisies, bordered
+the course of the little stream, the grass-blades and daisies seemed to
+wave in a tiny breeze that followed the water's flow; while under the
+rivulet they bent and swayed with every motion of the changeful current,
+as if they were about to dissolve with it, and, forsaking their fixed
+form, become fluent as the waters.
+
+My dressing-table was an old-fashioned piece of furniture of black
+oak, with drawers all down the front. These were elaborately carved
+in foliage, of which ivy formed the chief part. The nearer end of this
+table remained just as it had been, but on the further end a singular
+change had commenced. I happened to fix my eye on a little cluster of
+ivy-leaves. The first of these was evidently the work of the carver; the
+next looked curious; the third was unmistakable ivy; and just beyond it
+a tendril of clematis had twined itself about the gilt handle of one of
+the drawers. Hearing next a slight motion above me, I looked up, and saw
+that the branches and leaves designed upon the curtains of my bed were
+slightly in motion. Not knowing what change might follow next, I thought
+it high time to get up; and, springing from the bed, my bare feet
+alighted upon a cool green sward; and although I dressed in all haste,
+I found myself completing my toilet under the boughs of a great
+tree, whose top waved in the golden stream of the sunrise with many
+interchanging lights, and with shadows of leaf and branch gliding over
+leaf and branch, as the cool morning wind swung it to and fro, like a
+sinking sea-wave.
+
+After washing as well as I could in the clear stream, I rose and looked
+around me. The tree under which I seemed to have lain all night was one
+of the advanced guard of a dense forest, towards which the rivulet ran.
+Faint traces of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, and with
+here and there a pimpernel even, were discernible along the right bank.
+"This," thought I, "must surely be the path into Fairy Land, which
+the lady of last night promised I should so soon find." I crossed the
+rivulet, and accompanied it, keeping the footpath on its right bank,
+until it led me, as I expected, into the wood. Here I left it, without
+any good reason: and with a vague feeling that I ought to have followed
+its course, I took a more southerly direction.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+            "Man doth usurp all space,
+             Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in
+                    the face.
+             Never thine eyes behold a tree;
+             'Tis no sea thou seest in the sea,
+             'Tis but a disguised humanity.
+             To avoid thy fellow, vain thy plan;
+             All that interests a man, is man."
+                                        HENRY SUTTON.
+
+The trees, which were far apart where I entered, giving free passage
+to the level rays of the sun, closed rapidly as I advanced, so that ere
+long their crowded stems barred the sunlight out, forming as it were a
+thick grating between me and the East. I seemed to be advancing towards
+a second midnight. In the midst of the intervening twilight, however,
+before I entered what appeared to be the darkest portion of the forest,
+I saw a country maiden coming towards me from its very depths. She did
+not seem to observe me, for she was apparently intent upon a bunch of
+wild flowers which she carried in her hand. I could hardly see her face;
+for, though she came direct towards me, she never looked up. But when we
+met, instead of passing, she turned and walked alongside of me for a few
+yards, still keeping her face downwards, and busied with her flowers.
+She spoke rapidly, however, all the time, in a low tone, as if talking
+to herself, but evidently addressing the purport of her words to me.
+
+She seemed afraid of being observed by some lurking foe. "Trust the
+Oak," said she; "trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech. Take
+care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be
+changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre,--you
+will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with
+her web of hair, if you let her near you at night." All this was uttered
+without pause or alteration of tone. Then she turned suddenly and left
+me, walking still with the same unchanging gait. I could not conjecture
+what she meant, but satisfied myself with thinking that it would be time
+enough to find out her meaning when there was need to make use of her
+warning, and that the occasion would reveal the admonition. I concluded
+from the flowers that she carried, that the forest could not be
+everywhere so dense as it appeared from where I was now walking; and I
+was right in this conclusion. For soon I came to a more open part, and
+by-and-by crossed a wide grassy glade, on which were several circles of
+brighter green. But even here I was struck with the utter stillness. No
+bird sang. No insect hummed. Not a living creature crossed my way. Yet
+somehow the whole environment seemed only asleep, and to wear even in
+sleep an air of expectation. The trees seemed all to have an expression
+of conscious mystery, as if they said to themselves, "we could, an' if
+we would." They had all a meaning look about them. Then I remembered
+that night is the fairies' day, and the moon their sun; and I
+thought--Everything sleeps and dreams now: when the night comes, it will
+be different. At the same time I, being a man and a child of the day,
+felt some anxiety as to how I should fare among the elves and other
+children of the night who wake when mortals dream, and find their common
+life in those wondrous hours that flow noiselessly over the moveless
+death-like forms of men and women and children, lying strewn and parted
+beneath the weight of the heavy waves of night, which flow on and beat
+them down, and hold them drowned and senseless, until the ebbtide comes,
+and the waves sink away, back into the ocean of the dark. But I took
+courage and went on. Soon, however, I became again anxious, though from
+another cause. I had eaten nothing that day, and for an hour past had
+been feeling the want of food. So I grew afraid lest I should find
+nothing to meet my human necessities in this strange place; but once
+more I comforted myself with hope and went on.
+
+Before noon, I fancied I saw a thin blue smoke rising amongst the stems
+of larger trees in front of me; and soon I came to an open spot of
+ground in which stood a little cottage, so built that the stems of four
+great trees formed its corners, while their branches met and intertwined
+over its roof, heaping a great cloud of leaves over it, up towards the
+heavens. I wondered at finding a human dwelling in this neighbourhood;
+and yet it did not look altogether human, though sufficiently so to
+encourage me to expect to find some sort of food. Seeing no door, I went
+round to the other side, and there I found one, wide open. A woman sat
+beside it, preparing some vegetables for dinner. This was homely and
+comforting. As I came near, she looked up, and seeing me, showed no
+surprise, but bent her head again over her work, and said in a low tone:
+
+"Did you see my daughter?"
+
+"I believe I did," said I. "Can you give me something to eat, for I am
+very hungry?" "With pleasure," she replied, in the same tone; "but do
+not say anything more, till you come into the house, for the Ash is
+watching us."
+
+Having said this, she rose and led the way into the cottage; which, I
+now saw, was built of the stems of small trees set closely together, and
+was furnished with rough chairs and tables, from which even the bark had
+not been removed. As soon as she had shut the door and set a chair--
+
+"You have fairy blood in you," said she, looking hard at me.
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"You could not have got so far into this wood if it were not so; and I
+am trying to find out some trace of it in your countenance. I think I
+see it."
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"Oh, never mind: I may be mistaken in that."
+
+"But how then do you come to live here?"
+
+"Because I too have fairy blood in me."
+
+Here I, in my turn, looked hard at her, and thought I could perceive,
+notwithstanding the coarseness of her features, and especially the
+heaviness of her eyebrows, a something unusual--I could hardly call it
+grace, and yet it was an expression that strangely contrasted with
+the form of her features. I noticed too that her hands were delicately
+formed, though brown with work and exposure.
+
+"I should be ill," she continued, "if I did not live on the borders of
+the fairies' country, and now and then eat of their food. And I see by
+your eyes that you are not quite free of the same need; though, from
+your education and the activity of your mind, you have felt it less than
+I. You may be further removed too from the fairy race."
+
+I remembered what the lady had said about my grandmothers.
+
+Here she placed some bread and some milk before me, with a kindly
+apology for the homeliness of the fare, with which, however, I was in no
+humour to quarrel. I now thought it time to try to get some explanation
+of the strange words both of her daughter and herself.
+
+"What did you mean by speaking so about the Ash?"
+
+She rose and looked out of the little window. My eyes followed her; but
+as the window was too small to allow anything to be seen from where I
+was sitting, I rose and looked over her shoulder. I had just time to
+see, across the open space, on the edge of the denser forest, a single
+large ash-tree, whose foliage showed bluish, amidst the truer green of
+the other trees around it; when she pushed me back with an expression
+of impatience and terror, and then almost shut out the light from the
+window by setting up a large old book in it.
+
+"In general," said she, recovering her composure, "there is no danger in
+the daytime, for then he is sound asleep; but there is something unusual
+going on in the woods; there must be some solemnity among the fairies
+to-night, for all the trees are restless, and although they cannot come
+awake, they see and hear in their sleep."
+
+"But what danger is to be dreaded from him?"
+
+Instead of answering the question, she went again to the window and
+looked out, saying she feared the fairies would be interrupted by foul
+weather, for a storm was brewing in the west.
+
+"And the sooner it grows dark, the sooner the Ash will be awake," added
+she.
+
+I asked her how she knew that there was any unusual excitement in the
+woods. She replied--
+
+"Besides the look of the trees, the dog there is unhappy; and the eyes
+and ears of the white rabbit are redder than usual, and he frisks about
+as if he expected some fun. If the cat were at home, she would have
+her back up; for the young fairies pull the sparks out of her tail with
+bramble thorns, and she knows when they are coming. So do I, in another
+way."
+
+ At this instant, a grey cat rushed in like a demon, and
+disappeared in a hole in the wall.
+
+"There, I told you!" said the woman.
+
+ "But what of the ash-tree?" said I, returning once more to the
+subject. Here, however, the young woman, whom I had met in the morning,
+entered. A smile passed between the mother and daughter; and then the
+latter began to help her mother in little household duties.
+
+"I should like to stay here till the evening," I said; "and then go on
+my journey, if you will allow me."
+
+"You are welcome to do as you please; only it might be better to stay
+all night, than risk the dangers of the wood then. Where are you going?"
+
+"Nay, that I do not know," I replied, "but I wish to see all that is to
+be seen, and therefore I should like to start just at sundown." "You are
+a bold youth, if you have any idea of what you are daring; but a rash
+one, if you know nothing about it; and, excuse me, you do not seem very
+well informed about the country and its manners. However, no one comes
+here but for some reason, either known to himself or to those who have
+charge of him; so you shall do just as you wish."
+
+Accordingly I sat down, and feeling rather tired, and disinclined for
+further talk, I asked leave to look at the old book which still screened
+the window. The woman brought it to me directly, but not before taking
+another look towards the forest, and then drawing a white blind over
+the window. I sat down opposite to it by the table, on which I laid the
+great old volume, and read. It contained many wondrous tales of Fairy
+Land, and olden times, and the Knights of King Arthur's table. I read
+on and on, till the shades of the afternoon began to deepen; for in
+the midst of the forest it gloomed earlier than in the open country. At
+length I came to this passage--
+
+"Here it chanced, that upon their quest, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale
+rencountered in the depths of a great forest. Now, Sir Galahad was dight
+all in harness of silver, clear and shining; the which is a delight
+to look upon, but full hasty to tarnish, and withouten the labour of a
+ready squire, uneath to be kept fair and clean. And yet withouten squire
+or page, Sir Galahad's armour shone like the moon. And he rode a great
+white mare, whose bases and other housings were black, but all besprent
+with fair lilys of silver sheen. Whereas Sir Percivale bestrode a red
+horse, with a tawny mane and tail; whose trappings were all to-smirched
+with mud and mire; and his armour was wondrous rosty to behold, ne could
+he by any art furbish it again; so that as the sun in his going down
+shone twixt the bare trunks of the trees, full upon the knights twain,
+the one did seem all shining with light, and the other all to glow with
+ruddy fire. Now it came about in this wise. For Sir Percivale, after his
+escape from the demon lady, whenas the cross on the handle of his sword
+smote him to the heart, and he rove himself through the thigh, and
+escaped away, he came to a great wood; and, in nowise cured of his
+fault, yet bemoaning the same, the damosel of the alder tree encountered
+him, right fair to see; and with her fair words and false countenance
+she comforted him and beguiled him, until he followed her where she led
+him to a---"
+
+Here a low hurried cry from my hostess caused me to look up from the
+book, and I read no more.
+
+"Look there!" she said; "look at his fingers!"
+
+Just as I had been reading in the book, the setting sun was shining
+through a cleft in the clouds piled up in the west; and a shadow as of a
+large distorted hand, with thick knobs and humps on the fingers, so that
+it was much wider across the fingers than across the undivided part
+of the hand, passed slowly over the little blind, and then as slowly
+returned in the opposite direction.
+
+"He is almost awake, mother; and greedier than usual to-night."
+
+"Hush, child; you need not make him more angry with us than he is; for
+you do not know how soon something may happen to oblige us to be in the
+forest after nightfall."
+
+"But you are in the forest," said I; "how is it that you are safe here?"
+
+"He dares not come nearer than he is now," she replied; "for any of
+those four oaks, at the corners of our cottage, would tear him to
+pieces; they are our friends. But he stands there and makes awful faces
+at us sometimes, and stretches out his long arms and fingers, and tries
+to kill us with fright; for, indeed, that is his favourite way of doing.
+Pray, keep out of his way to-night."
+
+"Shall I be able to see these things?" said I.
+
+"That I cannot tell yet, not knowing how much of the fairy nature there
+is in you. But we shall soon see whether you can discern the fairies in
+my little garden, and that will be some guide to us."
+
+"Are the trees fairies too, as well as the flowers?" I asked.
+
+"They are of the same race," she replied; "though those you call fairies
+in your country are chiefly the young children of the flower fairies.
+They are very fond of having fun with the thick people, as they call
+you; for, like most children, they like fun better than anything else."
+
+"Why do you have flowers so near you then? Do they not annoy you?"
+
+"Oh, no, they are very amusing, with their mimicries of grown people,
+and mock solemnities. Sometimes they will act a whole play through
+before my eyes, with perfect composure and assurance, for they are not
+afraid of me. Only, as soon as they have done, they burst into peals
+of tiny laughter, as if it was such a joke to have been serious over
+anything. These I speak of, however, are the fairies of the garden.
+They are more staid and educated than those of the fields and woods.
+Of course they have near relations amongst the wild flowers, but they
+patronise them, and treat them as country cousins, who know nothing
+of life, and very little of manners. Now and then, however, they are
+compelled to envy the grace and simplicity of the natural flowers."
+
+"Do they live IN the flowers?" I said.
+
+"I cannot tell," she replied. "There is something in it I do not
+understand. Sometimes they disappear altogether, even from me, though
+I know they are near. They seem to die always with the flowers they
+resemble, and by whose names they are called; but whether they return to
+life with the fresh flowers, or, whether it be new flowers, new fairies,
+I cannot tell. They have as many sorts of dispositions as men and women,
+while their moods are yet more variable; twenty different expressions
+will cross their little faces in half a minute. I often amuse myself
+with watching them, but I have never been able to make personal
+acquaintance with any of them. If I speak to one, he or she looks up in
+my face, as if I were not worth heeding, gives a little laugh, and runs
+away." Here the woman started, as if suddenly recollecting herself, and
+said in a low voice to her daughter, "Make haste--go and watch him, and
+see in what direction he goes."
+
+I may as well mention here, that the conclusion I arrived at from the
+observations I was afterwards able to make, was, that the flowers die
+because the fairies go away; not that the fairies disappear because
+the flowers die. The flowers seem a sort of houses for them, or outer
+bodies, which they can put on or off when they please. Just as you could
+form some idea of the nature of a man from the kind of house he built,
+if he followed his own taste, so you could, without seeing the fairies,
+tell what any one of them is like, by looking at the flower till you
+feel that you understand it. For just what the flower says to you, would
+the face and form of the fairy say; only so much more plainly as a face
+and human figure can express more than a flower. For the house or the
+clothes, though like the inhabitant or the wearer, cannot be wrought
+into an equal power of utterance. Yet you would see a strange
+resemblance, almost oneness, between the flower and the fairy, which you
+could not describe, but which described itself to you. Whether all the
+flowers have fairies, I cannot determine, any more than I can be sure
+whether all men and women have souls.
+
+The woman and I continued the conversation for a few minutes longer. I
+was much interested by the information she gave me, and astonished
+at the language in which she was able to convey it. It seemed that
+intercourse with the fairies was no bad education in itself. But now the
+daughter returned with the news, that the Ash had just gone away in a
+south-westerly direction; and, as my course seemed to lie eastward, she
+hoped I should be in no danger of meeting him if I departed at once.
+I looked out of the little window, and there stood the ash-tree, to my
+eyes the same as before; but I believed that they knew better than I
+did, and prepared to go. I pulled out my purse, but to my dismay there
+was nothing in it. The woman with a smile begged me not to trouble
+myself, for money was not of the slightest use there; and as I might
+meet with people in my journeys whom I could not recognise to be
+fairies, it was well I had no money to offer, for nothing offended them
+so much.
+
+"They would think," she added, "that you were making game of them; and
+that is their peculiar privilege with regard to us." So we went together
+into the little garden which sloped down towards a lower part of the
+wood.
+
+Here, to my great pleasure, all was life and bustle. There was still
+light enough from the day to see a little; and the pale half-moon,
+halfway to the zenith, was reviving every moment. The whole garden
+was like a carnival, with tiny, gaily decorated forms, in groups,
+assemblies, processions, pairs or trios, moving stately on, running
+about wildly, or sauntering hither or thither. From the cups or bells of
+tall flowers, as from balconies, some looked down on the masses below,
+now bursting with laughter, now grave as owls; but even in their deepest
+solemnity, seeming only to be waiting for the arrival of the next laugh.
+Some were launched on a little marshy stream at the bottom, in boats
+chosen from the heaps of last year's leaves that lay about, curled and
+withered. These soon sank with them; whereupon they swam ashore and got
+others. Those who took fresh rose-leaves for their boats floated the
+longest; but for these they had to fight; for the fairy of the rose-tree
+complained bitterly that they were stealing her clothes, and defended
+her property bravely.
+
+"You can't wear half you've got," said some.
+
+"Never you mind; I don't choose you to have them: they are my property."
+
+"All for the good of the community!" said one, and ran off with a great
+hollow leaf. But the rose-fairy sprang after him (what a beauty she was!
+only too like a drawing-room young lady), knocked him heels-over-head as
+he ran, and recovered her great red leaf. But in the meantime twenty had
+hurried off in different directions with others just as good; and the
+little creature sat down and cried, and then, in a pet, sent a perfect
+pink snowstorm of petals from her tree, leaping from branch to branch,
+and stamping and shaking and pulling. At last, after another good cry,
+she chose the biggest she could find, and ran away laughing, to launch
+her boat amongst the rest.
+
+But my attention was first and chiefly attracted by a group of fairies
+near the cottage, who were talking together around what seemed a
+last dying primrose. They talked singing, and their talk made a song,
+something like this:
+
+
+
+    "Sister Snowdrop died
+        Before we were born."
+    "She came like a bride
+        In a snowy morn."
+    "What's a bride?"
+        "What is snow?
+    "Never tried."
+        "Do not know."
+    "Who told you about her?"
+        "Little Primrose there
+    Cannot do without her."
+        "Oh, so sweetly fair!"
+    "Never fear,
+        She will come,
+    Primrose dear."
+        "Is she dumb?"
+
+    "She'll come by-and-by."
+        "You will never see her."
+    "She went home to dies,
+        "Till the new year."
+    "Snowdrop!"  "'Tis no good
+        To invite her."
+    "Primrose is very rude,
+        "I will bite her."
+
+    "Oh, you naughty Pocket!
+        "Look, she drops her head."
+    "She deserved it, Rocket,
+        "And she was nearly dead."
+    "To your hammock--off with you!"
+        "And swing alone."
+    "No one will laugh with you."
+        "No, not one."
+
+    "Now let us moan."
+        "And cover her o'er."
+    "Primrose is gone."
+        "All but the flower."
+    "Here is a leaf."
+        "Lay her upon it."
+    "Follow in grief."
+        "Pocket has done it."
+
+    "Deeper, poor creature!
+        Winter may come."
+    "He cannot reach her--
+        That is a hum."
+    "She is buried, the beauty!"
+        "Now she is done."
+    "That was the duty."
+        "Now for the fun."
+
+
+And with a wild laugh they sprang away, most of them towards the
+cottage. During the latter part of the song-talk, they had formed
+themselves into a funeral procession, two of them bearing poor Primrose,
+whose death Pocket had hastened by biting her stalk, upon one of her
+own great leaves. They bore her solemnly along some distance, and
+then buried her under a tree. Although I say HER I saw nothing but
+the withered primrose-flower on its long stalk. Pocket, who had been
+expelled from the company by common consent, went sulkily away towards
+her hammock, for she was the fairy of the calceolaria, and looked rather
+wicked. When she reached its stem, she stopped and looked round. I could
+not help speaking to her, for I stood near her. I said, "Pocket, how
+could you be so naughty?"
+
+"I am never naughty," she said, half-crossly, half-defiantly; "only if
+you come near my hammock, I will bite you, and then you will go away."
+
+"Why did you bite poor Primrose?"
+
+"Because she said we should never see Snowdrop; as if we were not good
+enough to look at her, and she was, the proud thing!--served her right!"
+
+"Oh, Pocket, Pocket," said I; but by this time the party which had
+gone towards the house, rushed out again, shouting and screaming with
+laughter. Half of them were on the cat's back, and half held on by her
+fur and tail, or ran beside her; till, more coming to their help, the
+furious cat was held fast; and they proceeded to pick the sparks out
+of her with thorns and pins, which they handled like harpoons. Indeed,
+there were more instruments at work about her than there could have
+been sparks in her. One little fellow who held on hard by the tip of
+the tail, with his feet planted on the ground at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, helping to keep her fast, administered a continuous flow of
+admonitions to Pussy.
+
+"Now, Pussy, be patient. You know quite well it is all for your good.
+You cannot be comfortable with all those sparks in you; and, indeed, I
+am charitably disposed to believe" (here he became very pompous) "that
+they are the cause of all your bad temper; so we must have them all out,
+every one; else we shall be reduced to the painful necessity of cutting
+your claws, and pulling out your eye-teeth. Quiet! Pussy, quiet!"
+
+But with a perfect hurricane of feline curses, the poor animal broke
+loose, and dashed across the garden and through the hedge, faster than
+even the fairies could follow. "Never mind, never mind, we shall find
+her again; and by that time she will have laid in a fresh stock of
+sparks. Hooray!" And off they set, after some new mischief.
+
+But I will not linger to enlarge on the amusing display of these
+frolicsome creatures. Their manners and habits are now so well known to
+the world, having been so often described by eyewitnesses, that it would
+be only indulging self-conceit, to add my account in full to the rest.
+I cannot help wishing, however, that my readers could see them for
+themselves. Especially do I desire that they should see the fairy of the
+daisy; a little, chubby, round-eyed child, with such innocent trust in
+his look! Even the most mischievous of the fairies would not tease him,
+although he did not belong to their set at all, but was quite a little
+country bumpkin. He wandered about alone, and looked at everything, with
+his hands in his little pockets, and a white night-cap on, the darling!
+He was not so beautiful as many other wild flowers I saw afterwards, but
+so dear and loving in his looks and little confident ways.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+        "When bale is att hyest, boote is nyest."
+                                Ballad of Sir Aldingar.
+
+By this time, my hostess was quite anxious that I should be gone. So,
+with warm thanks for their hospitality, I took my leave, and went my way
+through the little garden towards the forest. Some of the garden flowers
+had wandered into the wood, and were growing here and there along
+the path, but the trees soon became too thick and shadowy for them. I
+particularly noticed some tall lilies, which grew on both sides of
+the way, with large dazzlingly white flowers, set off by the universal
+green. It was now dark enough for me to see that every flower was
+shining with a light of its own. Indeed it was by this light that I
+saw them, an internal, peculiar light, proceeding from each, and not
+reflected from a common source of light as in the daytime. This light
+sufficed only for the plant itself, and was not strong enough to cast
+any but the faintest shadows around it, or to illuminate any of the
+neighbouring objects with other than the faintest tinge of its own
+individual hue. From the lilies above mentioned, from the campanulas,
+from the foxgloves, and every bell-shaped flower, curious little figures
+shot up their heads, peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit
+them, as snails their shells but I was sure some of them were intruders,
+and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the ground
+and earthy creeping plants. From the cups of Arum lilies, creatures with
+great heads and grotesque faces shot up like Jack-in-the-box, and made
+grimaces at me; or rose slowly and slily over the edge of the cup,
+and spouted water at me, slipping suddenly back, like those little
+soldier-crabs that inhabit the shells of sea-snails. Passing a row of
+tall thistles, I saw them crowded with little faces, which peeped every
+one from behind its flower, and drew back as quickly; and I heard them
+saying to each other, evidently intending me to hear, but the speaker
+always hiding behind his tuft, when I looked in his direction, "Look at
+him! Look at him! He has begun a story without a beginning, and it will
+never have any end. He! he! he! Look at him!"
+
+But as I went further into the wood, these sights and sounds became
+fewer, giving way to others of a different character. A little forest
+of wild hyacinths was alive with exquisite creatures, who stood nearly
+motionless, with drooping necks, holding each by the stem of her flower,
+and swaying gently with it, whenever a low breath of wind swung the
+crowded floral belfry. In like manner, though differing of course
+in form and meaning, stood a group of harebells, like little angels
+waiting, ready, till they were wanted to go on some yet unknown message.
+In darker nooks, by the mossy roots of the trees, or in little tufts
+of grass, each dwelling in a globe of its own green light, weaving a
+network of grass and its shadows, glowed the glowworms.
+
+They were just like the glowworms of our own land, for they are fairies
+everywhere; worms in the day, and glowworms at night, when their own can
+appear, and they can be themselves to others as well as themselves.
+But they had their enemies here. For I saw great strong-armed beetles,
+hurrying about with most unwieldy haste, awkward as elephant-calves,
+looking apparently for glowworms; for the moment a beetle espied one,
+through what to it was a forest of grass, or an underwood of moss, it
+pounced upon it, and bore it away, in spite of its feeble resistance.
+Wondering what their object could be, I watched one of the beetles,
+and then I discovered a thing I could not account for. But it is no use
+trying to account for things in Fairy Land; and one who travels there
+soon learns to forget the very idea of doing so, and takes everything as
+it comes; like a child, who, being in a chronic condition of wonder, is
+surprised at nothing. What I saw was this. Everywhere, here and there
+over the ground, lay little, dark-looking lumps of something more like
+earth than anything else, and about the size of a chestnut. The beetles
+hunted in couples for these; and having found one, one of them stayed
+to watch it, while the other hurried to find a glowworm. By signals, I
+presume, between them, the latter soon found his companion again: they
+then took the glowworm and held its luminous tail to the dark earthly
+pellet; when lo, it shot up into the air like a sky-rocket, seldom,
+however, reaching the height of the highest tree. Just like a rocket
+too, it burst in the air, and fell in a shower of the most gorgeously
+coloured sparks of every variety of hue; golden and red, and purple and
+green, and blue and rosy fires crossed and inter-crossed each other,
+beneath the shadowy heads, and between the columnar stems of the forest
+trees. They never used the same glowworm twice, I observed; but let him
+go, apparently uninjured by the use they had made of him.
+
+In other parts, the whole of the immediately surrounding foliage was
+illuminated by the interwoven dances in the air of splendidly coloured
+fire-flies, which sped hither and thither, turned, twisted, crossed, and
+recrossed, entwining every complexity of intervolved motion. Here and
+there, whole mighty trees glowed with an emitted phosphorescent light.
+You could trace the very course of the great roots in the earth by the
+faint light that came through; and every twig, and every vein on every
+leaf was a streak of pale fire.
+
+All this time, as I went through the wood, I was haunted with the
+feeling that other shapes, more like my own size and mien, were moving
+about at a little distance on all sides of me. But as yet I could
+discern none of them, although the moon was high enough to send a great
+many of her rays down between the trees, and these rays were unusually
+bright, and sight-giving, notwithstanding she was only a half-moon. I
+constantly imagined, however, that forms were visible in all directions
+except that to which my gaze was turned; and that they only became
+invisible, or resolved themselves into other woodland shapes, the moment
+my looks were directed towards them. However this may have been, except
+for this feeling of presence, the woods seemed utterly bare of anything
+like human companionship, although my glance often fell on some object
+which I fancied to be a human form; for I soon found that I was quite
+deceived; as, the moment I fixed my regard on it, it showed plainly that
+it was a bush, or a tree, or a rock.
+
+Soon a vague sense of discomfort possessed me. With variations of
+relief, this gradually increased; as if some evil thing were wandering
+about in my neighbourhood, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off,
+but still approaching. The feeling continued and deepened, until all my
+pleasure in the shows of various kinds that everywhere betokened the
+presence of the merry fairies vanished by degrees, and left me full
+of anxiety and fear, which I was unable to associate with any definite
+object whatever. At length the thought crossed my mind with horror: "Can
+it be possible that the Ash is looking for me? or that, in his nightly
+wanderings, his path is gradually verging towards mine?" I comforted
+myself, however, by remembering that he had started quite in another
+direction; one that would lead him, if he kept it, far apart from me;
+especially as, for the last two or three hours, I had been diligently
+journeying eastward. I kept on my way, therefore, striving by direct
+effort of the will against the encroaching fear; and to this end
+occupying my mind, as much as I could, with other thoughts. I was so far
+successful that, although I was conscious, if I yielded for a moment, I
+should be almost overwhelmed with horror, I was yet able to walk right
+on for an hour or more. What I feared I could not tell. Indeed, I was
+left in a state of the vaguest uncertainty as regarded the nature of my
+enemy, and knew not the mode or object of his attacks; for, somehow or
+other, none of my questions had succeeded in drawing a definite answer
+from the dame in the cottage. How then to defend myself I knew not; nor
+even by what sign I might with certainty recognise the presence of my
+foe; for as yet this vague though powerful fear was all the indication
+of danger I had. To add to my distress, the clouds in the west had risen
+nearly to the top of the skies, and they and the moon were travelling
+slowly towards each other. Indeed, some of their advanced guard had
+already met her, and she had begun to wade through a filmy vapour that
+gradually deepened.
+
+At length she was for a moment almost entirely obscured. When she shone
+out again, with a brilliancy increased by the contrast, I saw plainly
+on the path before me--from around which at this spot the trees receded,
+leaving a small space of green sward--the shadow of a large hand, with
+knotty joints and protuberances here and there. Especially I remarked,
+even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers. I
+looked hurriedly all around, but could see nothing from which such
+a shadow should fall. Now, however, that I had a direction, however
+undetermined, in which to project my apprehension, the very sense of
+danger and need of action overcame that stifling which is the worst
+property of fear. I reflected in a moment, that if this were indeed a
+shadow, it was useless to look for the object that cast it in any other
+direction than between the shadow and the moon. I looked, and peered,
+and intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of
+that kind, not even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow
+remained; not steady, but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers
+close, and grind themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as
+if in uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey. There seemed
+but one mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow. I went
+forward boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would not heed, to
+the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the ground, laid my head
+within the form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards the moon Good
+heavens! what did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that the very
+shadow of the hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had frozen my
+brain. I saw the strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent,
+in the central parts, and gradually deepening in substance towards the
+outside, until it ended in extremities capable of casting such a shadow
+as fell from the hand, through the awful fingers of which I now saw the
+moon. The hand was uplifted in the attitude of a paw about to strike
+its prey. But the face, which throbbed with fluctuating and pulsatory
+visibility--not from changes in the light it reflected, but from changes
+in its own conditions of reflecting power, the alterations being from
+within, not from without--it was horrible. I do not know how to describe
+it. It caused a new sensation. Just as one cannot translate a horrible
+odour, or a ghastly pain, or a fearful sound, into words, so I cannot
+describe this new form of awful hideousness. I can only try to describe
+something that is not it, but seems somewhat parallel to it; or at least
+is suggested by it. It reminded me of what I had heard of vampires; for
+the face resembled that of a corpse more than anything else I can
+think of; especially when I can conceive such a face in motion, but
+not suggesting any life as the source of the motion. The features were
+rather handsome than otherwise, except the mouth, which had scarcely a
+curve in it. The lips were of equal thickness; but the thickness was
+not at all remarkable, even although they looked slightly swollen. They
+seemed fixedly open, but were not wide apart. Of course I did not REMARK
+these lineaments at the time: I was too horrified for that. I noted them
+afterwards, when the form returned on my inward sight with a vividness
+too intense to admit of my doubting the accuracy of the reflex. But the
+most awful of the features were the eyes. These were alive, yet not with
+life.
+
+They seemed lighted up with an infinite greed. A gnawing voracity, which
+devoured the devourer, seemed to be the indwelling and propelling power
+of the whole ghostly apparition. I lay for a few moments simply imbruted
+with terror; when another cloud, obscuring the moon, delivered me from
+the immediately paralysing effects of the presence to the vision of the
+object of horror, while it added the force of imagination to the power
+of fear within me; inasmuch as, knowing far worse cause for apprehension
+than before, I remained equally ignorant from what I had to defend
+myself, or how to take any precautions: he might be upon me in the
+darkness any moment. I sprang to my feet, and sped I knew not whither,
+only away from the spectre. I thought no longer of the path, and often
+narrowly escaped dashing myself against a tree, in my headlong flight of
+fear.
+
+Great drops of rain began to patter on the leaves. Thunder began to
+mutter, then growl in the distance. I ran on. The rain fell heavier. At
+length the thick leaves could hold it up no longer; and, like a second
+firmament, they poured their torrents on the earth. I was soon drenched,
+but that was nothing. I came to a small swollen stream that rushed
+through the woods. I had a vague hope that if I crossed this stream, I
+should be in safety from my pursuer; but I soon found that my hope was
+as false as it was vague. I dashed across the stream, ascended a rising
+ground, and reached a more open space, where stood only great trees.
+Through them I directed my way, holding eastward as nearly as I could
+guess, but not at all certain that I was not moving in an opposite
+direction. My mind was just reviving a little from its extreme terror,
+when, suddenly, a flash of lightning, or rather a cataract of successive
+flashes, behind me, seemed to throw on the ground in front of me, but
+far more faintly than before, from the extent of the source of the
+light, the shadow of the same horrible hand. I sprang forward, stung
+to yet wilder speed; but had not run many steps before my foot slipped,
+and, vainly attempting to recover myself, I fell at the foot of one
+of the large trees. Half-stunned, I yet raised myself, and almost
+involuntarily looked back. All I saw was the hand within three feet
+of my face. But, at the same moment, I felt two large soft arms thrown
+round me from behind; and a voice like a woman's said: "Do not fear the
+goblin; he dares not hurt you now." With that, the hand was suddenly
+withdrawn as from a fire, and disappeared in the darkness and the rain.
+Overcome with the mingling of terror and joy, I lay for some time almost
+insensible. The first thing I remember is the sound of a voice above me,
+full and low, and strangely reminding me of the sound of a gentle wind
+amidst the leaves of a great tree. It murmured over and over again:
+"I may love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I am only a
+beech-tree." I found I was seated on the ground, leaning against a human
+form, and supported still by the arms around me, which I knew to be
+those of a woman who must be rather above the human size, and largely
+proportioned. I turned my head, but without moving otherwise, for I
+feared lest the arms should untwine themselves; and clear, somewhat
+mournful eyes met mine. At least that is how they impressed me; but I
+could see very little of colour or outline as we sat in the dark and
+rainy shadow of the tree. The face seemed very lovely, and solemn from
+its stillness; with the aspect of one who is quite content, but waiting
+for something. I saw my conjecture from her arms was correct: she was
+above the human scale throughout, but not greatly.
+
+"Why do you call yourself a beech-tree?" I said.
+
+"Because I am one," she replied, in the same low, musical, murmuring
+voice.
+
+"You are a woman," I returned.
+
+"Do you think so? Am I very like a woman then?"
+
+"You are a very beautiful woman. Is it possible you should not know it?"
+
+"I am very glad you think so. I fancy I feel like a woman sometimes. I
+do so to-night--and always when the rain drips from my hair. For there
+is an old prophecy in our woods that one day we shall all be men and
+women like you. Do you know anything about it in your region? Shall I
+be very happy when I am a woman? I fear not, for it is always in nights
+like these that I feel like one. But I long to be a woman for all that."
+
+I had let her talk on, for her voice was like a solution of all musical
+sounds. I now told her that I could hardly say whether women were happy
+or not. I knew one who had not been happy; and for my part, I had often
+longed for Fairy Land, as she now longed for the world of men. But then
+neither of us had lived long, and perhaps people grew happier as they
+grew older. Only I doubted it.
+
+I could not help sighing. She felt the sigh, for her arms were still
+round me. She asked me how old I was.
+
+"Twenty-one," said I.
+
+"Why, you baby!" said she, and kissed me with the sweetest kiss of winds
+and odours. There was a cool faithfulness in the kiss that revived my
+heart wonderfully. I felt that I feared the dreadful Ash no more.
+
+"What did the horrible Ash want with me?" I said.
+
+"I am not quite sure, but I think he wants to bury you at the foot of
+his tree. But he shall not touch you, my child."
+
+"Are all the ash-trees as dreadful as he?"
+
+"Oh, no. They are all disagreeable selfish creatures--(what horrid men
+they will make, if it be true!)--but this one has a hole in his heart
+that nobody knows of but one or two; and he is always trying to fill it
+up, but he cannot. That must be what he wanted you for. I wonder if he
+will ever be a man. If he is, I hope they will kill him."
+
+"How kind of you to save me from him!"
+
+"I will take care that he shall not come near you again. But there are
+some in the wood more like me, from whom, alas! I cannot protect you.
+Only if you see any of them very beautiful, try to walk round them."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I cannot tell you more. But now I must tie some of my hair about you,
+and then the Ash will not touch you. Here, cut some off. You men have
+strange cutting things about you."
+
+She shook her long hair loose over me, never moving her arms.
+
+"I cannot cut your beautiful hair. It would be a shame."
+
+"Not cut my hair! It will have grown long enough before any is wanted
+again in this wild forest. Perhaps it may never be of any use again--not
+till I am a woman." And she sighed.
+
+As gently as I could, I cut with a knife a long tress of flowing, dark
+hair, she hanging her beautiful head over me. When I had finished, she
+shuddered and breathed deep, as one does when an acute pain, steadfastly
+endured without sign of suffering, is at length relaxed. She then took
+the hair and tied it round me, singing a strange, sweet song, which I
+could not understand, but which left in me a feeling like this--
+
+            "I saw thee ne'er before;
+             I see thee never more;
+             But love, and help, and pain, beautiful one,
+             Have made thee mine, till all my years are done."
+
+I cannot put more of it into words. She closed her arms about me again,
+and went on singing. The rain in the leaves, and a light wind that had
+arisen, kept her song company. I was wrapt in a trance of still delight.
+It told me the secret of the woods, and the flowers, and the birds. At
+one time I felt as if I was wandering in childhood through sunny spring
+forests, over carpets of primroses, anemones, and little white starry
+things--I had almost said creatures, and finding new wonderful flowers
+at every turn. At another, I lay half dreaming in the hot summer noon,
+with a book of old tales beside me, beneath a great beech; or, in
+autumn, grew sad because I trod on the leaves that had sheltered me,
+and received their last blessing in the sweet odours of decay; or, in
+a winter evening, frozen still, looked up, as I went home to a warm
+fireside, through the netted boughs and twigs to the cold, snowy moon,
+with her opal zone around her. At last I had fallen asleep; for I
+know nothing more that passed till I found myself lying under a superb
+beech-tree, in the clear light of the morning, just before sunrise.
+Around me was a girdle of fresh beech-leaves. Alas! I brought nothing
+with me out of Fairy Land, but memories--memories. The great boughs of
+the beech hung drooping around me. At my head rose its smooth stem, with
+its great sweeps of curving surface that swelled like undeveloped limbs.
+The leaves and branches above kept on the song which had sung me asleep;
+only now, to my mind, it sounded like a farewell and a speedwell. I sat
+a long time, unwilling to go; but my unfinished story urged me on. I
+must act and wander. With the sun well risen, I rose, and put my arms as
+far as they would reach around the beech-tree, and kissed it, and said
+good-bye. A trembling went through the leaves; a few of the last drops
+of the night's rain fell from off them at my feet; and as I walked
+slowly away, I seemed to hear in a whisper once more the words: "I may
+love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I am only a beech-tree."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+        "And she was smooth and full, as if one gush
+         Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep
+         Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep
+         Than bee from daisy."
+                                BEDDOIS' Pygmalion.
+
+        "Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,
+         Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day."
+                             Romance of Sir Launfal.
+
+
+I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only thing
+that damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between sorrow and
+delight that crossed my mind with the frequently returning thought of my
+last night's hostess. "But then," thought I, "if she is sorry, I could
+not help it; and she has all the pleasures she ever had. Such a day as
+this is surely a joy to her, as much at least as to me. And her life
+will perhaps be the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what
+came, but could not stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows but
+we may meet somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the
+universe." Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction, as if
+I ought not to have left her, I went on. There was little to distinguish
+the woods to-day from those of my own land; except that all the wild
+things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and the numberless other
+inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they did not run away from me, but
+gazed at me as I passed, frequently coming nearer, as if to examine
+me more closely. Whether this came from utter ignorance, or from
+familiarity with the human appearance of beings who never hurt them, I
+could not tell. As I stood once, looking up to the splendid flower of
+a parasite, which hung from the branch of a tree over my head, a large
+white rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its little feet on one of
+mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as I had been
+looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it; but when
+I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind feet and
+scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look at me several
+times before I lost sight of it. Now and then, too, a dim human figure
+would appear and disappear, at some distance, amongst the trees, moving
+like a sleep-walker. But no one ever came near me.
+
+This day I found plenty of food in the forest--strange nuts and fruits
+I had never seen before. I hesitated to eat them; but argued that, if
+I could live on the air of Fairy Land, I could live on its food also. I
+found my reasoning correct, and the result was better than I had hoped;
+for it not only satisfied my hunger, but operated in such a way upon my
+senses that I was brought into far more complete relationship with the
+things around me. The human forms appeared much more dense and defined;
+more tangibly visible, if I may say so. I seemed to know better which
+direction to choose when any doubt arose. I began to feel in some degree
+what the birds meant in their songs, though I could not express it in
+words, any more than you can some landscapes. At times, to my surprise,
+I found myself listening attentively, and as if it were no unusual
+thing with me, to a conversation between two squirrels or monkeys.
+The subjects were not very interesting, except as associated with the
+individual life and necessities of the little creatures: where the best
+nuts were to be found in the neighbourhood, and who could crack them
+best, or who had most laid up for the winter, and such like; only they
+never said where the store was. There was no great difference in kind
+between their talk and our ordinary human conversation. Some of the
+creatures I never heard speak at all, and believe they never do so,
+except under the impulse of some great excitement. The mice talked; but
+the hedgehogs seemed very phlegmatic; and though I met a couple of moles
+above ground several times, they never said a word to each other in my
+hearing. There were no wild beasts in the forest; at least, I did not
+see one larger than a wild cat. There were plenty of snakes, however,
+and I do not think they were all harmless; but none ever bit me.
+
+Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great size, but
+very steep; and having no trees--scarcely even a bush--upon it, entirely
+exposed to the heat of the sun. Over this my way seemed to lie, and
+I immediately began the ascent. On reaching the top, hot and weary, I
+looked around me, and saw that the forest still stretched as far as the
+sight could reach on every side of me. I observed that the trees, in the
+direction in which I was about to descend, did not come so near the
+foot of the hill as on the other side, and was especially regretting the
+unexpected postponement of shelter, because this side of the hill seemed
+more difficult to descend than the other had been to climb, when my eye
+caught the appearance of a natural path, winding down through broken
+rocks and along the course of a tiny stream, which I hoped would lead
+me more easily to the foot. I tried it, and found the descent not at all
+laborious; nevertheless, when I reached the bottom, I was very tired and
+exhausted with the heat. But just where the path seemed to end, rose
+a great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs and creeping plants, some of
+them in full and splendid blossom: these almost concealed an opening in
+the rock, into which the path appeared to lead. I entered, thirsting for
+the shade which it promised. What was my delight to find a rocky
+cell, all the angles rounded away with rich moss, and every ledge and
+projection crowded with lovely ferns, the variety of whose forms, and
+groupings, and shades wrought in me like a poem; for such a harmony
+could not exist, except they all consented to some one end! A little
+well of the clearest water filled a mossy hollow in one corner. I drank,
+and felt as if I knew what the elixir of life must be; then threw myself
+on a mossy mound that lay like a couch along the inner end. Here I lay
+in a delicious reverie for some time; during which all lovely forms, and
+colours, and sounds seemed to use my brain as a common hall, where they
+could come and go, unbidden and unexcused. I had never imagined that
+such capacity for simple happiness lay in me, as was now awakened by
+this assembly of forms and spiritual sensations, which yet were far too
+vague to admit of being translated into any shape common to my own and
+another mind. I had lain for an hour, I should suppose, though it may
+have been far longer, when, the harmonious tumult in my mind having
+somewhat relaxed, I became aware that my eyes were fixed on a strange,
+time-worn bas-relief on the rock opposite to me. This, after some
+pondering, I concluded to represent Pygmalion, as he awaited the
+quickening of his statue. The sculptor sat more rigid than the figure to
+which his eyes were turned. That seemed about to step from its pedestal
+and embrace the man, who waited rather than expected.
+
+"A lovely story," I said to myself. "This cave, now, with the bushes cut
+away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place as he
+would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his block of
+marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already clothed with
+form in the unseen hall of the sculptor's brain. And, indeed, if I
+mistake not," I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived
+at that moment through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small
+portion of the rock, bare of vegetation, "this very rock is marble,
+white enough and delicate enough for any statue, even if destined to
+become an ideal woman in the arms of the sculptor."
+
+I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which
+I had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster
+than ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it
+was alabaster. By an inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of
+impulse, I went on removing the moss from the surface of the stone;
+and soon saw that it was polished, or at least smooth, throughout. I
+continued my labour; and after clearing a space of about a couple of
+square feet, I observed what caused me to prosecute the work with more
+interest and care than before. For the ray of sunlight had now reached
+the spot I had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed
+its usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife had
+scratched the surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to
+have a definite limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more
+solid, white marble. I was careful to scratch no more. And first, a
+vague anticipation gave way to a startling sense of possibility; then,
+as I proceeded, one revelation after another produced the entrancing
+conviction, that under the crust of alabaster lay a dimly visible form
+in marble, but whether of man or woman I could not yet tell. I worked on
+as rapidly as the necessary care would permit; and when I had uncovered
+the whole mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a little way,
+so that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw before me
+with sufficient plainness--though at the same time with considerable
+indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of light the place
+admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself--a block of
+pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a reposing
+woman. She lay on one side, with her hand under her cheek, and her face
+towards me; but her hair had fallen partly over her face, so that I
+could not see the expression of the whole. What I did see appeared to
+me perfectly lovely; more near the face that had been born with me in
+my soul, than anything I had seen before in nature or art. The actual
+outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that the more than
+semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to account for
+the fact; and I conjectured that a light robe added its obscurity.
+Numberless histories passed through my mind of change of substance from
+enchantment and other causes, and of imprisonments such as this before
+me. I thought of the Prince of the Enchanted City, half marble and half
+a man; of Ariel; of Niobe; of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; of the
+bleeding trees; and many other histories. Even my adventure of the
+preceding evening with the lady of the beech-tree contributed to arouse
+the wild hope, that by some means life might be given to this form also,
+and that, breaking from her alabaster tomb, she might glorify my eyes
+with her presence. "For," I argued, "who can tell but this cave may be
+the home of Marble, and this, essential Marble--that spirit of marble
+which, present throughout, makes it capable of being moulded into any
+form? Then if she should awake! But how to awake her? A kiss awoke
+the Sleeping Beauty! a kiss cannot reach her through the incrusting
+alabaster." I kneeled, however, and kissed the pale coffin; but she
+slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, and the following stones--that
+trees should follow his music seemed nothing surprising now. Might not a
+song awake this form, that the glory of motion might for a time displace
+the loveliness of rest? Sweet sounds can go where kisses may not enter.
+I sat and thought. Now, although always delighting in music, I had never
+been gifted with the power of song, until I entered the fairy forest. I
+had a voice, and I had a true sense of sound; but when I tried to sing,
+the one would not content the other, and so I remained silent. This
+morning, however, I had found myself, ere I was aware, rejoicing in a
+song; but whether it was before or after I had eaten of the fruits
+of the forest, I could not satisfy myself. I concluded it was after,
+however; and that the increased impulse to sing I now felt, was in part
+owing to having drunk of the little well, which shone like a brilliant
+eye in a corner of the cave. I sat down on the ground by the "antenatal
+tomb," leaned upon it with my face towards the head of the figure
+within, and sang--the words and tones coming together, and inseparably
+connected, as if word and tone formed one thing; or, as if each word
+could be uttered only in that tone, and was incapable of distinction
+from it, except in idea, by an acute analysis. I sang something like
+this: but the words are only a dull representation of a state whose
+very elevation precluded the possibility of remembrance; and in which I
+presume the words really employed were as far above these, as that state
+transcended this wherein I recall it:
+
+            "Marble woman, vainly sleeping
+             In the very death of dreams!
+             Wilt thou--slumber from thee sweeping,
+             All but what with vision teems--
+             Hear my voice come through the golden
+             Mist of memory and hope;
+             And with shadowy smile embolden
+             Me with primal Death to cope?
+
+            "Thee the sculptors all pursuing,
+             Have embodied but their own;
+             Round their visions, form enduring,
+             Marble vestments thou hast thrown;
+             But thyself, in silence winding,
+             Thou hast kept eternally;
+             Thee they found not, many finding--
+             I have found thee: wake for me."
+
+
+As I sang, I looked earnestly at the face so vaguely revealed before me.
+I fancied, yet believed it to be but fancy, that through the dim veil
+of the alabaster, I saw a motion of the head as if caused by a sinking
+sigh. I gazed more earnestly, and concluded that it was but fancy.
+Neverthless I could not help singing again--
+
+            "Rest is now filled full of beauty,
+             And can give thee up, I ween;
+             Come thou forth, for other duty
+             Motion pineth for her queen.
+
+            "Or, if needing years to wake thee
+             From thy slumbrous solitudes,
+             Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
+             To the friendly, sleeping woods.
+
+             Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
+             Round thee storms would never rave;
+             And when need of rest is sorest,
+             Glide thou then into thy cave.
+
+            "Or, if still thou choosest rather
+             Marble, be its spell on me;
+             Let thy slumber round me gather,
+             Let another dream with thee!"
+
+
+Again I paused, and gazed through the stony shroud, as if, by very force
+of penetrative sight, I would clear every lineament of the lovely face.
+And now I thought the hand that had lain under the cheek, had slipped
+a little downward. But then I could not be sure that I had at first
+observed its position accurately. So I sang again; for the longing had
+grown into a passionate need of seeing her alive--
+
+            "Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I
+                Have set me singing by thy side,
+             Life hath forsook the upper sky,
+                And all the outer world hath died.
+
+            "Yea, I am dead; for thou hast drawn
+                My life all downward unto thee.
+             Dead moon of love! let twilight dawn:
+                Awake! and let the darkness flee.
+
+            "Cold lady of the lovely stone!
+                Awake! or I shall perish here;
+             And thou be never more alone,
+                My form and I for ages near.
+
+            "But words are vain; reject them all--
+                They utter but a feeble part:
+             Hear thou the depths from which they call,
+                The voiceless longing of my heart."
+
+
+There arose a slightly crashing sound. Like a sudden apparition that
+comes and is gone, a white form, veiled in a light robe of whiteness,
+burst upwards from the stone, stood, glided forth, and gleamed away
+towards the woods. For I followed to the mouth of the cave, as soon
+as the amazement and concentration of delight permitted the nerves of
+motion again to act; and saw the white form amidst the trees, as it
+crossed a little glade on the edge of the forest where the sunlight fell
+full, seeming to gather with intenser radiance on the one object that
+floated rather than flitted through its lake of beams. I gazed after her
+in a kind of despair; found, freed, lost! It seemed useless to follow,
+yet follow I must. I marked the direction she took; and without once
+looking round to the forsaken cave, I hastened towards the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+     "Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, rain down
+     upon him, and his happiness is unbounded."
+
+     "Thy red lips, like worms,
+         Travel over my cheek."
+                   --MOTHERWELL.
+
+But as I crossed the space between the foot of the hill and the forest,
+a vision of another kind delayed my steps. Through an opening to
+the westward flowed, like a stream, the rays of the setting sun, and
+overflowed with a ruddy splendour the open space where I was. And riding
+as it were down this stream towards me, came a horseman in what appeared
+red armour. From frontlet to tail, the horse likewise shone red in the
+sunset. I felt as if I must have seen the knight before; but as he drew
+near, I could recall no feature of his countenance. Ere he came up
+to me, however, I remembered the legend of Sir Percival in the rusty
+armour, which I had left unfinished in the old book in the cottage: it
+was of Sir Percival that he reminded me. And no wonder; for when he came
+close up to me, I saw that, from crest to heel, the whole surface of his
+armour was covered with a light rust. The golden spurs shone, but the
+iron greaves glowed in the sunlight. The MORNING STAR, which hung from
+his wrist, glittered and glowed with its silver and bronze. His whole
+appearance was terrible; but his face did not answer to this appearance.
+It was sad, even to gloominess; and something of shame seemed to cover
+it. Yet it was noble and high, though thus beclouded; and the form
+looked lofty, although the head drooped, and the whole frame was bowed
+as with an inward grief. The horse seemed to share in his master's
+dejection, and walked spiritless and slow. I noticed, too, that the
+white plume on his helmet was discoloured and drooping. "He has fallen
+in a joust with spears," I said to myself; "yet it becomes not a noble
+knight to be conquered in spirit because his body hath fallen." He
+appeared not to observe me, for he was riding past without looking up,
+and started into a warlike attitude the moment the first sound of my
+voice reached him. Then a flush, as of shame, covered all of his face
+that the lifted beaver disclosed. He returned my greeting with distant
+courtesy, and passed on. But suddenly, he reined up, sat a moment still,
+and then turning his horse, rode back to where I stood looking after
+him.
+
+"I am ashamed," he said, "to appear a knight, and in such a guise; but
+it behoves me to tell you to take warning from me, lest the same evil,
+in his kind, overtake the singer that has befallen the knight. Hast thou
+ever read the story of Sir Percival and the"--(here he shuddered, that
+his armour rang)--"Maiden of the Alder-tree?"
+
+"In part, I have," said I; "for yesterday, at the entrance of this
+forest, I found in a cottage the volume wherein it is recorded." "Then
+take heed," he rejoined; "for, see my armour--I put it off; and as it
+befell to him, so has it befallen to me. I that was proud am humble now.
+Yet is she terribly beautiful--beware. Never," he added, raising his
+head, "shall this armour be furbished, but by the blows of knightly
+encounter, until the last speck has disappeared from every spot where
+the battle-axe and sword of evil-doers, or noble foes, might fall; when
+I shall again lift my head, and say to my squire, 'Do thy duty once
+more, and make this armour shine.'"
+
+Before I could inquire further, he had struck spurs into his horse and
+galloped away, shrouded from my voice in the noise of his armour. For I
+called after him, anxious to know more about this fearful enchantress;
+but in vain--he heard me not. "Yet," I said to myself, "I have now
+been often warned; surely I shall be well on my guard; and I am fully
+resolved I shall not be ensnared by any beauty, however beautiful.
+Doubtless, some one man may escape, and I shall be he." So I went on
+into the wood, still hoping to find, in some one of its mysterious
+recesses, my lost lady of the marble. The sunny afternoon died into
+the loveliest twilight. Great bats began to flit about with their own
+noiseless flight, seemingly purposeless, because its objects are unseen.
+The monotonous music of the owl issued from all unexpected quarters in
+the half-darkness around me. The glow-worm was alight here and there,
+burning out into the great universe. The night-hawk heightened all the
+harmony and stillness with his oft-recurring, discordant jar.
+Numberless unknown sounds came out of the unknown dusk; but all were of
+twilight-kind, oppressing the heart as with a condensed atmosphere of
+dreamy undefined love and longing. The odours of night arose, and bathed
+me in that luxurious mournfulness peculiar to them, as if the plants
+whence they floated had been watered with bygone tears. Earth drew me
+towards her bosom; I felt as if I could fall down and kiss her. I forgot
+I was in Fairy Land, and seemed to be walking in a perfect night of
+our own old nursing earth. Great stems rose about me, uplifting a thick
+multitudinous roof above me of branches, and twigs, and leaves--the bird
+and insect world uplifted over mine, with its own landscapes, its own
+thickets, and paths, and glades, and dwellings; its own bird-ways and
+insect-delights. Great boughs crossed my path; great roots based the
+tree-columns, and mightily clasped the earth, strong to lift and strong
+to uphold. It seemed an old, old forest, perfect in forest ways and
+pleasures. And when, in the midst of this ecstacy, I remembered that
+under some close canopy of leaves, by some giant stem, or in some mossy
+cave, or beside some leafy well, sat the lady of the marble, whom my
+songs had called forth into the outer world, waiting (might it not
+be?) to meet and thank her deliverer in a twilight which would veil her
+confusion, the whole night became one dream-realm of joy, the central
+form of which was everywhere present, although unbeheld. Then,
+remembering how my songs seemed to have called her from the marble,
+piercing through the pearly shroud of alabaster--"Why," thought I,
+"should not my voice reach her now, through the ebon night that
+inwraps her." My voice burst into song so spontaneously that it seemed
+involuntarily.
+
+            "Not a sound
+             But, echoing in me,
+             Vibrates all around
+             With a blind delight,
+             Till it breaks on Thee,
+             Queen of Night!
+
+             Every tree,
+             O'ershadowing with gloom,
+             Seems to cover thee
+             Secret, dark, love-still'd,
+             In a holy room
+             Silence-filled.
+
+            "Let no moon
+             Creep up the heaven to-night;
+             I in darksome noon
+             Walking hopefully,
+             Seek my shrouded light--
+             Grope for thee!
+
+            "Darker grow
+             The borders of the dark!
+             Through the branches glow,
+             From the roof above,
+             Star and diamond-sparks
+             Light for love."
+
+
+Scarcely had the last sounds floated away from the hearing of my own
+ears, when I heard instead a low delicious laugh near me. It was not the
+laugh of one who would not be heard, but the laugh of one who has just
+received something long and patiently desired--a laugh that ends in
+a low musical moan. I started, and, turning sideways, saw a dim white
+figure seated beside an intertwining thicket of smaller trees and
+underwood.
+
+"It is my white lady!" I said, and flung myself on the ground beside
+her; striving, through the gathering darkness, to get a glimpse of the
+form which had broken its marble prison at my call.
+
+"It is your white lady!" said the sweetest voice, in reply, sending a
+thrill of speechless delight through a heart which all the love-charms
+of the preceding day and evening had been tempering for this culminating
+hour. Yet, if I would have confessed it, there was something either in
+the sound of the voice, although it seemed sweetness itself, or else in
+this yielding which awaited no gradation of gentle approaches, that did
+not vibrate harmoniously with the beat of my inward music. And likewise,
+when, taking her hand in mine, I drew closer to her, looking for the
+beauty of her face, which, indeed, I found too plenteously, a cold
+shiver ran through me; but "it is the marble," I said to myself, and
+heeded it not.
+
+She withdrew her hand from mine, and after that would scarce allow me to
+touch her. It seemed strange, after the fulness of her first greeting,
+that she could not trust me to come close to her. Though her words
+were those of a lover, she kept herself withdrawn as if a mile of space
+interposed between us.
+
+"Why did you run away from me when you woke in the cave?" I said.
+
+"Did I?" she returned. "That was very unkind of me; but I did not know
+better."
+
+"I wish I could see you. The night is very dark."
+
+"So it is. Come to my grotto. There is light there."
+
+"Have you another cave, then?"
+
+"Come and see."
+
+But she did not move until I rose first, and then she was on her feet
+before I could offer my hand to help her. She came close to my side, and
+conducted me through the wood. But once or twice, when, involuntarily
+almost, I was about to put my arm around her as we walked on through the
+warm gloom, she sprang away several paces, always keeping her face full
+towards me, and then stood looking at me, slightly stooping, in the
+attitude of one who fears some half-seen enemy. It was too dark to
+discern the expression of her face. Then she would return and walk close
+beside me again, as if nothing had happened. I thought this strange;
+but, besides that I had almost, as I said before, given up the attempt
+to account for appearances in Fairy Land, I judged that it would be very
+unfair to expect from one who had slept so long and had been so suddenly
+awakened, a behaviour correspondent to what I might unreflectingly look
+for. I knew not what she might have been dreaming about. Besides, it was
+possible that, while her words were free, her sense of touch might be
+exquisitely delicate.
+
+At length, after walking a long way in the woods, we arrived at another
+thicket, through the intertexture of which was glimmering a pale rosy
+light.
+
+ "Push aside the branches," she said, "and make room for us to
+enter."
+
+I did as she told me.
+
+"Go in," she said; "I will follow you."
+
+I did as she desired, and found myself in a little cave, not very unlike
+the marble cave. It was festooned and draperied with all kinds of
+green that cling to shady rocks. In the furthest corner, half-hidden in
+leaves, through which it glowed, mingling lovely shadows between them,
+burned a bright rosy flame on a little earthen lamp. The lady glided
+round by the wall from behind me, still keeping her face towards me, and
+seated herself in the furthest corner, with her back to the lamp, which
+she hid completely from my view. I then saw indeed a form of perfect
+loveliness before me. Almost it seemed as if the light of the rose-lamp
+shone through her (for it could not be reflected from her); such a
+delicate shade of pink seemed to shadow what in itself must be a marbly
+whiteness of hue. I discovered afterwards, however, that there was one
+thing in it I did not like; which was, that the white part of the eye
+was tinged with the same slight roseate hue as the rest of the form. It
+is strange that I cannot recall her features; but they, as well as her
+somewhat girlish figure, left on me simply and only the impression of
+intense loveliness. I lay down at her feet, and gazed up into her face
+as I lay. She began, and told me a strange tale, which, likewise, I
+cannot recollect; but which, at every turn and every pause, somehow or
+other fixed my eyes and thoughts upon her extreme beauty; seeming always
+to culminate in something that had a relation, revealed or hidden, but
+always operative, with her own loveliness. I lay entranced. It was a
+tale which brings back a feeling as of snows and tempests; torrents
+and water-sprites; lovers parted for long, and meeting at last; with a
+gorgeous summer night to close up the whole. I listened till she and I
+were blended with the tale; till she and I were the whole history. And
+we had met at last in this same cave of greenery, while the summer night
+hung round us heavy with love, and the odours that crept through the
+silence from the sleeping woods were the only signs of an outer world
+that invaded our solitude. What followed I cannot clearly remember. The
+succeeding horror almost obliterated it. I woke as a grey dawn stole
+into the cave. The damsel had disappeared; but in the shrubbery, at the
+mouth of the cave, stood a strange horrible object. It looked like an
+open coffin set up on one end; only that the part for the head and
+neck was defined from the shoulder-part. In fact, it was a rough
+representation of the human frame, only hollow, as if made of decaying
+bark torn from a tree.
+
+It had arms, which were only slightly seamed, down from the
+shoulder-blade by the elbow, as if the bark had healed again from the
+cut of a knife. But the arms moved, and the hand and the fingers were
+tearing asunder a long silky tress of hair. The thing turned round--it
+had for a face and front those of my enchantress, but now of a pale
+greenish hue in the light of the morning, and with dead lustreless eyes.
+In the horror of the moment, another fear invaded me. I put my hand to
+my waist, and found indeed that my girdle of beech-leaves was gone.
+Hair again in her hands, she was tearing it fiercely. Once more, as she
+turned, she laughed a low laugh, but now full of scorn and derision; and
+then she said, as if to a companion with whom she had been talking while
+I slept, "There he is; you can take him now." I lay still, petrified
+with dismay and fear; for I now saw another figure beside her, which,
+although vague and indistinct, I yet recognised but too well. It was the
+Ash-tree. My beauty was the Maid of the Alder! and she was giving
+me, spoiled of my only availing defence, into the hands of my awful foe.
+The Ash bent his Gorgon-head, and entered the cave. I could not stir.
+He drew near me. His ghoul-eyes and his ghastly face fascinated me.
+He came stooping, with the hideous hand outstretched, like a beast of
+prey. I had given myself up to a death of unfathomable horror, when,
+suddenly, and just as he was on the point of seizing me, the dull,
+heavy blow of an axe echoed through the wood, followed by others in
+quick repetition. The Ash shuddered and groaned, withdrew the
+outstretched hand, retreated backwards to the mouth of the cave, then
+turned and disappeared amongst the trees. The other walking Death
+looked at me once, with a careless dislike on her beautifully moulded
+features; then, heedless any more to conceal her hollow deformity,
+turned her frightful back and likewise vanished amid the green
+obscurity without. I lay and wept. The Maid of the Alder-tree had
+befooled me--nearly slain me--in spite of all the warnings I had
+received from those who knew my danger.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+         "Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes,
+          A little I am hurt, but yett not slaine;
+          I'le but lye downe and bleede awhile,
+          And then I'le rise and fight againe."
+                        Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+But I could not remain where I was any longer, though the daylight was
+hateful to me, and the thought of the great, innocent, bold sunrise
+unendurable. Here there was no well to cool my face, smarting with the
+bitterness of my own tears. Nor would I have washed in the well of
+that grotto, had it flowed clear as the rivers of Paradise. I rose, and
+feebly left the sepulchral cave. I took my way I knew not whither, but
+still towards the sunrise. The birds were singing; but not for me. All
+the creatures spoke a language of their own, with which I had nothing to
+do, and to which I cared not to find the key any more.
+
+I walked listlessly along. What distressed me most--more even than my
+own folly--was the perplexing question, How can beauty and ugliness
+dwell so near? Even with her altered complexion and her face of dislike;
+disenchanted of the belief that clung around her; known for a
+living, walking sepulchre, faithless, deluding, traitorous; I felt
+notwithstanding all this, that she was beautiful. Upon this I pondered
+with undiminished perplexity, though not without some gain. Then I began
+to make surmises as to the mode of my deliverance; and concluded that
+some hero, wandering in search of adventure, had heard how the forest
+was infested; and, knowing it was useless to attack the evil thing in
+person, had assailed with his battle-axe the body in which he dwelt, and
+on which he was dependent for his power of mischief in the wood. "Very
+likely," I thought, "the repentant-knight, who warned me of the evil
+which has befallen me, was busy retrieving his lost honour, while I was
+sinking into the same sorrow with himself; and, hearing of the dangerous
+and mysterious being, arrived at his tree in time to save me from being
+dragged to its roots, and buried like carrion, to nourish him for
+yet deeper insatiableness." I found afterwards that my conjecture was
+correct. I wondered how he had fared when his blows recalled the Ash
+himself, and that too I learned afterwards.
+
+I walked on the whole day, with intervals of rest, but without food; for
+I could not have eaten, had any been offered me; till, in the afternoon,
+I seemed to approach the outskirts of the forest, and at length arrived
+at a farm-house. An unspeakable joy arose in my heart at beholding an
+abode of human beings once more, and I hastened up to the door, and
+knocked. A kind-looking, matronly woman, still handsome, made her
+appearance; who, as soon as she saw me, said kindly, "Ah, my poor boy,
+you have come from the wood! Were you in it last night?"
+
+I should have ill endured, the day before, to be called BOY; but now the
+motherly kindness of the word went to my heart; and, like a boy indeed,
+I burst into tears. She soothed me right gently; and, leading me into
+a room, made me lie down on a settle, while she went to find me some
+refreshment. She soon returned with food, but I could not eat. She
+almost compelled me to swallow some wine, when I revived sufficiently to
+be able to answer some of her questions. I told her the whole story.
+
+"It is just as I feared," she said; "but you are now for the night
+beyond the reach of any of these dreadful creatures. It is no wonder
+they could delude a child like you. But I must beg you, when my husband
+comes in, not to say a word about these things; for he thinks me even
+half crazy for believing anything of the sort. But I must believe my
+senses, as he cannot believe beyond his, which give him no intimations
+of this kind. I think he could spend the whole of Midsummer-eve in
+the wood and come back with the report that he saw nothing worse than
+himself. Indeed, good man, he would hardly find anything better than
+himself, if he had seven more senses given him."
+
+"But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any heart
+at all--without any place even for a heart to live in."
+
+"I cannot quite tell," she said; "but I am sure she would not look so
+beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful
+than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with
+her before you saw her beauty, mistaking her for the lady of the
+marble--another kind altogether, I should think. But the chief thing
+that makes her beautiful is this: that, although she loves no man, she
+loves the love of any man; and when she finds one in her power, her
+desire to bewitch him and gain his love (not for the sake of his love
+either, but that she may be conscious anew of her own beauty,
+through the admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely--with a
+self-destructive beauty, though; for it is that which is constantly
+wearing her away within, till, at last, the decay will reach her face,
+and her whole front, when all the lovely mask of nothing will fall to
+pieces, and she be vanished for ever. So a wise man, whom she met in
+the wood some years ago, and who, I think, for all his wisdom, fared no
+better than you, told me, when, like you, he spent the next night here,
+and recounted to me his adventures."
+
+I thanked her very warmly for her solution, though it was but partial;
+wondering much that in her, as in woman I met on my first entering the
+forest, there should be such superiority to her apparent condition. Here
+she left me to take some rest; though, indeed, I was too much agitated
+to rest in any other way than by simply ceasing to move.
+
+In half an hour, I heard a heavy step approach and enter the house. A
+jolly voice, whose slight huskiness appeared to proceed from overmuch
+laughter, called out "Betsy, the pigs' trough is quite empty, and that
+is a pity. Let them swill, lass! They're of no use but to get fat. Ha!
+ha! ha! Gluttony is not forbidden in their commandments. Ha! ha! ha!"
+The very voice, kind and jovial, seemed to disrobe the room of the
+strange look which all new places wear--to disenchant it out of the
+realm of the ideal into that of the actual. It began to look as if I
+had known every corner of it for twenty years; and when, soon after, the
+dame came and fetched me to partake of their early supper, the grasp of
+his great hand, and the harvest-moon of his benevolent face, which was
+needed to light up the rotundity of the globe beneath it, produced such
+a reaction in me, that, for a moment, I could hardly believe that there
+was a Fairy Land; and that all I had passed through since I left home,
+had not been the wandering dream of a diseased imagination, operating on
+a too mobile frame, not merely causing me indeed to travel, but peopling
+for me with vague phantoms the regions through which my actual steps
+had led me. But the next moment my eye fell upon a little girl who was
+sitting in the chimney-corner, with a little book open on her knee, from
+which she had apparently just looked up to fix great inquiring eyes upon
+me. I believed in Fairy Land again. She went on with her reading, as
+soon as she saw that I observed her looking at me. I went near, and
+peeping over her shoulder, saw that she was reading "The History of
+Graciosa and Percinet."
+
+"Very improving book, sir," remarked the old farmer, with a
+good-humoured laugh. "We are in the very hottest corner of Fairy Land
+here. Ha! ha! Stormy night, last night, sir."
+
+"Was it, indeed?" I rejoined. "It was not so with me. A lovelier night I
+never saw." "Indeed! Where were you last night?"
+
+"I spent it in the forest. I had lost my way."
+
+"Ah! then, perhaps, you will be able to convince my good woman, that
+there is nothing very remarkable about the forest; for, to tell the
+truth, it bears but a bad name in these parts. I dare say you saw
+nothing worse than yourself there?"
+
+"I hope I did," was my inward reply; but, for an audible one, I
+contented myself with saying, "Why, I certainly did see some appearances
+I could hardly account for; but that is nothing to be wondered at in an
+unknown wild forest, and with the uncertain light of the moon alone to
+go by."
+
+"Very true! you speak like a sensible man, sir. We have but few sensible
+folks round about us. Now, you would hardly credit it, but my wife
+believes every fairy-tale that ever was written. I cannot account for
+it. She is a most sensible woman in everything else."
+
+"But should not that make you treat her belief with something of
+respect, though you cannot share in it yourself?"
+
+"Yes, that is all very well in theory; but when you come to live
+every day in the midst of absurdity, it is far less easy to behave
+respectfully to it. Why, my wife actually believes the story of the
+'White Cat.' You know it, I dare say."
+
+"I read all these tales when a child, and know that one especially
+well."
+
+"But, father," interposed the little girl in the chimney-corner, "you
+know quite well that mother is descended from that very princess who was
+changed by the wicked fairy into a white cat. Mother has told me so a
+many times, and you ought to believe everything she says."
+
+"I can easily believe that," rejoined the farmer, with another fit of
+laughter; "for, the other night, a mouse came gnawing and scratching
+beneath the floor, and would not let us go to sleep. Your mother sprang
+out of bed, and going as near it as she could, mewed so infernally like
+a great cat, that the noise ceased instantly. I believe the poor mouse
+died of the fright, for we have never heard it again. Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+The son, an ill-looking youth, who had entered during the conversation,
+joined in his father's laugh; but his laugh was very different from the
+old man's: it was polluted with a sneer. I watched him, and saw that,
+as soon as it was over, he looked scared, as if he dreaded some evil
+consequences to follow his presumption. The woman stood near, waiting
+till we should seat ourselves at the table, and listening to it all
+with an amused air, which had something in it of the look with which one
+listens to the sententious remarks of a pompous child. We sat down to
+supper, and I ate heartily. My bygone distresses began already to look
+far off.
+
+"In what direction are you going?" asked the old man.
+
+"Eastward," I replied; nor could I have given a more definite answer.
+"Does the forest extend much further in that direction?"
+
+"Oh! for miles and miles; I do not know how far. For although I have
+lived on the borders of it all my life, I have been too busy to make
+journeys of discovery into it. Nor do I see what I could discover. It
+is only trees and trees, till one is sick of them. By the way, if you
+follow the eastward track from here, you will pass close to what the
+children say is the very house of the ogre that Hop-o'-my-Thumb visited,
+and ate his little daughters with the crowns of gold."
+
+"Oh, father! ate his little daughters! No; he only changed their gold
+crowns for nightcaps; and the great long-toothed ogre killed them in
+mistake; but I do not think even he ate them, for you know they were his
+own little ogresses."
+
+"Well, well, child; you know all about it a great deal better than I do.
+However, the house has, of course, in such a foolish neighbourhood as
+this, a bad enough name; and I must confess there is a woman living
+in it, with teeth long enough, and white enough too, for the lineal
+descendant of the greatest ogre that ever was made. I think you had
+better not go near her."
+
+In such talk as this the night wore on. When supper was finished, which
+lasted some time, my hostess conducted me to my chamber.
+
+"If you had not had enough of it already," she said, "I would have put
+you in another room, which looks towards the forest; and where you
+would most likely have seen something more of its inhabitants. For they
+frequently pass the window, and even enter the room sometimes. Strange
+creatures spend whole nights in it, at certain seasons of the year. I am
+used to it, and do not mind it. No more does my little girl, who sleeps
+in it always. But this room looks southward towards the open country,
+and they never show themselves here; at least I never saw any."
+
+I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experience that I might have, of
+the inhabitants of Fairy Land; but the effect of the farmer's company,
+and of my own later adventures, was such, that I chose rather an
+undisturbed night in my more human quarters; which, with their clean
+white curtains and white linen, were very inviting to my weariness.
+
+In the morning I awoke refreshed, after a profound and dreamless sleep.
+The sun was high, when I looked out of the window, shining over a wide,
+undulating, cultivated country. Various garden-vegetables were growing
+beneath my window. Everything was radiant with clear sunlight. The
+dew-drops were sparkling their busiest; the cows in a near-by field were
+eating as if they had not been at it all day yesterday; the maids were
+singing at their work as they passed to and fro between the out-houses:
+I did not believe in Fairy Land. I went down, and found the family
+already at breakfast. But before I entered the room where they sat, the
+little girl came to me, and looked up in my face, as though she wanted
+to say something to me. I stooped towards her; she put her arms round my
+neck, and her mouth to my ear, and whispered--
+
+"A white lady has been flitting about the house all night."
+
+"No whispering behind doors!" cried the farmer; and we entered together.
+"Well, how have you slept? No bogies, eh?"
+
+"Not one, thank you; I slept uncommonly well."
+
+"I am glad to hear it. Come and breakfast."
+
+After breakfast, the farmer and his son went out; and I was left alone
+with the mother and daughter.
+
+"When I looked out of the window this morning," I said, "I felt almost
+certain that Fairy Land was all a delusion of my brain; but whenever I
+come near you or your little daughter, I feel differently. Yet I could
+persuade myself, after my last adventures, to go back, and have nothing
+more to do with such strange beings."
+
+"How will you go back?" said the woman.
+
+"Nay, that I do not know."
+
+"Because I have heard, that, for those who enter Fairy Land, there is no
+way of going back. They must go on, and go through it. How, I do not in
+the least know."
+
+"That is quite the impression on my own mind. Something compels me to go
+on, as if my only path was onward, but I feel less inclined this morning
+to continue my adventures."
+
+"Will you come and see my little child's room? She sleeps in the one I
+told you of, looking towards the forest."
+
+"Willingly," I said.
+
+So we went together, the little girl running before to open the door for
+us. It was a large room, full of old-fashioned furniture, that seemed to
+have once belonged to some great house.
+
+The window was built with a low arch, and filled with lozenge-shaped
+panes. The wall was very thick, and built of solid stone. I could see
+that part of the house had been erected against the remains of some old
+castle or abbey, or other great building; the fallen stones of which
+had probably served to complete it. But as soon as I looked out of the
+window, a gush of wonderment and longing flowed over my soul like the
+tide of a great sea. Fairy Land lay before me, and drew me towards it
+with an irresistible attraction. The trees bathed their great heads in
+the waves of the morning, while their roots were planted deep in gloom;
+save where on the borders the sunshine broke against their stems, or
+swept in long streams through their avenues, washing with brighter hue
+all the leaves over which it flowed; revealing the rich brown of the
+decayed leaves and fallen pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the
+long grasses and tiny forests of moss that covered the channel over
+which it passed in motionless rivers of light. I turned hurriedly to bid
+my hostess farewell without further delay. She smiled at my haste, but
+with an anxious look.
+
+"You had better not go near the house of the ogre, I think. My son will
+show you into another path, which will join the first beyond it."
+
+Not wishing to be headstrong or too confident any more, I agreed;
+and having taken leave of my kind entertainers, went into the wood,
+accompanied by the youth. He scarcely spoke as we went along; but he led
+me through the trees till we struck upon a path. He told me to follow
+it, and, with a muttered "good morning" left me.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+     "I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole."
+     GOETHE.--Mephistopheles in Faust.
+
+My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not
+regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like
+life itself--not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned,
+that the best way to manage some kinds of pain filled thoughts, is to dare
+them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they
+are tired; and you find you still have a residue of life they cannot
+kill. So, better and worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing
+in the forest. In the middle of this clearing stood a long, low hut,
+built with one end against a single tall cypress, which rose like a
+spire to the building. A vague misgiving crossed my mind when I saw it;
+but I must needs go closer, and look through a little half-open door,
+near the opposite end from the cypress. Window I saw none. On peeping
+in, and looking towards the further end, I saw a lamp burning, with
+a dim, reddish flame, and the head of a woman, bent downwards, as if
+reading by its light. I could see nothing more for a few moments. At
+length, as my eyes got used to the dimness of the place, I saw that the
+part of the rude building near me was used for household purposes;
+for several rough utensils lay here and there, and a bed stood in the
+corner.
+
+An irresistible attraction caused me to enter. The woman never raised
+her face, the upper part of which alone I could see distinctly; but, as
+soon as I stepped within the threshold, she began to read aloud, in a
+low and not altogether unpleasing voice, from an ancient little volume
+which she held open with one hand on the table upon which stood the
+lamp. What she read was something like this:
+
+"So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever have
+an end. So, then, is it eternal. The negation of aught else, is its
+affirmation. Where the light cannot come, there abideth the darkness.
+The light doth but hollow a mine out of the infinite extension of the
+darkness. And ever upon the steps of the light treadeth the darkness;
+yea, springeth in fountains and wells amidst it, from the secret
+channels of its mighty sea. Truly, man is but a passing flame, moving
+unquietly amid the surrounding rest of night; without which he yet could
+not be, and whereof he is in part compounded."
+
+As I drew nearer, and she read on, she moved a little to turn a leaf
+of the dark old volume, and I saw that her face was sallow and slightly
+forbidding. Her forehead was high, and her black eyes repressedly quiet.
+But she took no notice of me. This end of the cottage, if cottage it
+could be called, was destitute of furniture, except the table with the
+lamp, and the chair on which the woman sat. In one corner was a door,
+apparently of a cupboard in the wall, but which might lead to a room
+beyond. Still the irresistible desire which had made me enter the
+building urged me: I must open that door, and see what was beyond it.
+I approached, and laid my hand on the rude latch. Then the woman spoke,
+but without lifting her head or looking at me: "You had better not open
+that door." This was uttered quite quietly; and she went on with her
+reading, partly in silence, partly aloud; but both modes seemed equally
+intended for herself alone. The prohibition, however, only increased my
+desire to see; and as she took no further notice, I gently opened the
+door to its full width, and looked in. At first, I saw nothing worthy
+of attention. It seemed a common closet, with shelves on each hand, on
+which stood various little necessaries for the humble uses of a cottage.
+In one corner stood one or two brooms, in another a hatchet and other
+common tools; showing that it was in use every hour of the day for
+household purposes. But, as I looked, I saw that there were no shelves
+at the back, and that an empty space went in further; its termination
+appearing to be a faintly glimmering wall or curtain, somewhat less,
+however, than the width and height of the doorway where I stood. But,
+as I continued looking, for a few seconds, towards this faintly luminous
+limit, my eyes came into true relation with their object. All at once,
+with such a shiver as when one is suddenly conscious of the presence of
+another in a room where he has, for hours, considered himself alone, I
+saw that the seemingly luminous extremity was a sky, as of night, beheld
+through the long perspective of a narrow, dark passage, through what, or
+built of what, I could not tell. As I gazed, I clearly discerned two or
+three stars glimmering faintly in the distant blue. But, suddenly, and
+as if it had been running fast from a far distance for this very point,
+and had turned the corner without abating its swiftness, a dark figure
+sped into and along the passage from the blue opening at the remote end.
+I started back and shuddered, but kept looking, for I could not help it.
+On and on it came, with a speedy approach but delayed arrival; till, at
+last, through the many gradations of approach, it seemed to come within
+the sphere of myself, rushed up to me, and passed me into the cottage.
+All I could tell of its appearance was, that it seemed to be a dark
+human figure. Its motion was entirely noiseless, and might be called a
+gliding, were it not that it appeared that of a runner, but with ghostly
+feet. I had moved back yet a little to let him pass me, and looked round
+after him instantly. I could not see him.
+
+"Where is he?" I said, in some alarm, to the woman, who still sat
+reading.
+
+"There, on the floor, behind you," she said, pointing with her arm
+half-outstretched, but not lifting her eyes. I turned and looked, but
+saw nothing. Then with a feeling that there was yet something behind me,
+I looked round over my shoulder; and there, on the ground, lay a black
+shadow, the size of a man. It was so dark, that I could see it in the
+dim light of the lamp, which shone full upon it, apparently without
+thinning at all the intensity of its hue.
+
+"I told you," said the woman, "you had better not look into that
+closet."
+
+"What is it?" I said, with a growing sense of horror.
+
+"It is only your shadow that has found you," she replied. "Everybody's
+shadow is ranging up and down looking for him. I believe you call it by
+a different name in your world: yours has found you, as every person's
+is almost certain to do who looks into that closet, especially after
+meeting one in the forest, whom I dare say you have met."
+
+Here, for the first time, she lifted her head, and looked full at me:
+her mouth was full of long, white, shining teeth; and I knew that I was
+in the house of the ogre. I could not speak, but turned and left the
+house, with the shadow at my heels. "A nice sort of valet to have," I
+said to myself bitterly, as I stepped into the sunshine, and, looking
+over my shoulder, saw that it lay yet blacker in the full blaze of the
+sunlight. Indeed, only when I stood between it and the sun, was the
+blackness at all diminished. I was so bewildered--stunned--both by the
+event itself and its suddenness, that I could not at all realise to
+myself what it would be to have such a constant and strange attendance;
+but with a dim conviction that my present dislike would soon grow to
+loathing, I took my dreary way through the wood.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+        "O lady! we receive but what we give,
+         And in our life alone does nature live:
+         Ours is her wedding garments ours her shrorwd!
+                .  .  .  .  .
+         Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth,
+         A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud,
+
+         Enveloping the Earth--
+         And from the soul itself must there be sent
+         A sweet and potent voice of its own birth,
+         Of all sweet sounds the life and element!"
+                                        COLERIDGE.
+
+From this time, until I arrived at the palace of Fairy Land, I can
+attempt no consecutive account of my wanderings and adventures.
+Everything, henceforward, existed for me in its relation to my
+attendant. What influence he exercised upon everything into contact with
+which I was brought, may be understood from a few detached instances. To
+begin with this very day on which he first joined me: after I had walked
+heartlessly along for two or three hours, I was very weary, and lay
+down to rest in a most delightful part of the forest, carpeted with wild
+flowers. I lay for half an hour in a dull repose, and then got up to
+pursue my way. The flowers on the spot where I had lain were crushed to
+the earth: but I saw that they would soon lift their heads and rejoice
+again in the sun and air. Not so those on which my shadow had lain. The
+very outline of it could be traced in the withered lifeless grass,
+and the scorched and shrivelled flowers which stood there, dead, and
+hopeless of any resurrection. I shuddered, and hastened away with sad
+forebodings.
+
+In a few days, I had reason to dread an extension of its baleful
+influences from the fact, that it was no longer confined to one position
+in regard to myself. Hitherto, when seized with an irresistible desire
+to look on my evil demon (which longing would unaccountably seize me at
+any moment, returning at longer or shorter intervals, sometimes every
+minute), I had to turn my head backwards, and look over my shoulder; in
+which position, as long as I could retain it, I was fascinated. But one
+day, having come out on a clear grassy hill, which commanded a glorious
+prospect, though of what I cannot now tell, my shadow moved round, and
+came in front of me. And, presently, a new manifestation increased
+my distress. For it began to coruscate, and shoot out on all sides a
+radiation of dim shadow. These rays of gloom issued from the central
+shadow as from a black sun, lengthening and shortening with continual
+change. But wherever a ray struck, that part of earth, or sea, or
+sky, became void, and desert, and sad to my heart. On this, the first
+development of its new power, one ray shot out beyond the rest, seeming
+to lengthen infinitely, until it smote the great sun on the face, which
+withered and darkened beneath the blow. I turned away and went on. The
+shadow retreated to its former position; and when I looked again, it
+had drawn in all its spears of darkness, and followed like a dog at my
+heels.
+
+Once, as I passed by a cottage, there came out a lovely fairy child,
+with two wondrous toys, one in each hand. The one was the tube through
+which the fairy-gifted poet looks when he beholds the same thing
+everywhere; the other that through which he looks when he combines into
+new forms of loveliness those images of beauty which his own choice has
+gathered from all regions wherein he has travelled. Round the child's
+head was an aureole of emanating rays. As I looked at him in wonder and
+delight, round crept from behind me the something dark, and the child
+stood in my shadow. Straightway he was a commonplace boy, with a rough
+broad-brimmed straw hat, through which brim the sun shone from behind.
+The toys he carried were a multiplying-glass and a kaleidoscope. I
+sighed and departed.
+
+One evening, as a great silent flood of western gold flowed through an
+avenue in the woods, down the stream, just as when I saw him first, came
+the sad knight, riding on his chestnut steed.
+
+But his armour did not shine half so red as when I saw him first.
+
+Many a blow of mighty sword and axe, turned aside by the strength of
+his mail, and glancing adown the surface, had swept from its path the
+fretted rust, and the glorious steel had answered the kindly blow with
+the thanks of returning light. These streaks and spots made his armour
+look like the floor of a forest in the sunlight. His forehead was higher
+than before, for the contracting wrinkles were nearly gone; and the
+sadness that remained on his face was the sadness of a dewy summer
+twilight, not that of a frosty autumn morn. He, too, had met the
+Alder-maiden as I, but he had plunged into the torrent of mighty deeds,
+and the stain was nearly washed away. No shadow followed him. He had
+not entered the dark house; he had not had time to open the closet door.
+"Will he ever look in?" I said to myself. "MUST his shadow find him some
+day?" But I could not answer my own questions.
+
+We travelled together for two days, and I began to love him. It was
+plain that he suspected my story in some degree; and I saw him once or
+twice looking curiously and anxiously at my attendant gloom, which all
+this time had remained very obsequiously behind me; but I offered no
+explanation, and he asked none. Shame at my neglect of his warning, and
+a horror which shrunk from even alluding to its cause, kept me silent;
+till, on the evening of the second day, some noble words from my
+companion roused all my heart; and I was at the point of falling on
+his neck, and telling him the whole story; seeking, if not for
+helpful advice, for of that I was hopeless, yet for the comfort of
+sympathy--when round slid the shadow and inwrapt my friend; and I could
+not trust him.
+
+The glory of his brow vanished; the light of his eye grew cold; and I
+held my peace. The next morning we parted.
+
+But the most dreadful thing of all was, that I now began to feel
+something like satisfaction in the presence of the shadow. I began to
+be rather vain of my attendant, saying to myself, "In a land like this,
+with so many illusions everywhere, I need his aid to disenchant the
+things around me. He does away with all appearances, and shows me things
+in their true colour and form. And I am not one to be fooled with the
+vanities of the common crowd. I will not see beauty where there is
+none. I will dare to behold things as they are. And if I live in a waste
+instead of a paradise, I will live knowing where I live." But of this
+a certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite cured me,
+turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and distrust. It
+was thus:
+
+One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the wood in
+a direction at right angles to my path. She came along singing and
+dancing, happy as a child, though she seemed almost a woman. In her
+hands--now in one, now in another--she carried a small globe, bright and
+clear as the purest crystal. This seemed at once her plaything and her
+greatest treasure. At one moment, you would have thought her utterly
+careless of it, and at another, overwhelmed with anxiety for its safety.
+But I believe she was taking care of it all the time, perhaps not least
+when least occupied about it. She stopped by me with a smile, and bade
+me good day with the sweetest voice. I felt a wonderful liking to the
+child--for she produced on me more the impression of a child, though my
+understanding told me differently. We talked a little, and then walked
+on together in the direction I had been pursuing. I asked her about the
+globe she carried, but getting no definite answer, I held out my hand
+to take it. She drew back, and said, but smiling almost invitingly the
+while, "You must not touch it;"--then, after a moment's pause--"Or if
+you do, it must be very gently." I touched it with a finger. A slight
+vibratory motion arose in it, accompanied, or perhaps manifested, by
+a faint sweet sound. I touched it again, and the sound increased. I
+touched it the third time: a tiny torrent of harmony rolled out of the
+little globe. She would not let me touch it any more.
+
+We travelled on together all that day. She left me when twilight came
+on; but next day, at noon, she met me as before, and again we travelled
+till evening. The third day she came once more at noon, and we walked on
+together. Now, though we had talked about a great many things connected
+with Fairy Land, and the life she had led hitherto, I had never been
+able to learn anything about the globe. This day, however, as we went
+on, the shadow glided round and inwrapt the maiden. It could not change
+her. But my desire to know about the globe, which in his gloom began to
+waver as with an inward light, and to shoot out flashes of many-coloured
+flame, grew irresistible. I put out both my hands and laid hold of it.
+It began to sound as before. The sound rapidly increased, till it grew
+a low tempest of harmony, and the globe trembled, and quivered, and
+throbbed between my hands. I had not the heart to pull it away from the
+maiden, though I held it in spite of her attempts to take it from me;
+yes, I shame to say, in spite of her prayers, and, at last, her tears.
+The music went on growing in, intensity and complication of tones, and
+the globe vibrated and heaved; till at last it burst in our hands, and
+a black vapour broke upwards from out of it; then turned, as if blown
+sideways, and enveloped the maiden, hiding even the shadow in its
+blackness. She held fast the fragments, which I abandoned, and fled from
+me into the forest in the direction whence she had come, wailing like
+a child, and crying, "You have broken my globe; my globe is broken--my
+globe is broken!" I followed her, in the hope of comforting her; but
+had not pursued her far, before a sudden cold gust of wind bowed the
+tree-tops above us, and swept through their stems around us; a great
+cloud overspread the day, and a fierce tempest came on, in which I lost
+sight of her. It lies heavy on my heart to this hour. At night, ere I
+fall asleep, often, whatever I may be thinking about, I suddenly hear
+her voice, crying out, "You have broken my globe; my globe is broken;
+ah, my globe!"
+
+Here I will mention one more strange thing; but whether this peculiarity
+was owing to my shadow at all, I am not able to assure myself. I came
+to a village, the inhabitants of which could not at first sight be
+distinguished from the dwellers in our land. They rather avoided than
+sought my company, though they were very pleasant when I addressed them.
+But at last I observed, that whenever I came within a certain distance
+of any one of them, which distance, however, varied with different
+individuals, the whole appearance of the person began to change; and
+this change increased in degree as I approached. When I receded to the
+former distance, the former appearance was restored. The nature of the
+change was grotesque, following no fixed rule. The nearest resemblance
+to it that I know, is the distortion produced in your countenance when
+you look at it as reflected in a concave or convex surface--say, either
+side of a bright spoon. Of this phenomenon I first became aware in
+rather a ludicrous way. My host's daughter was a very pleasant pretty
+girl, who made herself more agreeable to me than most of those about me.
+For some days my companion-shadow had been less obtrusive than usual;
+and such was the reaction of spirits occasioned by the simple mitigation
+of torment, that, although I had cause enough besides to be gloomy, I
+felt light and comparatively happy. My impression is, that she was quite
+aware of the law of appearances that existed between the people of the
+place and myself, and had resolved to amuse herself at my expense; for
+one evening, after some jesting and raillery, she, somehow or other,
+provoked me to attempt to kiss her. But she was well defended from
+any assault of the kind. Her countenance became, of a sudden, absurdly
+hideous; the pretty mouth was elongated and otherwise amplified
+sufficiently to have allowed of six simultaneous kisses. I started back
+in bewildered dismay; she burst into the merriest fit of laughter, and
+ran from the room. I soon found that the same undefinable law of change
+operated between me and all the other villagers; and that, to feel I was
+in pleasant company, it was absolutely necessary for me to discover and
+observe the right focal distance between myself and each one with whom
+I had to do. This done, all went pleasantly enough. Whether, when I
+happened to neglect this precaution, I presented to them an equally
+ridiculous appearance, I did not ascertain; but I presume that the
+alteration was common to the approximating parties. I was likewise
+unable to determine whether I was a necessary party to the production of
+this strange transformation, or whether it took place as well, under the
+given circumstances, between the inhabitants themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+        "From Eden's bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
+         To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
+         Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields.
+         To guide the wanderers to the happy fields."
+
+ After leaving this village, where I had rested for nearly a
+week, I travelled through a desert region of dry sand and glittering
+rocks, peopled principally by goblin-fairies. When I first entered their
+domains, and, indeed, whenever I fell in with another tribe of them,
+they began mocking me with offered handfuls of gold and jewels, making
+hideous grimaces at me, and performing the most antic homage, as if they
+thought I expected reverence, and meant to humour me like a maniac. But
+ever, as soon as one cast his eyes on the shadow behind me, he made a
+wry face, partly of pity, partly of contempt, and looked ashamed, as
+if he had been caught doing something inhuman; then, throwing down his
+handful of gold, and ceasing all his grimaces, he stood aside to let me
+pass in peace, and made signs to his companions to do the like. I had no
+inclination to observe them much, for the shadow was in my heart as well
+as at my heels. I walked listlessly and almost hopelessly along, till I
+arrived one day at a small spring; which, bursting cool from the heart
+of a sun-heated rock, flowed somewhat southwards from the direction I
+had been taking. I drank of this spring, and found myself wonderfully
+refreshed. A kind of love to the cheerful little stream arose in my
+heart. It was born in a desert; but it seemed to say to itself, "I will
+flow, and sing, and lave my banks, till I make my desert a paradise."
+I thought I could not do better than follow it, and see what it made
+of it. So down with the stream I went, over rocky lands, burning with
+sunbeams. But the rivulet flowed not far, before a few blades of
+grass appeared on its banks, and then, here and there, a stunted bush.
+Sometimes it disappeared altogether under ground; and after I had
+wandered some distance, as near as I could guess, in the direction it
+seemed to take, I would suddenly hear it again, singing, sometimes far
+away to my right or left, amongst new rocks, over which it made new
+cataracts of watery melodies. The verdure on its banks increased as it
+flowed; other streams joined it; and at last, after many days' travel,
+I found myself, one gorgeous summer evening, resting by the side of a
+broad river, with a glorious horse-chestnut tree towering above me, and
+dropping its blossoms, milk-white and rosy-red, all about me. As I sat,
+a gush of joy sprang forth in my heart, and over flowed at my eyes.
+
+Through my tears, the whole landscape glimmered in such bewildering
+loveliness, that I felt as if I were entering Fairy Land for the first
+time, and some loving hand were waiting to cool my head, and a loving
+word to warm my heart. Roses, wild roses, everywhere! So plentiful were
+they, they not only perfumed the air, they seemed to dye it a faint
+rose-hue. The colour floated abroad with the scent, and clomb, and
+spread, until the whole west blushed and glowed with the gathered
+incense of roses. And my heart fainted with longing in my bosom.
+
+Could I but see the Spirit of the Earth, as I saw once the in dwelling
+woman of the beech-tree, and my beauty of the pale marble, I should be
+content. Content!--Oh, how gladly would I die of the light of her eyes!
+Yea, I would cease to be, if that would bring me one word of love from
+the one mouth. The twilight sank around, and infolded me with sleep. I
+slept as I had not slept for months. I did not awake till late in the
+morning; when, refreshed in body and mind, I rose as from the death that
+wipes out the sadness of life, and then dies itself in the new morrow.
+Again I followed the stream; now climbing a steep rocky bank that hemmed
+it in; now wading through long grasses and wild flowers in its path; now
+through meadows; and anon through woods that crowded down to the very
+lip of the water.
+
+At length, in a nook of the river, gloomy with the weight of overhanging
+foliage, and still and deep as a soul in which the torrent eddies of
+pain have hollowed a great gulf, and then, subsiding in violence, have
+left it full of a motionless, fathomless sorrow--I saw a little boat
+lying. So still was the water here, that the boat needed no fastening.
+It lay as if some one had just stepped ashore, and would in a moment
+return. But as there were no signs of presence, and no track through the
+thick bushes; and, moreover, as I was in Fairy Land where one does very
+much as he pleases, I forced my way to the brink, stepped into the boat,
+pushed it, with the help of the tree-branches, out into the stream,
+lay down in the bottom, and let my boat and me float whither the stream
+would carry us. I seemed to lose myself in the great flow of sky above
+me unbroken in its infinitude, except when now and then, coming nearer
+the shore at a bend in the river, a tree would sweep its mighty head
+silently above mine, and glide away back into the past, never more to
+fling its shadow over me. I fell asleep in this cradle, in which mother
+Nature was rocking her weary child; and while I slept, the sun slept
+not, but went round his arched way. When I awoke, he slept in the
+waters, and I went on my silent path beneath a round silvery moon. And
+a pale moon looked up from the floor of the great blue cave that lay in
+the abysmal silence beneath.
+
+Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call the reality?--not
+so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the
+gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting
+sail below is fairer still. Yea, the reflecting ocean itself, reflected
+in the mirror, has a wondrousness about its waters that somewhat
+vanishes when I turn towards itself. All mirrors are magic mirrors. The
+commonest room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass. (And this
+reminds me, while I write, of a strange story which I read in the fairy
+palace, and of which I will try to make a feeble memorial in its place.)
+In whatever way it may be accounted for, of one thing we may be sure,
+that this feeling is no cheat; for there is no cheating in nature and
+the simple unsought feelings of the soul. There must be a truth involved
+in it, though we may but in part lay hold of the meaning. Even the
+memories of past pain are beautiful; and past delights, though beheld
+only through clefts in the grey clouds of sorrow, are lovely as Fairy
+Land. But how have I wandered into the deeper fairyland of the soul,
+while as yet I only float towards the fairy palace of Fairy Land! The
+moon, which is the lovelier memory or reflex of the down-gone sun, the
+joyous day seen in the faint mirror of the brooding night, had rapt me
+away.
+
+I sat up in the boat. Gigantic forest trees were about me; through
+which, like a silver snake, twisted and twined the great river. The
+little waves, when I moved in the boat, heaved and fell with a plash
+as of molten silver, breaking the image of the moon into a thousand
+morsels, fusing again into one, as the ripples of laughter die into the
+still face of joy. The sleeping woods, in undefined massiveness; the
+water that flowed in its sleep; and, above all, the enchantress moon,
+which had cast them all, with her pale eye, into the charmed slumber,
+sank into my soul, and I felt as if I had died in a dream, and should
+never more awake.
+
+From this I was partly aroused by a glimmering of white, that, through
+the trees on the left, vaguely crossed my vision, as I gazed upwards.
+But the trees again hid the object; and at the moment, some strange
+melodious bird took up its song, and sang, not an ordinary bird-song,
+with constant repetitions of the same melody, but what sounded like
+a continuous strain, in which one thought was expressed, deepening in
+intensity as evolved in progress. It sounded like a welcome already
+overshadowed with the coming farewell. As in all sweetest music, a tinge
+of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures
+even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold
+the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh
+white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she
+may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for very love.
+
+As the song concluded the stream bore my little boat with a gentle sweep
+round a bend of the river; and lo! on a broad lawn, which rose from the
+water's edge with a long green slope to a clear elevation from which the
+trees receded on all sides, stood a stately palace glimmering ghostly in
+the moonshine: it seemed to be built throughout of the whitest marble.
+There was no reflection of moonlight from windows--there seemed to be
+none; so there was no cold glitter; only, as I said, a ghostly shimmer.
+Numberless shadows tempered the shine, from column and balcony and
+tower. For everywhere galleries ran along the face of the buildings;
+wings were extended in many directions; and numberless openings, through
+which the moonbeams vanished into the interior, and which served
+both for doors and windows, had their separate balconies in front,
+communicating with a common gallery that rose on its own pillars.
+Of course, I did not discover all this from the river, and in the
+moonlight. But, though I was there for many days, I did not succeed
+in mastering the inner topography of the building, so extensive and
+complicated was it.
+
+Here I wished to land, but the boat had no oars on board. However, I
+found that a plank, serving for a seat, was unfastened, and with that I
+brought the boat to the bank and scrambled on shore. Deep soft turf sank
+beneath my feet, as I went up the ascent towards the palace.
+
+When I reached it, I saw that it stood on a great platform of marble,
+with an ascent, by broad stairs of the same, all round it. Arrived on
+the platform, I found there was an extensive outlook over the forest,
+which, however, was rather veiled than revealed by the moonlight.
+
+Entering by a wide gateway, but without gates, into an inner court,
+surrounded on all sides by great marble pillars supporting galleries
+above, I saw a large fountain of porphyry in the middle, throwing up a
+lofty column of water, which fell, with a noise as of the fusion of all
+sweet sounds, into a basin beneath; overflowing which, it ran into a
+single channel towards the interior of the building. Although the moon
+was by this time so low in the west, that not a ray of her light fell
+into the court, over the height of the surrounding buildings; yet was
+the court lighted by a second reflex from the sun of other lands. For
+the top of the column of water, just as it spread to fall, caught the
+moonbeams, and like a great pale lamp, hung high in the night air, threw
+a dim memory of light (as it were) over the court below. This court was
+paved in diamonds of white and red marble. According to my custom since
+I entered Fairy Land, of taking for a guide whatever I first found
+moving in any direction, I followed the stream from the basin of the
+fountain. It led me to a great open door, beneath the ascending steps of
+which it ran through a low arch and disappeared. Entering here, I found
+myself in a great hall, surrounded with white pillars, and paved with
+black and white. This I could see by the moonlight, which, from the
+other side, streamed through open windows into the hall.
+
+Its height I could not distinctly see. As soon as I entered, I had
+the feeling so common to me in the woods, that there were others
+there besides myself, though I could see no one, and heard no sound to
+indicate a presence. Since my visit to the Church of Darkness, my power
+of seeing the fairies of the higher orders had gradually diminished,
+until it had almost ceased. But I could frequently believe in their
+presence while unable to see them. Still, although I had company, and
+doubtless of a safe kind, it seemed rather dreary to spend the night in
+an empty marble hall, however beautiful, especially as the moon was near
+the going down, and it would soon be dark. So I began at the place where
+I entered, and walked round the hall, looking for some door or passage
+that might lead me to a more hospitable chamber. As I walked, I was
+deliciously haunted with the feeling that behind some one of the
+seemingly innumerable pillars, one who loved me was waiting for me. Then
+I thought she was following me from pillar to pillar as I went along;
+but no arms came out of the faint moonlight, and no sigh assured me of
+her presence.
+
+At length I came to an open corridor, into which I turned;
+notwithstanding that, in doing so, I left the light behind. Along this
+I walked with outstretched hands, groping my way, till, arriving at
+another corridor, which seemed to strike off at right angles to that in
+which I was, I saw at the end a faintly glimmering light, too pale even
+for moonshine, resembling rather a stray phosphorescence. However, where
+everything was white, a little light went a great way. So I walked on
+to the end, and a long corridor it was. When I came up to the light, I
+found that it proceeded from what looked like silver letters upon a door
+of ebony; and, to my surprise even in the home of wonder itself, the
+letters formed the words, THE CHAMBER OF SIR ANODOS. Although I had as
+yet no right to the honours of a knight, I ventured to conclude that
+the chamber was indeed intended for me; and, opening the door without
+hesitation, I entered. Any doubt as to whether I was right in so doing,
+was soon dispelled. What to my dark eyes seemed a blaze of light, burst
+upon me. A fire of large pieces of some sweet-scented wood, supported by
+dogs of silver, was burning on the hearth, and a bright lamp stood on a
+table, in the midst of a plentiful meal, apparently awaiting my arrival.
+But what surprised me more than all, was, that the room was in every
+respect a copy of my own room, the room whence the little stream from my
+basin had led me into Fairy Land. There was the very carpet of grass and
+moss and daisies, which I had myself designed; the curtains of pale blue
+silk, that fell like a cataract over the windows; the old-fashioned bed,
+with the chintz furniture, on which I had slept from boyhood. "Now I
+shall sleep," I said to myself. "My shadow dares not come here."
+
+I sat down to the table, and began to help myself to the good things
+before me with confidence. And now I found, as in many instances before,
+how true the fairy tales are; for I was waited on, all the time of my
+meal, by invisible hands. I had scarcely to do more than look towards
+anything I wanted, when it was brought me, just as if it had come to me
+of itself. My glass was kept filled with the wine I had chosen, until
+I looked towards another bottle or decanter; when a fresh glass was
+substituted, and the other wine supplied. When I had eaten and drank
+more heartily and joyfully than ever since I entered Fairy Land, the
+whole was removed by several attendants, of whom some were male and some
+female, as I thought I could distinguish from the way the dishes were
+lifted from the table, and the motion with which they were carried out
+of the room. As soon as they were all taken away, I heard a sound as of
+the shutting of a door, and knew that I was left alone. I sat long by
+the fire, meditating, and wondering how it would all end; and when at
+length, wearied with thinking, I betook myself to my own bed, it was
+half with a hope that, when I awoke in the morning, I should awake not
+only in my own room, but in my own castle also; and that I should walk,
+out upon my own native soil, and find that Fairy Land was, after all,
+only a vision of the night. The sound of the falling waters of the
+fountain floated me into oblivion.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+            "A wilderness of building, sinking far
+             And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth,
+             Far sinking into splendour--without end:
+             Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
+             With alabaster domes, and silver spires,
+             And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
+             Uplifted."
+                                        WORDSWORTH.
+
+But when, after a sleep, which, although dreamless, yet left behind it a
+sense of past blessedness, I awoke in the full morning, I found, indeed,
+that the room was still my own; but that it looked abroad upon an
+unknown landscape of forest and hill and dale on the one side--and on
+the other, upon the marble court, with the great fountain, the crest of
+which now flashed glorious in the sun, and cast on the pavement beneath
+a shower of faint shadows from the waters that fell from it into the
+marble basin below.
+
+Agreeably to all authentic accounts of the treatment of travellers in
+Fairy Land, I found by my bedside a complete suit of fresh clothing,
+just such as I was in the habit of wearing; for, though varied
+sufficiently from the one removed, it was yet in complete accordance
+with my tastes. I dressed myself in this, and went out. The whole palace
+shone like silver in the sun. The marble was partly dull and partly
+polished; and every pinnacle, dome, and turret ended in a ball, or cone,
+or cusp of silver. It was like frost-work, and too dazzling, in the sun,
+for earthly eyes like mine.
+
+I will not attempt to describe the environs, save by saying, that all
+the pleasures to be found in the most varied and artistic arrangement of
+wood and river, lawn and wild forest, garden and shrubbery, rocky hill
+and luxurious vale; in living creatures wild and tame, in gorgeous
+birds, scattered fountains, little streams, and reedy lakes--all were
+here. Some parts of the palace itself I shall have occasion to describe
+more minutely.
+
+For this whole morning I never thought of my demon shadow; and not till
+the weariness which supervened on delight brought it again to my
+memory, did I look round to see if it was behind me: it was scarcely
+discernible. But its presence, however faintly revealed, sent a pang to
+my heart, for the pain of which, not all the beauties around me could
+compensate. It was followed, however, by the comforting reflection that,
+peradventure, I might here find the magic word of power to banish
+the demon and set me free, so that I should no longer be a man beside
+myself. The Queen of Fairy Land, thought I, must dwell here: surely she
+will put forth her power to deliver me, and send me singing through
+the further gates of her country back to my own land. "Shadow of me!"
+I said; "which art not me, but which representest thyself to me as me;
+here I may find a shadow of light which will devour thee, the shadow of
+darkness! Here I may find a blessing which will fall on thee as a curse,
+and damn thee to the blackness whence thou hast emerged unbidden." I
+said this, stretched at length on the slope of the lawn above the river;
+and as the hope arose within me, the sun came forth from a light fleecy
+cloud that swept across his face; and hill and dale, and the great river
+winding on through the still mysterious forest, flashed back his rays as
+with a silent shout of joy; all nature lived and glowed; the very earth
+grew warm beneath me; a magnificent dragon-fly went past me like an
+arrow from a bow, and a whole concert of birds burst into choral song.
+
+The heat of the sun soon became too intense even for passive support. I
+therefore rose, and sought the shelter of one of the arcades. Wandering
+along from one to another of these, wherever my heedless steps led me,
+and wondering everywhere at the simple magnificence of the building, I
+arrived at another hall, the roof of which was of a pale blue, spangled
+with constellations of silver stars, and supported by porphyry pillars
+of a paler red than ordinary.--In this house (I may remark in passing),
+silver seemed everywhere preferred to gold; and such was the purity of
+the air, that it showed nowhere signs of tarnishing.--The whole of the
+floor of this hall, except a narrow path behind the pillars, paved with
+black, was hollowed into a huge basin, many feet deep, and filled with
+the purest, most liquid and radiant water. The sides of the basin were
+white marble, and the bottom was paved with all kinds of refulgent
+stones, of every shape and hue.
+
+In their arrangement, you would have supposed, at first sight, that
+there was no design, for they seemed to lie as if cast there from
+careless and playful hands; but it was a most harmonious confusion; and
+as I looked at the play of their colours, especially when the waters
+were in motion, I came at last to feel as if not one little pebble could
+be displaced, without injuring the effect of the whole. Beneath this
+floor of the water, lay the reflection of the blue inverted roof,
+fretted with its silver stars, like a second deeper sea, clasping and
+upholding the first. The fairy bath was probably fed from the fountain
+in the court. Led by an irresistible desire, I undressed, and plunged
+into the water. It clothed me as with a new sense and its object both in
+one. The waters lay so close to me, they seemed to enter and revive my
+heart. I rose to the surface, shook the water from my hair, and swam as
+in a rainbow, amid the coruscations of the gems below seen through the
+agitation caused by my motion. Then, with open eyes, I dived, and swam
+beneath the surface. And here was a new wonder. For the basin, thus
+beheld, appeared to extend on all sides like a sea, with here and there
+groups as of ocean rocks, hollowed by ceaseless billows into wondrous
+caves and grotesque pinnacles. Around the caves grew sea-weeds of all
+hues, and the corals glowed between; while far off, I saw the glimmer
+of what seemed to be creatures of human form at home in the waters. I
+thought I had been enchanted; and that when I rose to the surface, I
+should find myself miles from land, swimming alone upon a heaving
+sea; but when my eyes emerged from the waters, I saw above me the blue
+spangled vault, and the red pillars around. I dived again, and found
+myself once more in the heart of a great sea. I then arose, and swam to
+the edge, where I got out easily, for the water reached the very brim,
+and, as I drew near washed in tiny waves over the black marble border. I
+dressed, and went out, deeply refreshed.
+
+And now I began to discern faint, gracious forms, here and there
+throughout the building. Some walked together in earnest conversation.
+Others strayed alone. Some stood in groups, as if looking at and talking
+about a picture or a statue. None of them heeded me. Nor were they
+plainly visible to my eyes. Sometimes a group, or single individual,
+would fade entirely out of the realm of my vision as I gazed. When
+evening came, and the moon arose, clear as a round of a horizon-sea when
+the sun hangs over it in the west, I began to see them all more
+plainly; especially when they came between me and the moon; and yet more
+especially, when I myself was in the shade. But, even then, I sometimes
+saw only the passing wave of a white robe; or a lovely arm or neck
+gleamed by in the moonshine; or white feet went walking alone over the
+moony sward. Nor, I grieve to say, did I ever come much nearer to these
+glorious beings, or ever look upon the Queen of the Fairies herself. My
+destiny ordered otherwise.
+
+In this palace of marble and silver, and fountains and moonshine, I
+spent many days; waited upon constantly in my room with everything
+desirable, and bathing daily in the fairy bath. All this time I was
+little troubled with my demon shadow I had a vague feeling that he was
+somewhere about the palace; but it seemed as if the hope that I should
+in this place be finally freed from his hated presence, had sufficed to
+banish him for a time. How and where I found him, I shall soon have to
+relate.
+
+The third day after my arrival, I found the library of the palace; and
+here, all the time I remained, I spent most of the middle of the day.
+For it was, not to mention far greater attractions, a luxurious retreat
+from the noontide sun. During the mornings and afternoons, I wandered
+about the lovely neighbourhood, or lay, lost in delicious day-dreams,
+beneath some mighty tree on the open lawn. My evenings were by-and-by
+spent in a part of the palace, the account of which, and of my
+adventures in connection with it, I must yet postpone for a little.
+
+The library was a mighty hall, lighted from the roof, which was formed
+of something like glass, vaulted over in a single piece, and stained
+throughout with a great mysterious picture in gorgeous colouring.
+
+The walls were lined from floor to roof with books and books: most of
+them in ancient bindings, but some in strange new fashions which I had
+never seen, and which, were I to make the attempt, I could ill describe.
+All around the walls, in front of the books, ran galleries in rows,
+communicating by stairs. These galleries were built of all kinds of
+coloured stones; all sorts of marble and granite, with porphyry, jasper,
+lapis lazuli, agate, and various others, were ranged in wonderful melody
+of successive colours. Although the material, then, of which these
+galleries and stairs were built, rendered necessary a certain degree
+of massiveness in the construction, yet such was the size of the place,
+that they seemed to run along the walls like cords.
+
+Over some parts of the library, descended curtains of silk of various
+dyes, none of which I ever saw lifted while I was there; and I felt
+somehow that it would be presumptuous in me to venture to look within
+them. But the use of the other books seemed free; and day after day I
+came to the library, threw myself on one of the many sumptuous eastern
+carpets, which lay here and there on the floor, and read, and read,
+until weary; if that can be designated as weariness, which was rather
+the faintness of rapturous delight; or until, sometimes, the failing of
+the light invited me to go abroad, in the hope that a cool gentle breeze
+might have arisen to bathe, with an airy invigorating bath, the limbs
+which the glow of the burning spirit within had withered no less than
+the glow of the blazing sun without.
+
+One peculiarity of these books, or at least most of those I looked into,
+I must make a somewhat vain attempt to describe.
+
+If, for instance, it was a book of metaphysics I opened, I had scarcely
+read two pages before I seemed to myself to be pondering over discovered
+truth, and constructing the intellectual machine whereby to communicate
+the discovery to my fellow men. With some books, however, of this
+nature, it seemed rather as if the process was removed yet a great way
+further back; and I was trying to find the root of a manifestation,
+the spiritual truth whence a material vision sprang; or to combine
+two propositions, both apparently true, either at once or in different
+remembered moods, and to find the point in which their invisibly
+converging lines would unite in one, revealing a truth higher than
+either and differing from both; though so far from being opposed to
+either, that it was that whence each derived its life and power. Or if
+the book was one of travels, I found myself the traveller. New
+lands, fresh experiences, novel customs, rose around me. I walked, I
+discovered, I fought, I suffered, I rejoiced in my success. Was it a
+history? I was the chief actor therein. I suffered my own blame; I was
+glad in my own praise. With a fiction it was the same. Mine was the
+whole story. For I took the place of the character who was most like
+myself, and his story was mine; until, grown weary with the life of
+years condensed in an hour, or arrived at my deathbed, or the end of the
+volume, I would awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the consciousness
+of my present life, recognising the walls and roof around me, and
+finding I joyed or sorrowed only in a book. If the book was a poem, the
+words disappeared, or took the subordinate position of an accompaniment
+to the succession of forms and images that rose and vanished with a
+soundless rhythm, and a hidden rime.
+
+In one, with a mystical title, which I cannot recall, I read of a
+world that is not like ours. The wondrous account, in such a feeble,
+fragmentary way as is possible to me, I would willingly impart. Whether
+or not it was all a poem, I cannot tell; but, from the impulse I felt,
+when I first contemplated writing it, to break into rime, to which
+impulse I shall give way if it comes upon me again, I think it must have
+been, partly at least, in verse.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+            "Chained is the Spring.  The night-wind bold
+              Blows over the hard earth;
+             Time is not more confused and cold,
+              Nor keeps more wintry mirth.
+
+            "Yet blow, and roll the world about;
+               Blow, Time--blow, winter's Wind!
+             Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out,
+               And Spring the frost behind."
+                                        G. E. M.
+
+They who believe in the influences of the stars over the fates of men,
+are, in feeling at least, nearer the truth than they who regard the
+heavenly bodies as related to them merely by a common obedience to an
+external law. All that man sees has to do with man. Worlds cannot be
+without an intermundane relationship. The community of the centre of
+all creation suggests an interradiating connection and dependence of
+the parts. Else a grander idea is conceivable than that which is already
+imbodied. The blank, which is only a forgotten life, lying behind the
+consciousness, and the misty splendour, which is an undeveloped
+life, lying before it, may be full of mysterious revelations of other
+connexions with the worlds around us, than those of science and
+poetry. No shining belt or gleaming moon, no red and green glory in a
+self-encircling twin-star, but has a relation with the hidden things
+of a man's soul, and, it may be, with the secret history of his body as
+well. They are portions of the living house wherein he abides.
+
+             Through the realms of the monarch Sun
+         Creeps a world, whose course had begun,
+         On a weary path with a weary pace,
+         Before the Earth sprang forth on her race:
+         But many a time the Earth had sped
+         Around the path she still must tread,
+         Ere the elder planet, on leaden wing,
+         Once circled the court of the planet's king.
+
+            There, in that lonely and distant star,
+         The seasons are not as our seasons are;
+         But many a year hath Autumn to dress
+         The trees in their matron loveliness;
+         As long hath old Winter in triumph to go
+         O'er beauties dead in his vaults below;
+         And many a year the Spring doth wear
+         Combing the icicles from her hair;
+         And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,
+         With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon:
+         And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
+         Till a burst of tears is the heart's relief.
+
+            Children, born when Winter is king,
+         May never rejoice in the hoping Spring;
+         Though their own heart-buds are bursting with joy,
+         And the child hath grown to the girl or boy;
+         But may die with cold and icy hours
+         Watching them ever in place of flowers.
+         And some who awake from their primal sleep,
+         When the sighs of Summer through forests creep,
+         Live, and love, and are loved again;
+         Seek for pleasure, and find its pain;
+         Sink to their last, their forsaken sleeping,
+         With the same sweet odours around them creeping.
+
+Now the children, there, are not born as the children are born in worlds
+nearer to the sun. For they arrive no one knows how. A maiden, walking
+alone, hears a cry: for even there a cry is the first utterance; and
+searching about, she findeth, under an overhanging rock, or within a
+clump of bushes, or, it may be, betwixt gray stones on the side of a
+hill, or in any other sheltered and unexpected spot, a little child.
+This she taketh tenderly, and beareth home with joy, calling out,
+"Mother, mother"--if so be that her mother lives--"I have got a baby--I
+have found a child!" All the household gathers round to see;--"WHERE IS
+IT? WHAT IS IT LIKE? WHERE DID YOU FIND IT?" and such-like questions,
+abounding. And thereupon she relates the whole story of the discovery;
+for by the circumstances, such as season of the year, time of the day,
+condition of the air, and such like, and, especially, the peculiar and
+never-repeated aspect of the heavens and earth at the time, and the
+nature of the place of shelter wherein it is found, is determined, or at
+least indicated, the nature of the child thus discovered. Therefore,
+at certain seasons, and in certain states of the weather, according, in
+part, to their own fancy, the young women go out to look for children.
+They generally avoid seeking them, though they cannot help sometimes
+finding them, in places and with circumstances uncongenial to their
+peculiar likings. But no sooner is a child found, than its claim for
+protection and nurture obliterates all feeling of choice in the matter.
+Chiefly, however, in the season of summer, which lasts so long, coming
+as it does after such long intervals; and mostly in the warm evenings,
+about the middle of twilight; and principally in the woods and along
+the river banks, do the maidens go looking for children just as children
+look for flowers. And ever as the child grows, yea, more and more as he
+advances in years, will his face indicate to those who understand the
+spirit of Nature, and her utterances in the face of the world, the
+nature of the place of his birth, and the other circumstances thereof;
+whether a clear morning sun guided his mother to the nook whence issued
+the boy's low cry; or at eve the lonely maiden (for the same woman never
+finds a second, at least while the first lives) discovers the girl by
+the glimmer of her white skin, lying in a nest like that of the lark,
+amid long encircling grasses, and the upward-gazing eyes of the lowly
+daisies; whether the storm bowed the forest trees around, or the still
+frost fixed in silence the else flowing and babbling stream.
+
+After they grow up, the men and women are but little together. There is
+this peculiar difference between them, which likewise distinguishes the
+women from those of the earth. The men alone have arms; the women
+have only wings. Resplendent wings are they, wherein they can shroud
+themselves from head to foot in a panoply of glistering glory. By these
+wings alone, it may frequently be judged in what seasons, and under what
+aspects, they were born. From those that came in winter, go great white
+wings, white as snow; the edge of every feather shining like the sheen
+of silver, so that they flash and glitter like frost in the sun. But
+underneath, they are tinged with a faint pink or rose-colour. Those born
+in spring have wings of a brilliant green, green as grass; and
+towards the edges the feathers are enamelled like the surface of the
+grass-blades. These again are white within. Those that are born in
+summer have wings of a deep rose-colour, lined with pale gold. And those
+born in autumn have purple wings, with a rich brown on the inside. But
+these colours are modified and altered in all varieties, corresponding
+to the mood of the day and hour, as well as the season of the year; and
+sometimes I found the various colours so intermingled, that I could not
+determine even the season, though doubtless the hieroglyphic could be
+deciphered by more experienced eyes. One splendour, in particular, I
+remember--wings of deep carmine, with an inner down of warm gray, around
+a form of brilliant whiteness.
+
+She had been found as the sun went down through a low sea-fog, casting
+crimson along a broad sea-path into a little cave on the shore, where a
+bathing maiden saw her lying.
+
+But though I speak of sun and fog, and sea and shore, the world there
+is in some respects very different from the earth whereon men live.
+For instance, the waters reflect no forms. To the unaccustomed eye they
+appear, if undisturbed, like the surface of a dark metal, only that
+the latter would reflect indistinctly, whereas they reflect not at all,
+except light which falls immediately upon them. This has a great effect
+in causing the landscapes to differ from those on the earth. On
+the stillest evening, no tall ship on the sea sends a long wavering
+reflection almost to the feet of him on shore; the face of no maiden
+brightens at its own beauty in a still forest-well. The sun and moon
+alone make a glitter on the surface. The sea is like a sea of death,
+ready to ingulf and never to reveal: a visible shadow of oblivion. Yet
+the women sport in its waters like gorgeous sea-birds. The men more
+rarely enter them. But, on the contrary, the sky reflects everything
+beneath it, as if it were built of water like ours. Of course, from
+its concavity there is some distortion of the reflected objects; yet
+wondrous combinations of form are often to be seen in the overhanging
+depth. And then it is not shaped so much like a round dome as the sky of
+the earth, but, more of an egg-shape, rises to a great towering height
+in the middle, appearing far more lofty than the other. When the stars
+come out at night, it shows a mighty cupola, "fretted with golden
+fires," wherein there is room for all tempests to rush and rave.
+
+One evening in early summer, I stood with a group of men and women on a
+steep rock that overhung the sea. They were all questioning me about my
+world and the ways thereof. In making reply to one of their questions,
+I was compelled to say that children are not born in the Earth as with
+them. Upon this I was assailed with a whole battery of inquiries, which
+at first I tried to avoid; but, at last, I was compelled, in the vaguest
+manner I could invent, to make some approach to the subject in question.
+Immediately a dim notion of what I meant, seemed to dawn in the minds
+of most of the women. Some of them folded their great wings all around
+them, as they generally do when in the least offended, and stood erect
+and motionless. One spread out her rosy pinions, and flashed from the
+promontory into the gulf at its foot. A great light shone in the eyes of
+one maiden, who turned and walked slowly away, with her purple and white
+wings half dispread behind her. She was found, the next morning, dead
+beneath a withered tree on a bare hill-side, some miles inland. They
+buried her where she lay, as is their custom; for, before they die,
+they instinctively search for a spot like the place of their birth, and
+having found one that satisfies them, they lie down, fold their wings
+around them, if they be women, or cross their arms over their breasts,
+if they are men, just as if they were going to sleep; and so sleep
+indeed. The sign or cause of coming death is an indescribable longing
+for something, they know not what, which seizes them, and drives them
+into solitude, consuming them within, till the body fails. When a youth
+and a maiden look too deep into each other's eyes, this longing seizes
+and possesses them; but instead of drawing nearer to each other, they
+wander away, each alone, into solitary places, and die of their desire.
+But it seems to me, that thereafter they are born babes upon our earth:
+where, if, when grown, they find each other, it goes well with them;
+if not, it will seem to go ill. But of this I know nothing. When I told
+them that the women on the Earth had not wings like them, but arms, they
+stared, and said how bold and masculine they must look; not knowing that
+their wings, glorious as they are, are but undeveloped arms.
+
+But see the power of this book, that, while recounting what I can recall
+of its contents, I write as if myself had visited the far-off planet,
+learned its ways and appearances, and conversed with its men and women.
+And so, while writing, it seemed to me that I had.
+
+The book goes on with the story of a maiden, who, born at the close of
+autumn, and living in a long, to her endless winter, set out at last
+to find the regions of spring; for, as in our earth, the seasons are
+divided over the globe. It begins something like this:
+
+            She watched them dying for many a day,
+            Dropping from off the old trees away,
+            One by one; or else in a shower
+            Crowding over the withered flower
+            For as if they had done some grievous wrong,
+            The sun, that had nursed them and loved them so long,
+            Grew weary of loving, and, turning back,
+            Hastened away on his southern track;
+            And helplessly hung each shrivelled leaf,
+            Faded away with an idle grief.
+            And the gusts of wind, sad Autumn's sighs,
+            Mournfully swept through their families;
+            Casting away with a helpless moan
+            All that he yet might call his own,
+            As the child, when his bird is gone for ever,
+            Flingeth the cage on the wandering river.
+            And the giant trees, as bare as Death,
+            Slowly bowed to the great Wind's breath;
+            And groaned with trying to keep from groaning
+            Amidst the young trees bending and moaning.
+            And the ancient planet's mighty sea
+            Was heaving and falling most restlessly,
+            And the tops of the waves were broken and white,
+            Tossing about to ease their might;
+            And the river was striving to reach the main,
+            And the ripple was hurrying back again.
+            Nature lived in sadness now;
+            Sadness lived on the maiden's brow,
+            As she watched, with a fixed, half-conscious eye,
+            One lonely leaf that trembled on high,
+            Till it dropped at last from the desolate bough--
+            Sorrow, oh, sorrow! 'tis winter now.
+            And her tears gushed forth, though it was but a leaf,
+            For little will loose the swollen fountain of grief:
+            When up to the lip the water goes,
+            It needs but a drop, and it overflows.
+
+            Oh! many and many a dreary year
+            Must pass away ere the buds appear:
+            Many a night of darksome sorrow
+            Yield to the light of a joyless morrow,
+            Ere birds again, on the clothed trees,
+            Shall fill the branches with melodies.
+            She will dream of meadows with wakeful streams;
+            Of wavy grass in the sunny beams;
+            Of hidden wells that soundless spring,
+            Hoarding their joy as a holy thing;
+            Of founts that tell it all day long
+            To the listening woods, with exultant song;
+            She will dream of evenings that die into nights,
+            Where each sense is filled with its own delights,
+            And the soul is still as the vaulted sky,
+            Lulled with an inner harmony;
+
+            And the flowers give out to the dewy night,
+            Changed into perfume, the gathered light;
+            And the darkness sinks upon all their host,
+            Till the sun sail up on the eastern coast--
+            She will wake and see the branches bare,
+            Weaving a net in the frozen air.
+
+
+
+The story goes on to tell how, at last, weary with wintriness, she
+travelled towards the southern regions of her globe, to meet the spring
+on its slow way northwards; and how, after many sad adventures, many
+disappointed hopes, and many tears, bitter and fruitless, she found
+at last, one stormy afternoon, in a leafless forest, a single snowdrop
+growing betwixt the borders of the winter and spring. She lay down
+beside it and died. I almost believe that a child, pale and peaceful as
+a snowdrop, was born in the Earth within a fixed season from that stormy
+afternoon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+             "I saw a ship sailing upon the sea
+              Deeply laden as ship could be;
+              But not so deep as in love I am
+              For I care not whether I sink or swim."
+                                    Old Ballad.
+
+            "But Love is such a Mystery
+                 I cannot find it out:
+              For when I think I'm best resolv'd,
+                 I then am in most doubt."
+                               SIR JOHN SUCKLING.
+
+One story I will try to reproduce. But, alas! it is like trying to
+reconstruct a forest out of broken branches and withered leaves. In the
+fairy book, everything was just as it should be, though whether in words
+or something else, I cannot tell. It glowed and flashed the thoughts
+upon the soul, with such a power that the medium disappeared from the
+consciousness, and it was occupied only with the things themselves.
+My representation of it must resemble a translation from a rich and
+powerful language, capable of embodying the thoughts of a splendidly
+developed people, into the meagre and half-articulate speech of a savage
+tribe. Of course, while I read it, I was Cosmo, and his history
+was mine. Yet, all the time, I seemed to have a kind of double
+consciousness, and the story a double meaning. Sometimes it seemed
+only to represent a simple story of ordinary life, perhaps almost of
+universal life; wherein two souls, loving each other and longing to come
+nearer, do, after all, but behold each other as in a glass darkly.
+
+As through the hard rock go the branching silver veins; as into the
+solid land run the creeks and gulfs from the unresting sea; as the
+lights and influences of the upper worlds sink silently through
+the earth's atmosphere; so doth Faerie invade the world of men, and
+sometimes startle the common eye with an association as of cause and
+effect, when between the two no connecting links can be traced.
+
+Cosmo von Wehrstahl was a student at the University of Prague. Though
+of a noble family, he was poor, and prided himself upon the independence
+that poverty gives; for what will not a man pride himself upon, when he
+cannot get rid of it? A favourite with his fellow students, he yet had
+no companions; and none of them had ever crossed the threshold of his
+lodging in the top of one of the highest houses in the old town. Indeed,
+the secret of much of that complaisance which recommended him to his
+fellows, was the thought of his unknown retreat, whither in the evening
+he could betake himself and indulge undisturbed in his own studies and
+reveries. These studies, besides those subjects necessary to his course
+at the University, embraced some less commonly known and approved;
+for in a secret drawer lay the works of Albertus Magnus and Cornelius
+Agrippa, along with others less read and more abstruse. As yet, however,
+he had followed these researches only from curiosity, and had turned
+them to no practical purpose.
+
+His lodging consisted of one large low-ceiled room, singularly bare of
+furniture; for besides a couple of wooden chairs, a couch which served
+for dreaming on both by day and night, and a great press of black oak,
+there was very little in the room that could be called furniture.
+
+But curious instruments were heaped in the corners; and in one stood
+a skeleton, half-leaning against the wall, half-supported by a string
+about its neck. One of its hands, all of fingers, rested on the heavy
+pommel of a great sword that stood beside it.
+
+Various weapons were scattered about over the floor. The walls were
+utterly bare of adornment; for the few strange things, such as a large
+dried bat with wings dispread, the skin of a porcupine, and a stuffed
+sea-mouse, could hardly be reckoned as such. But although his fancy
+delighted in vagaries like these, he indulged his imagination with far
+different fare. His mind had never yet been filled with an absorbing
+passion; but it lay like a still twilight open to any wind, whether the
+low breath that wafts but odours, or the storm that bows the great trees
+till they strain and creak. He saw everything as through a rose-coloured
+glass. When he looked from his window on the street below, not a maiden
+passed but she moved as in a story, and drew his thoughts after her till
+she disappeared in the vista. When he walked in the streets, he always
+felt as if reading a tale, into which he sought to weave every face of
+interest that went by; and every sweet voice swept his soul as with the
+wing of a passing angel. He was in fact a poet without words; the more
+absorbed and endangered, that the springing-waters were dammed back
+into his soul, where, finding no utterance, they grew, and swelled, and
+undermined. He used to lie on his hard couch, and read a tale or a poem,
+till the book dropped from his hand; but he dreamed on, he knew not
+whether awake or asleep, until the opposite roof grew upon his sense,
+and turned golden in the sunrise. Then he arose too; and the impulses of
+vigorous youth kept him ever active, either in study or in sport, until
+again the close of the day left him free; and the world of night, which
+had lain drowned in the cataract of the day, rose up in his soul, with
+all its stars, and dim-seen phantom shapes. But this could hardly last
+long. Some one form must sooner or later step within the charmed circle,
+enter the house of life, and compel the bewildered magician to kneel and
+worship.
+
+One afternoon, towards dusk, he was wandering dreamily in one of the
+principal streets, when a fellow student roused him by a slap on the
+shoulder, and asked him to accompany him into a little back alley to
+look at some old armour which he had taken a fancy to possess. Cosmo was
+considered an authority in every matter pertaining to arms, ancient or
+modern. In the use of weapons, none of the students could come near him;
+and his practical acquaintance with some had principally contributed
+to establish his authority in reference to all. He accompanied him
+willingly.
+
+They entered a narrow alley, and thence a dirty little court, where
+a low arched door admitted them into a heterogeneous assemblage of
+everything musty, and dusty, and old, that could well be imagined.
+His verdict on the armour was satisfactory, and his companion at once
+concluded the purchase. As they were leaving the place, Cosmo's eye was
+attracted by an old mirror of an elliptical shape, which leaned against
+the wall, covered with dust. Around it was some curious carving, which
+he could see but very indistinctly by the glimmering light which
+the owner of the shop carried in his hand. It was this carving that
+attracted his attention; at least so it appeared to him. He left the
+place, however, with his friend, taking no further notice of it. They
+walked together to the main street, where they parted and took opposite
+directions.
+
+No sooner was Cosmo left alone, than the thought of the curious old
+mirror returned to him. A strong desire to see it more plainly arose
+within him, and he directed his steps once more towards the shop. The
+owner opened the door when he knocked, as if he had expected him. He
+was a little, old, withered man, with a hooked nose, and burning eyes
+constantly in a slow restless motion, and looking here and there as if
+after something that eluded them. Pretending to examine several other
+articles, Cosmo at last approached the mirror, and requested to have it
+taken down.
+
+"Take it down yourself, master; I cannot reach it," said the old man.
+
+Cosmo took it down carefully, when he saw that the carving was indeed
+delicate and costly, being both of admirable design and execution;
+containing withal many devices which seemed to embody some meaning
+to which he had no clue. This, naturally, in one of his tastes and
+temperament, increased the interest he felt in the old mirror; so much,
+indeed, that he now longed to possess it, in order to study its frame at
+his leisure. He pretended, however, to want it only for use; and saying
+he feared the plate could be of little service, as it was rather old, he
+brushed away a little of the dust from its face, expecting to see a dull
+reflection within. His surprise was great when he found the reflection
+brilliant, revealing a glass not only uninjured by age, but wondrously
+clear and perfect (should the whole correspond to this part) even for
+one newly from the hands of the maker. He asked carelessly what the
+owner wanted for the thing. The old man replied by mentioning a sum of
+money far beyond the reach of poor Cosmo, who proceeded to replace the
+mirror where it had stood before.
+
+"You think the price too high?" said the old man.
+
+"I do not know that it is too much for you to ask," replied Cosmo; "but
+it is far too much for me to give."
+
+The old man held up his light towards Cosmo's face. "I like your look,"
+said he.
+
+Cosmo could not return the compliment. In fact, now he looked closely
+at him for the first time, he felt a kind of repugnance to him, mingled
+with a strange feeling of doubt whether a man or a woman stood before
+him.
+
+"What is your name?" he continued.
+
+"Cosmo von Wehrstahl."
+
+"Ah, ah! I thought as much. I see your father in you. I knew your father
+very well, young sir. I dare say in some odd corners of my house, you
+might find some old things with his crest and cipher upon them still.
+Well, I like you: you shall have the mirror at the fourth part of what I
+asked for it; but upon one condition."
+
+"What is that?" said Cosmo; for, although the price was still a great
+deal for him to give, he could just manage it; and the desire to possess
+the mirror had increased to an altogether unaccountable degree, since it
+had seemed beyond his reach.
+
+"That if you should ever want to get rid of it again, you will let me
+have the first offer."
+
+"Certainly," replied Cosmo, with a smile; adding, "a moderate condition
+indeed."
+
+"On your honour?" insisted the seller.
+
+"On my honour," said the buyer; and the bargain was concluded.
+
+"I will carry it home for you," said the old man, as Cosmo took it in
+his hands.
+
+"No, no; I will carry it myself," said he; for he had a peculiar dislike
+to revealing his residence to any one, and more especially to this
+person, to whom he felt every moment a greater antipathy. "Just as you
+please," said the old creature, and muttered to himself as he held his
+light at the door to show him out of the court: "Sold for the sixth
+time! I wonder what will be the upshot of it this time. I should think
+my lady had enough of it by now!"
+
+Cosmo carried his prize carefully home. But all the way he had an
+uncomfortable feeling that he was watched and dogged. Repeatedly he
+looked about, but saw nothing to justify his suspicions. Indeed, the
+streets were too crowded and too ill lighted to expose very readily
+a careful spy, if such there should be at his heels. He reached his
+lodging in safety, and leaned his purchase against the wall, rather
+relieved, strong as he was, to be rid of its weight; then, lighting his
+pipe, threw himself on the couch, and was soon lapt in the folds of one
+of his haunting dreams.
+
+He returned home earlier than usual the next day, and fixed the mirror
+to the wall, over the hearth, at one end of his long room.
+
+He then carefully wiped away the dust from its face, and, clear as the
+water of a sunny spring, the mirror shone out from beneath the envious
+covering. But his interest was chiefly occupied with the curious carving
+of the frame. This he cleaned as well as he could with a brush; and then
+he proceeded to a minute examination of its various parts, in the hope
+of discovering some index to the intention of the carver. In this,
+however, he was unsuccessful; and, at length, pausing with some
+weariness and disappointment, he gazed vacantly for a few moments into
+the depth of the reflected room. But ere long he said, half aloud: "What
+a strange thing a mirror is! and what a wondrous affinity exists between
+it and a man's imagination! For this room of mine, as I behold it in
+the glass, is the same, and yet not the same. It is not the mere
+representation of the room I live in, but it looks just as if I were
+reading about it in a story I like. All its commonness has disappeared.
+The mirror has lifted it out of the region of fact into the realm of
+art; and the very representing of it to me has clothed with interest
+that which was otherwise hard and bare; just as one sees with delight
+upon the stage the representation of a character from which one would
+escape in life as from something unendurably wearisome. But is it not
+rather that art rescues nature from the weary and sated regards of our
+senses, and the degrading injustice of our anxious everyday life, and,
+appealing to the imagination, which dwells apart, reveals Nature in some
+degree as she really is, and as she represents herself to the eye of the
+child, whose every-day life, fearless and unambitious, meets the true
+import of the wonder-teeming world around him, and rejoices therein
+without questioning? That skeleton, now--I almost fear it, standing
+there so still, with eyes only for the unseen, like a watch-tower
+looking across all the waste of this busy world into the quiet regions
+of rest beyond. And yet I know every bone and every joint in it as well
+as my own fist. And that old battle-axe looks as if any moment it might
+be caught up by a mailed hand, and, borne forth by the mighty arm, go
+crashing through casque, and skull, and brain, invading the Unknown with
+yet another bewildered ghost. I should like to live in THAT room if I
+could only get into it."
+
+Scarcely had the half-moulded words floated from him, as he stood gazing
+into the mirror, when, striking him as with a flash of amazement that
+fixed him in his posture, noiseless and unannounced, glided suddenly
+through the door into the reflected room, with stately motion, yet
+reluctant and faltering step, the graceful form of a woman, clothed all
+in white. Her back only was visible as she walked slowly up to the
+couch in the further end of the room, on which she laid herself
+wearily, turning towards him a face of unutterable loveliness, in which
+suffering, and dislike, and a sense of compulsion, strangely mingled
+with the beauty. He stood without the power of motion for some moments,
+with his eyes irrecoverably fixed upon her; and even after he was
+conscious of the ability to move, he could not summon up courage to
+turn and look on her, face to face, in the veritable chamber in which
+he stood. At length, with a sudden effort, in which the exercise of the
+will was so pure, that it seemed involuntary, he turned his face to the
+couch. It was vacant. In bewilderment, mingled with terror, he turned
+again to the mirror: there, on the reflected couch, lay the exquisite
+lady-form. She lay with closed eyes, whence two large tears were just
+welling from beneath the veiling lids; still as death, save for the
+convulsive motion of her bosom.
+
+Cosmo himself could not have described what he felt. His emotions were
+of a kind that destroyed consciousness, and could never be clearly
+recalled. He could not help standing yet by the mirror, and keeping his
+eyes fixed on the lady, though he was painfully aware of his rudeness,
+and feared every moment that she would open hers, and meet his fixed
+regard. But he was, ere long, a little relieved; for, after a while, her
+eyelids slowly rose, and her eyes remained uncovered, but unemployed for
+a time; and when, at length, they began to wander about the room, as if
+languidly seeking to make some acquaintance with her environment, they
+were never directed towards him: it seemed nothing but what was in the
+mirror could affect her vision; and, therefore, if she saw him at all,
+it could only be his back, which, of necessity, was turned towards her
+in the glass. The two figures in the mirror could not meet face to face,
+except he turned and looked at her, present in his room; and, as she was
+not there, he concluded that if he were to turn towards the part in his
+room corresponding to that in which she lay, his reflection would either
+be invisible to her altogether, or at least it must appear to her to
+gaze vacantly towards her, and no meeting of the eyes would produce
+the impression of spiritual proximity. By-and-by her eyes fell upon the
+skeleton, and he saw her shudder and close them. She did not open them
+again, but signs of repugnance continued evident on her countenance.
+Cosmo would have removed the obnoxious thing at once, but he feared to
+discompose her yet more by the assertion of his presence which the act
+would involve. So he stood and watched her. The eyelids yet shrouded
+the eyes, as a costly case the jewels within; the troubled expression
+gradually faded from the countenance, leaving only a faint sorrow
+behind; the features settled into an unchanging expression of rest; and
+by these signs, and the slow regular motion of her breathing, Cosmo knew
+that she slept. He could now gaze on her without embarrassment. He saw
+that her figure, dressed in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of
+her face; and so harmonious, that either the delicately moulded foot, or
+any finger of the equally delicate hand, was an index to the whole. As
+she lay, her whole form manifested the relaxation of perfect repose. He
+gazed till he was weary, and at last seated himself near the new-found
+shrine, and mechanically took up a book, like one who watches by a
+sick-bed. But his eyes gathered no thoughts from the page before him.
+His intellect had been stunned by the bold contradiction, to its face,
+of all its experience, and now lay passive, without assertion, or
+speculation, or even conscious astonishment; while his imagination sent
+one wild dream of blessedness after another coursing through his soul.
+How long he sat he knew not; but at length he roused himself, rose, and,
+trembling in every portion of his frame, looked again into the mirror.
+She was gone. The mirror reflected faithfully what his room presented,
+and nothing more. It stood there like a golden setting whence the
+central jewel has been stolen away--like a night-sky without the glory
+of its stars. She had carried with her all the strangeness of the
+reflected room. It had sunk to the level of the one without.
+
+But when the first pangs of his disappointment had passed, Cosmo began
+to comfort himself with the hope that she might return, perhaps the next
+evening, at the same hour. Resolving that if she did, she should not
+at least be scared by the hateful skeleton, he removed that and several
+other articles of questionable appearance into a recess by the side of
+the hearth, whence they could not possibly cast any reflection into the
+mirror; and having made his poor room as tidy as he could, sought the
+solace of the open sky and of a night wind that had begun to blow, for
+he could not rest where he was. When he returned, somewhat composed, he
+could hardly prevail with himself to lie down on his bed; for he could
+not help feeling as if she had lain upon it; and for him to lie there
+now would be something like sacrilege. However, weariness prevailed; and
+laying himself on the couch, dressed as he was, he slept till day.
+
+With a beating heart, beating till he could hardly breathe, he stood
+in dumb hope before the mirror, on the following evening. Again the
+reflected room shone as through a purple vapour in the gathering
+twilight. Everything seemed waiting like himself for a coming splendour
+to glorify its poor earthliness with the presence of a heavenly joy. And
+just as the room vibrated with the strokes of the neighbouring church
+bell, announcing the hour of six, in glided the pale beauty, and again
+laid herself on the couch. Poor Cosmo nearly lost his senses with
+delight. She was there once more! Her eyes sought the corner where the
+skeleton had stood, and a faint gleam of satisfaction crossed her face,
+apparently at seeing it empty. She looked suffering still, but there was
+less of discomfort expressed in her countenance than there had been the
+night before. She took more notice of the things about her, and seemed
+to gaze with some curiosity on the strange apparatus standing here and
+there in her room. At length, however, drowsiness seemed to overtake
+her, and again she fell asleep. Resolved not to lose sight of her this
+time, Cosmo watched the sleeping form. Her slumber was so deep and
+absorbing that a fascinating repose seemed to pass contagiously from her
+to him as he gazed upon her; and he started as if from a dream, when
+the lady moved, and, without opening her eyes, rose, and passed from the
+room with the gait of a somnambulist.
+
+Cosmo was now in a state of extravagant delight. Most men have a secret
+treasure somewhere. The miser has his golden hoard; the virtuoso his pet
+ring; the student his rare book; the poet his favourite haunt; the lover
+his secret drawer; but Cosmo had a mirror with a lovely lady in it. And
+now that he knew by the skeleton, that she was affected by the things
+around her, he had a new object in life: he would turn the bare chamber
+in the mirror into a room such as no lady need disdain to call her own.
+This he could effect only by furnishing and adorning his. And Cosmo was
+poor. Yet he possessed accomplishments that could be turned to account;
+although, hitherto, he had preferred living on his slender allowance, to
+increasing his means by what his pride considered unworthy of his rank.
+He was the best swordsman in the University; and now he offered to give
+lessons in fencing and similar exercises, to such as chose to pay
+him well for the trouble. His proposal was heard with surprise by the
+students; but it was eagerly accepted by many; and soon his instructions
+were not confined to the richer students, but were anxiously sought by
+many of the young nobility of Prague and its neighbourhood. So that very
+soon he had a good deal of money at his command. The first thing he did
+was to remove his apparatus and oddities into a closet in the room.
+Then he placed his bed and a few other necessaries on each side of the
+hearth, and parted them from the rest of the room by two screens of
+Indian fabric. Then he put an elegant couch for the lady to lie upon, in
+the corner where his bed had formerly stood; and, by degrees, every
+day adding some article of luxury, converted it, at length, into a rich
+boudoir.
+
+Every night, about the same time, the lady entered. The first time she
+saw the new couch, she started with a half-smile; then her face grew
+very sad, the tears came to her eyes, and she laid herself upon the
+couch, and pressed her face into the silken cushions, as if to hide from
+everything. She took notice of each addition and each change as the work
+proceeded; and a look of acknowledgment, as if she knew that some
+one was ministering to her, and was grateful for it, mingled with the
+constant look of suffering. At length, after she had lain down as usual
+one evening, her eyes fell upon some paintings with which Cosmo had just
+finished adorning the walls. She rose, and to his great delight, walked
+across the room, and proceeded to examine them carefully, testifying
+much pleasure in her looks as she did so. But again the sorrowful,
+tearful expression returned, and again she buried her face in the
+pillows of her couch. Gradually, however, her countenance had grown more
+composed; much of the suffering manifest on her first appearance had
+vanished, and a kind of quiet, hopeful expression had taken its place;
+which, however, frequently gave way to an anxious, troubled look,
+mingled with something of sympathetic pity.
+
+Meantime, how fared Cosmo? As might be expected in one of his
+temperament, his interest had blossomed into love, and his love--shall
+I call it RIPENED, or--WITHERED into passion. But, alas! he loved a
+shadow. He could not come near her, could not speak to her, could not
+hear a sound from those sweet lips, to which his longing eyes would
+cling like bees to their honey-founts. Ever and anon he sang to himself:
+
+            "I shall die for love of the maiden;"
+
+and ever he looked again, and died not, though his heart seemed ready to
+break with intensity of life and longing. And the more he did for her,
+the more he loved her; and he hoped that, although she never appeared
+to see him, yet she was pleased to think that one unknown would give his
+life to her. He tried to comfort himself over his separation from her,
+by thinking that perhaps some day she would see him and make signs to
+him, and that would satisfy him; "for," thought he, "is not this all
+that a loving soul can do to enter into communion with another? Nay,
+how many who love never come nearer than to behold each other as in a
+mirror; seem to know and yet never know the inward life; never enter
+the other soul; and part at last, with but the vaguest notion of the
+universe on the borders of which they have been hovering for years? If
+I could but speak to her, and knew that she heard me, I should be
+satisfied." Once he contemplated painting a picture on the wall, which
+should, of necessity, convey to the lady a thought of himself; but,
+though he had some skill with the pencil, he found his hand tremble so
+much when he began the attempt, that he was forced to give it up. . . .
+. .
+
+        "Who lives, he dies; who dies, he is alive."
+
+ One evening, as he stood gazing on his treasure, he thought he
+saw a faint expression of self-consciousness on her countenance, as if
+she surmised that passionate eyes were fixed upon her. This grew; till
+at last the red blood rose over her neck, and cheek, and brow. Cosmo's
+longing to approach her became almost delirious. This night she was
+dressed in an evening costume, resplendent with diamonds. This could add
+nothing to her beauty, but it presented it in a new aspect; enabled her
+loveliness to make a new manifestation of itself in a new embodiment.
+For essential beauty is infinite; and, as the soul of Nature needs an
+endless succession of varied forms to embody her loveliness, countless
+faces of beauty springing forth, not any two the same, at any one of
+her heart-throbs; so the individual form needs an infinite change of its
+environments, to enable it to uncover all the phases of its loveliness.
+Diamonds glittered from amidst her hair, half hidden in its luxuriance,
+like stars through dark rain-clouds; and the bracelets on her white arms
+flashed all the colours of a rainbow of lightnings, as she lifted her
+snowy hands to cover her burning face. But her beauty shone down all its
+adornment. "If I might have but one of her feet to kiss," thought Cosmo,
+"I should be content." Alas! he deceived himself, for passion is never
+content. Nor did he know that there are TWO ways out of her enchanted
+house. But, suddenly, as if the pang had been driven into his heart
+from without, revealing itself first in pain, and afterwards in definite
+form, the thought darted into his mind, "She has a lover somewhere.
+Remembered words of his bring the colour on her face now. I am nowhere
+to her. She lives in another world all day, and all night, after she
+leaves me. Why does she come and make me love her, till I, a strong man,
+am too faint to look upon her more?" He looked again, and her face was
+pale as a lily. A sorrowful compassion seemed to rebuke the glitter of
+the restless jewels, and the slow tears rose in her eyes. She left her
+room sooner this evening than was her wont. Cosmo remained alone, with a
+feeling as if his bosom had been suddenly left empty and hollow, and the
+weight of the whole world was crushing in its walls. The next evening,
+for the first time since she began to come, she came not.
+
+And now Cosmo was in wretched plight. Since the thought of a rival
+had occurred to him, he could not rest for a moment. More than ever he
+longed to see the lady face to face. He persuaded himself that if he but
+knew the worst he would be satisfied; for then he could abandon Prague,
+and find that relief in constant motion, which is the hope of all active
+minds when invaded by distress. Meantime he waited with unspeakable
+anxiety for the next night, hoping she would return: but she did not
+appear. And now he fell really ill. Rallied by his fellow students on
+his wretched looks, he ceased to attend the lectures. His engagements
+were neglected. He cared for nothing. The sky, with the great sun in it,
+was to him a heartless, burning desert. The men and women in the streets
+were mere puppets, without motives in themselves, or interest to him. He
+saw them all as on the ever-changing field of a camera obscura. She--she
+alone and altogether--was his universe, his well of life, his incarnate
+good. For six evenings she came not. Let his absorbing passion, and
+the slow fever that was consuming his brain, be his excuse for the
+resolution which he had taken and begun to execute, before that time had
+expired.
+
+Reasoning with himself, that it must be by some enchantment connected
+with the mirror, that the form of the lady was to be seen in it, he
+determined to attempt to turn to account what he had hitherto studied
+principally from curiosity. "For," said he to himself, "if a spell can
+force her presence in that glass (and she came unwillingly at first),
+may not a stronger spell, such as I know, especially with the aid of
+her half-presence in the mirror, if ever she appears again, compel
+her living form to come to me here? If I do her wrong, let love be
+my excuse. I want only to know my doom from her own lips." He never
+doubted, all the time, that she was a real earthly woman; or, rather,
+that there was a woman, who, somehow or other, threw this reflection of
+her form into the magic mirror.
+
+He opened his secret drawer, took out his books of magic, lighted his
+lamp, and read and made notes from midnight till three in the morning,
+for three successive nights. Then he replaced his books; and the next
+night went out in quest of the materials necessary for the conjuration.
+These were not easy to find; for, in love-charms and all incantations of
+this nature, ingredients are employed scarcely fit to be mentioned,
+and for the thought even of which, in connexion with her, he could only
+excuse himself on the score of his bitter need. At length he succeeded
+in procuring all he required; and on the seventh evening from that on
+which she had last appeared, he found himself prepared for the exercise
+of unlawful and tyrannical power.
+
+He cleared the centre of the room; stooped and drew a circle of red on
+the floor, around the spot where he stood; wrote in the four quarters
+mystical signs, and numbers which were all powers of seven or nine;
+examined the whole ring carefully, to see that no smallest break had
+occurred in the circumference; and then rose from his bending posture.
+As he rose, the church clock struck seven; and, just as she had appeared
+the first time, reluctant, slow, and stately, glided in the lady. Cosmo
+trembled; and when, turning, she revealed a countenance worn and wan, as
+with sickness or inward trouble, he grew faint, and felt as if he dared
+not proceed. But as he gazed on the face and form, which now possessed
+his whole soul, to the exclusion of all other joys and griefs, the
+longing to speak to her, to know that she heard him, to hear from her
+one word in return, became so unendurable, that he suddenly and hastily
+resumed his preparations. Stepping carefully from the circle, he put
+a small brazier into its centre. He then set fire to its contents of
+charcoal, and while it burned up, opened his window and seated himself,
+waiting, beside it.
+
+It was a sultry evening. The air was full of thunder. A sense of
+luxurious depression filled the brain. The sky seemed to have grown
+heavy, and to compress the air beneath it. A kind of purplish tinge
+pervaded the atmosphere, and through the open window came the scents of
+the distant fields, which all the vapours of the city could not quench.
+Soon the charcoal glowed. Cosmo sprinkled upon it the incense and other
+substances which he had compounded, and, stepping within the circle,
+turned his face from the brazier and towards the mirror. Then, fixing
+his eyes upon the face of the lady, he began with a trembling voice to
+repeat a powerful incantation. He had not gone far, before the lady grew
+pale; and then, like a returning wave, the blood washed all its banks
+with its crimson tide, and she hid her face in her hands. Then he passed
+to a conjuration stronger yet.
+
+The lady rose and walked uneasily to and fro in her room. Another spell;
+and she seemed seeking with her eyes for some object on which they
+wished to rest. At length it seemed as if she suddenly espied him;
+for her eyes fixed themselves full and wide upon his, and she drew
+gradually, and somewhat unwillingly, close to her side of the mirror,
+just as if his eyes had fascinated her. Cosmo had never seen her so near
+before. Now at least, eyes met eyes; but he could not quite understand
+the expression of hers. They were full of tender entreaty, but there was
+something more that he could not interpret. Though his heart seemed to
+labour in his throat, he would allow no delight or agitation to turn him
+from his task. Looking still in her face, he passed on to the mightiest
+charm he knew. Suddenly the lady turned and walked out of the door
+of her reflected chamber. A moment after she entered his room with
+veritable presence; and, forgetting all his precautions, he sprang from
+the charmed circle, and knelt before her. There she stood, the living
+lady of his passionate visions, alone beside him, in a thundery
+twilight, and the glow of a magic fire.
+
+"Why," said the lady, with a trembling voice, "didst thou bring a poor
+maiden through the rainy streets alone?"
+
+"Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the
+mirror there."
+
+"Ah, the mirror!" and she looked up at it, and shuddered. "Alas! I am
+but a slave, while that mirror exists. But do not think it was the power
+of thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing desire to see me, that
+beat at the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield."
+
+"Canst thou love me then?" said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death, but
+almost inarticulate with emotion.
+
+"I do not know," she replied sadly; "that I cannot tell, so long as I am
+bewildered with enchantments. It were indeed a joy too great, to lay my
+head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think thou lovest me, though
+I do not know;--but----"
+
+Cosmo rose from his knees.
+
+"I love thee as--nay, I know not what--for since I have loved thee,
+there is nothing else."
+
+He seized her hand: she withdrew it.
+
+"No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not."
+
+She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said--
+
+"Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the
+mirror."
+
+"And shall I see thyself instead?"
+
+"That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet again."
+
+A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo's bosom. Now she was in his power. She
+did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To
+break the mirror would be to destroy his very life to banish out of his
+universe the only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but a
+prison, if he annihilated the one window that looked into the paradise
+of love. Not yet pure in love, he hesitated.
+
+With a wail of sorrow the lady rose to her feet. "Ah! he loves me not;
+he loves me not even as I love him; and alas! I care more for his love
+than even for the freedom I ask."
+
+"I will not wait to be willing," cried Cosmo; and sprang to the corner
+where the great sword stood.
+
+Meantime it had grown very dark; only the embers cast a red glow through
+the room. He seized the sword by the steel scabbard, and stood before
+the mirror; but as he heaved a great blow at it with the heavy pommel,
+the blade slipped half-way out of the scabbard, and the pommel struck
+the wall above the mirror. At that moment, a terrible clap of thunder
+seemed to burst in the very room beside them; and ere Cosmo could repeat
+the blow, he fell senseless on the hearth. When he came to himself, he
+found that the lady and the mirror had both disappeared. He was seized
+with a brain fever, which kept him to his couch for weeks.
+
+When he recovered his reason, he began to think what could have become
+of the mirror. For the lady, he hoped she had found her way back as
+she came; but as the mirror involved her fate with its own, he was more
+immediately anxious about that. He could not think she had carried it
+away. It was much too heavy, even if it had not been too firmly fixed in
+the wall, for her to remove it. Then again, he remembered the thunder;
+which made him believe that it was not the lightning, but some other
+blow that had struck him down. He concluded that, either by supernatural
+agency, he having exposed himself to the vengeance of the demons in
+leaving the circle of safety, or in some other mode, the mirror had
+probably found its way back to its former owner; and, horrible to think
+of, might have been by this time once more disposed of, delivering up
+the lady into the power of another man; who, if he used his power no
+worse than he himself had done, might yet give Cosmo abundant cause to
+curse the selfish indecision which prevented him from shattering the
+mirror at once. Indeed, to think that she whom he loved, and who had
+prayed to him for freedom, should be still at the mercy, in some degree,
+of the possessor of the mirror, and was at least exposed to his constant
+observation, was in itself enough to madden a chary lover.
+
+Anxiety to be well retarded his recovery; but at length he was able to
+creep abroad. He first made his way to the old broker's, pretending to
+be in search of something else. A laughing sneer on the creature's face
+convinced him that he knew all about it; but he could not see it amongst
+his furniture, or get any information out of him as to what had become
+of it. He expressed the utmost surprise at hearing it had been stolen, a
+surprise which Cosmo saw at once to be counterfeited; while, at the same
+time, he fancied that the old wretch was not at all anxious to have it
+mistaken for genuine. Full of distress, which he concealed as well as he
+could, he made many searches, but with no avail. Of course he could
+ask no questions; but he kept his ears awake for any remotest hint that
+might set him in a direction of search. He never went out without a
+short heavy hammer of steel about him, that he might shatter the mirror
+the moment he was made happy by the sight of his lost treasure, if ever
+that blessed moment should arrive. Whether he should see the lady again,
+was now a thought altogether secondary, and postponed to the achievement
+of her freedom. He wandered here and there, like an anxious ghost, pale
+and haggard; gnawed ever at the heart, by the thought of what she might
+be suffering--all from his fault.
+
+One night, he mingled with a crowd that filled the rooms of one of
+the most distinguished mansions in the city; for he accepted every
+invitation, that he might lose no chance, however poor, of obtaining
+some information that might expedite his discovery. Here he wandered
+about, listening to every stray word that he could catch, in the hope of
+a revelation. As he approached some ladies who were talking quietly in a
+corner, one said to another:
+
+"Have you heard of the strange illness of the Princess von Hohenweiss?"
+
+"Yes; she has been ill for more than a year now. It is very sad for so
+fine a creature to have such a terrible malady. She was better for
+some weeks lately, but within the last few days the same attacks have
+returned, apparently accompanied with more suffering than ever. It is
+altogether an inexplicable story."
+
+"Is there a story connected with her illness?"
+
+"I have only heard imperfect reports of it; but it is said that she gave
+offence some eighteen months ago to an old woman who had held an
+office of trust in the family, and who, after some incoherent threats,
+disappeared. This peculiar affection followed soon after. But the
+strangest part of the story is its association with the loss of an
+antique mirror, which stood in her dressing-room, and of which she
+constantly made use."
+
+Here the speaker's voice sank to a whisper; and Cosmo, although his very
+soul sat listening in his ears, could hear no more. He trembled too much
+to dare to address the ladies, even if it had been advisable to expose
+himself to their curiosity. The name of the Princess was well known to
+him, but he had never seen her; except indeed it was she, which now he
+hardly doubted, who had knelt before him on that dreadful night. Fearful
+of attracting attention, for, from the weak state of his health, he
+could not recover an appearance of calmness, he made his way to the open
+air, and reached his lodgings; glad in this, that he at least knew where
+she lived, although he never dreamed of approaching her openly, even
+if he should be happy enough to free her from her hateful bondage. He
+hoped, too, that as he had unexpectedly learned so much, the other and
+far more important part might be revealed to him ere long.
+
+
+*****
+
+
+"Have you seen Steinwald lately?"
+
+"No, I have not seen him for some time. He is almost a match for me at
+the rapier, and I suppose he thinks he needs no more lessons."
+
+"I wonder what has become of him. I want to see him very much. Let me
+see; the last time I saw him he was coming out of that old broker's
+den, to which, if you remember, you accompanied me once, to look at some
+armour. That is fully three weeks ago."
+
+This hint was enough for Cosmo. Von Steinwald was a man of influence in
+the court, well known for his reckless habits and fierce passions. The
+very possibility that the mirror should be in his possession was hell
+itself to Cosmo. But violent or hasty measures of any sort were most
+unlikely to succeed. All that he wanted was an opportunity of breaking
+the fatal glass; and to obtain this he must bide his time. He revolved
+many plans in his mind, but without being able to fix upon any.
+
+At length, one evening, as he was passing the house of Von Steinwald, he
+saw the windows more than usually brilliant. He watched for a while,
+and seeing that company began to arrive, hastened home, and dressed
+as richly as he could, in the hope of mingling with the guests
+unquestioned: in effecting which, there could be no difficulty for a man
+of his carriage.
+
+*****
+
+In a lofty, silent chamber, in another part of the city, lay a form more
+like marble than a living woman. The loveliness of death seemed frozen
+upon her face, for her lips were rigid, and her eyelids closed. Her long
+white hands were crossed over her breast, and no breathing disturbed
+their repose. Beside the dead, men speak in whispers, as if the deepest
+rest of all could be broken by the sound of a living voice. Just so,
+though the soul was evidently beyond the reach of all intimations from
+the senses, the two ladies, who sat beside her, spoke in the gentlest
+tones of subdued sorrow. "She has lain so for an hour."
+
+"This cannot last long, I fear."
+
+"How much thinner she has grown within the last few weeks! If she would
+only speak, and explain what she suffers, it would be better for her.
+I think she has visions in her trances, but nothing can induce her to
+refer to them when she is awake."
+
+"Does she ever speak in these trances?"
+
+"I have never heard her; but they say she walks sometimes, and once put
+the whole household in a terrible fright by disappearing for a whole
+hour, and returning drenched with rain, and almost dead with exhaustion
+and fright. But even then she would give no account of what had
+happened."
+
+A scarce audible murmur from the yet motionless lips of the lady
+here startled her attendants. After several ineffectual attempts at
+articulation, the word "COSMO!" burst from her. Then she lay still as
+before; but only for a moment. With a wild cry, she sprang from the
+couch erect on the floor, flung her arms above her head, with clasped
+and straining hands, and, her wide eyes flashing with light, called
+aloud, with a voice exultant as that of a spirit bursting from a
+sepulchre, "I am free! I am free! I thank thee!" Then she flung herself
+on the couch, and sobbed; then rose, and paced wildly up and down the
+room, with gestures of mingled delight and anxiety. Then turning to her
+motionless attendants--"Quick, Lisa, my cloak and hood!" Then lower--"I
+must go to him. Make haste, Lisa! You may come with me, if you will."
+
+In another moment they were in the street, hurrying along towards one
+of the bridges over the Moldau. The moon was near the zenith, and the
+streets were almost empty. The Princess soon outstripped her attendant,
+and was half-way over the bridge, before the other reached it.
+
+"Are you free, lady? The mirror is broken: are you free?"
+
+The words were spoken close beside her, as she hurried on. She turned;
+and there, leaning on the parapet in a recess of the bridge, stood
+Cosmo, in a splendid dress, but with a white and quivering face.
+
+"Cosmo!--I am free--and thy servant for ever. I was coming to you now."
+
+"And I to you, for Death made me bold; but I could get no further. Have
+I atoned at all? Do I love you a little--truly?"
+
+"Ah, I know now that you love me, my Cosmo; but what do you say about
+death?"
+
+He did not reply. His hand was pressed against his side. She looked more
+closely: the blood was welling from between the fingers. She flung her
+arms around him with a faint bitter wail.
+
+When Lisa came up, she found her mistress kneeling above a wan dead
+face, which smiled on in the spectral moonbeams.
+
+ And now I will say no more about these wondrous volumes; though
+I could tell many a tale out of them, and could, perhaps, vaguely
+represent some entrancing thoughts of a deeper kind which I found within
+them. From many a sultry noon till twilight, did I sit in that grand
+hall, buried and risen again in these old books. And I trust I have
+carried away in my soul some of the exhalations of their undying leaves.
+In after hours of deserved or needful sorrow, portions of what I read
+there have often come to me again, with an unexpected comforting;
+which was not fruitless, even though the comfort might seem in itself
+groundless and vain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+                                         "Your gallery
+             Ha we pass'd through, not without much content
+             In many singularities; but we saw not
+             That which my daughter came to look upon,
+             The state of her mother."
+                                     Winter's Tale.
+
+It seemed to me strange, that all this time I had heard no music in the
+fairy palace. I was convinced there must be music in it, but that my
+sense was as yet too gross to receive the influence of those mysterious
+motions that beget sound. Sometimes I felt sure, from the way the few
+figures of which I got such transitory glimpses passed me, or glided
+into vacancy before me, that they were moving to the law of music;
+and, in fact, several times I fancied for a moment that I heard a few
+wondrous tones coming I knew not whence. But they did not last long
+enough to convince me that I had heard them with the bodily sense. Such
+as they were, however, they took strange liberties with me, causing me
+to burst suddenly into tears, of which there was no presence to make
+me ashamed, or casting me into a kind of trance of speechless delight,
+which, passing as suddenly, left me faint and longing for more.
+
+Now, on an evening, before I had been a week in the palace, I was
+wandering through one lighted arcade and corridor after another. At
+length I arrived, through a door that closed behind me, in another vast
+hall of the palace. It was filled with a subdued crimson light; by
+which I saw that slender pillars of black, built close to walls of white
+marble, rose to a great height, and then, dividing into innumerable
+divergent arches, supported a roof, like the walls, of white marble,
+upon which the arches intersected intricately, forming a fretting of
+black upon the white, like the network of a skeleton-leaf. The floor was
+black.
+
+Between several pairs of the pillars upon every side, the place of the
+wall behind was occupied by a crimson curtain of thick silk, hanging in
+heavy and rich folds. Behind each of these curtains burned a powerful
+light, and these were the sources of the glow that filled the hall. A
+peculiar delicious odour pervaded the place. As soon as I entered, the
+old inspiration seemed to return to me, for I felt a strong impulse to
+sing; or rather, it seemed as if some one else was singing a song in my
+soul, which wanted to come forth at my lips, imbodied in my breath. But
+I kept silence; and feeling somewhat overcome by the red light and the
+perfume, as well as by the emotion within me, and seeing at one end of
+the hall a great crimson chair, more like a throne than a chair, beside
+a table of white marble, I went to it, and, throwing myself in it, gave
+myself up to a succession of images of bewildering beauty, which passed
+before my inward eye, in a long and occasionally crowded train. Here I
+sat for hours, I suppose; till, returning somewhat to myself, I saw that
+the red light had paled away, and felt a cool gentle breath gliding over
+my forehead. I rose and left the hall with unsteady steps, finding my
+way with some difficulty to my own chamber, and faintly remembering,
+as I went, that only in the marble cave, before I found the sleeping
+statue, had I ever had a similar experience.
+
+After this, I repaired every morning to the same hall; where I sometimes
+sat in the chair and dreamed deliciously, and sometimes walked up and
+down over the black floor. Sometimes I acted within myself a whole
+drama, during one of these perambulations; sometimes walked deliberately
+through the whole epic of a tale; sometimes ventured to sing a song,
+though with a shrinking fear of I knew not what. I was astonished at
+the beauty of my own voice as it rang through the place, or rather crept
+undulating, like a serpent of sound, along the walls and roof of this
+superb music-hall. Entrancing verses arose within me as of their own
+accord, chanting themselves to their own melodies, and requiring no
+addition of music to satisfy the inward sense. But, ever in the pauses
+of these, when the singing mood was upon me, I seemed to hear something
+like the distant sound of multitudes of dancers, and felt as if it
+was the unheard music, moving their rhythmic motion, that within me
+blossomed in verse and song. I felt, too, that could I but see the
+dance, I should, from the harmony of complicated movements, not of
+the dancers in relation to each other merely, but of each dancer
+individually in the manifested plastic power that moved the consenting
+harmonious form, understand the whole of the music on the billows of
+which they floated and swung.
+
+At length, one night, suddenly, when this feeling of dancing came upon
+me, I bethought me of lifting one of the crimson curtains, and looking
+if, perchance, behind it there might not be hid some other mystery,
+which might at least remove a step further the bewilderment of the
+present one. Nor was I altogether disappointed. I walked to one of the
+magnificent draperies, lifted a corner, and peeped in. There, burned
+a great, crimson, globe-shaped light, high in the cubical centre of
+another hall, which might be larger or less than that in which I stood,
+for its dimensions were not easily perceived, seeing that floor and roof
+and walls were entirely of black marble.
+
+The roof was supported by the same arrangement of pillars radiating in
+arches, as that of the first hall; only, here, the pillars and
+arches were of dark red. But what absorbed my delighted gaze, was an
+innumerable assembly of white marble statues, of every form, and in
+multitudinous posture, filling the hall throughout. These stood, in the
+ruddy glow of the great lamp, upon pedestals of jet black. Around the
+lamp shone in golden letters, plainly legible from where I stood, the
+two words--
+
+                     TOUCH NOT!
+
+There was in all this, however, no solution to the sound of dancing; and
+now I was aware that the influence on my mind had ceased. I did not
+go in that evening, for I was weary and faint, but I hoarded up the
+expectation of entering, as of a great coming joy.
+
+Next night I walked, as on the preceding, through the hall. My mind was
+filled with pictures and songs, and therewith so much absorbed, that
+I did not for some time think of looking within the curtain I had last
+night lifted. When the thought of doing so occurred to me first, I
+happened to be within a few yards of it. I became conscious, at the same
+moment, that the sound of dancing had been for some time in my ears. I
+approached the curtain quickly, and, lifting it, entered the black hall.
+Everything was still as death. I should have concluded that the
+sound must have proceeded from some other more distant quarter,
+which conclusion its faintness would, in ordinary circumstances, have
+necessitated from the first; but there was a something about the statues
+that caused me still to remain in doubt. As I said, each stood perfectly
+still upon its black pedestal: but there was about every one a certain
+air, not of motion, but as if it had just ceased from movement; as if
+the rest were not altogether of the marbly stillness of thousands of
+years. It was as if the peculiar atmosphere of each had yet a kind
+of invisible tremulousness; as if its agitated wavelets had not
+yet subsided into a perfect calm. I had the suspicion that they had
+anticipated my appearance, and had sprung, each, from the living joy of
+the dance, to the death-silence and blackness of its isolated pedestal,
+just before I entered. I walked across the central hall to the curtain
+opposite the one I had lifted, and, entering there, found all the
+appearances similar; only that the statues were different, and
+differently grouped. Neither did they produce on my mind that
+impression--of motion just expired, which I had experienced from the
+others. I found that behind every one of the crimson curtains was a
+similar hall, similarly lighted, and similarly occupied.
+
+The next night, I did not allow my thoughts to be absorbed as before
+with inward images, but crept stealthily along to the furthest curtain
+in the hall, from behind which, likewise, I had formerly seemed to hear
+the sound of dancing. I drew aside its edge as suddenly as I could, and,
+looking in, saw that the utmost stillness pervaded the vast place. I
+walked in, and passed through it to the other end.
+
+There I found that it communicated with a circular corridor, divided
+from it only by two rows of red columns. This corridor, which was black,
+with red niches holding statues, ran entirely about the statue-halls,
+forming a communication between the further ends of them all; further,
+that is, as regards the central hall of white whence they all diverged
+like radii, finding their circumference in the corridor.
+
+Round this corridor I now went, entering all the halls, of which there
+were twelve, and finding them all similarly constructed, but filled with
+quite various statues, of what seemed both ancient and modern sculpture.
+After I had simply walked through them, I found myself sufficiently
+tired to long for rest, and went to my own room.
+
+In the night I dreamed that, walking close by one of the curtains, I was
+suddenly seized with the desire to enter, and darted in. This time I was
+too quick for them. All the statues were in motion, statues no longer,
+but men and women--all shapes of beauty that ever sprang from the brain
+of the sculptor, mingled in the convolutions of a complicated dance.
+Passing through them to the further end, I almost started from my
+sleep on beholding, not taking part in the dance with the others, nor
+seemingly endued with life like them, but standing in marble coldness
+and rigidity upon a black pedestal in the extreme left corner--my lady
+of the cave; the marble beauty who sprang from her tomb or her cradle
+at the call of my songs. While I gazed in speechless astonishment and
+admiration, a dark shadow, descending from above like the curtain of a
+stage, gradually hid her entirely from my view. I felt with a shudder
+that this shadow was perchance my missing demon, whom I had not seen for
+days. I awoke with a stifled cry.
+
+Of course, the next evening I began my journey through the halls (for I
+knew not to which my dream had carried me), in the hope of proving the
+dream to be a true one, by discovering my marble beauty upon her black
+pedestal. At length, on reaching the tenth hall, I thought I
+recognised some of the forms I had seen dancing in my dream; and to my
+bewilderment, when I arrived at the extreme corner on the left, there
+stood, the only one I had yet seen, a vacant pedestal. It was exactly in
+the position occupied, in my dream, by the pedestal on which the white
+lady stood. Hope beat violently in my heart.
+
+"Now," said I to myself, "if yet another part of the dream would but
+come true, and I should succeed in surprising these forms in their
+nightly dance; it might be the rest would follow, and I should see on
+the pedestal my marble queen. Then surely if my songs sufficed to give
+her life before, when she lay in the bonds of alabaster, much more would
+they be sufficient then to give her volition and motion, when she alone
+of assembled crowds of marble forms, would be standing rigid and cold."
+
+But the difficulty was, to surprise the dancers. I had found that a
+premeditated attempt at surprise, though executed with the utmost care
+and rapidity, was of no avail. And, in my dream, it was effected by a
+sudden thought suddenly executed. I saw, therefore, that there was no
+plan of operation offering any probability of success, but this: to
+allow my mind to be occupied with other thoughts, as I wandered around
+the great centre-hall; and so wait till the impulse to enter one of the
+others should happen to arise in me just at the moment when I was close
+to one of the crimson curtains. For I hoped that if I entered any one of
+the twelve halls at the right moment, that would as it were give me the
+right of entrance to all the others, seeing they all had communication
+behind. I would not diminish the hope of the right chance, by supposing
+it necessary that a desire to enter should awake within me, precisely
+when I was close to the curtains of the tenth hall.
+
+At first the impulses to see recurred so continually, in spite of the
+crowded imagery that kept passing through my mind, that they formed
+too nearly a continuous chain, for the hope that any one of them would
+succeed as a surprise. But as I persisted in banishing them, they
+recurred less and less often; and after two or three, at considerable
+intervals, had come when the spot where I happened to be was unsuitable,
+the hope strengthened, that soon one might arise just at the right
+moment; namely, when, in walking round the hall, I should be close to
+one of the curtains.
+
+At length the right moment and the impulse coincided. I darted into the
+ninth hall. It was full of the most exquisite moving forms. The whole
+space wavered and swam with the involutions of an intricate dance. It
+seemed to break suddenly as I entered, and all made one or two bounds
+towards their pedestals; but, apparently on finding that they were
+thoroughly overtaken, they returned to their employment (for it seemed
+with them earnest enough to be called such) without further heeding
+me. Somewhat impeded by the floating crowd, I made what haste I could
+towards the bottom of the hall; whence, entering the corridor, I turned
+towards the tenth. I soon arrived at the corner I wanted to reach, for
+the corridor was comparatively empty; but, although the dancers here,
+after a little confusion, altogether disregarded my presence, I
+was dismayed at beholding, even yet, a vacant pedestal. But I had a
+conviction that she was near me. And as I looked at the pedestal, I
+thought I saw upon it, vaguely revealed as if through overlapping folds
+of drapery, the indistinct outlines of white feet. Yet there was no
+sign of drapery or concealing shadow whatever. But I remembered the
+descending shadow in my dream. And I hoped still in the power of my
+songs; thinking that what could dispel alabaster, might likewise be
+capable of dispelling what concealed my beauty now, even if it were the
+demon whose darkness had overshadowed all my life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+              "Alexander. 'When will you finish Campaspe?'
+               Apelles.  'Never finish: for always in absolute
+               beauty there is somewhat above art.'"
+                                          LYLY'S Campaspe.
+
+And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was
+present unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless
+of the innumerable forms of beauty that crowded my way: these might
+cross my eyes, but the unseen filled my brain. I wandered long, up and
+down the silent space: no songs came. My soul was not still enough for
+songs. Only in the silence and darkness of the soul's night, do those
+stars of the inward firmament sink to its lower surface from the singing
+realms beyond, and shine upon the conscious spirit. Here all effort was
+unavailing. If they came not, they could not be found.
+
+Next night, it was just the same. I walked through the red glimmer of
+the silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as lonely trod my soul
+up and down the halls of the brain. At last I entered one of the
+statue-halls. The dance had just commenced, and I was delighted to find
+that I was free of their assembly. I walked on till I came to the sacred
+corner. There I found the pedestal just as I had left it, with the faint
+glimmer as of white feet still resting on the dead black. As soon as I
+saw it, I seemed to feel a presence which longed to become visible; and,
+as it were, called to me to gift it with self-manifestation, that it
+might shine on me. The power of song came to me. But the moment my
+voice, though I sang low and soft, stirred the air of the hall, the
+dancers started; the quick interweaving crowd shook, lost its form,
+divided; each figure sprang to its pedestal, and stood, a self-evolving
+life no more, but a rigid, life-like, marble shape, with the whole form
+composed into the expression of a single state or act. Silence rolled
+like a spiritual thunder through the grand space. My song had ceased,
+scared at its own influences. But I saw in the hand of one of the
+statues close by me, a harp whose chords yet quivered. I remembered
+that as she bounded past me, her harp had brushed against my arm; so
+the spell of the marble had not infolded it. I sprang to her, and with a
+gesture of entreaty, laid my hand on the harp. The marble hand, probably
+from its contact with the uncharmed harp, had strength enough to relax
+its hold, and yield the harp to me. No other motion indicated life.
+Instinctively I struck the chords and sang. And not to break upon the
+record of my song, I mention here, that as I sang the first four lines,
+the loveliest feet became clear upon the black pedestal; and ever as I
+sang, it was as if a veil were being lifted up from before the form, but
+an invisible veil, so that the statue appeared to grow before me, not
+so much by evolution, as by infinitesimal degrees of added height. And,
+while I sang, I did not feel that I stood by a statue, as indeed it
+appeared to be, but that a real woman-soul was revealing itself by
+successive stages of imbodiment, and consequent manifestatlon and
+expression.
+
+        Feet of beauty, firmly planting
+             Arches white on rosy heel!
+         Whence the life-spring, throbbing, panting,
+             Pulses upward to reveal!
+         Fairest things know least despising;
+             Foot and earth meet tenderly:
+         'Tis the woman, resting, rising
+             Upward to sublimity,
+         Rise the limbs, sedately sloping,
+             Strong and gentle, full and free;
+         Soft and slow, like certain hoping,
+             Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.
+         Up to speech!  As up to roses
+             Pants the life from leaf to flower,
+         So each blending change discloses,
+             Nearer still, expression's power.
+
+         Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining
+             Up and outward fearlessly!
+         Temple columns, close combining,
+             Lift a holy mystery.
+         Heart of mine! what strange surprises
+             Mount aloft on such a stair!
+         Some great vision upward rises,
+             Curving, bending, floating fair.
+
+         Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow
+             Lead my fascinated eye;
+         Some apocalypse will follow,
+             Some new world of deity.
+         Zoned unseen, and outward swelling,
+             With new thoughts and wonders rife,
+         Queenly majesty foretelling,
+             See the expanding house of life!
+
+         Sudden heaving, unforbidden
+             Sighs eternal, still the same--
+         Mounts of snow have summits hidden
+             In the mists of uttered flame.
+         But the spirit, dawning nearly
+             Finds no speech for earnest pain;
+         Finds a soundless sighing merely--
+             Builds its stairs, and mounts again.
+
+         Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,
+             Sendeth out her waiting pair;
+         Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,
+             Half inclasping visions rare;
+         And the great arms, heartways bending;
+             Might of Beauty, drawing home
+         There returning, and re-blending,
+             Where from roots of love they roam.
+
+         Build thy slopes of radiance beamy
+             Spirit, fair with womanhood!
+         Tower thy precipice, white-gleamy,
+             Climb unto the hour of good.
+         Dumb space will be rent asunder,
+             Now the shining column stands
+         Ready to be crowned with wonder
+             By the builder's joyous hands.
+
+         All the lines abroad are spreading,
+             Like a fountain's falling race.
+         Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,
+             Airy foot to rest the face!
+         Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,
+             Sweet approach of lip and breath!
+         Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,
+             Waits to die ecstatic death.
+
+         Span across in treble curving,
+             Bow of promise, upper lip!
+         Set them free, with gracious swerving;
+             Let the wing-words float and dip.
+         DUMB ART THOU?  O Love immortal,
+             More than words thy speech must be;
+         Childless yet the tender portal
+             Of the home of melody.
+
+         Now the nostrils open fearless,
+             Proud in calm unconsciousness,
+         Sure it must be something peerless
+             That the great Pan would express!
+         Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,
+             In the pure, dear lady-face.
+         Lo, a blinding burst of splendour!--
+             'Tis the free soul's issuing grace.
+
+         Two calm lakes of molten glory
+             Circling round unfathomed deeps!
+         Lightning-flashes, transitory,
+             Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.
+         This the gate, at last, of gladness,
+             To the outward striving me:
+         In a rain of light and sadness,
+             Out its loves and longings flee!
+
+         With a presence I am smitten
+             Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;
+         Presence greater yet than written
+             Even in the glorious eyes.
+         Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,
+             I may look till I am lost;
+         Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,
+             In a sea without a coast.
+
+         Windows open to the glorious!
+             Time and space, oh, far beyond!
+         Woman, ah! thou art victorious,
+             And I perish, overfond.
+         Springs aloft the yet Unspoken
+             In the forehead's endless grace,
+         Full of silences unbroken;
+             Infinite, unfeatured face.
+
+         Domes above, the mount of wonder;
+             Height and hollow wrapt in night;
+         Hiding in its caverns under
+             Woman-nations in their might.
+         Passing forms, the highest Human
+             Faints away to the Divine
+         Features none, of man or woman,
+             Can unveil the holiest shine.
+
+         Sideways, grooved porches only
+             Visible to passing eye,
+         Stand the silent, doorless, lonely
+             Entrance-gates of melody.
+         But all sounds fly in as boldly,
+             Groan and song, and kiss and cry
+         At their galleries, lifted coldly,
+             Darkly, 'twixt the earth and sky.
+
+         Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest
+             So, in faint, half-glad despair,
+         From the summit thou o'erflowest
+             In a fall of torrent hair;
+         Hiding what thou hast created
+             In a half-transparent shroud:
+         Thus, with glory soft-abated,
+             Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+        "Ev'n the Styx, which ninefold her infoldeth
+             Hems not Ceres' daughter in its flow;
+         But she grasps the apple--ever holdeth
+             Her, sad Orcus, down below."
+                      SCHILLER, Das Ideal und das Leben.
+
+Ever as I sang, the veil was uplifted; ever as I sang, the signs of life
+grew; till, when the eyes dawned upon me, it was with that sunrise of
+splendour which my feeble song attempted to re-imbody.
+
+The wonder is, that I was not altogether overcome, but was able to
+complete my song as the unseen veil continued to rise. This ability came
+solely from the state of mental elevation in which I found myself. Only
+because uplifted in song, was I able to endure the blaze of the dawn.
+But I cannot tell whether she looked more of statue or more of woman;
+she seemed removed into that region of phantasy where all is intensely
+vivid, but nothing clearly defined. At last, as I sang of her descending
+hair, the glow of soul faded away, like a dying sunset. A lamp within
+had been extinguished, and the house of life shone blank in a winter
+morn. She was a statue once more--but visible, and that was much gained.
+Yet the revulsion from hope and fruition was such, that, unable to
+restrain myself, I sprang to her, and, in defiance of the law of the
+place, flung my arms around her, as if I would tear her from the grasp
+of a visible Death, and lifted her from the pedestal down to my heart.
+But no sooner had her feet ceased to be in contact with the black
+pedestal, than she shuddered and trembled all over; then, writhing
+from my arms, before I could tighten their hold, she sprang into the
+corridor, with the reproachful cry, "You should not have touched
+me!" darted behind one of the exterior pillars of the circle, and
+disappeared. I followed almost as fast; but ere I could reach the
+pillar, the sound of a closing door, the saddest of all sounds
+sometimes, fell on my ear; and, arriving at the spot where she had
+vanished, I saw, lighted by a pale yellow lamp which hung above it,
+a heavy, rough door, altogether unlike any others I had seen in
+the palace; for they were all of ebony, or ivory, or covered with
+silver-plates, or of some odorous wood, and very ornate; whereas this
+seemed of old oak, with heavy nails and iron studs. Notwithstanding the
+precipitation of my pursuit, I could not help reading, in silver letters
+beneath the lamp: "NO ONE ENTERS HERE WITHOUT THE LEAVE OF THE QUEEN."
+But what was the Queen to me, when I followed my white lady? I dashed
+the door to the wall and sprang through. Lo! I stood on a waste windy
+hill. Great stones like tombstones stood all about me. No door, no
+palace was to be seen. A white figure gleamed past me, wringing her
+hands, and crying, "Ah! you should have sung to me; you should have sung
+to me!" and disappeared behind one of the stones. I followed. A cold
+gust of wind met me from behind the stone; and when I looked, I saw
+nothing but a great hole in the earth, into which I could find no way
+of entering. Had she fallen in? I could not tell. I must wait for the
+daylight. I sat down and wept, for there was no help.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+         "First, I thought, almost despairing,
+             This must crush my spirit now;
+          Yet I bore it, and am bearing--
+             Only do not ask me how."
+                             HEINE.
+
+When the daylight came, it brought the possibility of action, but with
+it little of consolation. With the first visible increase of light,
+I gazed into the chasm, but could not, for more than an hour, see
+sufficiently well to discover its nature. At last I saw it was almost a
+perpendicular opening, like a roughly excavated well, only very large.
+I could perceive no bottom; and it was not till the sun actually rose,
+that I discovered a sort of natural staircase, in many parts little more
+than suggested, which led round and round the gulf, descending spirally
+into its abyss. I saw at once that this was my path; and without a
+moment's hesitation, glad to quit the sunlight, which stared at me most
+heartlessly, I commenced my tortuous descent. It was very difficult.
+In some parts I had to cling to the rocks like a bat. In one place, I
+dropped from the track down upon the next returning spire of the stair;
+which being broad in this particular portion, and standing out from the
+wall at right angles, received me upon my feet safe, though somewhat
+stupefied by the shock. After descending a great way, I found the stair
+ended at a narrow opening which entered the rock horizontally. Into this
+I crept, and, having entered, had just room to turn round. I put my head
+out into the shaft by which I had come down, and surveyed the course of
+my descent. Looking up, I saw the stars; although the sun must by this
+time have been high in the heavens. Looking below, I saw that the sides
+of the shaft went sheer down, smooth as glass; and far beneath me, I saw
+the reflection of the same stars I had seen in the heavens when I looked
+up. I turned again, and crept inwards some distance, when the passage
+widened, and I was at length able to stand and walk upright. Wider and
+loftier grew the way; new paths branched off on every side; great open
+halls appeared; till at last I found myself wandering on through an
+underground country, in which the sky was of rock, and instead of trees
+and flowers, there were only fantastic rocks and stones. And ever as I
+went, darker grew my thoughts, till at last I had no hope whatever of
+finding the white lady: I no longer called her to myself MY white lady.
+Whenever a choice was necessary, I always chose the path which seemed to
+lead downwards.
+
+At length I began to find that these regions were inhabited. From behind
+a rock a peal of harsh grating laughter, full of evil humour, rang
+through my ears, and, looking round, I saw a queer, goblin creature,
+with a great head and ridiculous features, just such as those described,
+in German histories and travels, as Kobolds. "What do you want with me?"
+I said. He pointed at me with a long forefinger, very thick at the root,
+and sharpened to a point, and answered, "He! he! he! what do YOU
+want here?" Then, changing his tone, he continued, with mock
+humility--"Honoured sir, vouchsafe to withdraw from thy slaves the
+lustre of thy august presence, for thy slaves cannot support its
+brightness." A second appeared, and struck in: "You are so big, you keep
+the sun from us. We can't see for you, and we're so cold." Thereupon
+arose, on all sides, the most terrific uproar of laughter, from voices
+like those of children in volume, but scrannel and harsh as those of
+decrepit age, though, unfortunately, without its weakness. The whole
+pandemonium of fairy devils, of all varieties of fantastic ugliness,
+both in form and feature, and of all sizes from one to four feet, seemed
+to have suddenly assembled about me. At length, after a great babble of
+talk among themselves, in a language unknown to me, and after seemingly
+endless gesticulation, consultation, elbow-nudging, and unmitigated
+peals of laughter, they formed into a circle about one of their number,
+who scrambled upon a stone, and, much to my surprise, and somewhat to
+my dismay, began to sing, in a voice corresponding in its nature to his
+talking one, from beginning to end, the song with which I had brought
+the light into the eyes of the white lady. He sang the same air too;
+and, all the time, maintained a face of mock entreaty and worship;
+accompanying the song with the travestied gestures of one playing on
+the lute. The whole assembly kept silence, except at the close of every
+verse, when they roared, and danced, and shouted with laughter, and
+flung themselves on the ground, in real or pretended convulsions of
+delight. When he had finished, the singer threw himself from the top
+of the stone, turning heels over head several times in his descent; and
+when he did alight, it was on the top of his head, on which he hopped
+about, making the most grotesque gesticulations with his legs in the
+air. Inexpressible laughter followed, which broke up in a shower of
+tiny stones from innumerable hands. They could not materially injure me,
+although they cut me on the head and face. I attempted to run away, but
+they all rushed upon me, and, laying hold of every part that afforded
+a grasp, held me tight. Crowding about me like bees, they shouted an
+insect-swarm of exasperating speeches up into my face, among which the
+most frequently recurring were--"You shan't have her; you shan't have
+her; he! he! he! She's for a better man; how he'll kiss her! how he'll
+kiss her!"
+
+The galvanic torrent of this battery of malevolence stung to life within
+me a spark of nobleness, and I said aloud, "Well, if he is a better man,
+let him have her."
+
+They instantly let go their hold of me, and fell back a step or two,
+with a whole broadside of grunts and humphs, as of unexpected and
+disappointed approbation. I made a step or two forward, and a lane was
+instantly opened for me through the midst of the grinning little antics,
+who bowed most politely to me on every side as I passed. After I had
+gone a few yards, I looked back, and saw them all standing quite still,
+looking after me, like a great school of boys; till suddenly one turned
+round, and with a loud whoop, rushed into the midst of the others. In
+an instant, the whole was one writhing and tumbling heap of contortion,
+reminding me of the live pyramids of intertwined snakes of which
+travellers make report. As soon as one was worked out of the mass, he
+bounded off a few paces, and then, with a somersault and a run, threw
+himself gyrating into the air, and descended with all his weight on the
+summit of the heaving and struggling chaos of fantastic figures. I left
+them still busy at this fierce and apparently aimless amusement. And as
+I went, I sang--
+
+        If a nobler waits for thee,
+             I will weep aside;
+         It is well that thou should'st be,
+             Of the nobler, bride.
+
+        For if love builds up the home,
+             Where the heart is free,
+         Homeless yet the heart must roam,
+             That has not found thee.
+
+        One must suffer: I, for her
+             Yield in her my part
+         Take her, thou art worthier--
+             Still I be still, my heart!
+
+         Gift ungotten! largess high
+             Of a frustrate will!
+          But to yield it lovingly
+             Is a something still.
+
+Then a little song arose of itself in my soul; and I felt for the
+moment, while it sank sadly within me, as if I was once more walking up
+and down the white hall of Phantasy in the Fairy Palace. But this lasted
+no longer than the song; as will be seen.
+
+        Do not vex thy violet
+             Perfume to afford:
+         Else no odour thou wilt get
+             From its little hoard.
+
+        In thy lady's gracious eyes
+             Look not thou too long;
+         Else from them the glory flies,
+             And thou dost her wrong.
+
+        Come not thou too near the maid,
+             Clasp her not too wild;
+         Else the splendour is allayed,
+             And thy heart beguiled.
+
+A crash of laughter, more discordant and deriding than any I had yet
+heard, invaded my ears. Looking on in the direction of the sound, I saw
+a little elderly woman, much taller, however, than the goblins I had
+just left, seated upon a stone by the side of the path. She rose, as I
+drew near, and came forward to meet me.
+
+She was very plain and commonplace in appearance, without being
+hideously ugly. Looking up in my face with a stupid sneer, she said:
+"Isn't it a pity you haven't a pretty girl to walk all alone with
+you through this sweet country? How different everything would look?
+wouldn't it? Strange that one can never have what one would like best!
+How the roses would bloom and all that, even in this infernal hole!
+wouldn't they, Anodos? Her eyes would light up the old cave, wouldn't
+they?"
+
+"That depends on who the pretty girl should be," replied I.
+
+"Not so very much matter that," she answered; "look here."
+
+I had turned to go away as I gave my reply, but now I stopped and looked
+at her. As a rough unsightly bud might suddenly blossom into the most
+lovely flower; or rather, as a sunbeam bursts through a shapeless cloud,
+and transfigures the earth; so burst a face of resplendent beauty, as it
+were THROUGH the unsightly visage of the woman, destroying it with light
+as it dawned through it. A summer sky rose above me, gray with heat;
+across a shining slumberous landscape, looked from afar the peaks of
+snow-capped mountains; and down from a great rock beside me fell a sheet
+of water mad with its own delight.
+
+"Stay with me," she said, lifting up her exquisite face, and looking
+full in mine.
+
+I drew back. Again the infernal laugh grated upon my ears; again the
+rocks closed in around me, and the ugly woman looked at me with wicked,
+mocking hazel eyes.
+
+"You shall have your reward," said she. "You shall see your white lady
+again."
+
+"That lies not with you," I replied, and turned and left her.
+
+She followed me with shriek upon shriek of laughter, as I went on my
+way.
+
+I may mention here, that although there was always light enough to see
+my path and a few yards on every side of me, I never could find out the
+source of this sad sepulchral illumination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+        "In the wind's uproar, the sea's raging grim,
+          And the sighs that are born in him."
+                                     HEINE.
+
+
+        "From dreams of bliss shall men awake
+          One day, but not to weep:
+          The dreams remain; they only break
+          The mirror of the sleep."
+                                    JEAN PAUL, Hesperus.
+
+How I got through this dreary part of my travels, I do not know. I do
+not think I was upheld by the hope that any moment the light might break
+in upon me; for I scarcely thought about that. I went on with a dull
+endurance, varied by moments of uncontrollable sadness; for more and
+more the conviction grew upon me that I should never see the white
+lady again. It may seem strange that one with whom I had held so little
+communion should have so engrossed my thoughts; but benefits conferred
+awaken love in some minds, as surely as benefits received in others.
+Besides being delighted and proud that my songs had called the
+beautiful creature to life, the same fact caused me to feel a tenderness
+unspeakable for her, accompanied with a kind of feeling of property in
+her; for so the goblin Selfishness would reward the angel Love. When
+to all this is added, an overpowering sense of her beauty, and
+an unquestioning conviction that this was a true index to inward
+loveliness, it may be understood how it came to pass that my imagination
+filled my whole soul with the play of its own multitudinous colours and
+harmonies around the form which yet stood, a gracious marble radiance,
+in the midst of ITS white hall of phantasy. The time passed by unheeded;
+for my thoughts were busy. Perhaps this was also in part the cause of my
+needing no food, and never thinking how I should find any, during this
+subterraneous part of my travels. How long they endured I could not
+tell, for I had no means of measuring time; and when I looked back,
+there was such a discrepancy between the decisions of my imagination
+and my judgment, as to the length of time that had passed, that I was
+bewildered, and gave up all attempts to arrive at any conclusion on the
+point.
+
+A gray mist continually gathered behind me. When I looked back towards
+the past, this mist was the medium through which my eyes had to strain
+for a vision of what had gone by; and the form of the white lady had
+receded into an unknown region. At length the country of rock began
+to close again around me, gradually and slowly narrowing, till I found
+myself walking in a gallery of rock once more, both sides of which I
+could touch with my outstretched hands. It narrowed yet, until I
+was forced to move carefully, in order to avoid striking against the
+projecting pieces of rock. The roof sank lower and lower, until I was
+compelled, first to stoop, and then to creep on my hands and knees.
+It recalled terrible dreams of childhood; but I was not much afraid,
+because I felt sure that this was my path, and my only hope of leaving
+Fairy Land, of which I was now almost weary.
+
+At length, on getting past an abrupt turn in the passage, through
+which I had to force myself, I saw, a few yards ahead of me, the
+long-forgotten daylight shining through a small opening, to which the
+path, if path it could now be called, led me. With great difficulty I
+accomplished these last few yards, and came forth to the day. I stood on
+the shore of a wintry sea, with a wintry sun just a few feet above its
+horizon-edge. It was bare, and waste, and gray. Hundreds of hopeless
+waves rushed constantly shorewards, falling exhausted upon a beach
+of great loose stones, that seemed to stretch miles and miles in both
+directions. There was nothing for the eye but mingling shades of
+gray; nothing for the ear but the rush of the coming, the roar of the
+breaking, and the moan of the retreating wave. No rock lifted up a
+sheltering severity above the dreariness around; even that from which I
+had myself emerged rose scarcely a foot above the opening by which I
+had reached the dismal day, more dismal even than the tomb I had left.
+A cold, death-like wind swept across the shore, seeming to issue from a
+pale mouth of cloud upon the horizon. Sign of life was nowhere visible.
+I wandered over the stones, up and down the beach, a human imbodiment of
+the nature around me. The wind increased; its keen waves flowed through
+my soul; the foam rushed higher up the stones; a few dead stars began
+to gleam in the east; the sound of the waves grew louder and yet more
+despairing. A dark curtain of cloud was lifted up, and a pale blue rent
+shone between its foot and the edge of the sea, out from which rushed an
+icy storm of frozen wind, that tore the waters into spray as it passed,
+and flung the billows in raving heaps upon the desolate shore. I could
+bear it no longer.
+
+"I will not be tortured to death," I cried; "I will meet it half-way.
+The life within me is yet enough to bear me up to the face of Death, and
+then I die unconquered."
+
+Before it had grown so dark, I had observed, though without any
+particular interest, that on one part of the shore a low platform of
+rock seemed to run out far into the midst of the breaking waters.
+
+Towards this I now went, scrambling over smooth stones, to which scarce
+even a particle of sea-weed clung; and having found it, I got on it, and
+followed its direction, as near as I could guess, out into the tumbling
+chaos. I could hardly keep my feet against the wind and sea. The waves
+repeatedly all but swept me off my path; but I kept on my way, till I
+reached the end of the low promontory, which, in the fall of the waves,
+rose a good many feet above the surface, and, in their rise, was covered
+with their waters. I stood one moment and gazed into the heaving abyss
+beneath me; then plunged headlong into the mounting wave below. A
+blessing, like the kiss of a mother, seemed to alight on my soul; a
+calm, deeper than that which accompanies a hope deferred, bathed my
+spirit. I sank far into the waters, and sought not to return. I felt as
+if once more the great arms of the beech-tree were around me, soothing
+me after the miseries I had passed through, and telling me, like a
+little sick child, that I should be better to-morrow. The waters of
+themselves lifted me, as with loving arms, to the surface. I breathed
+again, but did not unclose my eyes. I would not look on the wintry sea,
+and the pitiless gray sky. Thus I floated, till something gently touched
+me. It was a little boat floating beside me. How it came there I could
+not tell; but it rose and sank on the waters, and kept touching me in
+its fall, as if with a human will to let me know that help was by me. It
+was a little gay-coloured boat, seemingly covered with glistering scales
+like those of a fish, all of brilliant rainbow hues. I scrambled into
+it, and lay down in the bottom, with a sense of exquisite repose.
+
+Then I drew over me a rich, heavy, purple cloth that was beside me; and,
+lying still, knew, by the sound of the waters, that my little bark was
+fleeting rapidly onwards. Finding, however, none of that stormy motion
+which the sea had manifested when I beheld it from the shore, I opened
+my eyes; and, looking first up, saw above me the deep violet sky of a
+warm southern night; and then, lifting my head, saw that I was sailing
+fast upon a summer sea, in the last border of a southern twilight. The
+aureole of the sun yet shot the extreme faint tips of its longest rays
+above the horizon-waves, and withdrew them not. It was a perpetual
+twilight. The stars, great and earnest, like children's eyes, bent down
+lovingly towards the waters; and the reflected stars within seemed to
+float up, as if longing to meet their embraces. But when I looked down,
+a new wonder met my view. For, vaguely revealed beneath the wave, I
+floated above my whole Past. The fields of my childhood flitted by; the
+halls of my youthful labours; the streets of great cities where I had
+dwelt; and the assemblies of men and women wherein I had wearied myself
+seeking for rest. But so indistinct were the visions, that sometimes
+I thought I was sailing on a shallow sea, and that strange rocks and
+forests of sea-plants beguiled my eye, sufficiently to be transformed,
+by the magic of the phantasy, into well-known objects and regions. Yet,
+at times, a beloved form seemed to lie close beneath me in sleep; and
+the eyelids would tremble as if about to forsake the conscious eye;
+and the arms would heave upwards, as if in dreams they sought for a
+satisfying presence. But these motions might come only from the heaving
+of the waters between those forms and me. Soon I fell asleep, overcome
+with fatigue and delight. In dreams of unspeakable joy--of restored
+friendships; of revived embraces; of love which said it had never died;
+of faces that had vanished long ago, yet said with smiling lips that
+they knew nothing of the grave; of pardons implored, and granted with
+such bursting floods of love, that I was almost glad I had sinned--thus
+I passed through this wondrous twilight. I awoke with the feeling that I
+had been kissed and loved to my heart's content; and found that my boat
+was floating motionless by the grassy shore of a little island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+     "In still rest, in changeless simplicity, I bear,
+     uninterrupted, the consciousness of the whole of Humanity
+     within me."--SCHLEIERMACHERS, Monologen.
+
+            "... such a sweetness, such a grace,
+                 In all thy speech appear,
+              That what to th'eye a beauteous face,
+                 That thy tongue is to the ear."
+                                          --COWLEY.
+
+The water was deep to the very edge; and I sprang from the little boat
+upon a soft grassy turf. The island seemed rich with a profusion of all
+grasses and low flowers. All delicate lowly things were most plentiful;
+but no trees rose skywards, not even a bush overtopped the tall grasses,
+except in one place near the cottage I am about to describe, where a few
+plants of the gum-cistus, which drops every night all the blossoms that
+the day brings forth, formed a kind of natural arbour. The whole island
+lay open to the sky and sea. It rose nowhere more than a few feet above
+the level of the waters, which flowed deep all around its border. Here
+there seemed to be neither tide nor storm. A sense of persistent calm
+and fulness arose in the mind at the sight of the slow, pulse-like rise
+and fall of the deep, clear, unrippled waters against the bank of the
+island, for shore it could hardly be called, being so much more like
+the edge of a full, solemn river. As I walked over the grass towards the
+cottage, which stood at a little distance from the bank, all the flowers
+of childhood looked at me with perfect child-eyes out of the grass. My
+heart, softened by the dreams through which it had passed, overflowed
+in a sad, tender love towards them. They looked to me like children
+impregnably fortified in a helpless confidence. The sun stood half-way
+down the western sky, shining very soft and golden; and there grew a
+second world of shadows amidst the world of grasses and wild flowers.
+
+The cottage was square, with low walls, and a high pyramidal roof
+thatched with long reeds, of which the withered blossoms hung over all
+the eaves. It is noticeable that most of the buildings I saw in Fairy
+Land were cottages. There was no path to a door, nor, indeed, was there
+any track worn by footsteps in the island.
+
+The cottage rose right out of the smooth turf. It had no windows that I
+could see; but there was a door in the centre of the side facing me,
+up to which I went. I knocked, and the sweetest voice I had ever heard
+said, "Come in." I entered. A bright fire was burning on a hearth in
+the centre of the earthern floor, and the smoke found its way out at an
+opening in the centre of the pyramidal roof. Over the fire hung a little
+pot, and over the pot bent a woman-face, the most wonderful, I thought,
+that I had ever beheld. For it was older than any countenance I had ever
+looked upon. There was not a spot in which a wrinkle could lie, where a
+wrinkle lay not. And the skin was ancient and brown, like old parchment.
+The woman's form was tall and spare: and when she stood up to welcome
+me, I saw that she was straight as an arrow. Could that voice of
+sweetness have issued from those lips of age? Mild as they were, could
+they be the portals whence flowed such melody? But the moment I saw
+her eyes, I no longer wondered at her voice: they were absolutely
+young--those of a woman of five-and-twenty, large, and of a clear gray.
+Wrinkles had beset them all about; the eyelids themselves were old, and
+heavy, and worn; but the eyes were very incarnations of soft light. She
+held out her hand to me, and the voice of sweetness again greeted me,
+with the single word, "Welcome." She set an old wooden chair for me,
+near the fire, and went on with her cooking. A wondrous sense of refuge
+and repose came upon me. I felt like a boy who has got home from school,
+miles across the hills, through a heavy storm of wind and snow. Almost,
+as I gazed on her, I sprang from my seat to kiss those old lips. And
+when, having finished her cooking, she brought some of the dish she had
+prepared, and set it on a little table by me, covered with a snow-white
+cloth, I could not help laying my head on her bosom, and bursting
+into happy tears. She put her arms round me, saying, "Poor child; poor
+child!"
+
+As I continued to weep, she gently disengaged herself, and, taking a
+spoon, put some of the food (I did not know what it was) to my lips,
+entreating me most endearingly to swallow it. To please her, I made an
+effort, and succeeded. She went on feeding me like a baby, with one arm
+round me, till I looked up in her face and smiled: then she gave me the
+spoon and told me to eat, for it would do me good. I obeyed her, and
+found myself wonderfully refreshed. Then she drew near the fire an
+old-fashioned couch that was in the cottage, and making me lie down
+upon it, sat at my feet, and began to sing. Amazing store of old ballads
+rippled from her lips, over the pebbles of ancient tunes; and the voice
+that sang was sweet as the voice of a tuneful maiden that singeth ever
+from very fulness of song. The songs were almost all sad, but with a
+sound of comfort. One I can faintly recall. It was something like this:
+
+            Sir Aglovaile through the churchyard rode;
+                 SING, ALL ALONE I LIE:
+             Little recked he where'er he yode,
+                 ALL ALONE, UP IN THE SKY.
+
+             Swerved his courser, and plunged with fear
+                 ALL ALONE I LIE:
+             His cry might have wakened the dead men near,
+                 ALL ALONE, UP IN THE SKY.
+
+            The very dead that lay at his feet,
+             Lapt in the mouldy winding-sheet.
+
+            But he curbed him and spurred him, until he stood
+             Still in his place, like a horse of wood,
+
+            With nostrils uplift, and eyes wide and wan;
+             But the sweat in streams from his fetlocks ran.
+
+            A ghost grew out of the shadowy air,
+             And sat in the midst of her moony hair.
+
+            In her gleamy hair she sat and wept;
+             In the dreamful moon they lay and slept;
+
+            The shadows above, and the bodies below,
+             Lay and slept in the moonbeams slow.
+
+            And she sang, like the moan of an autumn wind
+             Over the stubble left behind:
+
+              Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+               A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+              And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+                 And life is never the same again.
+
+                Alas, how hardly things go right!
+                 'Tis hard to watch on a summer night,
+                 For the sigh will come and the kiss will stay,
+                 And the summer night is a winter day.
+
+            "Oh, lovely ghosts my heart is woes
+             To see thee weeping and wailing so.
+
+            Oh, lovely ghost," said the fearless knight,
+             "Can the sword of a warrior set it right?
+
+            Or prayer of bedesman, praying mild,
+             As a cup of water a feverish child,
+
+            Sooth thee at last, in dreamless mood
+             To sleep the sleep a dead lady should?
+
+            Thine eyes they fill me with longing sore,
+             As if I had known thee for evermore.
+
+            Oh, lovely ghost, I could leave the day
+             To sit with thee in the moon away
+
+            If thou wouldst trust me, and lay thy head
+             To rest on a bosom that is not dead."
+             The lady sprang up with a strange ghost-cry,
+             And she flung her white ghost-arms on high:
+
+            And she laughed a laugh that was not gay,
+             And it lengthened out till it died away;
+
+            And the dead beneath turned and moaned,
+             And the yew-trees above they shuddered and groaned.
+
+            "Will he love me twice with a love that is vain?
+             Will he kill the poor ghost yet again?
+
+            I thought thou wert good; but I said, and wept:
+             'Can I have dreamed who have not slept?'
+
+            And I knew, alas! or ever I would,
+             Whether I dreamed, or thou wert good.
+
+            When my baby died, my brain grew wild.
+             I awoke, and found I was with my child."
+
+            "If thou art the ghost of my Adelaide,
+             How is it?  Thou wert but a village maid,
+
+            And thou seemest an angel lady white,
+             Though thin, and wan, and past delight."
+
+            The lady smiled a flickering smile,
+             And she pressed her temples hard the while.
+
+            "Thou seest that Death for a woman can
+             Do more than knighthood for a man."
+
+            "But show me the child thou callest mine,
+             Is she out to-night in the ghost's sunshine?"
+
+            "In St. Peter's Church she is playing on,
+             At hide-and-seek, with Apostle John.
+
+            When the moonbeams right through the window go,
+             Where the twelve are standing in glorious show,
+
+            She says the rest of them do not stir,
+             But one comes down to play with her.
+
+            Then I can go where I list, and weep,
+             For good St. John my child will keep."
+
+            "Thy beauty filleth the very air,
+              Never saw I a woman so fair."
+
+            "Come, if thou darest, and sit by my side;
+              But do not touch me, or woe will betide.
+
+            Alas, I am weak: I might well know
+             This gladness betokens some further woe.
+
+             Yet come.  It will come.  I will bear it.  I can.
+              For thou lovest me yet--though but as a man."
+
+            The knight dismounted in earnest speed;
+              Away through the tombstones thundered the steed,
+
+            And fell by the outer wall, and died.
+             But the knight he kneeled by the lady's side;
+
+            Kneeled beside her in wondrous bliss,
+             Rapt in an everlasting kiss:
+
+            Though never his lips come the lady nigh,
+             And his eyes alone on her beauty lie.
+
+            All the night long, till the cock crew loud,
+             He kneeled by the lady, lapt in her shroud.
+
+            And what they said, I may not say:
+             Dead night was sweeter than living day.
+
+            How she made him so blissful glad
+             Who made her and found her so ghostly sad,
+
+            I may not tell; but it needs no touch
+             To make them blessed who love so much.
+
+            "Come every night, my ghost, to me;
+             And one night I will come to thee.
+
+            'Tis good to have a ghostly wife:
+             She will not tremble at clang of strife;
+
+            She will only hearken, amid the din,
+             Behind the door, if he cometh in."
+
+            And this is how Sir Aglovaile
+            Often walked in the moonlight pale.
+
+            And oft when the crescent but thinned the gloom,
+             Full orbed moonlight filled his room;
+
+            And through beneath his chamber door,
+             Fell a ghostly gleam on the outer floor;
+
+            And they that passed, in fear averred
+             That murmured words they often heard.
+
+            'Twas then that the eastern crescent shone
+              Through the chancel window, and good St. John
+
+            Played with the ghost-child all the night,
+             And the mother was free till the morning light,
+
+            And sped through the dawning night, to stay
+             With Aglovaile till the break of day.
+
+            And their love was a rapture, lone and high,
+             And dumb as the moon in the topmost sky.
+
+            One night Sir Aglovaile, weary, slept
+             And dreamed a dream wherein he wept.
+
+            A warrior he was, not often wept he,
+             But this night he wept full bitterly.
+
+            He woke--beside him the ghost-girl shone
+             Out of the dark: 'twas the eve of St. John.
+
+            He had dreamed a dream of a still, dark wood,
+             Where the maiden of old beside him stood;
+
+            But a mist came down, and caught her away,
+             And he sought her in vain through the pathless day,
+
+            Till he wept with the grief that can do no more,
+             And thought he had dreamt the dream before.
+
+            From bursting heart the weeping flowed on;
+             And lo! beside him the ghost-girl shone;
+
+            Shone like the light on a harbour's breast,
+             Over the sea of his dream's unrest;
+
+            Shone like the wondrous, nameless boon,
+             That the heart seeks ever, night or noon:
+
+            Warnings forgotten, when needed most,
+             He clasped to his bosom the radiant ghost.
+
+            She wailed aloud, and faded, and sank.
+             With upturn'd white face, cold and blank,
+
+            In his arms lay the corpse of the maiden pale,
+             And she came no more to Sir Aglovaile.
+
+            Only a voice, when winds were wild,
+             Sobbed and wailed like a chidden child.
+
+            Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+             A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+             And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+             And life is never the same again.
+
+This was one of the simplest of her songs, which, perhaps, is the cause
+of my being able to remember it better than most of the others. While
+she sung, I was in Elysium, with the sense of a rich soul upholding,
+embracing, and overhanging mine, full of all plenty and bounty. I felt
+as if she could give me everything I wanted; as if I should never wish
+to leave her, but would be content to be sung to and fed by her, day
+after day, as years rolled by. At last I fell asleep while she sang.
+
+When I awoke, I knew not whether it was night or day. The fire had sunk
+to a few red embers, which just gave light enough to show me the woman
+standing a few feet from me, with her back towards me, facing the
+door by which I had entered. She was weeping, but very gently and
+plentifully. The tears seemed to come freely from her heart. Thus she
+stood for a few minutes; then, slowly turning at right angles to her
+former position, she faced another of the four sides of the cottage.
+I now observed, for the first time, that here was a door likewise; and
+that, indeed, there was one in the centre of every side of the cottage.
+
+When she looked towards the second door, her tears ceased to flow, but
+sighs took their place. She often closed her eyes as she stood; and
+every time she closed her eyes, a gentle sigh seemed to be born in her
+heart, and to escape at her lips. But when her eyes were open, her
+sighs were deep and very sad, and shook her whole frame. Then she turned
+towards the third door, and a cry as of fear or suppressed pain broke
+from her; but she seemed to hearten herself against the dismay, and
+to front it steadily; for, although I often heard a slight cry, and
+sometimes a moan, yet she never moved or bent her head, and I felt sure
+that her eyes never closed. Then she turned to the fourth door, and
+I saw her shudder, and then stand still as a statue; till at last she
+turned towards me and approached the fire. I saw that her face was white
+as death. But she gave one look upwards, and smiled the sweetest, most
+child-innocent smile; then heaped fresh wood on the fire, and, sitting
+down by the blaze, drew her wheel near her, and began to spin. While
+she spun, she murmured a low strange song, to which the hum of the wheel
+made a kind of infinite symphony. At length she paused in her spinning
+and singing, and glanced towards me, like a mother who looks whether
+or not her child gives signs of waking. She smiled when she saw that my
+eyes were open. I asked her whether it was day yet. She answered, "It is
+always day here, so long as I keep my fire burning."
+
+I felt wonderfully refreshed; and a great desire to see more of the
+island awoke within me. I rose, and saying that I wished to look about
+me, went towards the door by which I had entered.
+
+"Stay a moment," said my hostess, with some trepidation in her voice.
+"Listen to me. You will not see what you expect when you go out of that
+door. Only remember this: whenever you wish to come back to me, enter
+wherever you see this mark."
+
+She held up her left hand between me and the fire. Upon the palm, which
+appeared almost transparent, I saw, in dark red, a mark like this -->
+which I took care to fix in my mind.
+
+She then kissed me, and bade me good-bye with a solemnity that awed me;
+and bewildered me too, seeing I was only going out for a little ramble
+in an island, which I did not believe larger than could easily be
+compassed in a few hours' walk at most. As I went she resumed her
+spinning.
+
+I opened the door, and stepped out. The moment my foot touched the
+smooth sward, I seemed to issue from the door of an old barn on my
+father's estate, where, in the hot afternoons, I used to go and lie
+amongst the straw, and read. It seemed to me now that I had been asleep
+there. At a little distance in the field, I saw two of my brothers at
+play. The moment they caught sight of me, they called out to me to come
+and join them, which I did; and we played together as we had done years
+ago, till the red sun went down in the west, and the gray fog began
+to rise from the river. Then we went home together with a strange
+happiness. As we went, we heard the continually renewed larum of a
+landrail in the long grass. One of my brothers and I separated to a
+little distance, and each commenced running towards the part whence the
+sound appeared to come, in the hope of approaching the spot where the
+bird was, and so getting at least a sight of it, if we should not be
+able to capture the little creature. My father's voice recalled us from
+trampling down the rich long grass, soon to be cut down and laid aside
+for the winter. I had quite forgotten all about Fairy Land, and the
+wonderful old woman, and the curious red mark.
+
+My favourite brother and I shared the same bed. Some childish dispute
+arose between us; and our last words, ere we fell asleep, were not of
+kindness, notwithstanding the pleasures of the day. When I woke in the
+morning, I missed him. He had risen early, and had gone to bathe in the
+river. In another hour, he was brought home drowned. Alas! alas! if we
+had only gone to sleep as usual, the one with his arm about the other!
+Amidst the horror of the moment, a strange conviction flashed across my
+mind, that I had gone through the very same once before.
+
+I rushed out of the house, I knew not why, sobbing and crying bitterly.
+I ran through the fields in aimless distress, till, passing the old
+barn, I caught sight of a red mark on the door. The merest trifles
+sometimes rivet the attention in the deepest misery; the intellect has
+so little to do with grief. I went up to look at this mark, which I did
+not remember ever to have seen before. As I looked at it, I thought I
+would go in and lie down amongst the straw, for I was very weary with
+running about and weeping. I opened the door; and there in the cottage
+sat the old woman as I had left her, at her spinning-wheel.
+
+"I did not expect you quite so soon," she said, as I shut the door
+behind me. I went up to the couch, and threw myself on it with that
+fatigue wherewith one awakes from a feverish dream of hopeless grief.
+
+The old woman sang:
+
+        The great sun, benighted,
+             May faint from the sky;
+         But love, once uplighted,
+             Will never more die.
+
+        Form, with its brightness,
+             From eyes will depart:
+         It walketh, in whiteness,
+             The halls of the heart.
+
+Ere she had ceased singing, my courage had returned. I started from the
+couch, and, without taking leave of the old woman, opened the door of
+Sighs, and sprang into what should appear.
+
+I stood in a lordly hall, where, by a blazing fire on the hearth, sat a
+lady, waiting, I knew, for some one long desired. A mirror was near me,
+but I saw that my form had no place within its depths, so I feared not
+that I should be seen. The lady wonderfully resembled my marble lady,
+but was altogether of the daughters of men, and I could not tell whether
+or not it was she.
+
+It was not for me she waited. The tramp of a great horse rang through
+the court without. It ceased, and the clang of armour told that his
+rider alighted, and the sound of his ringing heels approached the hall.
+The door opened; but the lady waited, for she would meet her lord alone.
+He strode in: she flew like a home-bound dove into his arms, and nestled
+on the hard steel. It was the knight of the soiled armour. But now the
+armour shone like polished glass; and strange to tell, though the mirror
+reflected not my form, I saw a dim shadow of myself in the shining
+steel.
+
+"O my beloved, thou art come, and I am blessed."
+
+Her soft fingers speedily overcame the hard clasp of his helmet; one by
+one she undid the buckles of his armour; and she toiled under the
+weight of the mail, as she WOULD carry it aside. Then she unclasped
+his greaves, and unbuckled his spurs; and once more she sprang into
+his arms, and laid her head where she could now feel the beating of his
+heart. Then she disengaged herself from his embrace, and, moving back a
+step or two, gazed at him. He stood there a mighty form, crowned with a
+noble head, where all sadness had disappeared, or had been absorbed in
+solemn purpose. Yet I suppose that he looked more thoughtful than
+the lady had expected to see him, for she did not renew her caresses,
+although his face glowed with love, and the few words he spoke were
+as mighty deeds for strength; but she led him towards the hearth, and
+seated him in an ancient chair, and set wine before him, and sat at his
+feet.
+
+"I am sad," he said, "when I think of the youth whom I met twice in the
+forests of Fairy Land; and who, you say, twice, with his songs, roused
+you from the death-sleep of an evil enchantment. There was something
+noble in him, but it was a nobleness of thought, and not of deed. He may
+yet perish of vile fear."
+
+"Ah!" returned the lady, "you saved him once, and for that I thank you;
+for may I not say that I somewhat loved him? But tell me how you fared,
+when you struck your battle-axe into the ash-tree, and he came and found
+you; for so much of the story you had told me, when the beggar-child
+came and took you away."
+
+"As soon as I saw him," rejoined the knight, "I knew that earthly arms
+availed not against such as he; and that my soul must meet him in its
+naked strength. So I unclasped my helm, and flung it on the ground; and,
+holding my good axe yet in my hand, gazed at him with steady eyes. On
+he came, a horror indeed, but I did not flinch. Endurance must conquer,
+where force could not reach. He came nearer and nearer, till the ghastly
+face was close to mine. A shudder as of death ran through me; but I
+think I did not move, for he seemed to quail, and retreated. As soon
+as he gave back, I struck one more sturdy blow on the stem of his tree,
+that the forest rang; and then looked at him again. He writhed and
+grinned with rage and apparent pain, and again approached me, but
+retreated sooner than before. I heeded him no more, but hewed with a
+will at the tree, till the trunk creaked, and the head bowed, and with a
+crash it fell to the earth. Then I looked up from my labour, and lo! the
+spectre had vanished, and I saw him no more; nor ever in my wanderings
+have I heard of him again."
+
+"Well struck! well withstood! my hero," said the lady.
+
+"But," said the knight, somewhat troubled, "dost thou love the youth
+still?"
+
+"Ah!" she replied, "how can I help it? He woke me from worse than death;
+he loved me. I had never been for thee, if he had not sought me first.
+But I love him not as I love thee. He was but the moon of my night; thou
+art the sun of my day, O beloved."
+
+"Thou art right," returned the noble man. "It were hard, indeed, not to
+have some love in return for such a gift as he hath given thee. I, too,
+owe him more than words can speak."
+
+Humbled before them, with an aching and desolate heart, I yet could not
+restrain my words:
+
+"Let me, then, be the moon of thy night still, O woman! And when thy day
+is beclouded, as the fairest days will be, let some song of mine comfort
+thee, as an old, withered, half-forgotten thing, that belongs to an
+ancient mournful hour of uncompleted birth, which yet was beautiful in
+its time."
+
+They sat silent, and I almost thought they were listening. The colour of
+the lady's eyes grew deeper and deeper; the slow tears grew, and filled
+them, and overflowed. They rose, and passed, hand in hand, close
+to where I stood; and each looked towards me in passing. Then they
+disappeared through a door which closed behind them; but, ere it closed,
+I saw that the room into which it opened was a rich chamber, hung with
+gorgeous arras. I stood with an ocean of sighs frozen in my bosom. I
+could remain no longer. She was near me, and I could not see her; near
+me in the arms of one loved better than I, and I would not see her, and
+I would not be by her. But how to escape from the nearness of the best
+beloved? I had not this time forgotten the mark; for the fact that I
+could not enter the sphere of these living beings kept me aware that,
+for me, I moved in a vision, while they moved in life. I looked all
+about for the mark, but could see it nowhere; for I avoided looking
+just where it was. There the dull red cipher glowed, on the very door of
+their secret chamber. Struck with agony, I dashed it open, and fell at
+the feet of the ancient woman, who still spun on, the whole dissolved
+ocean of my sighs bursting from me in a storm of tearless sobs. Whether
+I fainted or slept, I do not know; but, as I returned to consciousness,
+before I seemed to have power to move, I heard the woman singing, and
+could distinguish the words:
+
+        O light of dead and of dying days!
+             O Love! in thy glory go,
+         In a rosy mist and a moony maze,
+             O'er the pathless peaks of snow.
+
+        But what is left for the cold gray soul,
+             That moans like a wounded dove?
+         One wine is left in the broken bowl!--
+             'Tis--TO LOVE, AND LOVE AND LOVE.
+
+ Now I could weep.  When she saw me weeping, she sang:
+
+        Better to sit at the waters' birth,
+             Than a sea of waves to win;
+         To live in the love that floweth forth,
+             Than the love that cometh in.
+
+        Be thy heart a well of love, my child,
+             Flowing, and free, and sure;
+         For a cistern of love, though undefiled,
+             Keeps not the spirit pure.
+
+I rose from the earth, loving the white lady as I had never loved her
+before.
+
+Then I walked up to the door of Dismay, and opened it, and went out. And
+lo! I came forth upon a crowded street, where men and women went to
+and fro in multitudes. I knew it well; and, turning to one hand, walked
+sadly along the pavement. Suddenly I saw approaching me, a little way
+off, a form well known to me (WELL-KNOWN!--alas, how weak the word!) in
+the years when I thought my boyhood was left behind, and shortly before
+I entered the realm of Fairy Land. Wrong and Sorrow had gone together,
+hand-in-hand as it is well they do.
+
+Unchangeably dear was that face. It lay in my heart as a child lies in
+its own white bed; but I could not meet her.
+
+"Anything but that," I said, and, turning aside, sprang up the steps
+to a door, on which I fancied I saw the mystic sign. I entered--not the
+mysterious cottage, but her home. I rushed wildly on, and stood by the
+door of her room.
+
+"She is out," I said, "I will see the old room once more."
+
+I opened the door gently, and stood in a great solemn church. A
+deep-toned bell, whose sounds throbbed and echoed and swam through the
+empty building, struck the hour of midnight. The moon shone through
+the windows of the clerestory, and enough of the ghostly radiance was
+diffused through the church to let me see, walking with a stately, yet
+somewhat trailing and stumbling step, down the opposite aisle, for I
+stood in one of the transepts, a figure dressed in a white robe, whether
+for the night, or for that longer night which lies too deep for the day,
+I could not tell. Was it she? and was this her chamber? I crossed the
+church, and followed. The figure stopped, seemed to ascend as it were
+a high bed, and lay down. I reached the place where it lay, glimmering
+white. The bed was a tomb. The light was too ghostly to see clearly, but
+I passed my hand over the face and the hands and the feet, which were
+all bare. They were cold--they were marble, but I knew them. It grew
+dark. I turned to retrace my steps, but found, ere long, that I had
+wandered into what seemed a little chapel. I groped about, seeking the
+door. Everything I touched belonged to the dead. My hands fell on the
+cold effigy of a knight who lay with his legs crossed and his sword
+broken beside him. He lay in his noble rest, and I lived on in ignoble
+strife. I felt for the left hand and a certain finger; I found there the
+ring I knew: he was one of my own ancestors. I was in the chapel over
+the burial-vault of my race. I called aloud: "If any of the dead are
+moving here, let them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am still alive;
+and let some dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in the land of
+the dead, and see no light." A warm kiss alighted on my lips through
+the dark. And I said, "The dead kiss well; I will not be afraid." And a
+great hand was reached out of the dark, and grasped mine for a moment,
+mightily and tenderly. I said to myself: "The veil between, though very
+dark, is very thin."
+
+Groping my way further, I stumbled over the heavy stone that covered the
+entrance of the vault: and, in stumbling, descried upon the stone the
+mark, glowing in red fire. I caught the great ring. All my effort could
+not have moved the huge slab; but it opened the door of the cottage, and
+I threw myself once more, pale and speechless, on the couch beside the
+ancient dame. She sang once more:
+
+        Thou dreamest: on a rock thou art,
+             High o'er the broken wave;
+         Thou fallest with a fearful start
+             But not into thy grave;
+         For, waking in the morning's light,
+         Thou smilest at the vanished night
+
+        So wilt thou sink, all pale and dumb,
+             Into the fainting gloom;
+         But ere the coming terrors come,
+             Thou wak'st--where is the tomb?
+         Thou wak'st--the dead ones smile above,
+         With hovering arms of sleepless love.
+
+ She paused; then sang again:
+
+        We weep for gladness, weep for grief;
+             The tears they are the same;
+         We sigh for longing, and relief;
+             The sighs have but one name,
+
+        And mingled in the dying strife,
+             Are moans that are not sad
+          The pangs of death are throbs of life,
+             Its sighs are sometimes glad.
+
+         The face is very strange and white:
+             It is Earth's only spot
+         That feebly flickers back the light
+             The living seeth not.
+
+ I fell asleep, and slept a dreamless sleep, for I know not how
+long. When I awoke, I found that my hostess had moved from where she had
+been sitting, and now sat between me and the fourth door.
+
+I guessed that her design was to prevent my entering there. I sprang
+from the couch, and darted past her to the door. I opened it at once and
+went out. All I remember is a cry of distress from the woman: "Don't go
+there, my child! Don't go there!" But I was gone.
+
+I knew nothing more; or, if I did, I had forgot it all when I awoke to
+consciousness, lying on the floor of the cottage, with my head in the
+lap of the woman, who was weeping over me, and stroking my hair with
+both hands, talking to me as a mother might talk to a sick and sleeping,
+or a dead child. As soon as I looked up and saw her, she smiled
+through her tears; smiled with withered face and young eyes, till her
+countenance was irradiated with the light of the smile. Then she bathed
+my head and face and hands in an icy cold, colourless liquid, which
+smelt a little of damp earth. Immediately I was able to sit up. She rose
+and put some food before me. When I had eaten, she said: "Listen to me,
+my child. You must leave me directly!"
+
+"Leave you!" I said. "I am so happy with you. I never was so happy in my
+life."
+
+"But you must go," she rejoined sadly. "Listen! What do you hear?"
+
+"I hear the sound as of a great throbbing of water."
+
+"Ah! you do hear it? Well, I had to go through that door--the door of
+the Timeless" (and she shuddered as she pointed to the fourth door)--"to
+find you; for if I had not gone, you would never have entered again;
+and because I went, the waters around my cottage will rise and rise,
+and flow and come, till they build a great firmament of waters over my
+dwelling. But as long as I keep my fire burning, they cannot enter.
+I have fuel enough for years; and after one year they will sink away
+again, and be just as they were before you came. I have not been buried
+for a hundred years now." And she smiled and wept.
+
+"Alas! alas!" I cried. "I have brought this evil on the best and kindest
+of friends, who has filled my heart with great gifts."
+
+"Do not think of that," she rejoined. "I can bear it very well. You will
+come back to me some day, I know. But I beg you, for my sake, my
+dear child, to do one thing. In whatever sorrow you may be, however
+inconsolable and irremediable it may appear, believe me that the old
+woman in the cottage, with the young eyes" (and she smiled), "knows
+something, though she must not always tell it, that would quite satisfy
+you about it, even in the worst moments of your distress. Now you must
+go."
+
+"But how can I go, if the waters are all about, and if the doors all
+lead into other regions and other worlds?"
+
+"This is not an island," she replied; "but is joined to the land by a
+narrow neck; and for the door, I will lead you myself through the right
+one."
+
+She took my hand, and led me through the third door; whereupon I found
+myself standing in the deep grassy turf on which I had landed from the
+little boat, but upon the opposite side of the cottage. She pointed out
+the direction I must take, to find the isthmus and escape the rising
+waters.
+
+Then putting her arms around me, she held me to her bosom; and as I
+kissed her, I felt as if I were leaving my mother for the first time,
+and could not help weeping bitterly. At length she gently pushed me
+away, and with the words, "Go, my son, and do something worth doing,"
+turned back, and, entering the cottage, closed the door behind her. I
+felt very desolate as I went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+            "Thou hadst no fame; that which thou didst like good
+         Was but thy appetite that swayed thy blood
+         For that time to the best; for as a blast
+         That through a house comes, usually doth cast
+         Things out of order, yet by chance may come
+         And blow some one thing to his proper room,
+         So did thy appetite, and not thy zeal,
+         Sway thee by chance to do some one thing well."
+                              FLETCHER'S Faithful Shepherdess.
+
+            "The noble hart that harbours vertuous thought
+         And is with childe of glorious great intent,
+         Can never rest, until it forth have brought
+         Th' eternall brood of glorie excellent."
+                              SPENSER, The Faerie Queene.
+
+I had not gone very far before I felt that the turf beneath my feet was
+soaked with the rising waters. But I reached the isthmus in safety. It
+was rocky, and so much higher than the level of the peninsula, that I
+had plenty of time to cross. I saw on each side of me the water rising
+rapidly, altogether without wind, or violent motion, or broken waves,
+but as if a slow strong fire were glowing beneath it. Ascending a steep
+acclivity, I found myself at last in an open, rocky country. After
+travelling for some hours, as nearly in a straight line as I could,
+I arrived at a lonely tower, built on the top of a little hill, which
+overlooked the whole neighbouring country. As I approached, I heard
+the clang of an anvil; and so rapid were the blows, that I despaired of
+making myself heard till a pause in the work should ensue. It was
+some minutes before a cessation took place; but when it did, I knocked
+loudly, and had not long to wait; for, a moment after, the door was
+partly opened by a noble-looking youth, half-undressed, glowing with
+heat, and begrimed with the blackness of the forge. In one hand he held
+a sword, so lately from the furnace that it yet shone with a dull fire.
+As soon as he saw me, he threw the door wide open, and standing aside,
+invited me very cordially to enter. I did so; when he shut and bolted
+the door most carefully, and then led the way inwards. He brought me
+into a rude hall, which seemed to occupy almost the whole of the ground
+floor of the little tower, and which I saw was now being used as a
+workshop. A huge fire roared on the hearth, beside which was an anvil.
+By the anvil stood, in similar undress, and in a waiting attitude,
+hammer in hand, a second youth, tall as the former, but far more
+slightly built. Reversing the usual course of perception in such
+meetings, I thought them, at first sight, very unlike; and at the second
+glance, knew that they were brothers. The former, and apparently the
+elder, was muscular and dark, with curling hair, and large hazel eyes,
+which sometimes grew wondrously soft. The second was slender and fair,
+yet with a countenance like an eagle, and an eye which, though pale
+blue, shone with an almost fierce expression. He stood erect, as if
+looking from a lofty mountain crag, over a vast plain outstretched
+below. As soon as we entered the hall, the elder turned to me, and I saw
+that a glow of satisfaction shone on both their faces. To my surprise
+and great pleasure, he addressed me thus:
+
+"Brother, will you sit by the fire and rest, till we finish this part of
+our work?"
+
+I signified my assent; and, resolved to await any disclosure they might
+be inclined to make, seated myself in silence near the hearth.
+
+The elder brother then laid the sword in the fire, covered it well over,
+and when it had attained a sufficient degree of heat, drew it out and
+laid it on the anvil, moving it carefully about, while the younger, with
+a succession of quick smart blows, appeared either to be welding it,
+or hammering one part of it to a consenting shape with the rest. Having
+finished, they laid it carefully in the fire; and, when it was very
+hot indeed, plunged it into a vessel full of some liquid, whence a blue
+flame sprang upwards, as the glowing steel entered.
+
+There they left it; and drawing two stools to the fire, sat down, one on
+each side of me.
+
+"We are very glad to see you, brother. We have been expecting you for
+some days," said the dark-haired youth.
+
+"I am proud to be called your brother," I rejoined; "and you will not
+think I refuse the name, if I desire to know why you honour me with it?"
+
+"Ah! then he does not know about it," said the younger. "We thought you
+had known of the bond betwixt us, and the work we have to do together.
+You must tell him, brother, from the first."
+
+So the elder began:
+
+"Our father is king of this country. Before we were born, three giant
+brothers had appeared in the land. No one knew exactly when, and no one
+had the least idea whence they came. They took possession of a ruined
+castle that had stood unchanged and unoccupied within the memory of any
+of the country people. The vaults of this castle had remained uninjured
+by time, and these, I presume, they made use of at first. They were
+rarely seen, and never offered the least injury to any one; so that they
+were regarded in the neighbourhood as at least perfectly harmless, if
+not rather benevolent beings. But it began to be observed, that the old
+castle had assumed somehow or other, no one knew when or how, a somewhat
+different look from what it used to have. Not only were several breaches
+in the lower part of the walls built up, but actually some of the
+battlements which yet stood, had been repaired, apparently to prevent
+them from falling into worse decay, while the more important parts were
+being restored. Of course, every one supposed the giants must have a
+hand in the work, but no one ever saw them engaged in it. The peasants
+became yet more uneasy, after one, who had concealed himself, and
+watched all night, in the neighbourhood of the castle, reported that he
+had seen, in full moonlight, the three huge giants working with might
+and main, all night long, restoring to their former position some
+massive stones, formerly steps of a grand turnpike stair, a great
+portion of which had long since fallen, along with part of the wall
+of the round tower in which it had been built. This wall they were
+completing, foot by foot, along with the stair. But the people said
+they had no just pretext for interfering: although the real reason for
+letting the giants alone was, that everybody was far too much afraid of
+them to interrupt them.
+
+"At length, with the help of a neighbouring quarry, the whole of the
+external wall of the castle was finished. And now the country folks were
+in greater fear than before. But for several years the giants remained
+very peaceful. The reason of this was afterwards supposed to be the
+fact, that they were distantly related to several good people in the
+country; for, as long as these lived, they remained quiet; but as soon
+as they were all dead the real nature of the giants broke out. Having
+completed the outside of their castle, they proceeded, by spoiling the
+country houses around them, to make a quiet luxurious provision for
+their comfort within. Affairs reached such a pass, that the news of
+their robberies came to my father's ears; but he, alas! was so crippled
+in his resources, by a war he was carrying on with a neighbouring
+prince, that he could only spare a very few men, to attempt the capture
+of their stronghold. Upon these the giants issued in the night, and slew
+every man of them. And now, grown bolder by success and impunity, they
+no longer confined their depredations to property, but began to seize
+the persons of their distinguished neighbours, knights and ladies, and
+hold them in durance, the misery of which was heightened by all
+manner of indignity, until they were redeemed by their friends, at an
+exorbitant ransom. Many knights have adventured their overthrow, but to
+their own instead; for they have all been slain, or captured, or forced
+to make a hasty retreat. To crown their enormities, if any man now
+attempts their destruction, they, immediately upon his defeat, put one
+or more of their captives to a shameful death, on a turret in sight of
+all passers-by; so that they have been much less molested of late;
+and we, although we have burned, for years, to attack these demons
+and destroy them, dared not, for the sake of their captives, risk the
+adventure, before we should have reached at least our earliest manhood.
+Now, however, we are preparing for the attempt; and the grounds of
+this preparation are these. Having only the resolution, and not the
+experience necessary for the undertaking, we went and consulted a lonely
+woman of wisdom, who lives not very far from here, in the direction of
+the quarter from which you have come. She received us most kindly, and
+gave us what seems to us the best of advice. She first inquired what
+experience we had had in arms. We told her we had been well exercised
+from our boyhood, and for some years had kept ourselves in constant
+practice, with a view to this necessity.
+
+"'But you have not actually fought for life and death?' said she.
+
+"We were forced to confess we had not.
+
+"'So much the better in some respects,' she replied. 'Now listen to me.
+Go first and work with an armourer, for as long time as you find needful
+to obtain a knowledge of his craft; which will not be long, seeing your
+hearts will be all in the work. Then go to some lonely tower, you two
+alone. Receive no visits from man or woman. There forge for yourselves
+every piece of armour that you wish to wear, or to use, in your coming
+encounter. And keep up your exercises. As, however, two of you can be no
+match for the three giants, I will find you, if I can, a third brother,
+who will take on himself the third share of the fight, and the
+preparation. Indeed, I have already seen one who will, I think, be the
+very man for your fellowship, but it will be some time before he comes
+to me. He is wandering now without an aim. I will show him to you in a
+glass, and, when he comes, you will know him at once. If he will share
+your endeavours, you must teach him all you know, and he will repay you
+well, in present song, and in future deeds.'
+
+"She opened the door of a curious old cabinet that stood in the room.
+On the inside of this door was an oval convex mirror. Looking in it for
+some time, we at length saw reflected the place where we stood, and the
+old dame seated in her chair. Our forms were not reflected. But at the
+feet of the dame lay a young man, yourself, weeping.
+
+"'Surely this youth will not serve our ends,' said I, 'for he weeps.'
+
+"The old woman smiled. 'Past tears are present strength,' said she.
+
+"'Oh!' said my brother, 'I saw you weep once over an eagle you shot.'
+
+"'That was because it was so like you, brother,' I replied; 'but indeed,
+this youth may have better cause for tears than that--I was wrong.'
+
+"'Wait a while,' said the woman; 'if I mistake not, he will make you
+weep till your tears are dry for ever. Tears are the only cure for
+weeping. And you may have need of the cure, before you go forth to fight
+the giants. You must wait for him, in your tower, till he comes.'
+
+"Now if you will join us, we will soon teach you to make your armour;
+and we will fight together, and work together, and love each other as
+never three loved before. And you will sing to us, will you not?"
+
+"That I will, when I can," I answered; "but it is only at times that the
+power of song comes upon me. For that I must wait; but I have a feeling
+that if I work well, song will not be far off to enliven the labour."
+
+This was all the compact made: the brothers required nothing more, and
+I did not think of giving anything more. I rose, and threw off my upper
+garments.
+
+"I know the uses of the sword," I said. "I am ashamed of my white hands
+beside yours so nobly soiled and hard; but that shame will soon be wiped
+away."
+
+"No, no; we will not work to-day. Rest is as needful as toil. Bring the
+wine, brother; it is your turn to serve to-day."
+
+The younger brother soon covered a table with rough viands, but good
+wine; and we ate and drank heartily, beside our work. Before the meal
+was over, I had learned all their story. Each had something in his heart
+which made the conviction, that he would victoriously perish in the
+coming conflict, a real sorrow to him. Otherwise they thought they would
+have lived enough. The causes of their trouble were respectively these:
+
+While they wrought with an armourer, in a city famed for workmanship
+in steel and silver, the elder had fallen in love with a lady as
+far beneath him in real rank, as she was above the station he had
+as apprentice to an armourer. Nor did he seek to further his suit by
+discovering himself; but there was simply so much manhood about him,
+that no one ever thought of rank when in his company. This is what his
+brother said about it. The lady could not help loving him in return. He
+told her when he left her, that he had a perilous adventure before him,
+and that when it was achieved, she would either see him return to claim
+her, or hear that he had died with honour. The younger brother's grief
+arose from the fact, that, if they were both slain, his old father, the
+king, would be childless. His love for his father was so exceeding, that
+to one unable to sympathise with it, it would have appeared extravagant.
+Both loved him equally at heart; but the love of the younger had
+been more developed, because his thoughts and anxieties had not been
+otherwise occupied. When at home, he had been his constant companion;
+and, of late, had ministered to the infirmities of his growing age. The
+youth was never weary of listening to the tales of his sire's youthful
+adventures; and had not yet in the smallest degree lost the conviction,
+that his father was the greatest man in the world. The grandest triumph
+possible to his conception was, to return to his father, laden with the
+spoils of one of the hated giants. But they both were in some dread,
+lest the thought of the loneliness of these two might occur to them,
+in the moment when decision was most necessary, and disturb, in some
+degree, the self-possession requisite for the success of their attempt.
+For, as I have said, they were yet untried in actual conflict. "Now,"
+thought I, "I see to what the powers of my gift must minister." For my
+own part, I did not dread death, for I had nothing to care to live for;
+but I dreaded the encounter because of the responsibility connected with
+it. I resolved however to work hard, and thus grow cool, and quick, and
+forceful.
+
+The time passed away in work and song, in talk and ramble, in friendly
+fight and brotherly aid. I would not forge for myself armour of heavy
+mail like theirs, for I was not so powerful as they, and depended more
+for any success I might secure, upon nimbleness of motion, certainty of
+eye, and ready response of hand. Therefore I began to make for myself a
+shirt of steel plates and rings; which work, while more troublesome,
+was better suited to me than the heavier labour. Much assistance did the
+brothers give me, even after, by their instructions, I was able to make
+some progress alone. Their work was in a moment abandoned, to render any
+required aid to mine. As the old woman had promised, I tried to repay
+them with song; and many were the tears they both shed over my ballads
+and dirges. The songs they liked best to hear were two which I made for
+them. They were not half so good as many others I knew, especially some
+I had learned from the wise woman in the cottage; but what comes nearest
+to our needs we like the best.
+
+I       The king sat on his throne
+            Glowing in gold and red;
+         The crown in his right hand shone,
+             And the gray hairs crowned his head.
+
+        His only son walks in,
+            And in walls of steel he stands:
+         Make me, O father, strong to win,
+             With the blessing of holy hands."
+
+        He knelt before his sire,
+             Who blessed him with feeble smile
+          His eyes shone out with a kingly fire,
+             But his old lips quivered the while.
+
+        "Go to the fight, my son,
+             Bring back the giant's head;
+         And the crown with which my brows have done,
+             Shall glitter on thine instead."
+
+        "My father, I seek no crowns,
+             But unspoken praise from thee;
+         For thy people's good, and thy renown,
+             I will die to set them free."
+
+        The king sat down and waited there,
+             And rose not, night nor day;
+         Till a sound of shouting filled the air,
+             And cries of a sore dismay.
+
+        Then like a king he sat once more,
+             With the crown upon his head;
+         And up to the throne the people bore
+             A mighty giant dead.
+
+        And up to the throne the people bore
+             A pale and lifeless boy.
+         The king rose up like a prophet of yore,
+             In a lofty, deathlike joy.
+
+        He put the crown on the chilly brow:
+             "Thou should'st have reigned with me
+         But Death is the king of both, and now
+             I go to obey with thee.
+
+        "Surely some good in me there lay,
+             To beget the noble one."
+         The old man smiled like a winter day,
+             And fell beside his son.
+
+II      "O lady, thy lover is dead," they cried;
+         "He is dead, but hath slain the foe;
+         He hath left his name to be magnified
+             In a song of wonder and woe."
+
+        "Alas! I am well repaid," said she,
+             "With a pain that stings like joy:
+         For I feared, from his tenderness to me,
+             That he was but a feeble boy.
+
+        "Now I shall hold my head on high,
+             The queen among my kind;
+         If ye hear a sound, 'tis only a sigh
+             For a glory left behind."
+
+The first three times I sang these songs they both wept passionately.
+But after the third time, they wept no more. Their eyes shone, and their
+faces grew pale, but they never wept at any of my songs again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+        "I put my life in my hands."--The Book of Judges.
+
+At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was finished.
+We armed each other, and tested the strength of the defence, with many
+blows of loving force. I was inferior in strength to both my brothers,
+but a little more agile than either; and upon this agility, joined to
+precision in hitting with the point of my weapon, I grounded my hopes of
+success in the ensuing combat. I likewise laboured to develop yet more
+the keenness of sight with which I was naturally gifted; and, from the
+remarks of my companions, I soon learned that my endeavours were not in
+vain.
+
+The morning arrived on which we had determined to make the attempt,
+and succeed or perish--perhaps both. We had resolved to fight on foot;
+knowing that the mishap of many of the knights who had made the attempt,
+had resulted from the fright of their horses at the appearance of the
+giants; and believing with Sir Gawain, that, though mare's sons might
+be false to us, the earth would never prove a traitor. But most of our
+preparations were, in their immediate aim at least, frustrated.
+
+We rose, that fatal morning, by daybreak. We had rested from all labour
+the day before, and now were fresh as the lark. We bathed in cold
+spring water, and dressed ourselves in clean garments, with a sense of
+preparation, as for a solemn festivity. When we had broken our fast,
+I took an old lyre, which I had found in the tower and had myself
+repaired, and sung for the last time the two ballads of which I have
+said so much already. I followed them with this, for a closing song:
+
+        Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+             With the blow that ends the strife
+         And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+             Around the pain of life!
+
+        We are dead, my brothers!  Our bodies clasp,
+             As an armour, our souls about;
+         This hand is the battle-axe I grasp,
+             And this my hammer stout.
+
+        Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead;
+             No noise can break our rest;
+         The calm of the grave is about the head,
+             And the heart heaves not the breast.
+
+         And our life we throw to our people back,
+             To live with, a further store;
+         We leave it them, that there be no lack
+             In the land where we live no more.
+
+         Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+             With the blow that ends the strife
+          And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+             Around the noise of life!
+
+ As the last few tones of the instrument were following, like a
+dirge, the death of the song, we all sprang to our feet. For, through
+one of the little windows of the tower, towards which I had looked as
+I sang, I saw, suddenly rising over the edge of the slope on which our
+tower stood, three enormous heads. The brothers knew at once, by my
+looks, what caused my sudden movement. We were utterly unarmed, and
+there was no time to arm.
+
+But we seemed to adopt the same resolution simultaneously; for each
+caught up his favourite weapon, and, leaving his defence behind, sprang
+to the door. I snatched up a long rapier, abruptly, but very finely
+pointed, in my sword-hand, and in the other a sabre; the elder brother
+seized his heavy battle-axe; and the younger, a great, two-handed sword,
+which he wielded in one hand like a feather. We had just time to get
+clear of the tower, embrace and say good-bye, and part to some little
+distance, that we might not encumber each other's motions, ere the
+triple giant-brotherhood drew near to attack us. They were about twice
+our height, and armed to the teeth. Through the visors of their helmets
+their monstrous eyes shone with a horrible ferocity. I was in the middle
+position, and the middle giant approached me. My eyes were busy with his
+armour, and I was not a moment in settling my mode of attack. I saw that
+his body-armour was somewhat clumsily made, and that the overlappings
+in the lower part had more play than necessary; and I hoped that, in
+a fortunate moment, some joint would open a little, in a visible and
+accessible part. I stood till he came near enough to aim a blow at me
+with the mace, which has been, in all ages, the favourite weapon of
+giants, when, of course, I leaped aside, and let the blow fall upon the
+spot where I had been standing. I expected this would strain the joints
+of his armour yet more. Full of fury, he made at me again; but I kept
+him busy, constantly eluding his blows, and hoping thus to fatigue him.
+He did not seem to fear any assault from me, and I attempted none as
+yet; but while I watched his motions in order to avoid his blows, I, at
+the same time, kept equal watch upon those joints of his armour, through
+some one of which I hoped to reach his life. At length, as if somewhat
+fatigued, he paused a moment, and drew himself slightly up; I bounded
+forward, foot and hand, ran my rapier right through to the armour of
+his back, let go the hilt, and passing under his right arm, turned as
+he fell, and flew at him with my sabre. At one happy blow I divided the
+band of his helmet, which fell off, and allowed me, with a second cut
+across the eyes, to blind him quite; after which I clove his head, and
+turned, uninjured, to see how my brothers had fared. Both the giants
+were down, but so were my brothers. I flew first to the one and then
+to the other couple. Both pairs of combatants were dead, and yet locked
+together, as in the death-struggle. The elder had buried his battle-axe
+in the body of his foe, and had fallen beneath him as he fell. The giant
+had strangled him in his own death-agonies. The younger had nearly hewn
+off the left leg of his enemy; and, grappled with in the act, had,
+while they rolled together on the earth, found for his dagger a passage
+betwixt the gorget and cuirass of the giant, and stabbed him mortally in
+the throat. The blood from the giant's throat was yet pouring over the
+hand of his foe, which still grasped the hilt of the dagger sheathed
+in the wound. They lay silent. I, the least worthy, remained the sole
+survivor in the lists.
+
+As I stood exhausted amidst the dead, after the first worthy deed of my
+life, I suddenly looked behind me, and there lay the Shadow, black in
+the sunshine. I went into the lonely tower, and there lay the useless
+armour of the noble youths--supine as they.
+
+Ah, how sad it looked! It was a glorious death, but it was death. My
+songs could not comfort me now. I was almost ashamed that I was alive,
+when they, the true-hearted, were no more. And yet I breathed freer to
+think that I had gone through the trial, and had not failed. And perhaps
+I may be forgiven, if some feelings of pride arose in my bosom, when I
+looked down on the mighty form that lay dead by my hand.
+
+"After all, however," I said to myself, and my heart sank, "it was only
+skill. Your giant was but a blunderer."
+
+I left the bodies of friends and foes, peaceful enough when the
+death-fight was over, and, hastening to the country below, roused the
+peasants. They came with shouting and gladness, bringing waggons to
+carry the bodies. I resolved to take the princes home to their father,
+each as he lay, in the arms of his country's foe. But first I searched
+the giants, and found the keys of their castle, to which I repaired,
+followed by a great company of the people. It was a place of wonderful
+strength. I released the prisoners, knights and ladies, all in a sad
+condition, from the cruelties and neglects of the giants. It humbled me
+to see them crowding round me with thanks, when in truth the glorious
+brothers, lying dead by their lonely tower, were those to whom the
+thanks belonged. I had but aided in carrying out the thought born
+in their brain, and uttered in visible form before ever I laid hold
+thereupon. Yet I did count myself happy to have been chosen for their
+brother in this great deed.
+
+After a few hours spent in refreshing and clothing the prisoners, we all
+commenced our journey towards the capital. This was slow at first; but,
+as the strength and spirits of the prisoners returned, it became more
+rapid; and in three days we reached the palace of the king. As we
+entered the city gates, with the huge bulks lying each on a waggon drawn
+by horses, and two of them inextricably intertwined with the dead bodies
+of their princes, the people raised a shout and then a cry, and followed
+in multitudes the solemn procession.
+
+I will not attempt to describe the behaviour of the grand old king. Joy
+and pride in his sons overcame his sorrow at their loss. On me he heaped
+every kindness that heart could devise or hand execute. He used to sit
+and question me, night after night, about everything that was in any
+way connected with them and their preparations. Our mode of life,
+and relation to each other, during the time we spent together, was a
+constant theme. He entered into the minutest details of the construction
+of the armour, even to a peculiar mode of riveting some of the plates,
+with unwearying interest. This armour I had intended to beg of the king,
+as my sole memorials of the contest; but, when I saw the delight he took
+in contemplating it, and the consolation it appeared to afford him in
+his sorrow, I could not ask for it; but, at his request, left my own,
+weapons and all, to be joined with theirs in a trophy, erected in the
+grand square of the palace. The king, with gorgeous ceremony, dubbed me
+knight with his own old hand, in which trembled the sword of his youth.
+
+During the short time I remained, my company was, naturally, much
+courted by the young nobles. I was in a constant round of gaiety and
+diversion, notwithstanding that the court was in mourning. For the
+country was so rejoiced at the death of the giants, and so many of their
+lost friends had been restored to the nobility and men of wealth, that
+the gladness surpassed the grief. "Ye have indeed left your lives to
+your people, my great brothers!" I said.
+
+But I was ever and ever haunted by the old shadow, which I had not seen
+all the time that I was at work in the tower. Even in the society of the
+ladies of the court, who seemed to think it only their duty to make
+my stay there as pleasant to me as possible, I could not help being
+conscious of its presence, although it might not be annoying me at the
+time. At length, somewhat weary of uninterrupted pleasure, and nowise
+strengthened thereby, either in body or mind, I put on a splendid suit
+of armour of steel inlaid with silver, which the old king had given
+me, and, mounting the horse on which it had been brought to me, took my
+leave of the palace, to visit the distant city in which the lady dwelt,
+whom the elder prince had loved. I anticipated a sore task, in conveying
+to her the news of his glorious fate: but this trial was spared me, in a
+manner as strange as anything that had happened to me in Fairy Land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+        "No one has my form but the I."
+          Schoppe, in JEAN PAUL'S Titan.
+
+                    "Joy's a subtil elf.
+         I think man's happiest when he forgets himself."
+                       CYRIL TOURNEUR, The Revenger's Tragedy.
+
+
+On the third day of my journey, I was riding gently along a road,
+apparently little frequented, to judge from the grass that grew upon
+it. I was approaching a forest. Everywhere in Fairy Land forests are the
+places where one may most certainly expect adventures. As I drew near, a
+youth, unarmed, gentle, and beautiful, who had just cut a branch from a
+yew growing on the skirts of the wood, evidently to make himself a bow,
+met me, and thus accosted me:
+
+"Sir knight, be careful as thou ridest through this forest; for it is
+said to be strangely enchanted, in a sort which even those who have been
+witnesses of its enchantment can hardly describe."
+
+I thanked him for his advice, which I promised to follow, and rode on.
+But the moment I entered the wood, it seemed to me that, if enchantment
+there was, it must be of a good kind; for the Shadow, which had been
+more than usually dark and distressing, since I had set out on this
+journey, suddenly disappeared. I felt a wonderful elevation of spirits,
+and began to reflect on my past life, and especially on my combat
+with the giants, with such satisfaction, that I had actually to remind
+myself, that I had only killed one of them; and that, but for the
+brothers, I should never have had the idea of attacking them, not to
+mention the smallest power of standing to it. Still I rejoiced, and
+counted myself amongst the glorious knights of old; having even the
+unspeakable presumption--my shame and self-condemnation at the memory
+of it are such, that I write it as the only and sorest penance I can
+perform--to think of myself (will the world believe it?) as side by side
+with Sir Galahad! Scarcely had the thought been born in my mind, when,
+approaching me from the left, through the trees, I espied a resplendent
+knight, of mighty size, whose armour seemed to shine of itself, without
+the sun. When he drew near, I was astonished to see that this armour was
+like my own; nay, I could trace, line for line, the correspondence of
+the inlaid silver to the device on my own. His horse, too, was like mine
+in colour, form, and motion; save that, like his rider, he was greater
+and fiercer than his counterpart. The knight rode with beaver up. As he
+halted right opposite to me in the narrow path, barring my way, I saw
+the reflection of my countenance in the centre plate of shining steel on
+his breastplate. Above it rose the same face--his face--only, as I have
+said, larger and fiercer. I was bewildered. I could not help feeling
+some admiration of him, but it was mingled with a dim conviction that he
+was evil, and that I ought to fight with him.
+
+"Let me pass," I said.
+
+"When I will," he replied.
+
+Something within me said: "Spear in rest, and ride at him! else thou art
+for ever a slave."
+
+I tried, but my arm trembled so much, that I could not couch my lance.
+To tell the truth, I, who had overcome the giant, shook like a coward
+before this knight. He gave a scornful laugh, that echoed through the
+wood, turned his horse, and said, without looking round, "Follow me."
+
+I obeyed, abashed and stupefied. How long he led, and how long I
+followed, I cannot tell. "I never knew misery before," I said to myself.
+"Would that I had at least struck him, and had had my death-blow in
+return! Why, then, do I not call to him to wheel and defend himself?
+Alas! I know not why, but I cannot. One look from him would cow me like
+a beaten hound." I followed, and was silent.
+
+At length we came to a dreary square tower, in the middle of a dense
+forest. It looked as if scarce a tree had been cut down to make room for
+it. Across the very door, diagonally, grew the stem of a tree, so large
+that there was just room to squeeze past it in order to enter. One
+miserable square hole in the roof was the only visible suggestion of a
+window. Turret or battlement, or projecting masonry of any kind, it had
+none. Clear and smooth and massy, it rose from its base, and ended with
+a line straight and unbroken. The roof, carried to a centre from each of
+the four walls, rose slightly to the point where the rafters met. Round
+the base lay several little heaps of either bits of broken branches,
+withered and peeled, or half-whitened bones; I could not distinguish
+which. As I approached, the ground sounded hollow beneath my horse's
+hoofs. The knight took a great key from his pocket, and reaching past
+the stem of the tree, with some difficulty opened the door. "Dismount,"
+he commanded. I obeyed. He turned my horse's head away from the tower,
+gave him a terrible blow with the flat side of his sword, and sent him
+madly tearing through the forest.
+
+"Now," said he, "enter, and take your companion with you."
+
+I looked round: knight and horse had vanished, and behind me lay the
+horrible shadow. I entered, for I could not help myself; and the shadow
+followed me. I had a terrible conviction that the knight and he were
+one. The door closed behind me.
+
+Now I was indeed in pitiful plight. There was literally nothing in the
+tower but my shadow and me. The walls rose right up to the roof; in
+which, as I had seen from without, there was one little square opening.
+This I now knew to be the only window the tower possessed. I sat down on
+the floor, in listless wretchedness. I think I must have fallen asleep,
+and have slept for hours; for I suddenly became aware of existence, in
+observing that the moon was shining through the hole in the roof. As she
+rose higher and higher, her light crept down the wall over me, till at
+last it shone right upon my head. Instantaneously the walls of the tower
+seemed to vanish away like a mist. I sat beneath a beech, on the edge
+of a forest, and the open country lay, in the moonlight, for miles and
+miles around me, spotted with glimmering houses and spires and towers. I
+thought with myself, "Oh, joy! it was only a dream; the horrible narrow
+waste is gone, and I wake beneath a beech-tree, perhaps one that loves
+me, and I can go where I will." I rose, as I thought, and walked about,
+and did what I would, but ever kept near the tree; for always, and, of
+course, since my meeting with the woman of the beech-tree far more than
+ever, I loved that tree. So the night wore on. I waited for the sun to
+rise, before I could venture to renew my journey. But as soon as the
+first faint light of the dawn appeared, instead of shining upon me
+from the eye of the morning, it stole like a fainting ghost through the
+little square hole above my head; and the walls came out as the light
+grew, and the glorious night was swallowed up of the hateful day. The
+long dreary day passed. My shadow lay black on the floor. I felt no
+hunger, no need of food. The night came. The moon shone. I watched her
+light slowly descending the wall, as I might have watched, adown the
+sky, the long, swift approach of a helping angel. Her rays touched me,
+and I was free. Thus night after night passed away. I should have died
+but for this. Every night the conviction returned, that I was free.
+Every morning I sat wretchedly disconsolate. At length, when the course
+of the moon no longer permitted her beams to touch me, the night was
+dreary as the day.
+
+When I slept, I was somewhat consoled by my dreams; but all the time I
+dreamed, I knew that I was only dreaming. But one night, at length, the
+moon, a mere shred of pallor, scattered a few thin ghostly rays upon me;
+and I think I fell asleep and dreamed. I sat in an autumn night before
+the vintage, on a hill overlooking my own castle. My heart sprang with
+joy. Oh, to be a child again, innocent, fearless, without shame or
+desire! I walked down to the castle. All were in consternation at my
+absence. My sisters were weeping for my loss. They sprang up and clung
+to me, with incoherent cries, as I entered. My old friends came flocking
+round me. A gray light shone on the roof of the hall. It was the
+light of the dawn shining through the square window of my tower.
+More earnestly than ever, I longed for freedom after this dream; more
+drearily than ever, crept on the next wretched day. I measured by the
+sunbeams, caught through the little window in the trap of my tower, how
+it went by, waiting only for the dreams of the night.
+
+About noon, I started as if something foreign to all my senses and all
+my experience, had suddenly invaded me; yet it was only the voice of
+a woman singing. My whole frame quivered with joy, surprise, and the
+sensation of the unforeseen. Like a living soul, like an incarnation of
+Nature, the song entered my prison-house. Each tone folded its wings,
+and laid itself, like a caressing bird, upon my heart. It bathed me like
+a sea; inwrapt me like an odorous vapour; entered my soul like a long
+draught of clear spring-water; shone upon me like essential sunlight;
+soothed me like a mother's voice and hand. Yet, as the clearest
+forest-well tastes sometimes of the bitterness of decayed leaves, so to
+my weary, prisoned heart, its cheerfulness had a sting of cold, and its
+tenderness unmanned me with the faintness of long-departed joys. I wept
+half-bitterly, half-luxuriously; but not long. I dashed away the tears,
+ashamed of a weakness which I thought I had abandoned. Ere I knew, I had
+walked to the door, and seated myself with my ears against it, in order
+to catch every syllable of the revelation from the unseen outer world.
+And now I heard each word distinctly. The singer seemed to be standing
+or sitting near the tower, for the sounds indicated no change of place.
+The song was something like this:
+
+         The sun, like a golden knot on high,
+         Gathers the glories of the sky,
+         And binds them into a shining tent,
+         Roofing the world with the firmament.
+         And through the pavilion the rich winds blow,
+         And through the pavilion the waters go.
+         And the birds for joy, and the trees for prayer,
+         Bowing their heads in the sunny air,
+         And for thoughts, the gently talking springs,
+         That come from the centre with secret things--
+         All make a music, gentle and strong,
+         Bound by the heart into one sweet song.
+         And amidst them all, the mother Earth
+         Sits with the children of her birth;
+         She tendeth them all, as a mother hen
+         Her little ones round her, twelve or ten:
+         Oft she sitteth, with hands on knee,
+         Idle with love for her family.
+         Go forth to her from the dark and the dust,
+         And weep beside her, if weep thou must;
+         If she may not hold thee to her breast,
+         Like a weary infant, that cries for rest
+         At least she will press thee to her knee,
+         And tell a low, sweet tale to thee,
+         Till the hue to thy cheeky and the light to thine eye,
+         Strength to thy limbs, and courage high
+         To thy fainting heart, return amain,
+         And away to work thou goest again.
+         From the narrow desert, O man of pride,
+         Come into the house, so high and wide.
+
+
+Hardly knowing what I did, I opened the door. Why had I not done so
+before? I do not know.
+
+At first I could see no one; but when I had forced myself past the tree
+which grew across the entrance, I saw, seated on the ground, and leaning
+against the tree, with her back to my prison, a beautiful woman. Her
+countenance seemed known to me, and yet unknown. She looked at me and
+smiled, when I made my appearance.
+
+"Ah! were you the prisoner there? I am very glad I have wiled you out."
+
+"Do you know me then?" "Do you not know me? But you hurt me, and that,
+I suppose, makes it easy for a man to forget. You broke my globe. Yet
+I thank you. Perhaps I owe you many thanks for breaking it. I took the
+pieces, all black, and wet with crying over them, to the Fairy Queen.
+There was no music and no light in them now. But she took them from me,
+and laid them aside; and made me go to sleep in a great hall of white,
+with black pillars, and many red curtains. When I woke in the morning,
+I went to her, hoping to have my globe again, whole and sound; but she
+sent me away without it, and I have not seen it since. Nor do I care for
+it now. I have something so much better. I do not need the globe to play
+to me; for I can sing. I could not sing at all before. Now I go about
+everywhere through Fairy Land, singing till my heart is like to break,
+just like my globe, for very joy at my own songs. And wherever I go, my
+songs do good, and deliver people. And now I have delivered you, and I
+am so happy."
+
+She ceased, and the tears came into her eyes.
+
+All this time, I had been gazing at her; and now fully recognised the
+face of the child, glorified in the countenance of the woman.
+
+I was ashamed and humbled before her; but a great weight was lifted
+from my thoughts. I knelt before her, and thanked her, and begged her to
+forgive me.
+
+"Rise, rise," she said; "I have nothing to forgive; I thank you. But now
+I must be gone, for I do not know how many may be waiting for me, here
+and there, through the dark forests; and they cannot come out till I
+come."
+
+She rose, and with a smile and a farewell, turned and left me. I dared
+not ask her to stay; in fact, I could hardly speak to her. Between
+her and me, there was a great gulf. She was uplifted, by sorrow and
+well-doing, into a region I could hardly hope ever to enter. I watched
+her departure, as one watches a sunset. She went like a radiance through
+the dark wood, which was henceforth bright to me, from simply knowing
+that such a creature was in it.
+
+She was bearing the sun to the unsunned spots. The light and the music
+of her broken globe were now in her heart and her brain. As she went,
+she sang; and I caught these few words of her song; and the tones seemed
+to linger and wind about the trees after she had disappeared:
+
+             Thou goest thine, and I go mine--
+             Many ways we wend;
+             Many days, and many ways,
+             Ending in one end.
+
+             Many a wrong, and its curing song;
+             Many a road, and many an inn;
+             Room to roam, but only one home
+             For all the world to win.
+ And so she vanished.  With a sad heart, soothed by humility, and
+the knowledge of her peace and gladness, I bethought me what now I
+should do. First, I must leave the tower far behind me, lest, in some
+evil moment, I might be once more caged within its horrible walls. But
+it was ill walking in my heavy armour; and besides I had now no right
+to the golden spurs and the resplendent mail, fitly dulled with long
+neglect. I might do for a squire; but I honoured knighthood too highly,
+to call myself any longer one of the noble brotherhood. I stripped off
+all my armour, piled it under the tree, just where the lady had been
+seated, and took my unknown way, eastward through the woods. Of all my
+weapons, I carried only a short axe in my hand.
+
+Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to myself, "I
+am what I am, nothing more." "I have failed," I said, "I have lost
+myself--would it had been my shadow." I looked round: the shadow was
+nowhere to be seen. Ere long, I learned that it was not myself, but
+only my shadow, that I had lost. I learned that it is better, a
+thousand-fold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up
+his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will
+be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer
+of his work, is sure of his manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or
+dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly, to set myself
+for a moment beside it. Indeed, my ideal soon became my life; whereas,
+formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt to behold, if not my
+ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal. Now, however, I took, at
+first, what perhaps was a mistaken pleasure, in despising and degrading
+myself. Another self seemed to arise, like a white spirit from a dead
+man, from the dumb and trampled self of the past. Doubtless, this self
+must again die and be buried, and again, from its tomb, spring a winged
+child; but of this my history as yet bears not the record.
+
+Self will come to life even in the slaying of self; but there is ever
+something deeper and stronger than it, which will emerge at last from
+the unknown abysses of the soul: will it be as a solemn gloom, burning
+with eyes? or a clear morning after the rain? or a smiling child, that
+finds itself nowhere, and everywhere?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+        "High erected thought, seated in a heart of courtesy."
+                                SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
+
+            "A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
+                 A full assurance given by lookes,
+              Continuall comfort in a face,
+                 The lineaments of Gospel bookes."
+                           MATTHEW ROYDON, on Sir Philip Sidney.
+
+
+I had not gone far, for I had but just lost sight of the hated tower,
+when a voice of another sort, sounding near or far, as the trees
+permitted or intercepted its passage, reached me. It was a full, deep,
+manly voice, but withal clear and melodious. Now it burst on the ear
+with a sudden swell, and anon, dying away as suddenly, seemed to come to
+me across a great space. Nevertheless, it drew nearer; till, at last, I
+could distinguish the words of the song, and get transient glimpses of
+the singer, between the columns of the trees. He came nearer, dawning
+upon me like a growing thought. He was a knight, armed from head to
+heel, mounted upon a strange-looking beast, whose form I could not
+understand. The words which I heard him sing were like these:
+
+          Heart be stout,
+           And eye be true;
+          Good blade out!
+           And ill shall rue.
+
+          Courage, horse!
+           Thou lackst no skill;
+          Well thy force
+           Hath matched my will.
+
+          For the foe
+           With fiery breath,
+          At a blow,
+           Is still in death.
+
+          Gently, horse!
+           Tread fearlessly;
+         'Tis his corse
+           That burdens thee.
+
+          The sun's eye
+           Is fierce at noon;
+          Thou and I
+           Will rest full soon.
+
+          And new strength
+           New work will meet;
+          Till, at length,
+           Long rest is sweet.
+
+And now horse and rider had arrived near enough for me to see, fastened
+by the long neck to the hinder part of the saddle, and trailing its
+hideous length on the ground behind, the body of a great dragon. It was
+no wonder that, with such a drag at his heels, the horse could make
+but slow progress, notwithstanding his evident dismay. The horrid,
+serpent-like head, with its black tongue, forked with red, hanging out
+of its jaws, dangled against the horse's side. Its neck was covered with
+long blue hair, its sides with scales of green and gold. Its back was of
+corrugated skin, of a purple hue. Its belly was similar in nature, but
+its colour was leaden, dashed with blotches of livid blue. Its skinny,
+bat-like wings and its tail were of a dull gray. It was strange to see
+how so many gorgeous colours, so many curving lines, and such beautiful
+things as wings and hair and scales, combined to form the horrible
+creature, intense in ugliness.
+
+The knight was passing me with a salutation; but, as I walked towards
+him, he reined up, and I stood by his stirrup. When I came near him, I
+saw to my surprise and pleasure likewise, although a sudden pain, like
+a birth of fire, sprang up in my heart, that it was the knight of the
+soiled armour, whom I knew before, and whom I had seen in the vision,
+with the lady of the marble. But I could have thrown my arms around him,
+because she loved him. This discovery only strengthened the resolution
+I had formed, before I recognised him, of offering myself to the knight,
+to wait upon him as a squire, for he seemed to be unattended. I made
+my request in as few words as possible. He hesitated for a moment, and
+looked at me thoughtfully. I saw that he suspected who I was, but that
+he continued uncertain of his suspicion. No doubt he was soon convinced
+of its truth; but all the time I was with him, not a word crossed his
+lips with reference to what he evidently concluded I wished to leave
+unnoticed, if not to keep concealed.
+
+"Squire and knight should be friends," said he: "can you take me by the
+hand?" And he held out the great gauntleted right hand. I grasped it
+willingly and strongly. Not a word more was said. The knight gave the
+sign to his horse, which again began his slow march, and I walked beside
+and a little behind.
+
+We had not gone very far before we arrived at a little cottage; from
+which, as we drew near, a woman rushed out with the cry:
+
+"My child! my child! have you found my child?"
+
+"I have found her," replied the knight, "but she is sorely hurt. I was
+forced to leave her with the hermit, as I returned. You will find her
+there, and I think she will get better. You see I have brought you
+a present. This wretch will not hurt you again." And he undid the
+creature's neck, and flung the frightful burden down by the cottage
+door.
+
+The woman was now almost out of sight in the wood; but the husband stood
+at the door, with speechless thanks in his face.
+
+"You must bury the monster," said the knight. "If I had arrived a moment
+later, I should have been too late. But now you need not fear, for such
+a creature as this very rarely appears, in the same part, twice during a
+lifetime."
+
+"Will you not dismount and rest you, Sir Knight?" said the peasant, who
+had, by this time, recovered himself a little.
+
+"That I will, thankfully," said he; and, dismounting, he gave the reins
+to me, and told me to unbridle the horse, and lead him into the shade.
+"You need not tie him up," he added; "he will not run away."
+
+When I returned, after obeying his orders, and entered the cottage, I
+saw the knight seated, without his helmet, and talking most familiarly
+with the simple host. I stood at the open door for a moment, and, gazing
+at him, inwardly justified the white lady in preferring him to me. A
+nobler countenance I never saw. Loving-kindness beamed from every line
+of his face. It seemed as if he would repay himself for the late arduous
+combat, by indulging in all the gentleness of a womanly heart. But when
+the talk ceased for a moment, he seemed to fall into a reverie. Then the
+exquisite curves of the upper lip vanished. The lip was lengthened and
+compressed at the same moment. You could have told that, within the
+lips, the teeth were firmly closed. The whole face grew stern and
+determined, all but fierce; only the eyes burned on like a holy
+sacrifice, uplift on a granite rock.
+
+The woman entered, with her mangled child in her arms. She was pale
+as her little burden. She gazed, with a wild love and despairing
+tenderness, on the still, all but dead face, white and clear from loss
+of blood and terror.
+
+The knight rose. The light that had been confined to his eyes, now shone
+from his whole countenance. He took the little thing in his arms, and,
+with the mother's help, undressed her, and looked to her wounds. The
+tears flowed down his face as he did so. With tender hands he bound them
+up, kissed the pale cheek, and gave her back to her mother. When he went
+home, all his tale would be of the grief and joy of the parents; while
+to me, who had looked on, the gracious countenance of the armed man,
+beaming from the panoply of steel, over the seemingly dead child, while
+the powerful hands turned it and shifted it, and bound it, if possible
+even more gently than the mother's, formed the centre of the story.
+
+After we had partaken of the best they could give us, the knight took
+his leave, with a few parting instructions to the mother as to how she
+should treat the child.
+
+I brought the knight his steed, held the stirrup while he mounted, and
+then followed him through the wood. The horse, delighted to be free
+of his hideous load, bounded beneath the weight of man and armour, and
+could hardly be restrained from galloping on. But the knight made him
+time his powers to mine, and so we went on for an hour or two. Then
+the knight dismounted, and compelled me to get into the saddle, saying:
+"Knight and squire must share the labour."
+
+Holding by the stirrup, he walked along by my side, heavily clad as he
+was, with apparent ease. As we went, he led a conversation, in which I
+took what humble part my sense of my condition would permit me.
+
+"Somehow or other," said he, "notwithstanding the beauty of this country
+of Faerie, in which we are, there is much that is wrong in it. If there
+are great splendours, there are corresponding horrors; heights and
+depths; beautiful women and awful fiends; noble men and weaklings. All
+a man has to do, is to better what he can. And if he will settle it
+with himself, that even renown and success are in themselves of no great
+value, and be content to be defeated, if so be that the fault is not
+his; and so go to his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he
+will get it done; and fare none the worse in the end, that he was not
+burdened with provision and precaution."
+
+"But he will not always come off well," I ventured to say.
+
+"Perhaps not," rejoined the knight, "in the individual act; but the
+result of his lifetime will content him."
+
+"So it will fare with you, doubtless," thought I; "but for me---"
+
+Venturing to resume the conversation after a pause, I said,
+hesitatingly:
+
+"May I ask for what the little beggar-girl wanted your aid, when she
+came to your castle to find you?"
+
+He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said--
+
+"I cannot help wondering how you know of that; but there is something
+about you quite strange enough to entitle you to the privilege of the
+country; namely, to go unquestioned. I, however, being only a man, such
+as you see me, am ready to tell you anything you like to ask me, as far
+as I can. The little beggar-girl came into the hall where I was sitting,
+and told me a very curious story, which I can only recollect very
+vaguely, it was so peculiar. What I can recall is, that she was sent to
+gather wings. As soon as she had gathered a pair of wings for herself,
+she was to fly away, she said, to the country she came from; but where
+that was, she could give no information.
+
+"She said she had to beg her wings from the butterflies and moths; and
+wherever she begged, no one refused her. But she needed a great many of
+the wings of butterflies and moths to make a pair for her; and so she
+had to wander about day after day, looking for butterflies, and night
+after night, looking for moths; and then she begged for their wings. But
+the day before, she had come into a part of the forest, she said, where
+there were multitudes of splendid butterflies flitting about, with wings
+which were just fit to make the eyes in the shoulders of hers; and she
+knew she could have as many of them as she liked for the asking; but as
+soon as she began to beg, there came a great creature right up to her,
+and threw her down, and walked over her. When she got up, she saw
+the wood was full of these beings stalking about, and seeming to have
+nothing to do with each other. As soon as ever she began to beg, one of
+them walked over her; till at last in dismay, and in growing horror of
+the senseless creatures, she had run away to look for somebody to help
+her. I asked her what they were like. She said, like great men, made of
+wood, without knee-or elbow-joints, and without any noses or mouths or
+eyes in their faces. I laughed at the little maiden, thinking she was
+making child's game of me; but, although she burst out laughing too, she
+persisted in asserting the truth of her story."
+
+"'Only come, knight, come and see; I will lead you.'
+
+"So I armed myself, to be ready for anything that might happen, and
+followed the child; for, though I could make nothing of her story, I
+could see she was a little human being in need of some help or other. As
+she walked before me, I looked attentively at her. Whether or not it was
+from being so often knocked down and walked over, I could not tell, but
+her clothes were very much torn, and in several places her white skin
+was peeping through. I thought she was hump-backed; but on looking more
+closely, I saw, through the tatters of her frock--do not laugh at me--a
+bunch on each shoulder, of the most gorgeous colours. Looking yet more
+closely, I saw that they were of the shape of folded wings, and were
+made of all kinds of butterfly-wings and moth-wings, crowded together
+like the feathers on the individual butterfly pinion; but, like them,
+most beautifully arranged, and producing a perfect harmony of colour and
+shade. I could now more easily believe the rest of her story; especially
+as I saw, every now and then, a certain heaving motion in the wings,
+as if they longed to be uplifted and outspread. But beneath her scanty
+garments complete wings could not be concealed, and indeed, from her own
+story, they were yet unfinished.
+
+"After walking for two or three hours (how the little girl found her
+way, I could not imagine), we came to a part of the forest, the very
+air of which was quivering with the motions of multitudes of resplendent
+butterflies; as gorgeous in colour, as if the eyes of peacocks' feathers
+had taken to flight, but of infinite variety of hue and form, only that
+the appearance of some kind of eye on each wing predominated. 'There
+they are, there they are!' cried the child, in a tone of victory mingled
+with terror. Except for this tone, I should have thought she referred
+to the butterflies, for I could see nothing else. But at that moment
+an enormous butterfly, whose wings had great eyes of blue surrounded by
+confused cloudy heaps of more dingy colouring, just like a break in
+the clouds on a stormy day towards evening, settled near us. The child
+instantly began murmuring: 'Butterfly, butterfly, give me your wings';
+when, the moment after, she fell to the ground, and began crying as if
+hurt. I drew my sword and heaved a great blow in the direction in
+which the child had fallen. It struck something, and instantly the most
+grotesque imitation of a man became visible. You see this Fairy Land is
+full of oddities and all sorts of incredibly ridiculous things, which a
+man is compelled to meet and treat as real existences, although all the
+time he feels foolish for doing so. This being, if being it could be
+called, was like a block of wood roughly hewn into the mere outlines
+of a man; and hardly so, for it had but head, body, legs, and arms--the
+head without a face, and the limbs utterly formless. I had hewn off one
+of its legs, but the two portions moved on as best they could, quite
+independent of each other; so that I had done no good. I ran after
+it, and clove it in twain from the head downwards; but it could not be
+convinced that its vocation was not to walk over people; for, as soon as
+the little girl began her begging again, all three parts came bustling
+up; and if I had not interposed my weight between her and them, she
+would have been trampled again under them. I saw that something else
+must be done. If the wood was full of the creatures, it would be an
+endless work to chop them so small that they could do no injury; and
+then, besides, the parts would be so numerous, that the butterflies
+would be in danger from the drift of flying chips. I served this one
+so, however; and then told the girl to beg again, and point out the
+direction in which one was coming. I was glad to find, however, that
+I could now see him myself, and wondered how they could have been
+invisible before. I would not allow him to walk over the child; but
+while I kept him off, and she began begging again, another appeared; and
+it was all I could do, from the weight of my armour, to protect her from
+the stupid, persevering efforts of the two. But suddenly the right plan
+occurred to me. I tripped one of them up, and, taking him by the legs,
+set him up on his head, with his heels against a tree. I was delighted
+to find he could not move. Meantime the poor child was walked over by
+the other, but it was for the last time. Whenever one appeared, I
+followed the same plan--tripped him up and set him on his head; and so
+the little beggar was able to gather her wings without any trouble,
+which occupation she continued for several hours in my company."
+
+"What became of her?" I asked.
+
+"I took her home with me to my castle, and she told me all her story;
+but it seemed to me, all the time, as if I were hearing a child talk in
+its sleep. I could not arrange her story in my mind at all, although it
+seemed to leave hers in some certain order of its own. My wife---"
+
+Here the knight checked himself, and said no more. Neither did I urge
+the conversation farther.
+
+Thus we journeyed for several days, resting at night in such shelter
+as we could get; and when no better was to be had, lying in the forest
+under some tree, on a couch of old leaves.
+
+I loved the knight more and more. I believe never squire served his
+master with more care and joyfulness than I. I tended his horse; I
+cleaned his armour; my skill in the craft enabled me to repair it when
+necessary; I watched his needs; and was well repaid for all by the love
+itself which I bore him.
+
+"This," I said to myself, "is a true man. I will serve him, and give him
+all worship, seeing in him the imbodiment of what I would fain become.
+If I cannot be noble myself, I will yet be servant to his nobleness."
+He, in return, soon showed me such signs of friendship and respect, as
+made my heart glad; and I felt that, after all, mine would be no lost
+life, if I might wait on him to the world's end, although no smile but
+his should greet me, and no one but him should say, "Well done! he was
+a good servant!" at last. But I burned to do something more for him than
+the ordinary routine of a squire's duty permitted.
+
+One afternoon, we began to observe an appearance of roads in the wood.
+Branches had been cut down, and openings made, where footsteps had worn
+no path below. These indications increased as we passed on, till, at
+length, we came into a long, narrow avenue, formed by felling the trees
+in its line, as the remaining roots evidenced. At some little distance,
+on both hands, we observed signs of similar avenues, which appeared to
+converge with ours, towards one spot. Along these we indistinctly saw
+several forms moving, which seemed, with ourselves, to approach the
+common centre. Our path brought us, at last, up to a wall of yew-trees,
+growing close together, and intertwining their branches so, that nothing
+could be seen beyond it. An opening was cut in it like a door, and all
+the wall was trimmed smooth and perpendicular. The knight dismounted,
+and waited till I had provided for his horse's comfort; upon which we
+entered the place together.
+
+It was a great space, bare of trees, and enclosed by four walls of yew,
+similar to that through which we had entered. These trees grew to a very
+great height, and did not divide from each other till close to the top,
+where their summits formed a row of conical battlements all around the
+walls. The space contained was a parallelogram of great length. Along
+each of the two longer sides of the interior, were ranged three ranks
+of men, in white robes, standing silent and solemn, each with a sword by
+his side, although the rest of his costume and bearing was more priestly
+than soldierly. For some distance inwards, the space between these
+opposite rows was filled with a company of men and women and children,
+in holiday attire. The looks of all were directed inwards, towards the
+further end. Far beyond the crowd, in a long avenue, seeming to narrow
+in the distance, went the long rows of the white-robed men. On what the
+attention of the multitude was fixed, we could not tell, for the sun had
+set before we arrived, and it was growing dark within. It grew darker
+and darker. The multitude waited in silence. The stars began to shine
+down into the enclosure, and they grew brighter and larger every moment.
+A wind arose, and swayed the pinnacles of the tree-tops; and made a
+strange sound, half like music, half like moaning, through the close
+branches and leaves of the tree-walls. A young girl who stood beside me,
+clothed in the same dress as the priests, bowed her head, and grew pale
+with awe.
+
+The knight whispered to me, "How solemn it is! Surely they wait to hear
+the voice of a prophet. There is something good near!"
+
+But I, though somewhat shaken by the feeling expressed by my master,
+yet had an unaccountable conviction that here was something bad. So I
+resolved to be keenly on the watch for what should follow.
+
+Suddenly a great star, like a sun, appeared high in the air over the
+temple, illuminating it throughout; and a great song arose from the men
+in white, which went rolling round and round the building, now receding
+to the end, and now approaching, down the other side, the place where we
+stood. For some of the singers were regularly ceasing, and the next
+to them as regularly taking up the song, so that it crept onwards with
+gradations produced by changes which could not themselves be detected,
+for only a few of those who were singing ceased at the same moment. The
+song paused; and I saw a company of six of the white-robed men walk up
+the centre of the human avenue, surrounding a youth gorgeously attired
+beneath his robe of white, and wearing a chaplet of flowers on his
+head. I followed them closely, with my keenest observation; and, by
+accompanying their slow progress with my eyes, I was able to perceive
+more clearly what took place when they arrived at the other end. I knew
+that my sight was so much more keen than that of most people, that I had
+good reason to suppose I should see more than the rest could, at such a
+distance. At the farther end a throne stood upon a platform, high above
+the heads of the surrounding priests. To this platform I saw the company
+begin to ascend, apparently by an inclined plane or gentle slope. The
+throne itself was elevated again, on a kind of square pedestal, to the
+top of which led a flight of steps. On the throne sat a majestic-looking
+figure, whose posture seemed to indicate a mixture of pride and
+benignity, as he looked down on the multitude below. The company
+ascended to the foot of the throne, where they all kneeled for some
+minutes; then they rose and passed round to the side of the pedestal
+upon which the throne stood. Here they crowded close behind the youth,
+putting him in the foremost place, and one of them opened a door in the
+pedestal, for the youth to enter. I was sure I saw him shrink back, and
+those crowding behind pushed him in. Then, again, arose a burst of song
+from the multitude in white, which lasted some time. When it ceased,
+a new company of seven commenced its march up the centre. As they
+advanced, I looked up at my master: his noble countenance was full of
+reverence and awe. Incapable of evil himself, he could scarcely suspect
+it in another, much less in a multitude such as this, and surrounded
+with such appearances of solemnity. I was certain it was the really
+grand accompaniments that overcame him; that the stars overhead, the
+dark towering tops of the yew-trees, and the wind that, like an unseen
+spirit, sighed through their branches, bowed his spirit to the belief,
+that in all these ceremonies lay some great mystical meaning which, his
+humility told him, his ignorance prevented him from understanding.
+
+More convinced than before, that there was evil here, I could not endure
+that my master should be deceived; that one like him, so pure and noble,
+should respect what, if my suspicions were true, was worse than the
+ordinary deceptions of priestcraft. I could not tell how far he might be
+led to countenance, and otherwise support their doings, before he should
+find cause to repent bitterly of his error. I watched the new procession
+yet more keenly, if possible, than the former. This time, the central
+figure was a girl; and, at the close, I observed, yet more indubitably,
+the shrinking back, and the crowding push. What happened to the victims,
+I never learned; but I had learned enough, and I could bear it no
+longer. I stooped, and whispered to the young girl who stood by me, to
+lend me her white garment. I wanted it, that I might not be entirely
+out of keeping with the solemnity, but might have at least this help to
+passing unquestioned. She looked up, half-amused and half-bewildered, as
+if doubting whether I was in earnest or not. But in her perplexity, she
+permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it down from her shoulders.
+
+I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in the
+crowd, I rose apparently in the habit of one of the worshippers.
+
+Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the return of
+her stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed, and, if it was a man
+that sat upon the throne, to attack him with hands bare, as I supposed
+his must be, I made my way through the crowd to the front, while the
+singing yet continued, desirous of reaching the platform while it was
+unoccupied by any of the priests. I was permitted to walk up the long
+avenue of white robes unmolested, though I saw questioning looks in many
+of the faces as I passed. I presume my coolness aided my passage; for
+I felt quite indifferent as to my own fate; not feeling, after the
+late events of my history, that I was at all worth taking care of; and
+enjoying, perhaps, something of an evil satisfaction, in the revenge
+I was thus taking upon the self which had fooled me so long. When I
+arrived on the platform, the song had just ceased, and I felt as if all
+were looking towards me. But instead of kneeling at its foot, I walked
+right up the stairs to the throne, laid hold of a great wooden image
+that seemed to sit upon it, and tried to hurl it from its seat. In this
+I failed at first, for I found it firmly fixed. But in dread lest, the
+first shock of amazement passing away, the guards would rush upon me
+before I had effected my purpose, I strained with all my might; and,
+with a noise as of the cracking, and breaking, and tearing of rotten
+wood, something gave way, and I hurled the image down the steps. Its
+displacement revealed a great hole in the throne, like the hollow of a
+decayed tree, going down apparently a great way. But I had no time to
+examine it, for, as I looked into it, up out of it rushed a great brute,
+like a wolf, but twice the size, and tumbled me headlong with itself,
+down the steps of the throne. As we fell, however, I caught it by the
+throat, and the moment we reached the platform, a struggle commenced, in
+which I soon got uppermost, with my hand upon its throat, and knee upon
+its heart. But now arose a wild cry of wrath and revenge and rescue.
+A universal hiss of steel, as every sword was swept from its scabbard,
+seemed to tear the very air in shreds. I heard the rush of hundreds
+towards the platform on which I knelt. I only tightened my grasp of the
+brute's throat. His eyes were already starting from his head, and his
+tongue was hanging out. My anxious hope was, that, even after they had
+killed me, they would be unable to undo my gripe of his throat, before
+the monster was past breathing. I therefore threw all my will, and
+force, and purpose, into the grasping hand. I remember no blow. A
+faintness came over me, and my consciousness departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+        "We are ne'er like angels till our passions die."
+                                       DEKKER.
+
+        "This wretched INN, where we scarce stay to bait,
+                 We call our DWELLING-PLACE:
+                 We call one STEP A RACE:
+         But angels in their full enlightened state,
+         Angels, who LIVE, and know what 'tis to BE,
+         Who all the nonsense of our language see,
+         Who speak THINGS, and our WORDS,their ill-drawn
+              PICTURES, scorn,
+            When we, by a foolish figure, say,
+            BEHOLD AN OLD MAN DEAD! then they
+         Speak properly, and cry, BEHOLD A MAN-CHILD BORN!"
+                                             COWLEY.
+
+I was dead, and right content. I lay in my coffin, with my hands folded
+in peace. The knight, and the lady I loved, wept over me.
+
+Her tears fell on my face.
+
+"Ah!" said the knight, "I rushed amongst them like a madman. I hewed
+them down like brushwood. Their swords battered on me like hail, but
+hurt me not. I cut a lane through to my friend. He was dead. But he had
+throttled the monster, and I had to cut the handful out of its throat,
+before I could disengage and carry off his body. They dared not molest
+me as I brought him back."
+
+"He has died well," said the lady.
+
+My spirit rejoiced. They left me to my repose. I felt as if a cool hand
+had been laid upon my heart, and had stilled it. My soul was like a
+summer evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet
+glistening on the trees in the last rays of the down-going sun, and the
+wind of the twilight has begun to blow. The hot fever of life had gone
+by, and I breathed the clear mountain-air of the land of Death. I had
+never dreamed of such blessedness. It was not that I had in any way
+ceased to be what I had been. The very fact that anything can die,
+implies the existence of something that cannot die; which must either
+take to itself another form, as when the seed that is sown dies, and
+arises again; or, in conscious existence, may, perhaps, continue to
+lead a purely spiritual life. If my passions were dead, the souls of
+the passions, those essential mysteries of the spirit which had imbodied
+themselves in the passions, and had given to them all their glory and
+wonderment, yet lived, yet glowed, with a pure, undying fire. They rose
+above their vanishing earthly garments, and disclosed themselves angels
+of light. But oh, how beautiful beyond the old form! I lay thus for
+a time, and lived as it were an unradiating existence; my soul a
+motionless lake, that received all things and gave nothing back;
+satisfied in still contemplation, and spiritual consciousness.
+
+Ere long, they bore me to my grave. Never tired child lay down in his
+white bed, and heard the sound of his playthings being laid aside for
+the night, with a more luxurious satisfaction of repose than I knew,
+when I felt the coffin settle on the firm earth, and heard the sound of
+the falling mould upon its lid. It has not the same hollow rattle within
+the coffin, that it sends up to the edge of the grave. They buried me
+in no graveyard. They loved me too much for that, I thank them; but they
+laid me in the grounds of their own castle, amid many trees; where, as
+it was spring-time, were growing primroses, and blue-bells, and all the
+families of the woods
+
+Now that I lay in her bosom, the whole earth, and each of her many
+births, was as a body to me, at my will. I seemed to feel the great
+heart of the mother beating into mine, and feeding me with her own life,
+her own essential being and nature. I heard the footsteps of my friends
+above, and they sent a thrill through my heart. I knew that the helpers
+had gone, and that the knight and the lady remained, and spoke low,
+gentle, tearful words of him who lay beneath the yet wounded sod. I rose
+into a single large primrose that grew by the edge of the grave,
+and from the window of its humble, trusting face, looked full in the
+countenance of the lady. I felt that I could manifest myself in the
+primrose; that it said a part of what I wanted to say; just as in the
+old time, I had used to betake myself to a song for the same end. The
+flower caught her eye. She stooped and plucked it, saying, "Oh, you
+beautiful creature!" and, lightly kissing it, put it in her bosom. It
+was the first kiss she had ever given me. But the flower soon began to
+wither, and I forsook it.
+
+It was evening. The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet
+illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I
+arose, I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with
+it in sight of the sinking sun. He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but
+the grayness touched not my heart. It carried its rose-hue within;
+for now I could love without needing to be loved again. The moon came
+gliding up with all the past in her wan face. She changed my couch into
+a ghostly pallor, and threw all the earth below as to the bottom of a
+pale sea of dreams. But she could not make me sad. I knew now, that it
+is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul
+of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other,
+and not the being loved by each other, that originates and perfects and
+assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth,
+power over any soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing
+him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good;
+for in proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the
+power which springs therefrom dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet
+with its return. All true love will, one day, behold its own image in
+the eyes of the beloved, and be humbly glad. This is possible in the
+realms of lofty Death. "Ah! my friends," thought I, "how I will tend
+you, and wait upon you, and haunt you with my love."
+
+"My floating chariot bore me over a great city. Its faint dull sound
+steamed up into the air--a sound--how composed?" How many hopeless
+cries," thought I, "and how many mad shouts go to make up the tumult,
+here so faint where I float in eternal peace, knowing that they will
+one day be stilled in the surrounding calm, and that despair dies into
+infinite hope, and the seeming impossible there, is the law here!
+
+"But, O pale-faced women, and gloomy-browed men, and forgotten children,
+how I will wait on you, and minister to you, and, putting my arms about
+you in the dark, think hope into your hearts, when you fancy no one is
+near! Soon as my senses have all come back, and have grown accustomed to
+this new blessed life, I will be among you with the love that healeth."
+
+With this, a pang and a terrible shudder went through me; a writhing
+as of death convulsed me; and I became once again conscious of a more
+limited, even a bodily and earthly life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+        "Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one,
+          and perhaps will."--NOVALIS.
+
+            "And on the ground, which is my modres gate,
+            I knocke with my staf; erlich and late,
+            And say to hire, Leve mother, let me in."
+                       CHAUCER, The Pardoneres Tale.
+
+Sinking from such a state of ideal bliss, into the world of shadows
+which again closed around and infolded me, my first dread was, not
+unnaturally, that my own shadow had found me again, and that my torture
+had commenced anew. It was a sad revulsion of feeling. This, indeed,
+seemed to correspond to what we think death is, before we die. Yet I
+felt within me a power of calm endurance to which I had hitherto been
+a stranger. For, in truth, that I should be able if only to think such
+things as I had been thinking, was an unspeakable delight. An hour of
+such peace made the turmoil of a lifetime worth striving through.
+
+I found myself lying in the open air, in the early morning, before
+sunrise. Over me rose the summer heaven, expectant of the sun. The
+clouds already saw him, coming from afar; and soon every dewdrop would
+rejoice in his individual presence within it.
+
+I lay motionless for a few minutes; and then slowly rose and looked
+about me. I was on the summit of a little hill; a valley lay beneath,
+and a range of mountains closed up the view upon that side. But, to my
+horror, across the valley, and up the height of the opposing mountains,
+stretched, from my very feet, a hugely expanding shade. There it lay,
+long and large, dark and mighty. I turned away with a sick despair; when
+lo! I beheld the sun just lifting his head above the eastern hill,
+and the shadow that fell from me, lay only where his beams fell not. I
+danced for joy. It was only the natural shadow, that goes with every man
+who walks in the sun. As he arose, higher and higher, the shadow-head
+sank down the side of the opposite hill, and crept in across the valley
+towards my feet.
+
+Now that I was so joyously delivered from this fear, I saw and
+recognised the country around me. In the valley below, lay my own
+castle, and the haunts of my childhood were all about me hastened home.
+My sisters received me with unspeakable joy; but I suppose they observed
+some change in me, for a kind of respect, with a slight touch of awe in
+it, mingled with their joy, and made me ashamed. They had been in great
+distress about me. On the morning of my disappearance, they had found
+the floor of my room flooded; and, all that day, a wondrous and nearly
+impervious mist had hung about the castle and grounds. I had been gone,
+they told me, twenty-one days. To me it seemed twenty-one years. Nor
+could I yet feel quite secure in my new experiences. When, at night, I
+lay down once more in my own bed, I did not feel at all sure that when I
+awoke, I should not find myself in some mysterious region of Fairy Land.
+My dreams were incessant and perturbed; but when I did awake, I saw
+clearly that I was in my own home.
+
+My mind soon grew calm; and I began the duties of my new position,
+somewhat instructed, I hoped, by the adventures that had befallen me in
+Fairy Land. Could I translate the experience of my travels there, into
+common life? This was the question. Or must I live it all over again,
+and learn it all over again, in the other forms that belong to the world
+of men, whose experience yet runs parallel to that of Fairy Land? These
+questions I cannot answer yet. But I fear.
+
+Even yet, I find myself looking round sometimes with anxiety, to see
+whether my shadow falls right away from the sun or no. I have never yet
+discovered any inclination to either side. And if I am not unfrequently
+sad, I yet cast no more of a shade on the earth, than most men who have
+lived in it as long as I. I have a strange feeling sometimes, that I am
+a ghost, sent into the world to minister to my fellow men, or, rather,
+to repair the wrongs I have already done.
+
+May the world be brighter for me, at least in those portions of it,
+where my darkness falls not.
+
+Thus I, who set out to find my Ideal, came back rejoicing that I had
+lost my Shadow.
+
+When the thought of the blessedness I experienced, after my death in
+Fairy Land, is too high for me to lay hold upon it and hope in it,
+I often think of the wise woman in the cottage, and of her solemn
+assurance that she knew something too good to be told. When I am
+oppressed by any sorrow or real perplexity, I often feel as if I had
+only left her cottage for a time, and would soon return out of the
+vision, into it again. Sometimes, on such occasions, I find myself,
+unconsciously almost, looking about for the mystic mark of red, with
+the vague hope of entering her door, and being comforted by her wise
+tenderness. I then console myself by saying: "I have come through the
+door of Dismay; and the way back from the world into which that has led
+me, is through my tomb. Upon that the red sign lies, and I shall find it
+one day, and be glad."
+
+I will end my story with the relation of an incident which befell me a
+few days ago. I had been with my reapers, and, when they ceased their
+work at noon, I had lain down under the shadow of a great, ancient
+beech-tree, that stood on the edge of the field. As I lay, with my eyes
+closed, I began to listen to the sound of the leaves overhead. At first,
+they made sweet inarticulate music alone; but, by-and-by, the sound
+seemed to begin to take shape, and to be gradually moulding itself into
+words; till, at last, I seemed able to distinguish these, half-dissolved
+in a little ocean of circumfluent tones: "A great good is coming--is
+coming--is coming to thee, Anodos;" and so over and over again. I
+fancied that the sound reminded me of the voice of the ancient woman, in
+the cottage that was four-square. I opened my eyes, and, for a moment,
+almost believed that I saw her face, with its many wrinkles and its
+young eyes, looking at me from between two hoary branches of the beech
+overhead. But when I looked more keenly, I saw only twigs and leaves,
+and the infinite sky, in tiny spots, gazing through between. Yet I know
+that good is coming to me--that good is always coming; though few have
+at all times the simplicity and the courage to believe it. What we
+call evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person and his
+condition at the time, could be assumed by the best good. And so,
+FAREWELL.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Phantastes, by George MacDonald
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Phantastes, by George Macdonald
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Phantastes, by George MacDonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Phantastes
+       A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
+
+Author: George MacDonald
+
+Release Date: July 8, 2008 [EBook #325]
+Last Updated: October 9, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PHANTASTES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mike Lough, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      PHANTASTES
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      A FAERIE ROMANCE FOR MEN AND WOMEN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By George Macdonald
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h5>
+      A new Edition, with thirty-three new Illustrations by Arthur Hughes;<br />
+      edited by Greville MacDonald (Illustrations not available)
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;In good sooth, my masters, this is no door.
+
+      Yet is it a little window, that looketh upon a great world.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> <big><b>PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE</b></big>
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      For offering this new edition of my father&rsquo;s Phantastes, my reasons are
+      three. The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustrated without
+      the author&rsquo;s sanction, and so unsuitably that all lovers of the book must
+      have experienced some real grief in turning its pages. With the copyright
+      I secured also the whole of that edition and turned it into pulp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My second reason is to pay a small tribute to my father by way of personal
+      gratitude for this, his first prose work, which was published nearly fifty
+      years ago. Though unknown to many lovers of his greater writings, none of
+      these has exceeded it in imaginative insight and power of expression. To
+      me it rings with the dominant chord of his life&rsquo;s purpose and work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My third reason is that wider knowledge and love of the book should be
+      made possible. To this end I have been most happy in the help of my
+      father&rsquo;s old friend, who has illustrated the book. I know of no other
+      living artist who is capable of portraying the spirit of Phantastes; and
+      every reader of this edition will, I believe, feel that the illustrations
+      are a part of the romance, and will gain through them some perception of
+      the brotherhood between George MacDonald and Arthur Hughes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      GREVILLE MACDONALD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      September 1905.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;Phantastes from &lsquo;their fount&rsquo; all shapes deriving,
+    In new habiliments can quickly dight.&rdquo;
+                             FLETCHER&rsquo;S <i>Purple Island</i>
+</pre>
+
+
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Es lassen sich Erzählungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch mit
+     Association, wie Träume, denken; Gedichte, die bloss
+     wohlklingend und voll schöner Worte sind, aber auch ohne
+     allen Sinn und Zusammenhang, höchstens einzelne Strophen
+     verständlich, wie Bruchstücke aus den verschiedenartigsten
+     Dingen. Diese wahre Poesie kann höchstens einen
+     allegorischen Sinn in Grossen, und eine indirecte Wirkung,
+     wie Musik, haben. Darum ist die Natur so rein poetisch, wie
+     die Stube eines Zauberers, eines Physikers, eine
+     Kinderstube, eine Polter- und Vorrathskammer.
+
+     Ein Märchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammenhang. Ein
+     Ensemble wunderbarer Dinge und Begebenheiten, z. B. eine
+     musikalische Phantasie, die harmonischen Folgen einer
+     Aeolsharfe, die Natur selbst...
+
+     In einem echten Märchen muss alles wunderbar, geheimnissvoll
+     und zusammenhängend sein; alles belebt, jeder auf eine
+     andere Art. Die ganze Natur muss wunderlich mit der ganzen
+     Geisterwelt gemischt sein; hier tritt die Zeit der Anarchie,
+     der Gesetzlosigkeit, Freiheit, der Naturstand der Natur, die
+     Zeit von der Welt ein . . . Die Welt des Märchens ist die,
+     der Welt der Wahrheit durchaus entgegengesetzte, und eben
+     darum ihr so durchaus ähnlich, wie das Chaos der vollendeten
+     Schöpfung ähnlich ist.--NOVALIS.
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                       &ldquo;A spirit  .  .  .
+                    .  .  .  .  .  .
+    The undulating and silent well,
+    And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom,
+    Now deepening the dark shades, for speech assuming,
+    Held commune with him; as if he and it
+    Were all that was.&rdquo;
+                             SHELLEY&rsquo;S <i>Alastor</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies
+      the return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern
+      window of my room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing a cloud that
+      just rose above the low swell of the horizon, announced the approach of
+      the sun. As my thoughts, which a deep and apparently dreamless sleep had
+      dissolved, began again to assume crystalline forms, the strange events of
+      the foregoing night presented themselves anew to my wondering
+      consciousness. The day before had been my one-and-twentieth birthday.
+      Among other ceremonies investing me with my legal rights, the keys of an
+      old secretary, in which my father had kept his private papers, had been
+      delivered up to me. As soon as I was left alone, I ordered lights in the
+      chamber where the secretary stood, the first lights that had been there
+      for many a year; for, since my father&rsquo;s death, the room had been left
+      undisturbed. But, as if the darkness had been too long an inmate to be
+      easily expelled, and had dyed with blackness the walls to which, bat-like,
+      it had clung, these tapers served but ill to light up the gloomy hangings,
+      and seemed to throw yet darker shadows into the hollows of the
+      deep-wrought cornice. All the further portions of the room lay shrouded in
+      a mystery whose deepest folds were gathered around the dark oak cabinet
+      which I now approached with a strange mingling of reverence and curiosity.
+      Perhaps, like a geologist, I was about to turn up to the light some of the
+      buried strata of the human world, with its fossil remains charred by
+      passion and petrified by tears. Perhaps I was to learn how my father,
+      whose personal history was unknown to me, had woven his web of story; how
+      he had found the world, and how the world had left him. Perhaps I was to
+      find only the records of lands and moneys, how gotten and how secured;
+      coming down from strange men, and through troublous times, to me, who knew
+      little or nothing of them all. To solve my speculations, and to dispel the
+      awe which was fast gathering around me as if the dead were drawing near, I
+      approached the secretary; and having found the key that fitted the upper
+      portion, I opened it with some difficulty, drew near it a heavy
+      high-backed chair, and sat down before a multitude of little drawers and
+      slides and pigeon-holes. But the door of a little cupboard in the centre
+      especially attracted my interest, as if there lay the secret of this
+      long-hidden world. Its key I found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the rusty hinges cracked and broke as I opened the door: it
+      revealed a number of small pigeon-holes. These, however, being but shallow
+      compared with the depth of those around the little cupboard, the outer
+      ones reaching to the back of the desk, I concluded that there must be some
+      accessible space behind; and found, indeed, that they were formed in a
+      separate framework, which admitted of the whole being pulled out in one
+      piece. Behind, I found a sort of flexible portcullis of small bars of wood
+      laid close together horizontally. After long search, and trying many ways
+      to move it, I discovered at last a scarcely projecting point of steel on
+      one side. I pressed this repeatedly and hard with the point of an old tool
+      that was lying near, till at length it yielded inwards; and the little
+      slide, flying up suddenly, disclosed a chamber&mdash;empty, except that in
+      one corner lay a little heap of withered rose-leaves, whose long-lived
+      scent had long since departed; and, in another, a small packet of papers,
+      tied with a bit of ribbon, whose colour had gone with the rose-scent.
+      Almost fearing to touch them, they witnessed so mutely to the law of
+      oblivion, I leaned back in my chair, and regarded them for a moment; when
+      suddenly there stood on the threshold of the little chamber, as though she
+      had just emerged from its depth, a tiny woman-form, as perfect in shape as
+      if she had been a small Greek statuette roused to life and motion. Her
+      dress was of a kind that could never grow old-fashioned, because it was
+      simply natural: a robe plaited in a band around the neck, and confined by
+      a belt about the waist, descended to her feet. It was only afterwards,
+      however, that I took notice of her dress, although my surprise was by no
+      means of so overpowering a degree as such an apparition might naturally be
+      expected to excite. Seeing, however, as I suppose, some astonishment in my
+      countenance, she came forward within a yard of me, and said, in a voice
+      that strangely recalled a sensation of twilight, and reedy river banks,
+      and a low wind, even in this deathly room:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anodos, you never saw such a little creature before, did you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;and indeed I hardly believe I do now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<p>
+&ldquo;Ah! that is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the first
+time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of
+what you consider in itself unbelievable. I am not going to argue with
+you, however, but to grant you a wish.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+<p>
+Here I could not help interrupting her with the foolish speech,
+of which, however, I had no cause to repent&mdash;
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can such a very little creature as you grant or refuse anything?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all the philosophy you have gained in one-and-twenty years?&rdquo; said
+      she. &ldquo;Form is much, but size is nothing. It is a mere matter of relation.
+      I suppose your six-foot lordship does not feel altogether insignificant,
+      though to others you do look small beside your old Uncle Ralph, who rises
+      above you a great half-foot at least. But size is of so little consequence
+      with old me, that I may as well accommodate myself to your foolish
+      prejudices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she leapt from the desk upon the floor, where she stood a tall,
+      gracious lady, with pale face and large blue eyes. Her dark hair flowed
+      behind, wavy but uncurled, down to her waist, and against it her form
+      stood clear in its robe of white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;you will believe me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Overcome with the presence of a beauty which I could now perceive, and
+      drawn towards her by an attraction irresistible as incomprehensible, I
+      suppose I stretched out my arms towards her, for she drew back a step or
+      two, and said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Foolish boy, if you could touch me, I should hurt you. Besides, I was two
+      hundred and thirty-seven years old, last Midsummer eve; and a man must not
+      fall in love with his grandmother, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you are not my grandmother,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know that?&rdquo; she retorted. &ldquo;I dare say you know something of
+      your great-grandfathers a good deal further back than that; but you know
+      very little about your great-grandmothers on either side. Now, to the
+      point. Your little sister was reading a fairy-tale to you last night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When she had finished, she said, as she closed the book, &lsquo;Is there a
+      fairy-country, brother?&rsquo; You replied with a sigh, &lsquo;I suppose there is, if
+      one could find the way into it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did; but I meant something quite different from what you seem to
+      think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind what I seem to think. You shall find the way into Fairy Land
+      to-morrow. Now look in my eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eagerly I did so. They filled me with an unknown longing. I remembered
+      somehow that my mother died when I was a baby. I looked deeper and deeper,
+      till they spread around me like seas, and I sank in their waters. I forgot
+      all the rest, till I found myself at the window, whose gloomy curtains
+      were withdrawn, and where I stood gazing on a whole heaven of stars, small
+      and sparkling in the moonlight. Below lay a sea, still as death and hoary
+      in the moon, sweeping into bays and around capes and islands, away, away,
+      I knew not whither. Alas! it was no sea, but a low bog burnished by the
+      moon. &ldquo;Surely there is such a sea somewhere!&rdquo; said I to myself. A low
+      sweet voice beside me replied&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Fairy Land, Anodos.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I turned, but saw no one. I closed the secretary, and went to my own room,
+      and to bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this I recalled as I lay with half-closed eyes. I was soon to find the
+      truth of the lady&rsquo;s promise, that this day I should discover the road into
+      Fairy Land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;&lsquo;Where is the stream?&rsquo; cried he, with tears. &lsquo;Seest thou
+     its not in blue waves above us?&rsquo; He looked up, and lo! the
+     blue stream was flowing gently over their heads.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;NOVALIS, <i>Heinrich von Ofterdingen</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      While these strange events were passing through my mind, I suddenly, as
+      one awakes to the consciousness that the sea has been moaning by him for
+      hours, or that the storm has been howling about his window all night,
+      became aware of the sound of running water near me; and, looking out of
+      bed, I saw that a large green marble basin, in which I was wont to wash,
+      and which stood on a low pedestal of the same material in a corner of my
+      room, was overflowing like a spring; and that a stream of clear water was
+      running over the carpet, all the length of the room, finding its outlet I
+      knew not where. And, stranger still, where this carpet, which I had myself
+      designed to imitate a field of grass and daisies, bordered the course of
+      the little stream, the grass-blades and daisies seemed to wave in a tiny
+      breeze that followed the water&rsquo;s flow; while under the rivulet they bent
+      and swayed with every motion of the changeful current, as if they were
+      about to dissolve with it, and, forsaking their fixed form, become fluent
+      as the waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My dressing-table was an old-fashioned piece of furniture of black oak,
+      with drawers all down the front. These were elaborately carved in foliage,
+      of which ivy formed the chief part. The nearer end of this table remained
+      just as it had been, but on the further end a singular change had
+      commenced. I happened to fix my eye on a little cluster of ivy-leaves. The
+      first of these was evidently the work of the carver; the next looked
+      curious; the third was unmistakable ivy; and just beyond it a tendril of
+      clematis had twined itself about the gilt handle of one of the drawers.
+      Hearing next a slight motion above me, I looked up, and saw that the
+      branches and leaves designed upon the curtains of my bed were slightly in
+      motion. Not knowing what change might follow next, I thought it high time
+      to get up; and, springing from the bed, my bare feet alighted upon a cool
+      green sward; and although I dressed in all haste, I found myself
+      completing my toilet under the boughs of a great tree, whose top waved in
+      the golden stream of the sunrise with many interchanging lights, and with
+      shadows of leaf and branch gliding over leaf and branch, as the cool
+      morning wind swung it to and fro, like a sinking sea-wave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After washing as well as I could in the clear stream, I rose and looked
+      around me. The tree under which I seemed to have lain all night was one of
+      the advanced guard of a dense forest, towards which the rivulet ran. Faint
+      traces of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, and with here
+      and there a pimpernel even, were discernible along the right bank. &ldquo;This,&rdquo;
+       thought I, &ldquo;must surely be the path into Fairy Land, which the lady of
+      last night promised I should so soon find.&rdquo; I crossed the rivulet, and
+      accompanied it, keeping the footpath on its right bank, until it led me,
+      as I expected, into the wood. Here I left it, without any good reason: and
+      with a vague feeling that I ought to have followed its course, I took a
+      more southerly direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Man doth usurp all space,
+             Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in
+                    the face.
+             Never thine eyes behold a tree;
+             &lsquo;Tis no sea thou seest in the sea,
+             &lsquo;Tis but a disguised humanity.
+             To avoid thy fellow, vain thy plan;
+             All that interests a man, is man.&rdquo;
+                                         HENRY SUTTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The trees, which were far apart where I entered, giving free passage to
+      the level rays of the sun, closed rapidly as I advanced, so that ere long
+      their crowded stems barred the sunlight out, forming as it were a thick
+      grating between me and the East. I seemed to be advancing towards a second
+      midnight. In the midst of the intervening twilight, however, before I
+      entered what appeared to be the darkest portion of the forest, I saw a
+      country maiden coming towards me from its very depths. She did not seem to
+      observe me, for she was apparently intent upon a bunch of wild flowers
+      which she carried in her hand. I could hardly see her face; for, though
+      she came direct towards me, she never looked up. But when we met, instead
+      of passing, she turned and walked alongside of me for a few yards, still
+      keeping her face downwards, and busied with her flowers. She spoke
+      rapidly, however, all the time, in a low tone, as if talking to herself,
+      but evidently addressing the purport of her words to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She seemed afraid of being observed by some lurking foe. &ldquo;Trust the Oak,&rdquo;
+       said she; &ldquo;trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech. Take care of
+      the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be
+      changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre,&mdash;you
+      will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with
+      her web of hair, if you let her near you at night.&rdquo; All this was uttered
+      without pause or alteration of tone. Then she turned suddenly and left me,
+      walking still with the same unchanging gait. I could not conjecture what
+      she meant, but satisfied myself with thinking that it would be time enough
+      to find out her meaning when there was need to make use of her warning,
+      and that the occasion would reveal the admonition. I concluded from the
+      flowers that she carried, that the forest could not be everywhere so dense
+      as it appeared from where I was now walking; and I was right in this
+      conclusion. For soon I came to a more open part, and by-and-by crossed a
+      wide grassy glade, on which were several circles of brighter green. But
+      even here I was struck with the utter stillness. No bird sang. No insect
+      hummed. Not a living creature crossed my way. Yet somehow the whole
+      environment seemed only asleep, and to wear even in sleep an air of
+      expectation. The trees seemed all to have an expression of conscious
+      mystery, as if they said to themselves, &ldquo;we could, an&rsquo; if we would.&rdquo; They
+      had all a meaning look about them. Then I remembered that night is the
+      fairies&rsquo; day, and the moon their sun; and I thought&mdash;Everything
+      sleeps and dreams now: when the night comes, it will be different. At the
+      same time I, being a man and a child of the day, felt some anxiety as to
+      how I should fare among the elves and other children of the night who wake
+      when mortals dream, and find their common life in those wondrous hours
+      that flow noiselessly over the moveless death-like forms of men and women
+      and children, lying strewn and parted beneath the weight of the heavy
+      waves of night, which flow on and beat them down, and hold them drowned
+      and senseless, until the ebbtide comes, and the waves sink away, back into
+      the ocean of the dark. But I took courage and went on. Soon, however, I
+      became again anxious, though from another cause. I had eaten nothing that
+      day, and for an hour past had been feeling the want of food. So I grew
+      afraid lest I should find nothing to meet my human necessities in this
+      strange place; but once more I comforted myself with hope and went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before noon, I fancied I saw a thin blue smoke rising amongst the stems of
+      larger trees in front of me; and soon I came to an open spot of ground in
+      which stood a little cottage, so built that the stems of four great trees
+      formed its corners, while their branches met and intertwined over its
+      roof, heaping a great cloud of leaves over it, up towards the heavens. I
+      wondered at finding a human dwelling in this neighbourhood; and yet it did
+      not look altogether human, though sufficiently so to encourage me to
+      expect to find some sort of food. Seeing no door, I went round to the
+      other side, and there I found one, wide open. A woman sat beside it,
+      preparing some vegetables for dinner. This was homely and comforting. As I
+      came near, she looked up, and seeing me, showed no surprise, but bent her
+      head again over her work, and said in a low tone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see my daughter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I did,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Can you give me something to eat, for I am
+      very hungry?&rdquo; &ldquo;With pleasure,&rdquo; she replied, in the same tone; &ldquo;but do not
+      say anything more, till you come into the house, for the Ash is watching
+      us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having said this, she rose and led the way into the cottage; which, I now
+      saw, was built of the stems of small trees set closely together, and was
+      furnished with rough chairs and tables, from which even the bark had not
+      been removed. As soon as she had shut the door and set a chair&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fairy blood in you,&rdquo; said she, looking hard at me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could not have got so far into this wood if it were not so; and I am
+      trying to find out some trace of it in your countenance. I think I see
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you see?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, never mind: I may be mistaken in that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how then do you come to live here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I too have fairy blood in me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here I, in my turn, looked hard at her, and thought I could perceive,
+      notwithstanding the coarseness of her features, and especially the
+      heaviness of her eyebrows, a something unusual&mdash;I could hardly call
+      it grace, and yet it was an expression that strangely contrasted with the
+      form of her features. I noticed too that her hands were delicately formed,
+      though brown with work and exposure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should be ill,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;if I did not live on the borders of the
+      fairies&rsquo; country, and now and then eat of their food. And I see by your
+      eyes that you are not quite free of the same need; though, from your
+      education and the activity of your mind, you have felt it less than I. You
+      may be further removed too from the fairy race.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I remembered what the lady had said about my grandmothers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here she placed some bread and some milk before me, with a kindly apology
+      for the homeliness of the fare, with which, however, I was in no humour to
+      quarrel. I now thought it time to try to get some explanation of the
+      strange words both of her daughter and herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you mean by speaking so about the Ash?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She rose and looked out of the little window. My eyes followed her; but as
+      the window was too small to allow anything to be seen from where I was
+      sitting, I rose and looked over her shoulder. I had just time to see,
+      across the open space, on the edge of the denser forest, a single large
+      ash-tree, whose foliage showed bluish, amidst the truer green of the other
+      trees around it; when she pushed me back with an expression of impatience
+      and terror, and then almost shut out the light from the window by setting
+      up a large old book in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In general,&rdquo; said she, recovering her composure, &ldquo;there is no danger in
+      the daytime, for then he is sound asleep; but there is something unusual
+      going on in the woods; there must be some solemnity among the fairies
+      to-night, for all the trees are restless, and although they cannot come
+      awake, they see and hear in their sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what danger is to be dreaded from him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of answering the question, she went again to the window and looked
+      out, saying she feared the fairies would be interrupted by foul weather,
+      for a storm was brewing in the west.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the sooner it grows dark, the sooner the Ash will be awake,&rdquo; added
+      she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I asked her how she knew that there was any unusual excitement in the
+      woods. She replied&mdash;
+    </p>
+<p>
+&ldquo;Besides the look of the trees, the dog there is unhappy; and the eyes
+and ears of the white rabbit are redder than usual, and he frisks about
+as if he expected some fun. If the cat were at home, she would have
+her back up; for the young fairies pull the sparks out of her tail with
+bramble thorns, and she knows when they are coming. So do I, in another
+way.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+<p>
+At this instant, a grey cat rushed in like a demon, and
+disappeared in a hole in the wall.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, I told you!&rdquo; said the woman.
+    </p>
+<p>
+&ldquo;But what of the ash-tree?&rdquo; said I, returning once more to the
+subject. Here, however, the young woman, whom I had met in the morning,
+entered. A smile passed between the mother and daughter; and then the
+latter began to help her mother in little household duties.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to stay here till the evening,&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;and then go on my
+      journey, if you will allow me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are welcome to do as you please; only it might be better to stay all
+      night, than risk the dangers of the wood then. Where are you going?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, that I do not know,&rdquo; I replied, &ldquo;but I wish to see all that is to be
+      seen, and therefore I should like to start just at sundown.&rdquo; &ldquo;You are a
+      bold youth, if you have any idea of what you are daring; but a rash one,
+      if you know nothing about it; and, excuse me, you do not seem very well
+      informed about the country and its manners. However, no one comes here but
+      for some reason, either known to himself or to those who have charge of
+      him; so you shall do just as you wish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly I sat down, and feeling rather tired, and disinclined for
+      further talk, I asked leave to look at the old book which still screened
+      the window. The woman brought it to me directly, but not before taking
+      another look towards the forest, and then drawing a white blind over the
+      window. I sat down opposite to it by the table, on which I laid the great
+      old volume, and read. It contained many wondrous tales of Fairy Land, and
+      olden times, and the Knights of King Arthur&rsquo;s table. I read on and on,
+      till the shades of the afternoon began to deepen; for in the midst of the
+      forest it gloomed earlier than in the open country. At length I came to
+      this passage&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here it chanced, that upon their quest, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale
+      rencountered in the depths of a great forest. Now, Sir Galahad was dight
+      all in harness of silver, clear and shining; the which is a delight to
+      look upon, but full hasty to tarnish, and withouten the labour of a ready
+      squire, uneath to be kept fair and clean. And yet withouten squire or
+      page, Sir Galahad&rsquo;s armour shone like the moon. And he rode a great white
+      mare, whose bases and other housings were black, but all besprent with
+      fair lilys of silver sheen. Whereas Sir Percivale bestrode a red horse,
+      with a tawny mane and tail; whose trappings were all to-smirched with mud
+      and mire; and his armour was wondrous rosty to behold, ne could he by any
+      art furbish it again; so that as the sun in his going down shone twixt the
+      bare trunks of the trees, full upon the knights twain, the one did seem
+      all shining with light, and the other all to glow with ruddy fire. Now it
+      came about in this wise. For Sir Percivale, after his escape from the
+      demon lady, whenas the cross on the handle of his sword smote him to the
+      heart, and he rove himself through the thigh, and escaped away, he came to
+      a great wood; and, in nowise cured of his fault, yet bemoaning the same,
+      the damosel of the alder tree encountered him, right fair to see; and with
+      her fair words and false countenance she comforted him and beguiled him,
+      until he followed her where she led him to a&mdash;-&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a low hurried cry from my hostess caused me to look up from the book,
+      and I read no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look there!&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;look at his fingers!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as I had been reading in the book, the setting sun was shining
+      through a cleft in the clouds piled up in the west; and a shadow as of a
+      large distorted hand, with thick knobs and humps on the fingers, so that
+      it was much wider across the fingers than across the undivided part of the
+      hand, passed slowly over the little blind, and then as slowly returned in
+      the opposite direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is almost awake, mother; and greedier than usual to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush, child; you need not make him more angry with us than he is; for you
+      do not know how soon something may happen to oblige us to be in the forest
+      after nightfall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you are in the forest,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;how is it that you are safe here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He dares not come nearer than he is now,&rdquo; she replied; &ldquo;for any of those
+      four oaks, at the corners of our cottage, would tear him to pieces; they
+      are our friends. But he stands there and makes awful faces at us
+      sometimes, and stretches out his long arms and fingers, and tries to kill
+      us with fright; for, indeed, that is his favourite way of doing. Pray,
+      keep out of his way to-night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I be able to see these things?&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I cannot tell yet, not knowing how much of the fairy nature there is
+      in you. But we shall soon see whether you can discern the fairies in my
+      little garden, and that will be some guide to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are the trees fairies too, as well as the flowers?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are of the same race,&rdquo; she replied; &ldquo;though those you call fairies
+      in your country are chiefly the young children of the flower fairies. They
+      are very fond of having fun with the thick people, as they call you; for,
+      like most children, they like fun better than anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you have flowers so near you then? Do they not annoy you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no, they are very amusing, with their mimicries of grown people, and
+      mock solemnities. Sometimes they will act a whole play through before my
+      eyes, with perfect composure and assurance, for they are not afraid of me.
+      Only, as soon as they have done, they burst into peals of tiny laughter,
+      as if it was such a joke to have been serious over anything. These I speak
+      of, however, are the fairies of the garden. They are more staid and
+      educated than those of the fields and woods. Of course they have near
+      relations amongst the wild flowers, but they patronise them, and treat
+      them as country cousins, who know nothing of life, and very little of
+      manners. Now and then, however, they are compelled to envy the grace and
+      simplicity of the natural flowers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they live <i>in</i> the flowers?&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot tell,&rdquo; she replied. &ldquo;There is something in it I do not
+      understand. Sometimes they disappear altogether, even from me, though I
+      know they are near. They seem to die always with the flowers they
+      resemble, and by whose names they are called; but whether they return to
+      life with the fresh flowers, or, whether it be new flowers, new fairies, I
+      cannot tell. They have as many sorts of dispositions as men and women,
+      while their moods are yet more variable; twenty different expressions will
+      cross their little faces in half a minute. I often amuse myself with
+      watching them, but I have never been able to make personal acquaintance
+      with any of them. If I speak to one, he or she looks up in my face, as if
+      I were not worth heeding, gives a little laugh, and runs away.&rdquo; Here the
+      woman started, as if suddenly recollecting herself, and said in a low
+      voice to her daughter, &ldquo;Make haste&mdash;go and watch him, and see in what
+      direction he goes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I may as well mention here, that the conclusion I arrived at from the
+      observations I was afterwards able to make, was, that the flowers die
+      because the fairies go away; not that the fairies disappear because the
+      flowers die. The flowers seem a sort of houses for them, or outer bodies,
+      which they can put on or off when they please. Just as you could form some
+      idea of the nature of a man from the kind of house he built, if he
+      followed his own taste, so you could, without seeing the fairies, tell
+      what any one of them is like, by looking at the flower till you feel that
+      you understand it. For just what the flower says to you, would the face
+      and form of the fairy say; only so much more plainly as a face and human
+      figure can express more than a flower. For the house or the clothes,
+      though like the inhabitant or the wearer, cannot be wrought into an equal
+      power of utterance. Yet you would see a strange resemblance, almost
+      oneness, between the flower and the fairy, which you could not describe,
+      but which described itself to you. Whether all the flowers have fairies, I
+      cannot determine, any more than I can be sure whether all men and women
+      have souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman and I continued the conversation for a few minutes longer. I was
+      much interested by the information she gave me, and astonished at the
+      language in which she was able to convey it. It seemed that intercourse
+      with the fairies was no bad education in itself. But now the daughter
+      returned with the news, that the Ash had just gone away in a
+      south-westerly direction; and, as my course seemed to lie eastward, she
+      hoped I should be in no danger of meeting him if I departed at once. I
+      looked out of the little window, and there stood the ash-tree, to my eyes
+      the same as before; but I believed that they knew better than I did, and
+      prepared to go. I pulled out my purse, but to my dismay there was nothing
+      in it. The woman with a smile begged me not to trouble myself, for money
+      was not of the slightest use there; and as I might meet with people in my
+      journeys whom I could not recognise to be fairies, it was well I had no
+      money to offer, for nothing offended them so much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would think,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;that you were making game of them; and
+      that is their peculiar privilege with regard to us.&rdquo; So we went together
+      into the little garden which sloped down towards a lower part of the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, to my great pleasure, all was life and bustle. There was still light
+      enough from the day to see a little; and the pale half-moon, halfway to
+      the zenith, was reviving every moment. The whole garden was like a
+      carnival, with tiny, gaily decorated forms, in groups, assemblies,
+      processions, pairs or trios, moving stately on, running about wildly, or
+      sauntering hither or thither. From the cups or bells of tall flowers, as
+      from balconies, some looked down on the masses below, now bursting with
+      laughter, now grave as owls; but even in their deepest solemnity, seeming
+      only to be waiting for the arrival of the next laugh. Some were launched
+      on a little marshy stream at the bottom, in boats chosen from the heaps of
+      last year&rsquo;s leaves that lay about, curled and withered. These soon sank
+      with them; whereupon they swam ashore and got others. Those who took fresh
+      rose-leaves for their boats floated the longest; but for these they had to
+      fight; for the fairy of the rose-tree complained bitterly that they were
+      stealing her clothes, and defended her property bravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t wear half you&rsquo;ve got,&rdquo; said some.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never you mind; I don&rsquo;t choose you to have them: they are my property.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All for the good of the community!&rdquo; said one, and ran off with a great
+      hollow leaf. But the rose-fairy sprang after him (what a beauty she was!
+      only too like a drawing-room young lady), knocked him heels-over-head as
+      he ran, and recovered her great red leaf. But in the meantime twenty had
+      hurried off in different directions with others just as good; and the
+      little creature sat down and cried, and then, in a pet, sent a perfect
+      pink snowstorm of petals from her tree, leaping from branch to branch, and
+      stamping and shaking and pulling. At last, after another good cry, she
+      chose the biggest she could find, and ran away laughing, to launch her
+      boat amongst the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But my attention was first and chiefly attracted by a group of fairies
+      near the cottage, who were talking together around what seemed a last
+      dying primrose. They talked singing, and their talk made a song, something
+      like this:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+    &ldquo;Sister Snowdrop died
+        Before we were born.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;She came like a bride
+        In a snowy morn.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;What&rsquo;s a bride?&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;What is snow?
+    &ldquo;Never tried.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Do not know.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Who told you about her?&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Little Primrose there
+    Cannot do without her.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Oh, so sweetly fair!&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Never fear,
+        She will come,
+    Primrose dear.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Is she dumb?&rdquo;
+ 
+    &ldquo;She&rsquo;ll come by-and-by.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;You will never see her.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;She went home to dies,
+        &ldquo;Till the new year.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Snowdrop!&rdquo;  &ldquo;&lsquo;Tis no good
+        To invite her.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Primrose is very rude,
+        &ldquo;I will bite her.&rdquo;
+ 
+    &ldquo;Oh, you naughty Pocket!
+        &ldquo;Look, she drops her head.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;She deserved it, Rocket,
+        &ldquo;And she was nearly dead.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;To your hammock&mdash;off with you!&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;And swing alone.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;No one will laugh with you.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;No, not one.&rdquo;
+ 
+    &ldquo;Now let us moan.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;And cover her o&rsquo;er.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Primrose is gone.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;All but the flower.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Here is a leaf.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Lay her upon it.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;Follow in grief.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Pocket has done it.&rdquo;
+ 
+    &ldquo;Deeper, poor creature!
+        Winter may come.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;He cannot reach her&mdash;
+        That is a hum.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;She is buried, the beauty!&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Now she is done.&rdquo;
+     &ldquo;That was the duty.&rdquo;
+         &ldquo;Now for the fun.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      And with a wild laugh they sprang away, most of them towards the cottage.
+      During the latter part of the song-talk, they had formed themselves into a
+      funeral procession, two of them bearing poor Primrose, whose death Pocket
+      had hastened by biting her stalk, upon one of her own great leaves. They
+      bore her solemnly along some distance, and then buried her under a tree.
+      Although I say <i>her</i> I saw nothing but the withered primrose-flower on its
+      long stalk. Pocket, who had been expelled from the company by common
+      consent, went sulkily away towards her hammock, for she was the fairy of
+      the calceolaria, and looked rather wicked. When she reached its stem, she
+      stopped and looked round. I could not help speaking to her, for I stood
+      near her. I said, &ldquo;Pocket, how could you be so naughty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am never naughty,&rdquo; she said, half-crossly, half-defiantly; &ldquo;only if you
+      come near my hammock, I will bite you, and then you will go away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you bite poor Primrose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because she said we should never see Snowdrop; as if we were not good
+      enough to look at her, and she was, the proud thing!&mdash;served her
+      right!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Pocket, Pocket,&rdquo; said I; but by this time the party which had gone
+      towards the house, rushed out again, shouting and screaming with laughter.
+      Half of them were on the cat&rsquo;s back, and half held on by her fur and tail,
+      or ran beside her; till, more coming to their help, the furious cat was
+      held fast; and they proceeded to pick the sparks out of her with thorns
+      and pins, which they handled like harpoons. Indeed, there were more
+      instruments at work about her than there could have been sparks in her.
+      One little fellow who held on hard by the tip of the tail, with his feet
+      planted on the ground at an angle of forty-five degrees, helping to keep
+      her fast, administered a continuous flow of admonitions to Pussy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Pussy, be patient. You know quite well it is all for your good. You
+      cannot be comfortable with all those sparks in you; and, indeed, I am
+      charitably disposed to believe&rdquo; (here he became very pompous) &ldquo;that they
+      are the cause of all your bad temper; so we must have them all out, every
+      one; else we shall be reduced to the painful necessity of cutting your
+      claws, and pulling out your eye-teeth. Quiet! Pussy, quiet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But with a perfect hurricane of feline curses, the poor animal broke
+      loose, and dashed across the garden and through the hedge, faster than
+      even the fairies could follow. &ldquo;Never mind, never mind, we shall find her
+      again; and by that time she will have laid in a fresh stock of sparks.
+      Hooray!&rdquo; And off they set, after some new mischief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I will not linger to enlarge on the amusing display of these
+      frolicsome creatures. Their manners and habits are now so well known to
+      the world, having been so often described by eyewitnesses, that it would
+      be only indulging self-conceit, to add my account in full to the rest. I
+      cannot help wishing, however, that my readers could see them for
+      themselves. Especially do I desire that they should see the fairy of the
+      daisy; a little, chubby, round-eyed child, with such innocent trust in his
+      look! Even the most mischievous of the fairies would not tease him,
+      although he did not belong to their set at all, but was quite a little
+      country bumpkin. He wandered about alone, and looked at everything, with
+      his hands in his little pockets, and a white night-cap on, the darling! He
+      was not so beautiful as many other wild flowers I saw afterwards, but so
+      dear and loving in his looks and little confident ways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;When bale is att hyest, boote is nyest.&rdquo;
+                                 <i>Ballad of Sir Aldingar</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      By this time, my hostess was quite anxious that I should be gone. So, with
+      warm thanks for their hospitality, I took my leave, and went my way
+      through the little garden towards the forest. Some of the garden flowers
+      had wandered into the wood, and were growing here and there along the
+      path, but the trees soon became too thick and shadowy for them. I
+      particularly noticed some tall lilies, which grew on both sides of the
+      way, with large dazzlingly white flowers, set off by the universal green.
+      It was now dark enough for me to see that every flower was shining with a
+      light of its own. Indeed it was by this light that I saw them, an
+      internal, peculiar light, proceeding from each, and not reflected from a
+      common source of light as in the daytime. This light sufficed only for the
+      plant itself, and was not strong enough to cast any but the faintest
+      shadows around it, or to illuminate any of the neighbouring objects with
+      other than the faintest tinge of its own individual hue. From the lilies
+      above mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every
+      bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads, peeped at
+      me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit them, as snails their shells but
+      I was sure some of them were intruders, and belonged to the gnomes or
+      goblin-fairies, who inhabit the ground and earthy creeping plants. From
+      the cups of Arum lilies, creatures with great heads and grotesque faces
+      shot up like Jack-in-the-box, and made grimaces at me; or rose slowly and
+      slily over the edge of the cup, and spouted water at me, slipping suddenly
+      back, like those little soldier-crabs that inhabit the shells of
+      sea-snails. Passing a row of tall thistles, I saw them crowded with little
+      faces, which peeped every one from behind its flower, and drew back as
+      quickly; and I heard them saying to each other, evidently intending me to
+      hear, but the speaker always hiding behind his tuft, when I looked in his
+      direction, &ldquo;Look at him! Look at him! He has begun a story without a
+      beginning, and it will never have any end. He! he! he! Look at him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But as I went further into the wood, these sights and sounds became fewer,
+      giving way to others of a different character. A little forest of wild
+      hyacinths was alive with exquisite creatures, who stood nearly motionless,
+      with drooping necks, holding each by the stem of her flower, and swaying
+      gently with it, whenever a low breath of wind swung the crowded floral
+      belfry. In like manner, though differing of course in form and meaning,
+      stood a group of harebells, like little angels waiting, ready, till they
+      were wanted to go on some yet unknown message. In darker nooks, by the
+      mossy roots of the trees, or in little tufts of grass, each dwelling in a
+      globe of its own green light, weaving a network of grass and its shadows,
+      glowed the glowworms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were just like the glowworms of our own land, for they are fairies
+      everywhere; worms in the day, and glowworms at night, when their own can
+      appear, and they can be themselves to others as well as themselves. But
+      they had their enemies here. For I saw great strong-armed beetles,
+      hurrying about with most unwieldy haste, awkward as elephant-calves,
+      looking apparently for glowworms; for the moment a beetle espied one,
+      through what to it was a forest of grass, or an underwood of moss, it
+      pounced upon it, and bore it away, in spite of its feeble resistance.
+      Wondering what their object could be, I watched one of the beetles, and
+      then I discovered a thing I could not account for. But it is no use trying
+      to account for things in Fairy Land; and one who travels there soon learns
+      to forget the very idea of doing so, and takes everything as it comes;
+      like a child, who, being in a chronic condition of wonder, is surprised at
+      nothing. What I saw was this. Everywhere, here and there over the ground,
+      lay little, dark-looking lumps of something more like earth than anything
+      else, and about the size of a chestnut. The beetles hunted in couples for
+      these; and having found one, one of them stayed to watch it, while the
+      other hurried to find a glowworm. By signals, I presume, between them, the
+      latter soon found his companion again: they then took the glowworm and
+      held its luminous tail to the dark earthly pellet; when lo, it shot up
+      into the air like a sky-rocket, seldom, however, reaching the height of
+      the highest tree. Just like a rocket too, it burst in the air, and fell in
+      a shower of the most gorgeously coloured sparks of every variety of hue;
+      golden and red, and purple and green, and blue and rosy fires crossed and
+      inter-crossed each other, beneath the shadowy heads, and between the
+      columnar stems of the forest trees. They never used the same glowworm
+      twice, I observed; but let him go, apparently uninjured by the use they
+      had made of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In other parts, the whole of the immediately surrounding foliage was
+      illuminated by the interwoven dances in the air of splendidly coloured
+      fire-flies, which sped hither and thither, turned, twisted, crossed, and
+      recrossed, entwining every complexity of intervolved motion. Here and
+      there, whole mighty trees glowed with an emitted phosphorescent light. You
+      could trace the very course of the great roots in the earth by the faint
+      light that came through; and every twig, and every vein on every leaf was
+      a streak of pale fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, as I went through the wood, I was haunted with the feeling
+      that other shapes, more like my own size and mien, were moving about at a
+      little distance on all sides of me. But as yet I could discern none of
+      them, although the moon was high enough to send a great many of her rays
+      down between the trees, and these rays were unusually bright, and
+      sight-giving, notwithstanding she was only a half-moon. I constantly
+      imagined, however, that forms were visible in all directions except that
+      to which my gaze was turned; and that they only became invisible, or
+      resolved themselves into other woodland shapes, the moment my looks were
+      directed towards them. However this may have been, except for this feeling
+      of presence, the woods seemed utterly bare of anything like human
+      companionship, although my glance often fell on some object which I
+      fancied to be a human form; for I soon found that I was quite deceived;
+      as, the moment I fixed my regard on it, it showed plainly that it was a
+      bush, or a tree, or a rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon a vague sense of discomfort possessed me. With variations of relief,
+      this gradually increased; as if some evil thing were wandering about in my
+      neighbourhood, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off, but still
+      approaching. The feeling continued and deepened, until all my pleasure in
+      the shows of various kinds that everywhere betokened the presence of the
+      merry fairies vanished by degrees, and left me full of anxiety and fear,
+      which I was unable to associate with any definite object whatever. At
+      length the thought crossed my mind with horror: &ldquo;Can it be possible that
+      the Ash is looking for me? or that, in his nightly wanderings, his path is
+      gradually verging towards mine?&rdquo; I comforted myself, however, by
+      remembering that he had started quite in another direction; one that would
+      lead him, if he kept it, far apart from me; especially as, for the last
+      two or three hours, I had been diligently journeying eastward. I kept on
+      my way, therefore, striving by direct effort of the will against the
+      encroaching fear; and to this end occupying my mind, as much as I could,
+      with other thoughts. I was so far successful that, although I was
+      conscious, if I yielded for a moment, I should be almost overwhelmed with
+      horror, I was yet able to walk right on for an hour or more. What I feared
+      I could not tell. Indeed, I was left in a state of the vaguest uncertainty
+      as regarded the nature of my enemy, and knew not the mode or object of his
+      attacks; for, somehow or other, none of my questions had succeeded in
+      drawing a definite answer from the dame in the cottage. How then to defend
+      myself I knew not; nor even by what sign I might with certainty recognise
+      the presence of my foe; for as yet this vague though powerful fear was all
+      the indication of danger I had. To add to my distress, the clouds in the
+      west had risen nearly to the top of the skies, and they and the moon were
+      travelling slowly towards each other. Indeed, some of their advanced guard
+      had already met her, and she had begun to wade through a filmy vapour that
+      gradually deepened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length she was for a moment almost entirely obscured. When she shone
+      out again, with a brilliancy increased by the contrast, I saw plainly on
+      the path before me&mdash;from around which at this spot the trees receded,
+      leaving a small space of green sward&mdash;the shadow of a large hand,
+      with knotty joints and protuberances here and there. Especially I
+      remarked, even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers.
+      I looked hurriedly all around, but could see nothing from which such a
+      shadow should fall. Now, however, that I had a direction, however
+      undetermined, in which to project my apprehension, the very sense of
+      danger and need of action overcame that stifling which is the worst
+      property of fear. I reflected in a moment, that if this were indeed a
+      shadow, it was useless to look for the object that cast it in any other
+      direction than between the shadow and the moon. I looked, and peered, and
+      intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of that
+      kind, not even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow
+      remained; not steady, but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers
+      close, and grind themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as if
+      in uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey. There seemed but one
+      mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow. I went forward
+      boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would not heed, to the spot
+      where the shadow lay, threw myself on the ground, laid my head within the
+      form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards the moon Good heavens! what
+      did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that the very shadow of the
+      hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had frozen my brain. I saw the
+      strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent, in the central
+      parts, and gradually deepening in substance towards the outside, until it
+      ended in extremities capable of casting such a shadow as fell from the
+      hand, through the awful fingers of which I now saw the moon. The hand was
+      uplifted in the attitude of a paw about to strike its prey. But the face,
+      which throbbed with fluctuating and pulsatory visibility&mdash;not from
+      changes in the light it reflected, but from changes in its own conditions
+      of reflecting power, the alterations being from within, not from without&mdash;it
+      was horrible. I do not know how to describe it. It caused a new sensation.
+      Just as one cannot translate a horrible odour, or a ghastly pain, or a
+      fearful sound, into words, so I cannot describe this new form of awful
+      hideousness. I can only try to describe something that is not it, but
+      seems somewhat parallel to it; or at least is suggested by it. It reminded
+      me of what I had heard of vampires; for the face resembled that of a
+      corpse more than anything else I can think of; especially when I can
+      conceive such a face in motion, but not suggesting any life as the source
+      of the motion. The features were rather handsome than otherwise, except
+      the mouth, which had scarcely a curve in it. The lips were of equal
+      thickness; but the thickness was not at all remarkable, even although they
+      looked slightly swollen. They seemed fixedly open, but were not wide
+      apart. Of course I did not <i>remark</i> these lineaments at the time: I was too
+      horrified for that. I noted them afterwards, when the form returned on my
+      inward sight with a vividness too intense to admit of my doubting the
+      accuracy of the reflex. But the most awful of the features were the eyes.
+      These were alive, yet not with life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They seemed lighted up with an infinite greed. A gnawing voracity, which
+      devoured the devourer, seemed to be the indwelling and propelling power of
+      the whole ghostly apparition. I lay for a few moments simply imbruted with
+      terror; when another cloud, obscuring the moon, delivered me from the
+      immediately paralysing effects of the presence to the vision of the object
+      of horror, while it added the force of imagination to the power of fear
+      within me; inasmuch as, knowing far worse cause for apprehension than
+      before, I remained equally ignorant from what I had to defend myself, or
+      how to take any precautions: he might be upon me in the darkness any
+      moment. I sprang to my feet, and sped I knew not whither, only away from
+      the spectre. I thought no longer of the path, and often narrowly escaped
+      dashing myself against a tree, in my headlong flight of fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great drops of rain began to patter on the leaves. Thunder began to
+      mutter, then growl in the distance. I ran on. The rain fell heavier. At
+      length the thick leaves could hold it up no longer; and, like a second
+      firmament, they poured their torrents on the earth. I was soon drenched,
+      but that was nothing. I came to a small swollen stream that rushed through
+      the woods. I had a vague hope that if I crossed this stream, I should be
+      in safety from my pursuer; but I soon found that my hope was as false as
+      it was vague. I dashed across the stream, ascended a rising ground, and
+      reached a more open space, where stood only great trees. Through them I
+      directed my way, holding eastward as nearly as I could guess, but not at
+      all certain that I was not moving in an opposite direction. My mind was
+      just reviving a little from its extreme terror, when, suddenly, a flash of
+      lightning, or rather a cataract of successive flashes, behind me, seemed
+      to throw on the ground in front of me, but far more faintly than before,
+      from the extent of the source of the light, the shadow of the same
+      horrible hand. I sprang forward, stung to yet wilder speed; but had not
+      run many steps before my foot slipped, and, vainly attempting to recover
+      myself, I fell at the foot of one of the large trees. Half-stunned, I yet
+      raised myself, and almost involuntarily looked back. All I saw was the
+      hand within three feet of my face. But, at the same moment, I felt two
+      large soft arms thrown round me from behind; and a voice like a woman&rsquo;s
+      said: &ldquo;Do not fear the goblin; he dares not hurt you now.&rdquo; With that, the
+      hand was suddenly withdrawn as from a fire, and disappeared in the
+      darkness and the rain. Overcome with the mingling of terror and joy, I lay
+      for some time almost insensible. The first thing I remember is the sound
+      of a voice above me, full and low, and strangely reminding me of the sound
+      of a gentle wind amidst the leaves of a great tree. It murmured over and
+      over again: &ldquo;I may love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I am
+      only a beech-tree.&rdquo; I found I was seated on the ground, leaning against a
+      human form, and supported still by the arms around me, which I knew to be
+      those of a woman who must be rather above the human size, and largely
+      proportioned. I turned my head, but without moving otherwise, for I feared
+      lest the arms should untwine themselves; and clear, somewhat mournful eyes
+      met mine. At least that is how they impressed me; but I could see very
+      little of colour or outline as we sat in the dark and rainy shadow of the
+      tree. The face seemed very lovely, and solemn from its stillness; with the
+      aspect of one who is quite content, but waiting for something. I saw my
+      conjecture from her arms was correct: she was above the human scale
+      throughout, but not greatly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you call yourself a beech-tree?&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I am one,&rdquo; she replied, in the same low, musical, murmuring
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a woman,&rdquo; I returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think so? Am I very like a woman then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a very beautiful woman. Is it possible you should not know it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very glad you think so. I fancy I feel like a woman sometimes. I do
+      so to-night&mdash;and always when the rain drips from my hair. For there
+      is an old prophecy in our woods that one day we shall all be men and women
+      like you. Do you know anything about it in your region? Shall I be very
+      happy when I am a woman? I fear not, for it is always in nights like these
+      that I feel like one. But I long to be a woman for all that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I had let her talk on, for her voice was like a solution of all musical
+      sounds. I now told her that I could hardly say whether women were happy or
+      not. I knew one who had not been happy; and for my part, I had often
+      longed for Fairy Land, as she now longed for the world of men. But then
+      neither of us had lived long, and perhaps people grew happier as they grew
+      older. Only I doubted it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not help sighing. She felt the sigh, for her arms were still round
+      me. She asked me how old I was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Twenty-one,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you baby!&rdquo; said she, and kissed me with the sweetest kiss of winds
+      and odours. There was a cool faithfulness in the kiss that revived my
+      heart wonderfully. I felt that I feared the dreadful Ash no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did the horrible Ash want with me?&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not quite sure, but I think he wants to bury you at the foot of his
+      tree. But he shall not touch you, my child.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are all the ash-trees as dreadful as he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no. They are all disagreeable selfish creatures&mdash;(what horrid
+      men they will make, if it be true!)&mdash;but this one has a hole in his
+      heart that nobody knows of but one or two; and he is always trying to fill
+      it up, but he cannot. That must be what he wanted you for. I wonder if he
+      will ever be a man. If he is, I hope they will kill him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How kind of you to save me from him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will take care that he shall not come near you again. But there are
+      some in the wood more like me, from whom, alas! I cannot protect you. Only
+      if you see any of them very beautiful, try to walk round them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot tell you more. But now I must tie some of my hair about you, and
+      then the Ash will not touch you. Here, cut some off. You men have strange
+      cutting things about you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She shook her long hair loose over me, never moving her arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot cut your beautiful hair. It would be a shame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not cut my hair! It will have grown long enough before any is wanted
+      again in this wild forest. Perhaps it may never be of any use again&mdash;not
+      till I am a woman.&rdquo; And she sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As gently as I could, I cut with a knife a long tress of flowing, dark
+      hair, she hanging her beautiful head over me. When I had finished, she
+      shuddered and breathed deep, as one does when an acute pain, steadfastly
+      endured without sign of suffering, is at length relaxed. She then took the
+      hair and tied it round me, singing a strange, sweet song, which I could
+      not understand, but which left in me a feeling like this&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;I saw thee ne&rsquo;er before;
+             I see thee never more;
+             But love, and help, and pain, beautiful one,
+             Have made thee mine, till all my years are done.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      I cannot put more of it into words. She closed her arms about me again,
+      and went on singing. The rain in the leaves, and a light wind that had
+      arisen, kept her song company. I was wrapt in a trance of still delight.
+      It told me the secret of the woods, and the flowers, and the birds. At one
+      time I felt as if I was wandering in childhood through sunny spring
+      forests, over carpets of primroses, anemones, and little white starry
+      things&mdash;I had almost said creatures, and finding new wonderful
+      flowers at every turn. At another, I lay half dreaming in the hot summer
+      noon, with a book of old tales beside me, beneath a great beech; or, in
+      autumn, grew sad because I trod on the leaves that had sheltered me, and
+      received their last blessing in the sweet odours of decay; or, in a winter
+      evening, frozen still, looked up, as I went home to a warm fireside,
+      through the netted boughs and twigs to the cold, snowy moon, with her opal
+      zone around her. At last I had fallen asleep; for I know nothing more that
+      passed till I found myself lying under a superb beech-tree, in the clear
+      light of the morning, just before sunrise. Around me was a girdle of fresh
+      beech-leaves. Alas! I brought nothing with me out of Fairy Land, but
+      memories&mdash;memories. The great boughs of the beech hung drooping
+      around me. At my head rose its smooth stem, with its great sweeps of
+      curving surface that swelled like undeveloped limbs. The leaves and
+      branches above kept on the song which had sung me asleep; only now, to my
+      mind, it sounded like a farewell and a speedwell. I sat a long time,
+      unwilling to go; but my unfinished story urged me on. I must act and
+      wander. With the sun well risen, I rose, and put my arms as far as they
+      would reach around the beech-tree, and kissed it, and said good-bye. A
+      trembling went through the leaves; a few of the last drops of the night&rsquo;s
+      rain fell from off them at my feet; and as I walked slowly away, I seemed
+      to hear in a whisper once more the words: &ldquo;I may love him, I may love him;
+      for he is a man, and I am only a beech-tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;And she was smooth and full, as if one gush
+         Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep
+         Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep
+         Than bee from daisy.&rdquo;
+                                 BEDDOIS&rsquo; <i>Pygmalion</i>.
+
+        &ldquo;Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,
+         Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day.&rdquo;
+                              <i>Romance of Sir Launfal</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only thing that
+      damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between sorrow and delight
+      that crossed my mind with the frequently returning thought of my last
+      night&rsquo;s hostess. &ldquo;But then,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;if she is sorry, I could not help
+      it; and she has all the pleasures she ever had. Such a day as this is
+      surely a joy to her, as much at least as to me. And her life will perhaps
+      be the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what came, but
+      could not stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows but we may meet
+      somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the universe.&rdquo;
+       Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction, as if I ought not to
+      have left her, I went on. There was little to distinguish the woods to-day
+      from those of my own land; except that all the wild things, rabbits,
+      birds, squirrels, mice, and the numberless other inhabitants, were very
+      tame; that is, they did not run away from me, but gazed at me as I passed,
+      frequently coming nearer, as if to examine me more closely. Whether this
+      came from utter ignorance, or from familiarity with the human appearance
+      of beings who never hurt them, I could not tell. As I stood once, looking
+      up to the splendid flower of a parasite, which hung from the branch of a
+      tree over my head, a large white rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its
+      little feet on one of mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as
+      I had been looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it;
+      but when I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind feet
+      and scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look at me several
+      times before I lost sight of it. Now and then, too, a dim human figure
+      would appear and disappear, at some distance, amongst the trees, moving
+      like a sleep-walker. But no one ever came near me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This day I found plenty of food in the forest&mdash;strange nuts and
+      fruits I had never seen before. I hesitated to eat them; but argued that,
+      if I could live on the air of Fairy Land, I could live on its food also. I
+      found my reasoning correct, and the result was better than I had hoped;
+      for it not only satisfied my hunger, but operated in such a way upon my
+      senses that I was brought into far more complete relationship with the
+      things around me. The human forms appeared much more dense and defined;
+      more tangibly visible, if I may say so. I seemed to know better which
+      direction to choose when any doubt arose. I began to feel in some degree
+      what the birds meant in their songs, though I could not express it in
+      words, any more than you can some landscapes. At times, to my surprise, I
+      found myself listening attentively, and as if it were no unusual thing
+      with me, to a conversation between two squirrels or monkeys. The subjects
+      were not very interesting, except as associated with the individual life
+      and necessities of the little creatures: where the best nuts were to be
+      found in the neighbourhood, and who could crack them best, or who had most
+      laid up for the winter, and such like; only they never said where the
+      store was. There was no great difference in kind between their talk and
+      our ordinary human conversation. Some of the creatures I never heard speak
+      at all, and believe they never do so, except under the impulse of some
+      great excitement. The mice talked; but the hedgehogs seemed very
+      phlegmatic; and though I met a couple of moles above ground several times,
+      they never said a word to each other in my hearing. There were no wild
+      beasts in the forest; at least, I did not see one larger than a wild cat.
+      There were plenty of snakes, however, and I do not think they were all
+      harmless; but none ever bit me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great size, but
+      very steep; and having no trees&mdash;scarcely even a bush&mdash;upon it,
+      entirely exposed to the heat of the sun. Over this my way seemed to lie,
+      and I immediately began the ascent. On reaching the top, hot and weary, I
+      looked around me, and saw that the forest still stretched as far as the
+      sight could reach on every side of me. I observed that the trees, in the
+      direction in which I was about to descend, did not come so near the foot
+      of the hill as on the other side, and was especially regretting the
+      unexpected postponement of shelter, because this side of the hill seemed
+      more difficult to descend than the other had been to climb, when my eye
+      caught the appearance of a natural path, winding down through broken rocks
+      and along the course of a tiny stream, which I hoped would lead me more
+      easily to the foot. I tried it, and found the descent not at all
+      laborious; nevertheless, when I reached the bottom, I was very tired and
+      exhausted with the heat. But just where the path seemed to end, rose a
+      great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs and creeping plants, some of them
+      in full and splendid blossom: these almost concealed an opening in the
+      rock, into which the path appeared to lead. I entered, thirsting for the
+      shade which it promised. What was my delight to find a rocky cell, all the
+      angles rounded away with rich moss, and every ledge and projection crowded
+      with lovely ferns, the variety of whose forms, and groupings, and shades
+      wrought in me like a poem; for such a harmony could not exist, except they
+      all consented to some one end! A little well of the clearest water filled
+      a mossy hollow in one corner. I drank, and felt as if I knew what the
+      elixir of life must be; then threw myself on a mossy mound that lay like a
+      couch along the inner end. Here I lay in a delicious reverie for some
+      time; during which all lovely forms, and colours, and sounds seemed to use
+      my brain as a common hall, where they could come and go, unbidden and
+      unexcused. I had never imagined that such capacity for simple happiness
+      lay in me, as was now awakened by this assembly of forms and spiritual
+      sensations, which yet were far too vague to admit of being translated into
+      any shape common to my own and another mind. I had lain for an hour, I
+      should suppose, though it may have been far longer, when, the harmonious
+      tumult in my mind having somewhat relaxed, I became aware that my eyes
+      were fixed on a strange, time-worn bas-relief on the rock opposite to me.
+      This, after some pondering, I concluded to represent Pygmalion, as he
+      awaited the quickening of his statue. The sculptor sat more rigid than the
+      figure to which his eyes were turned. That seemed about to step from its
+      pedestal and embrace the man, who waited rather than expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A lovely story,&rdquo; I said to myself. &ldquo;This cave, now, with the bushes cut
+      away from the entrance to let the light in, might be such a place as he
+      would choose, withdrawn from the notice of men, to set up his block of
+      marble, and mould into a visible body the thought already clothed with
+      form in the unseen hall of the sculptor&rsquo;s brain. And, indeed, if I mistake
+      not,&rdquo; I said, starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived at that moment
+      through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small portion of the rock,
+      bare of vegetation, &ldquo;this very rock is marble, white enough and delicate
+      enough for any statue, even if destined to become an ideal woman in the
+      arms of the sculptor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on which I
+      had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more like alabaster than
+      ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the knife. In fact, it was
+      alabaster. By an inexplicable, though by no means unusual kind of impulse,
+      I went on removing the moss from the surface of the stone; and soon saw
+      that it was polished, or at least smooth, throughout. I continued my
+      labour; and after clearing a space of about a couple of square feet, I
+      observed what caused me to prosecute the work with more interest and care
+      than before. For the ray of sunlight had now reached the spot I had
+      cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed its usual slight
+      transparency when polished, except where my knife had scratched the
+      surface; and I observed that the transparency seemed to have a definite
+      limit, and to end upon an opaque body like the more solid, white marble. I
+      was careful to scratch no more. And first, a vague anticipation gave way
+      to a startling sense of possibility; then, as I proceeded, one revelation
+      after another produced the entrancing conviction, that under the crust of
+      alabaster lay a dimly visible form in marble, but whether of man or woman
+      I could not yet tell. I worked on as rapidly as the necessary care would
+      permit; and when I had uncovered the whole mass, and rising from my knees,
+      had retreated a little way, so that the effect of the whole might fall on
+      me, I saw before me with sufficient plainness&mdash;though at the same
+      time with considerable indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of
+      light the place admitted, as well as from the nature of the object itself&mdash;a
+      block of pure alabaster enclosing the form, apparently in marble, of a
+      reposing woman. She lay on one side, with her hand under her cheek, and
+      her face towards me; but her hair had fallen partly over her face, so that
+      I could not see the expression of the whole. What I did see appeared to me
+      perfectly lovely; more near the face that had been born with me in my
+      soul, than anything I had seen before in nature or art. The actual
+      outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that the more than
+      semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to account for the fact;
+      and I conjectured that a light robe added its obscurity. Numberless
+      histories passed through my mind of change of substance from enchantment
+      and other causes, and of imprisonments such as this before me. I thought
+      of the Prince of the Enchanted City, half marble and half a man; of Ariel;
+      of Niobe; of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; of the bleeding trees; and
+      many other histories. Even my adventure of the preceding evening with the
+      lady of the beech-tree contributed to arouse the wild hope, that by some
+      means life might be given to this form also, and that, breaking from her
+      alabaster tomb, she might glorify my eyes with her presence. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; I
+      argued, &ldquo;who can tell but this cave may be the home of Marble, and this,
+      essential Marble&mdash;that spirit of marble which, present throughout,
+      makes it capable of being moulded into any form? Then if she should awake!
+      But how to awake her? A kiss awoke the Sleeping Beauty! a kiss cannot
+      reach her through the incrusting alabaster.&rdquo; I kneeled, however, and
+      kissed the pale coffin; but she slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, and
+      the following stones&mdash;that trees should follow his music seemed
+      nothing surprising now. Might not a song awake this form, that the glory
+      of motion might for a time displace the loveliness of rest? Sweet sounds
+      can go where kisses may not enter. I sat and thought. Now, although always
+      delighting in music, I had never been gifted with the power of song, until
+      I entered the fairy forest. I had a voice, and I had a true sense of
+      sound; but when I tried to sing, the one would not content the other, and
+      so I remained silent. This morning, however, I had found myself, ere I was
+      aware, rejoicing in a song; but whether it was before or after I had eaten
+      of the fruits of the forest, I could not satisfy myself. I concluded it
+      was after, however; and that the increased impulse to sing I now felt, was
+      in part owing to having drunk of the little well, which shone like a
+      brilliant eye in a corner of the cave. I sat down on the ground by the
+      &ldquo;antenatal tomb,&rdquo; leaned upon it with my face towards the head of the
+      figure within, and sang&mdash;the words and tones coming together, and
+      inseparably connected, as if word and tone formed one thing; or, as if
+      each word could be uttered only in that tone, and was incapable of
+      distinction from it, except in idea, by an acute analysis. I sang
+      something like this: but the words are only a dull representation of a
+      state whose very elevation precluded the possibility of remembrance; and
+      in which I presume the words really employed were as far above these, as
+      that state transcended this wherein I recall it:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Marble woman, vainly sleeping
+             In the very death of dreams!
+             Wilt thou&mdash;slumber from thee sweeping,
+             All but what with vision teems&mdash;
+             Hear my voice come through the golden
+             Mist of memory and hope;
+             And with shadowy smile embolden
+             Me with primal Death to cope?
+
+            &ldquo;Thee the sculptors all pursuing,
+             Have embodied but their own;
+             Round their visions, form enduring,
+             Marble vestments thou hast thrown;
+             But thyself, in silence winding,
+             Thou hast kept eternally;
+             Thee they found not, many finding&mdash;
+             I have found thee: wake for me.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      As I sang, I looked earnestly at the face so vaguely revealed before me. I
+      fancied, yet believed it to be but fancy, that through the dim veil of the
+      alabaster, I saw a motion of the head as if caused by a sinking sigh. I
+      gazed more earnestly, and concluded that it was but fancy. Neverthless I
+      could not help singing again&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Rest is now filled full of beauty,
+             And can give thee up, I ween;
+             Come thou forth, for other duty
+             Motion pineth for her queen.
+
+            &ldquo;Or, if needing years to wake thee
+             From thy slumbrous solitudes,
+             Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
+             To the friendly, sleeping woods.
+
+             Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
+             Round thee storms would never rave;
+             And when need of rest is sorest,
+             Glide thou then into thy cave.
+
+            &ldquo;Or, if still thou choosest rather
+             Marble, be its spell on me;
+             Let thy slumber round me gather,
+             Let another dream with thee!&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Again I paused, and gazed through the stony shroud, as if, by very force
+      of penetrative sight, I would clear every lineament of the lovely face.
+      And now I thought the hand that had lain under the cheek, had slipped a
+      little downward. But then I could not be sure that I had at first observed
+      its position accurately. So I sang again; for the longing had grown into a
+      passionate need of seeing her alive&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I
+                Have set me singing by thy side,
+             Life hath forsook the upper sky,
+                And all the outer world hath died.
+
+            &ldquo;Yea, I am dead; for thou hast drawn
+                My life all downward unto thee.
+             Dead moon of love! let twilight dawn:
+                Awake! and let the darkness flee.
+
+            &ldquo;Cold lady of the lovely stone!
+                Awake! or I shall perish here;
+             And thou be never more alone,
+                My form and I for ages near.
+
+            &ldquo;But words are vain; reject them all&mdash;
+                They utter but a feeble part:
+             Hear thou the depths from which they call,
+                The voiceless longing of my heart.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      There arose a slightly crashing sound. Like a sudden apparition that comes
+      and is gone, a white form, veiled in a light robe of whiteness, burst
+      upwards from the stone, stood, glided forth, and gleamed away towards the
+      woods. For I followed to the mouth of the cave, as soon as the amazement
+      and concentration of delight permitted the nerves of motion again to act;
+      and saw the white form amidst the trees, as it crossed a little glade on
+      the edge of the forest where the sunlight fell full, seeming to gather
+      with intenser radiance on the one object that floated rather than flitted
+      through its lake of beams. I gazed after her in a kind of despair; found,
+      freed, lost! It seemed useless to follow, yet follow I must. I marked the
+      direction she took; and without once looking round to the forsaken cave, I
+      hastened towards the forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, rain down
+     upon him, and his happiness is unbounded.&rdquo;
+      &mdash;FOUQUE, <i>Der Zauberring</i>.
+
+     &ldquo;Thy red lips, like worms,
+         Travel over my cheek.&rdquo;
+                    &mdash;MOTHERWELL.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But as I crossed the space between the foot of the hill and the forest, a
+      vision of another kind delayed my steps. Through an opening to the
+      westward flowed, like a stream, the rays of the setting sun, and
+      overflowed with a ruddy splendour the open space where I was. And riding
+      as it were down this stream towards me, came a horseman in what appeared
+      red armour. From frontlet to tail, the horse likewise shone red in the
+      sunset. I felt as if I must have seen the knight before; but as he drew
+      near, I could recall no feature of his countenance. Ere he came up to me,
+      however, I remembered the legend of Sir Percival in the rusty armour,
+      which I had left unfinished in the old book in the cottage: it was of Sir
+      Percival that he reminded me. And no wonder; for when he came close up to
+      me, I saw that, from crest to heel, the whole surface of his armour was
+      covered with a light rust. The golden spurs shone, but the iron greaves
+      glowed in the sunlight. The <i>morning star</i>, which hung from his wrist,
+      glittered and glowed with its silver and bronze. His whole appearance was
+      terrible; but his face did not answer to this appearance. It was sad, even
+      to gloominess; and something of shame seemed to cover it. Yet it was noble
+      and high, though thus beclouded; and the form looked lofty, although the
+      head drooped, and the whole frame was bowed as with an inward grief. The
+      horse seemed to share in his master&rsquo;s dejection, and walked spiritless and
+      slow. I noticed, too, that the white plume on his helmet was discoloured
+      and drooping. &ldquo;He has fallen in a joust with spears,&rdquo; I said to myself;
+      &ldquo;yet it becomes not a noble knight to be conquered in spirit because his
+      body hath fallen.&rdquo; He appeared not to observe me, for he was riding past
+      without looking up, and started into a warlike attitude the moment the
+      first sound of my voice reached him. Then a flush, as of shame, covered
+      all of his face that the lifted beaver disclosed. He returned my greeting
+      with distant courtesy, and passed on. But suddenly, he reined up, sat a
+      moment still, and then turning his horse, rode back to where I stood
+      looking after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ashamed,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to appear a knight, and in such a guise; but it
+      behoves me to tell you to take warning from me, lest the same evil, in his
+      kind, overtake the singer that has befallen the knight. Hast thou ever
+      read the story of Sir Percival and the&rdquo;&mdash;(here he shuddered, that his
+      armour rang)&mdash;&ldquo;Maiden of the Alder-tree?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In part, I have,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;for yesterday, at the entrance of this forest,
+      I found in a cottage the volume wherein it is recorded.&rdquo; &ldquo;Then take heed,&rdquo;
+       he rejoined; &ldquo;for, see my armour&mdash;I put it off; and as it befell to
+      him, so has it befallen to me. I that was proud am humble now. Yet is she
+      terribly beautiful&mdash;beware. Never,&rdquo; he added, raising his head,
+      &ldquo;shall this armour be furbished, but by the blows of knightly encounter,
+      until the last speck has disappeared from every spot where the battle-axe
+      and sword of evil-doers, or noble foes, might fall; when I shall again
+      lift my head, and say to my squire, &lsquo;Do thy duty once more, and make this
+      armour shine.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before I could inquire further, he had struck spurs into his horse and
+      galloped away, shrouded from my voice in the noise of his armour. For I
+      called after him, anxious to know more about this fearful enchantress; but
+      in vain&mdash;he heard me not. &ldquo;Yet,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;I have now been
+      often warned; surely I shall be well on my guard; and I am fully resolved
+      I shall not be ensnared by any beauty, however beautiful. Doubtless, some
+      one man may escape, and I shall be he.&rdquo; So I went on into the wood, still
+      hoping to find, in some one of its mysterious recesses, my lost lady of
+      the marble. The sunny afternoon died into the loveliest twilight. Great
+      bats began to flit about with their own noiseless flight, seemingly
+      purposeless, because its objects are unseen. The monotonous music of the
+      owl issued from all unexpected quarters in the half-darkness around me.
+      The glow-worm was alight here and there, burning out into the great
+      universe. The night-hawk heightened all the harmony and stillness with his
+      oft-recurring, discordant jar. Numberless unknown sounds came out of the
+      unknown dusk; but all were of twilight-kind, oppressing the heart as with
+      a condensed atmosphere of dreamy undefined love and longing. The odours of
+      night arose, and bathed me in that luxurious mournfulness peculiar to
+      them, as if the plants whence they floated had been watered with bygone
+      tears. Earth drew me towards her bosom; I felt as if I could fall down and
+      kiss her. I forgot I was in Fairy Land, and seemed to be walking in a
+      perfect night of our own old nursing earth. Great stems rose about me,
+      uplifting a thick multitudinous roof above me of branches, and twigs, and
+      leaves&mdash;the bird and insect world uplifted over mine, with its own
+      landscapes, its own thickets, and paths, and glades, and dwellings; its
+      own bird-ways and insect-delights. Great boughs crossed my path; great
+      roots based the tree-columns, and mightily clasped the earth, strong to
+      lift and strong to uphold. It seemed an old, old forest, perfect in forest
+      ways and pleasures. And when, in the midst of this ecstacy, I remembered
+      that under some close canopy of leaves, by some giant stem, or in some
+      mossy cave, or beside some leafy well, sat the lady of the marble, whom my
+      songs had called forth into the outer world, waiting (might it not be?) to
+      meet and thank her deliverer in a twilight which would veil her confusion,
+      the whole night became one dream-realm of joy, the central form of which
+      was everywhere present, although unbeheld. Then, remembering how my songs
+      seemed to have called her from the marble, piercing through the pearly
+      shroud of alabaster&mdash;&ldquo;Why,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;should not my voice reach her
+      now, through the ebon night that inwraps her.&rdquo; My voice burst into song so
+      spontaneously that it seemed involuntarily.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Not a sound
+             But, echoing in me,
+             Vibrates all around
+             With a blind delight,
+             Till it breaks on Thee,
+             Queen of Night!
+
+             Every tree,
+             O&rsquo;ershadowing with gloom,
+             Seems to cover thee
+             Secret, dark, love-still&rsquo;d,
+             In a holy room
+             Silence-filled.
+
+            &ldquo;Let no moon
+             Creep up the heaven to-night;
+             I in darksome noon
+             Walking hopefully,
+             Seek my shrouded light&mdash;
+             Grope for thee!
+
+            &ldquo;Darker grow
+             The borders of the dark!
+             Through the branches glow,
+             From the roof above,
+             Star and diamond-sparks
+             Light for love.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had the last sounds floated away from the hearing of my own ears,
+      when I heard instead a low delicious laugh near me. It was not the laugh
+      of one who would not be heard, but the laugh of one who has just received
+      something long and patiently desired&mdash;a laugh that ends in a low
+      musical moan. I started, and, turning sideways, saw a dim white figure
+      seated beside an intertwining thicket of smaller trees and underwood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is my white lady!&rdquo; I said, and flung myself on the ground beside her;
+      striving, through the gathering darkness, to get a glimpse of the form
+      which had broken its marble prison at my call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is your white lady!&rdquo; said the sweetest voice, in reply, sending a
+      thrill of speechless delight through a heart which all the love-charms of
+      the preceding day and evening had been tempering for this culminating
+      hour. Yet, if I would have confessed it, there was something either in the
+      sound of the voice, although it seemed sweetness itself, or else in this
+      yielding which awaited no gradation of gentle approaches, that did not
+      vibrate harmoniously with the beat of my inward music. And likewise, when,
+      taking her hand in mine, I drew closer to her, looking for the beauty of
+      her face, which, indeed, I found too plenteously, a cold shiver ran
+      through me; but &ldquo;it is the marble,&rdquo; I said to myself, and heeded it not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She withdrew her hand from mine, and after that would scarce allow me to
+      touch her. It seemed strange, after the fulness of her first greeting,
+      that she could not trust me to come close to her. Though her words were
+      those of a lover, she kept herself withdrawn as if a mile of space
+      interposed between us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why did you run away from me when you woke in the cave?&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I?&rdquo; she returned. &ldquo;That was very unkind of me; but I did not know
+      better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I could see you. The night is very dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is. Come to my grotto. There is light there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you another cave, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But she did not move until I rose first, and then she was on her feet
+      before I could offer my hand to help her. She came close to my side, and
+      conducted me through the wood. But once or twice, when, involuntarily
+      almost, I was about to put my arm around her as we walked on through the
+      warm gloom, she sprang away several paces, always keeping her face full
+      towards me, and then stood looking at me, slightly stooping, in the
+      attitude of one who fears some half-seen enemy. It was too dark to discern
+      the expression of her face. Then she would return and walk close beside me
+      again, as if nothing had happened. I thought this strange; but, besides
+      that I had almost, as I said before, given up the attempt to account for
+      appearances in Fairy Land, I judged that it would be very unfair to expect
+      from one who had slept so long and had been so suddenly awakened, a
+      behaviour correspondent to what I might unreflectingly look for. I knew
+      not what she might have been dreaming about. Besides, it was possible
+      that, while her words were free, her sense of touch might be exquisitely
+      delicate.
+    </p>
+<p>
+At length, after walking a long way in the woods, we arrived at another
+thicket, through the intertexture of which was glimmering a pale rosy
+light.
+</p>
+<p>
+&ldquo;Push aside the branches,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and make room for us to
+enter.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+      I did as she told me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go in,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I will follow you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I did as she desired, and found myself in a little cave, not very unlike
+      the marble cave. It was festooned and draperied with all kinds of green
+      that cling to shady rocks. In the furthest corner, half-hidden in leaves,
+      through which it glowed, mingling lovely shadows between them, burned a
+      bright rosy flame on a little earthen lamp. The lady glided round by the
+      wall from behind me, still keeping her face towards me, and seated herself
+      in the furthest corner, with her back to the lamp, which she hid
+      completely from my view. I then saw indeed a form of perfect loveliness
+      before me. Almost it seemed as if the light of the rose-lamp shone through
+      her (for it could not be reflected from her); such a delicate shade of
+      pink seemed to shadow what in itself must be a marbly whiteness of hue. I
+      discovered afterwards, however, that there was one thing in it I did not
+      like; which was, that the white part of the eye was tinged with the same
+      slight roseate hue as the rest of the form. It is strange that I cannot
+      recall her features; but they, as well as her somewhat girlish figure,
+      left on me simply and only the impression of intense loveliness. I lay
+      down at her feet, and gazed up into her face as I lay. She began, and told
+      me a strange tale, which, likewise, I cannot recollect; but which, at
+      every turn and every pause, somehow or other fixed my eyes and thoughts
+      upon her extreme beauty; seeming always to culminate in something that had
+      a relation, revealed or hidden, but always operative, with her own
+      loveliness. I lay entranced. It was a tale which brings back a feeling as
+      of snows and tempests; torrents and water-sprites; lovers parted for long,
+      and meeting at last; with a gorgeous summer night to close up the whole. I
+      listened till she and I were blended with the tale; till she and I were
+      the whole history. And we had met at last in this same cave of greenery,
+      while the summer night hung round us heavy with love, and the odours that
+      crept through the silence from the sleeping woods were the only signs of
+      an outer world that invaded our solitude. What followed I cannot clearly
+      remember. The succeeding horror almost obliterated it. I woke as a grey
+      dawn stole into the cave. The damsel had disappeared; but in the
+      shrubbery, at the mouth of the cave, stood a strange horrible object. It
+      looked like an open coffin set up on one end; only that the part for the
+      head and neck was defined from the shoulder-part. In fact, it was a rough
+      representation of the human frame, only hollow, as if made of decaying
+      bark torn from a tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had arms, which were only slightly seamed, down from the shoulder-blade
+      by the elbow, as if the bark had healed again from the cut of a knife. But
+      the arms moved, and the hand and the fingers were tearing asunder a long
+      silky tress of hair. The thing turned round&mdash;it had for a face and
+      front those of my enchantress, but now of a pale greenish hue in the light
+      of the morning, and with dead lustreless eyes. In the horror of the
+      moment, another fear invaded me. I put my hand to my waist, and found
+      indeed that my girdle of beech-leaves was gone. Hair again in her hands,
+      she was tearing it fiercely. Once more, as she turned, she laughed a low
+      laugh, but now full of scorn and derision; and then she said, as if to a
+      companion with whom she had been talking while I slept, &ldquo;There he is; you
+      can take him now.&rdquo; I lay still, petrified with dismay and fear; for I now
+      saw another figure beside her, which, although vague and indistinct, I yet
+      recognised but too well. It was the Ash-tree. My beauty was the Maid of
+      the Alder! and she was giving me, spoiled of my only availing defence,
+      into the hands of my awful foe. The Ash bent his Gorgon-head, and entered
+      the cave. I could not stir. He drew near me. His ghoul-eyes and his
+      ghastly face fascinated me. He came stooping, with the hideous hand
+      outstretched, like a beast of prey. I had given myself up to a death of
+      unfathomable horror, when, suddenly, and just as he was on the point of
+      seizing me, the dull, heavy blow of an axe echoed through the wood,
+      followed by others in quick repetition. The Ash shuddered and groaned,
+      withdrew the outstretched hand, retreated backwards to the mouth of the
+      cave, then turned and disappeared amongst the trees. The other walking
+      Death looked at me once, with a careless dislike on her beautifully
+      moulded features; then, heedless any more to conceal her hollow deformity,
+      turned her frightful back and likewise vanished amid the green obscurity
+      without. I lay and wept. The Maid of the Alder-tree had befooled me&mdash;nearly
+      slain me&mdash;in spite of all the warnings I had received from those who
+      knew my danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         &ldquo;Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes,
+          A little I am hurt, but yett not slaine;
+          I&rsquo;le but lye downe and bleede awhile,
+          And then I&rsquo;le rise and fight againe.&rdquo;
+                         Ballad <i>of Sir Andrew Barton</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But I could not remain where I was any longer, though the daylight was
+      hateful to me, and the thought of the great, innocent, bold sunrise
+      unendurable. Here there was no well to cool my face, smarting with the
+      bitterness of my own tears. Nor would I have washed in the well of that
+      grotto, had it flowed clear as the rivers of Paradise. I rose, and feebly
+      left the sepulchral cave. I took my way I knew not whither, but still
+      towards the sunrise. The birds were singing; but not for me. All the
+      creatures spoke a language of their own, with which I had nothing to do,
+      and to which I cared not to find the key any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I walked listlessly along. What distressed me most&mdash;more even than my
+      own folly&mdash;was the perplexing question, How can beauty and ugliness
+      dwell so near? Even with her altered complexion and her face of dislike;
+      disenchanted of the belief that clung around her; known for a living,
+      walking sepulchre, faithless, deluding, traitorous; I felt notwithstanding
+      all this, that she was beautiful. Upon this I pondered with undiminished
+      perplexity, though not without some gain. Then I began to make surmises as
+      to the mode of my deliverance; and concluded that some hero, wandering in
+      search of adventure, had heard how the forest was infested; and, knowing
+      it was useless to attack the evil thing in person, had assailed with his
+      battle-axe the body in which he dwelt, and on which he was dependent for
+      his power of mischief in the wood. &ldquo;Very likely,&rdquo; I thought, &ldquo;the
+      repentant-knight, who warned me of the evil which has befallen me, was
+      busy retrieving his lost honour, while I was sinking into the same sorrow
+      with himself; and, hearing of the dangerous and mysterious being, arrived
+      at his tree in time to save me from being dragged to its roots, and buried
+      like carrion, to nourish him for yet deeper insatiableness.&rdquo; I found
+      afterwards that my conjecture was correct. I wondered how he had fared
+      when his blows recalled the Ash himself, and that too I learned
+      afterwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I walked on the whole day, with intervals of rest, but without food; for I
+      could not have eaten, had any been offered me; till, in the afternoon, I
+      seemed to approach the outskirts of the forest, and at length arrived at a
+      farm-house. An unspeakable joy arose in my heart at beholding an abode of
+      human beings once more, and I hastened up to the door, and knocked. A
+      kind-looking, matronly woman, still handsome, made her appearance; who, as
+      soon as she saw me, said kindly, &ldquo;Ah, my poor boy, you have come from the
+      wood! Were you in it last night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I should have ill endured, the day before, to be called <i>boy</i>; but now the
+      motherly kindness of the word went to my heart; and, like a boy indeed, I
+      burst into tears. She soothed me right gently; and, leading me into a
+      room, made me lie down on a settle, while she went to find me some
+      refreshment. She soon returned with food, but I could not eat. She almost
+      compelled me to swallow some wine, when I revived sufficiently to be able
+      to answer some of her questions. I told her the whole story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is just as I feared,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but you are now for the night beyond
+      the reach of any of these dreadful creatures. It is no wonder they could
+      delude a child like you. But I must beg you, when my husband comes in, not
+      to say a word about these things; for he thinks me even half crazy for
+      believing anything of the sort. But I must believe my senses, as he cannot
+      believe beyond his, which give him no intimations of this kind. I think he
+      could spend the whole of Midsummer-eve in the wood and come back with the
+      report that he saw nothing worse than himself. Indeed, good man, he would
+      hardly find anything better than himself, if he had seven more senses
+      given him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any heart at
+      all&mdash;without any place even for a heart to live in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot quite tell,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;but I am sure she would not look so
+      beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look more beautiful
+      than she is. And then, you know, you began by being in love with her
+      before you saw her beauty, mistaking her for the lady of the marble&mdash;another
+      kind altogether, I should think. But the chief thing that makes her
+      beautiful is this: that, although she loves no man, she loves the love of
+      any man; and when she finds one in her power, her desire to bewitch him
+      and gain his love (not for the sake of his love either, but that she may
+      be conscious anew of her own beauty, through the admiration he manifests),
+      makes her very lovely&mdash;with a self-destructive beauty, though; for it
+      is that which is constantly wearing her away within, till, at last, the
+      decay will reach her face, and her whole front, when all the lovely mask
+      of nothing will fall to pieces, and she be vanished for ever. So a wise
+      man, whom she met in the wood some years ago, and who, I think, for all
+      his wisdom, fared no better than you, told me, when, like you, he spent
+      the next night here, and recounted to me his adventures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I thanked her very warmly for her solution, though it was but partial;
+      wondering much that in her, as in woman I met on my first entering the
+      forest, there should be such superiority to her apparent condition. Here
+      she left me to take some rest; though, indeed, I was too much agitated to
+      rest in any other way than by simply ceasing to move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In half an hour, I heard a heavy step approach and enter the house. A
+      jolly voice, whose slight huskiness appeared to proceed from overmuch
+      laughter, called out &ldquo;Betsy, the pigs&rsquo; trough is quite empty, and that is
+      a pity. Let them swill, lass! They&rsquo;re of no use but to get fat. Ha! ha!
+      ha! Gluttony is not forbidden in their commandments. Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo; The very
+      voice, kind and jovial, seemed to disrobe the room of the strange look
+      which all new places wear&mdash;to disenchant it out of the realm of the
+      ideal into that of the actual. It began to look as if I had known every
+      corner of it for twenty years; and when, soon after, the dame came and
+      fetched me to partake of their early supper, the grasp of his great hand,
+      and the harvest-moon of his benevolent face, which was needed to light up
+      the rotundity of the globe beneath it, produced such a reaction in me,
+      that, for a moment, I could hardly believe that there was a Fairy Land;
+      and that all I had passed through since I left home, had not been the
+      wandering dream of a diseased imagination, operating on a too mobile
+      frame, not merely causing me indeed to travel, but peopling for me with
+      vague phantoms the regions through which my actual steps had led me. But
+      the next moment my eye fell upon a little girl who was sitting in the
+      chimney-corner, with a little book open on her knee, from which she had
+      apparently just looked up to fix great inquiring eyes upon me. I believed
+      in Fairy Land again. She went on with her reading, as soon as she saw that
+      I observed her looking at me. I went near, and peeping over her shoulder,
+      saw that she was reading <i>The History of Graciosa and Percinet</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very improving book, sir,&rdquo; remarked the old farmer, with a good-humoured
+      laugh. &ldquo;We are in the very hottest corner of Fairy Land here. Ha! ha!
+      Stormy night, last night, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it, indeed?&rdquo; I rejoined. &ldquo;It was not so with me. A lovelier night I
+      never saw.&rdquo; &ldquo;Indeed! Where were you last night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I spent it in the forest. I had lost my way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! then, perhaps, you will be able to convince my good woman, that there
+      is nothing very remarkable about the forest; for, to tell the truth, it
+      bears but a bad name in these parts. I dare say you saw nothing worse than
+      yourself there?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope I did,&rdquo; was my inward reply; but, for an audible one, I contented
+      myself with saying, &ldquo;Why, I certainly did see some appearances I could
+      hardly account for; but that is nothing to be wondered at in an unknown
+      wild forest, and with the uncertain light of the moon alone to go by.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true! you speak like a sensible man, sir. We have but few sensible
+      folks round about us. Now, you would hardly credit it, but my wife
+      believes every fairy-tale that ever was written. I cannot account for it.
+      She is a most sensible woman in everything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But should not that make you treat her belief with something of respect,
+      though you cannot share in it yourself?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that is all very well in theory; but when you come to live every day
+      in the midst of absurdity, it is far less easy to behave respectfully to
+      it. Why, my wife actually believes the story of the &lsquo;White Cat.&rsquo; You know
+      it, I dare say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I read all these tales when a child, and know that one especially well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, father,&rdquo; interposed the little girl in the chimney-corner, &ldquo;you know
+      quite well that mother is descended from that very princess who was
+      changed by the wicked fairy into a white cat. Mother has told me so a many
+      times, and you ought to believe everything she says.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can easily believe that,&rdquo; rejoined the farmer, with another fit of
+      laughter; &ldquo;for, the other night, a mouse came gnawing and scratching
+      beneath the floor, and would not let us go to sleep. Your mother sprang
+      out of bed, and going as near it as she could, mewed so infernally like a
+      great cat, that the noise ceased instantly. I believe the poor mouse died
+      of the fright, for we have never heard it again. Ha! ha! ha!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The son, an ill-looking youth, who had entered during the conversation,
+      joined in his father&rsquo;s laugh; but his laugh was very different from the
+      old man&rsquo;s: it was polluted with a sneer. I watched him, and saw that, as
+      soon as it was over, he looked scared, as if he dreaded some evil
+      consequences to follow his presumption. The woman stood near, waiting till
+      we should seat ourselves at the table, and listening to it all with an
+      amused air, which had something in it of the look with which one listens
+      to the sententious remarks of a pompous child. We sat down to supper, and
+      I ate heartily. My bygone distresses began already to look far off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what direction are you going?&rdquo; asked the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eastward,&rdquo; I replied; nor could I have given a more definite answer.
+      &ldquo;Does the forest extend much further in that direction?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! for miles and miles; I do not know how far. For although I have lived
+      on the borders of it all my life, I have been too busy to make journeys of
+      discovery into it. Nor do I see what I could discover. It is only trees
+      and trees, till one is sick of them. By the way, if you follow the
+      eastward track from here, you will pass close to what the children say is
+      the very house of the ogre that Hop-o&rsquo;-my-Thumb visited, and ate his
+      little daughters with the crowns of gold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, father! ate his little daughters! No; he only changed their gold
+      crowns for nightcaps; and the great long-toothed ogre killed them in
+      mistake; but I do not think even he ate them, for you know they were his
+      own little ogresses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, child; you know all about it a great deal better than I do.
+      However, the house has, of course, in such a foolish neighbourhood as
+      this, a bad enough name; and I must confess there is a woman living in it,
+      with teeth long enough, and white enough too, for the lineal descendant of
+      the greatest ogre that ever was made. I think you had better not go near
+      her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In such talk as this the night wore on. When supper was finished, which
+      lasted some time, my hostess conducted me to my chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you had not had enough of it already,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I would have put you
+      in another room, which looks towards the forest; and where you would most
+      likely have seen something more of its inhabitants. For they frequently
+      pass the window, and even enter the room sometimes. Strange creatures
+      spend whole nights in it, at certain seasons of the year. I am used to it,
+      and do not mind it. No more does my little girl, who sleeps in it always.
+      But this room looks southward towards the open country, and they never
+      show themselves here; at least I never saw any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experience that I might have, of
+      the inhabitants of Fairy Land; but the effect of the farmer&rsquo;s company, and
+      of my own later adventures, was such, that I chose rather an undisturbed
+      night in my more human quarters; which, with their clean white curtains
+      and white linen, were very inviting to my weariness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning I awoke refreshed, after a profound and dreamless sleep.
+      The sun was high, when I looked out of the window, shining over a wide,
+      undulating, cultivated country. Various garden-vegetables were growing
+      beneath my window. Everything was radiant with clear sunlight. The
+      dew-drops were sparkling their busiest; the cows in a near-by field were
+      eating as if they had not been at it all day yesterday; the maids were
+      singing at their work as they passed to and fro between the out-houses: I
+      did not believe in Fairy Land. I went down, and found the family already
+      at breakfast. But before I entered the room where they sat, the little
+      girl came to me, and looked up in my face, as though she wanted to say
+      something to me. I stooped towards her; she put her arms round my neck,
+      and her mouth to my ear, and whispered&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A white lady has been flitting about the house all night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No whispering behind doors!&rdquo; cried the farmer; and we entered together.
+      &ldquo;Well, how have you slept? No bogies, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not one, thank you; I slept uncommonly well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to hear it. Come and breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After breakfast, the farmer and his son went out; and I was left alone
+      with the mother and daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I looked out of the window this morning,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I felt almost
+      certain that Fairy Land was all a delusion of my brain; but whenever I
+      come near you or your little daughter, I feel differently. Yet I could
+      persuade myself, after my last adventures, to go back, and have nothing
+      more to do with such strange beings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will you go back?&rdquo; said the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, that I do not know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I have heard, that, for those who enter Fairy Land, there is no
+      way of going back. They must go on, and go through it. How, I do not in
+      the least know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is quite the impression on my own mind. Something compels me to go
+      on, as if my only path was onward, but I feel less inclined this morning
+      to continue my adventures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come and see my little child&rsquo;s room? She sleeps in the one I
+      told you of, looking towards the forest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Willingly,&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So we went together, the little girl running before to open the door for
+      us. It was a large room, full of old-fashioned furniture, that seemed to
+      have once belonged to some great house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The window was built with a low arch, and filled with lozenge-shaped
+      panes. The wall was very thick, and built of solid stone. I could see that
+      part of the house had been erected against the remains of some old castle
+      or abbey, or other great building; the fallen stones of which had probably
+      served to complete it. But as soon as I looked out of the window, a gush
+      of wonderment and longing flowed over my soul like the tide of a great
+      sea. Fairy Land lay before me, and drew me towards it with an irresistible
+      attraction. The trees bathed their great heads in the waves of the
+      morning, while their roots were planted deep in gloom; save where on the
+      borders the sunshine broke against their stems, or swept in long streams
+      through their avenues, washing with brighter hue all the leaves over which
+      it flowed; revealing the rich brown of the decayed leaves and fallen
+      pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the long grasses and tiny forests
+      of moss that covered the channel over which it passed in motionless rivers
+      of light. I turned hurriedly to bid my hostess farewell without further
+      delay. She smiled at my haste, but with an anxious look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better not go near the house of the ogre, I think. My son will
+      show you into another path, which will join the first beyond it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Not wishing to be headstrong or too confident any more, I agreed; and
+      having taken leave of my kind entertainers, went into the wood,
+      accompanied by the youth. He scarcely spoke as we went along; but he led
+      me through the trees till we struck upon a path. He told me to follow it,
+      and, with a muttered &ldquo;good morning&rdquo; left me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole.&rdquo;
+      GOETHE.&mdash;<i>Mephistopheles in Faust</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not regain
+      my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like life itself&mdash;not
+      to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned, that the best way to
+      manage some kinds of pain filled thoughts, is to dare them to do their
+      worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and you
+      find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill. So, better and
+      worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing in the forest. In the
+      middle of this clearing stood a long, low hut, built with one end against
+      a single tall cypress, which rose like a spire to the building. A vague
+      misgiving crossed my mind when I saw it; but I must needs go closer, and
+      look through a little half-open door, near the opposite end from the
+      cypress. Window I saw none. On peeping in, and looking towards the further
+      end, I saw a lamp burning, with a dim, reddish flame, and the head of a
+      woman, bent downwards, as if reading by its light. I could see nothing
+      more for a few moments. At length, as my eyes got used to the dimness of
+      the place, I saw that the part of the rude building near me was used for
+      household purposes; for several rough utensils lay here and there, and a
+      bed stood in the corner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An irresistible attraction caused me to enter. The woman never raised her
+      face, the upper part of which alone I could see distinctly; but, as soon
+      as I stepped within the threshold, she began to read aloud, in a low and
+      not altogether unpleasing voice, from an ancient little volume which she
+      held open with one hand on the table upon which stood the lamp. What she
+      read was something like this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever have an end.
+      So, then, is it eternal. The negation of aught else, is its affirmation.
+      Where the light cannot come, there abideth the darkness. The light doth
+      but hollow a mine out of the infinite extension of the darkness. And ever
+      upon the steps of the light treadeth the darkness; yea, springeth in
+      fountains and wells amidst it, from the secret channels of its mighty sea.
+      Truly, man is but a passing flame, moving unquietly amid the surrounding
+      rest of night; without which he yet could not be, and whereof he is in
+      part compounded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As I drew nearer, and she read on, she moved a little to turn a leaf of
+      the dark old volume, and I saw that her face was sallow and slightly
+      forbidding. Her forehead was high, and her black eyes repressedly quiet.
+      But she took no notice of me. This end of the cottage, if cottage it could
+      be called, was destitute of furniture, except the table with the lamp, and
+      the chair on which the woman sat. In one corner was a door, apparently of
+      a cupboard in the wall, but which might lead to a room beyond. Still the
+      irresistible desire which had made me enter the building urged me: I must
+      open that door, and see what was beyond it. I approached, and laid my hand
+      on the rude latch. Then the woman spoke, but without lifting her head or
+      looking at me: &ldquo;You had better not open that door.&rdquo; This was uttered quite
+      quietly; and she went on with her reading, partly in silence, partly
+      aloud; but both modes seemed equally intended for herself alone. The
+      prohibition, however, only increased my desire to see; and as she took no
+      further notice, I gently opened the door to its full width, and looked in.
+      At first, I saw nothing worthy of attention. It seemed a common closet,
+      with shelves on each hand, on which stood various little necessaries for
+      the humble uses of a cottage. In one corner stood one or two brooms, in
+      another a hatchet and other common tools; showing that it was in use every
+      hour of the day for household purposes. But, as I looked, I saw that there
+      were no shelves at the back, and that an empty space went in further; its
+      termination appearing to be a faintly glimmering wall or curtain, somewhat
+      less, however, than the width and height of the doorway where I stood.
+      But, as I continued looking, for a few seconds, towards this faintly
+      luminous limit, my eyes came into true relation with their object. All at
+      once, with such a shiver as when one is suddenly conscious of the presence
+      of another in a room where he has, for hours, considered himself alone, I
+      saw that the seemingly luminous extremity was a sky, as of night, beheld
+      through the long perspective of a narrow, dark passage, through what, or
+      built of what, I could not tell. As I gazed, I clearly discerned two or
+      three stars glimmering faintly in the distant blue. But, suddenly, and as
+      if it had been running fast from a far distance for this very point, and
+      had turned the corner without abating its swiftness, a dark figure sped
+      into and along the passage from the blue opening at the remote end. I
+      started back and shuddered, but kept looking, for I could not help it. On
+      and on it came, with a speedy approach but delayed arrival; till, at last,
+      through the many gradations of approach, it seemed to come within the
+      sphere of myself, rushed up to me, and passed me into the cottage. All I
+      could tell of its appearance was, that it seemed to be a dark human
+      figure. Its motion was entirely noiseless, and might be called a gliding,
+      were it not that it appeared that of a runner, but with ghostly feet. I
+      had moved back yet a little to let him pass me, and looked round after him
+      instantly. I could not see him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is he?&rdquo; I said, in some alarm, to the woman, who still sat reading.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, on the floor, behind you,&rdquo; she said, pointing with her arm
+      half-outstretched, but not lifting her eyes. I turned and looked, but saw
+      nothing. Then with a feeling that there was yet something behind me, I
+      looked round over my shoulder; and there, on the ground, lay a black
+      shadow, the size of a man. It was so dark, that I could see it in the dim
+      light of the lamp, which shone full upon it, apparently without thinning
+      at all the intensity of its hue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;you had better not look into that closet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it?&rdquo; I said, with a growing sense of horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is only your shadow that has found you,&rdquo; she replied. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s
+      shadow is ranging up and down looking for him. I believe you call it by a
+      different name in your world: yours has found you, as every person&rsquo;s is
+      almost certain to do who looks into that closet, especially after meeting
+      one in the forest, whom I dare say you have met.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, for the first time, she lifted her head, and looked full at me: her
+      mouth was full of long, white, shining teeth; and I knew that I was in the
+      house of the ogre. I could not speak, but turned and left the house, with
+      the shadow at my heels. &ldquo;A nice sort of valet to have,&rdquo; I said to myself
+      bitterly, as I stepped into the sunshine, and, looking over my shoulder,
+      saw that it lay yet blacker in the full blaze of the sunlight. Indeed,
+      only when I stood between it and the sun, was the blackness at all
+      diminished. I was so bewildered&mdash;stunned&mdash;both by the event
+      itself and its suddenness, that I could not at all realise to myself what
+      it would be to have such a constant and strange attendance; but with a dim
+      conviction that my present dislike would soon grow to loathing, I took my
+      dreary way through the wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;O lady! we receive but what we give,
+         And in our life alone does nature live:
+         Ours is her wedding garments ours her shrorwd!
+                .  .  .  .  .
+         Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth,
+         A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud,
+         Enveloping the Earth&mdash;
+         And from the soul itself must there be sent
+         A sweet and potent voice of its own birth,
+         Of all sweet sounds the life and element!&rdquo;
+                                         COLERIDGE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      From this time, until I arrived at the palace of Fairy Land, I can attempt
+      no consecutive account of my wanderings and adventures. Everything,
+      henceforward, existed for me in its relation to my attendant. What
+      influence he exercised upon everything into contact with which I was
+      brought, may be understood from a few detached instances. To begin with
+      this very day on which he first joined me: after I had walked heartlessly
+      along for two or three hours, I was very weary, and lay down to rest in a
+      most delightful part of the forest, carpeted with wild flowers. I lay for
+      half an hour in a dull repose, and then got up to pursue my way. The
+      flowers on the spot where I had lain were crushed to the earth: but I saw
+      that they would soon lift their heads and rejoice again in the sun and
+      air. Not so those on which my shadow had lain. The very outline of it
+      could be traced in the withered lifeless grass, and the scorched and
+      shrivelled flowers which stood there, dead, and hopeless of any
+      resurrection. I shuddered, and hastened away with sad forebodings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few days, I had reason to dread an extension of its baleful
+      influences from the fact, that it was no longer confined to one position
+      in regard to myself. Hitherto, when seized with an irresistible desire to
+      look on my evil demon (which longing would unaccountably seize me at any
+      moment, returning at longer or shorter intervals, sometimes every minute),
+      I had to turn my head backwards, and look over my shoulder; in which
+      position, as long as I could retain it, I was fascinated. But one day,
+      having come out on a clear grassy hill, which commanded a glorious
+      prospect, though of what I cannot now tell, my shadow moved round, and
+      came in front of me. And, presently, a new manifestation increased my
+      distress. For it began to coruscate, and shoot out on all sides a
+      radiation of dim shadow. These rays of gloom issued from the central
+      shadow as from a black sun, lengthening and shortening with continual
+      change. But wherever a ray struck, that part of earth, or sea, or sky,
+      became void, and desert, and sad to my heart. On this, the first
+      development of its new power, one ray shot out beyond the rest, seeming to
+      lengthen infinitely, until it smote the great sun on the face, which
+      withered and darkened beneath the blow. I turned away and went on. The
+      shadow retreated to its former position; and when I looked again, it had
+      drawn in all its spears of darkness, and followed like a dog at my heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once, as I passed by a cottage, there came out a lovely fairy child, with
+      two wondrous toys, one in each hand. The one was the tube through which
+      the fairy-gifted poet looks when he beholds the same thing everywhere; the
+      other that through which he looks when he combines into new forms of
+      loveliness those images of beauty which his own choice has gathered from
+      all regions wherein he has travelled. Round the child&rsquo;s head was an
+      aureole of emanating rays. As I looked at him in wonder and delight, round
+      crept from behind me the something dark, and the child stood in my shadow.
+      Straightway he was a commonplace boy, with a rough broad-brimmed straw
+      hat, through which brim the sun shone from behind. The toys he carried
+      were a multiplying-glass and a kaleidoscope. I sighed and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening, as a great silent flood of western gold flowed through an
+      avenue in the woods, down the stream, just as when I saw him first, came
+      the sad knight, riding on his chestnut steed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But his armour did not shine half so red as when I saw him first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many a blow of mighty sword and axe, turned aside by the strength of his
+      mail, and glancing adown the surface, had swept from its path the fretted
+      rust, and the glorious steel had answered the kindly blow with the thanks
+      of returning light. These streaks and spots made his armour look like the
+      floor of a forest in the sunlight. His forehead was higher than before,
+      for the contracting wrinkles were nearly gone; and the sadness that
+      remained on his face was the sadness of a dewy summer twilight, not that
+      of a frosty autumn morn. He, too, had met the Alder-maiden as I, but he
+      had plunged into the torrent of mighty deeds, and the stain was nearly
+      washed away. No shadow followed him. He had not entered the dark house; he
+      had not had time to open the closet door. &ldquo;Will he ever look in?&rdquo; I said
+      to myself. &ldquo;<i>Must</i> his shadow find him some day?&rdquo; But I could not answer my
+      own questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We travelled together for two days, and I began to love him. It was plain
+      that he suspected my story in some degree; and I saw him once or twice
+      looking curiously and anxiously at my attendant gloom, which all this time
+      had remained very obsequiously behind me; but I offered no explanation,
+      and he asked none. Shame at my neglect of his warning, and a horror which
+      shrunk from even alluding to its cause, kept me silent; till, on the
+      evening of the second day, some noble words from my companion roused all
+      my heart; and I was at the point of falling on his neck, and telling him
+      the whole story; seeking, if not for helpful advice, for of that I was
+      hopeless, yet for the comfort of sympathy&mdash;when round slid the shadow
+      and inwrapt my friend; and I could not trust him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The glory of his brow vanished; the light of his eye grew cold; and I held
+      my peace. The next morning we parted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the most dreadful thing of all was, that I now began to feel something
+      like satisfaction in the presence of the shadow. I began to be rather vain
+      of my attendant, saying to myself, &ldquo;In a land like this, with so many
+      illusions everywhere, I need his aid to disenchant the things around me.
+      He does away with all appearances, and shows me things in their true
+      colour and form. And I am not one to be fooled with the vanities of the
+      common crowd. I will not see beauty where there is none. I will dare to
+      behold things as they are. And if I live in a waste instead of a paradise,
+      I will live knowing where I live.&rdquo; But of this a certain exercise of his
+      power which soon followed quite cured me, turning my feelings towards him
+      once more into loathing and distrust. It was thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the wood in a
+      direction at right angles to my path. She came along singing and dancing,
+      happy as a child, though she seemed almost a woman. In her hands&mdash;now
+      in one, now in another&mdash;she carried a small globe, bright and clear
+      as the purest crystal. This seemed at once her plaything and her greatest
+      treasure. At one moment, you would have thought her utterly careless of
+      it, and at another, overwhelmed with anxiety for its safety. But I believe
+      she was taking care of it all the time, perhaps not least when least
+      occupied about it. She stopped by me with a smile, and bade me good day
+      with the sweetest voice. I felt a wonderful liking to the child&mdash;for
+      she produced on me more the impression of a child, though my understanding
+      told me differently. We talked a little, and then walked on together in
+      the direction I had been pursuing. I asked her about the globe she
+      carried, but getting no definite answer, I held out my hand to take it.
+      She drew back, and said, but smiling almost invitingly the while, &ldquo;You
+      must not touch it;&rdquo;&mdash;then, after a moment&rsquo;s pause&mdash;&ldquo;Or if you
+      do, it must be very gently.&rdquo; I touched it with a finger. A slight
+      vibratory motion arose in it, accompanied, or perhaps manifested, by a
+      faint sweet sound. I touched it again, and the sound increased. I touched
+      it the third time: a tiny torrent of harmony rolled out of the little
+      globe. She would not let me touch it any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We travelled on together all that day. She left me when twilight came on;
+      but next day, at noon, she met me as before, and again we travelled till
+      evening. The third day she came once more at noon, and we walked on
+      together. Now, though we had talked about a great many things connected
+      with Fairy Land, and the life she had led hitherto, I had never been able
+      to learn anything about the globe. This day, however, as we went on, the
+      shadow glided round and inwrapt the maiden. It could not change her. But
+      my desire to know about the globe, which in his gloom began to waver as
+      with an inward light, and to shoot out flashes of many-coloured flame,
+      grew irresistible. I put out both my hands and laid hold of it. It began
+      to sound as before. The sound rapidly increased, till it grew a low
+      tempest of harmony, and the globe trembled, and quivered, and throbbed
+      between my hands. I had not the heart to pull it away from the maiden,
+      though I held it in spite of her attempts to take it from me; yes, I shame
+      to say, in spite of her prayers, and, at last, her tears. The music went
+      on growing in, intensity and complication of tones, and the globe vibrated
+      and heaved; till at last it burst in our hands, and a black vapour broke
+      upwards from out of it; then turned, as if blown sideways, and enveloped
+      the maiden, hiding even the shadow in its blackness. She held fast the
+      fragments, which I abandoned, and fled from me into the forest in the
+      direction whence she had come, wailing like a child, and crying, &ldquo;You have
+      broken my globe; my globe is broken&mdash;my globe is broken!&rdquo; I followed
+      her, in the hope of comforting her; but had not pursued her far, before a
+      sudden cold gust of wind bowed the tree-tops above us, and swept through
+      their stems around us; a great cloud overspread the day, and a fierce
+      tempest came on, in which I lost sight of her. It lies heavy on my heart
+      to this hour. At night, ere I fall asleep, often, whatever I may be
+      thinking about, I suddenly hear her voice, crying out, &ldquo;You have broken my
+      globe; my globe is broken; ah, my globe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here I will mention one more strange thing; but whether this peculiarity
+      was owing to my shadow at all, I am not able to assure myself. I came to a
+      village, the inhabitants of which could not at first sight be
+      distinguished from the dwellers in our land. They rather avoided than
+      sought my company, though they were very pleasant when I addressed them.
+      But at last I observed, that whenever I came within a certain distance of
+      any one of them, which distance, however, varied with different
+      individuals, the whole appearance of the person began to change; and this
+      change increased in degree as I approached. When I receded to the former
+      distance, the former appearance was restored. The nature of the change was
+      grotesque, following no fixed rule. The nearest resemblance to it that I
+      know, is the distortion produced in your countenance when you look at it
+      as reflected in a concave or convex surface&mdash;say, either side of a
+      bright spoon. Of this phenomenon I first became aware in rather a
+      ludicrous way. My host&rsquo;s daughter was a very pleasant pretty girl, who
+      made herself more agreeable to me than most of those about me. For some
+      days my companion-shadow had been less obtrusive than usual; and such was
+      the reaction of spirits occasioned by the simple mitigation of torment,
+      that, although I had cause enough besides to be gloomy, I felt light and
+      comparatively happy. My impression is, that she was quite aware of the law
+      of appearances that existed between the people of the place and myself,
+      and had resolved to amuse herself at my expense; for one evening, after
+      some jesting and raillery, she, somehow or other, provoked me to attempt
+      to kiss her. But she was well defended from any assault of the kind. Her
+      countenance became, of a sudden, absurdly hideous; the pretty mouth was
+      elongated and otherwise amplified sufficiently to have allowed of six
+      simultaneous kisses. I started back in bewildered dismay; she burst into
+      the merriest fit of laughter, and ran from the room. I soon found that the
+      same undefinable law of change operated between me and all the other
+      villagers; and that, to feel I was in pleasant company, it was absolutely
+      necessary for me to discover and observe the right focal distance between
+      myself and each one with whom I had to do. This done, all went pleasantly
+      enough. Whether, when I happened to neglect this precaution, I presented
+      to them an equally ridiculous appearance, I did not ascertain; but I
+      presume that the alteration was common to the approximating parties. I was
+      likewise unable to determine whether I was a necessary party to the
+      production of this strange transformation, or whether it took place as
+      well, under the given circumstances, between the inhabitants themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;From Eden&rsquo;s bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
+         To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
+         Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields.
+         To guide the wanderers to the happy fields.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+<p>
+ After leaving this village, where I had rested for nearly a
+week, I travelled through a desert region of dry sand and glittering
+rocks, peopled principally by goblin-fairies. When I first entered their
+domains, and, indeed, whenever I fell in with another tribe of them,
+they began mocking me with offered handfuls of gold and jewels, making
+hideous grimaces at me, and performing the most antic homage, as if they
+thought I expected reverence, and meant to humour me like a maniac. But
+ever, as soon as one cast his eyes on the shadow behind me, he made a
+wry face, partly of pity, partly of contempt, and looked ashamed, as
+if he had been caught doing something inhuman; then, throwing down his
+handful of gold, and ceasing all his grimaces, he stood aside to let me
+pass in peace, and made signs to his companions to do the like. I had no
+inclination to observe them much, for the shadow was in my heart as well
+as at my heels. I walked listlessly and almost hopelessly along, till I
+arrived one day at a small spring; which, bursting cool from the heart
+of a sun-heated rock, flowed somewhat southwards from the direction I
+had been taking. I drank of this spring, and found myself wonderfully
+refreshed. A kind of love to the cheerful little stream arose in my
+heart. It was born in a desert; but it seemed to say to itself, &ldquo;I will
+flow, and sing, and lave my banks, till I make my desert a paradise.&rdquo;
+ I thought I could not do better than follow it, and see what it made
+of it. So down with the stream I went, over rocky lands, burning with
+sunbeams. But the rivulet flowed not far, before a few blades of
+grass appeared on its banks, and then, here and there, a stunted bush.
+Sometimes it disappeared altogether under ground; and after I had
+wandered some distance, as near as I could guess, in the direction it
+seemed to take, I would suddenly hear it again, singing, sometimes far
+away to my right or left, amongst new rocks, over which it made new
+cataracts of watery melodies. The verdure on its banks increased as it
+flowed; other streams joined it; and at last, after many days&rsquo; travel,
+I found myself, one gorgeous summer evening, resting by the side of a
+broad river, with a glorious horse-chestnut tree towering above me, and
+dropping its blossoms, milk-white and rosy-red, all about me. As I sat,
+a gush of joy sprang forth in my heart, and over flowed at my eyes.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Through my tears, the whole landscape glimmered in such bewildering
+      loveliness, that I felt as if I were entering Fairy Land for the first
+      time, and some loving hand were waiting to cool my head, and a loving word
+      to warm my heart. Roses, wild roses, everywhere! So plentiful were they,
+      they not only perfumed the air, they seemed to dye it a faint rose-hue.
+      The colour floated abroad with the scent, and clomb, and spread, until the
+      whole west blushed and glowed with the gathered incense of roses. And my
+      heart fainted with longing in my bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Could I but see the Spirit of the Earth, as I saw once the in dwelling
+      woman of the beech-tree, and my beauty of the pale marble, I should be
+      content. Content!&mdash;Oh, how gladly would I die of the light of her
+      eyes! Yea, I would cease to be, if that would bring me one word of love
+      from the one mouth. The twilight sank around, and infolded me with sleep.
+      I slept as I had not slept for months. I did not awake till late in the
+      morning; when, refreshed in body and mind, I rose as from the death that
+      wipes out the sadness of life, and then dies itself in the new morrow.
+      Again I followed the stream; now climbing a steep rocky bank that hemmed
+      it in; now wading through long grasses and wild flowers in its path; now
+      through meadows; and anon through woods that crowded down to the very lip
+      of the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, in a nook of the river, gloomy with the weight of overhanging
+      foliage, and still and deep as a soul in which the torrent eddies of pain
+      have hollowed a great gulf, and then, subsiding in violence, have left it
+      full of a motionless, fathomless sorrow&mdash;I saw a little boat lying.
+      So still was the water here, that the boat needed no fastening. It lay as
+      if some one had just stepped ashore, and would in a moment return. But as
+      there were no signs of presence, and no track through the thick bushes;
+      and, moreover, as I was in Fairy Land where one does very much as he
+      pleases, I forced my way to the brink, stepped into the boat, pushed it,
+      with the help of the tree-branches, out into the stream, lay down in the
+      bottom, and let my boat and me float whither the stream would carry us. I
+      seemed to lose myself in the great flow of sky above me unbroken in its
+      infinitude, except when now and then, coming nearer the shore at a bend in
+      the river, a tree would sweep its mighty head silently above mine, and
+      glide away back into the past, never more to fling its shadow over me. I
+      fell asleep in this cradle, in which mother Nature was rocking her weary
+      child; and while I slept, the sun slept not, but went round his arched
+      way. When I awoke, he slept in the waters, and I went on my silent path
+      beneath a round silvery moon. And a pale moon looked up from the floor of
+      the great blue cave that lay in the abysmal silence beneath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call the reality?&mdash;not
+      so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier? Fair as is the
+      gliding sloop on the shining sea, the wavering, trembling, unresting sail
+      below is fairer still. Yea, the reflecting ocean itself, reflected in the
+      mirror, has a wondrousness about its waters that somewhat vanishes when I
+      turn towards itself. All mirrors are magic mirrors. The commonest room is
+      a room in a poem when I turn to the glass. (And this reminds me, while I
+      write, of a strange story which I read in the fairy palace, and of which I
+      will try to make a feeble memorial in its place.) In whatever way it may
+      be accounted for, of one thing we may be sure, that this feeling is no
+      cheat; for there is no cheating in nature and the simple unsought feelings
+      of the soul. There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in
+      part lay hold of the meaning. Even the memories of past pain are
+      beautiful; and past delights, though beheld only through clefts in the
+      grey clouds of sorrow, are lovely as Fairy Land. But how have I wandered
+      into the deeper fairyland of the soul, while as yet I only float towards
+      the fairy palace of Fairy Land! The moon, which is the lovelier memory or
+      reflex of the down-gone sun, the joyous day seen in the faint mirror of
+      the brooding night, had rapt me away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat up in the boat. Gigantic forest trees were about me; through which,
+      like a silver snake, twisted and twined the great river. The little waves,
+      when I moved in the boat, heaved and fell with a plash as of molten
+      silver, breaking the image of the moon into a thousand morsels, fusing
+      again into one, as the ripples of laughter die into the still face of joy.
+      The sleeping woods, in undefined massiveness; the water that flowed in its
+      sleep; and, above all, the enchantress moon, which had cast them all, with
+      her pale eye, into the charmed slumber, sank into my soul, and I felt as
+      if I had died in a dream, and should never more awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this I was partly aroused by a glimmering of white, that, through the
+      trees on the left, vaguely crossed my vision, as I gazed upwards. But the
+      trees again hid the object; and at the moment, some strange melodious bird
+      took up its song, and sang, not an ordinary bird-song, with constant
+      repetitions of the same melody, but what sounded like a continuous strain,
+      in which one thought was expressed, deepening in intensity as evolved in
+      progress. It sounded like a welcome already overshadowed with the coming
+      farewell. As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note.
+      Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the
+      intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although
+      deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and
+      wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with
+      Sorrow for very love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the song concluded the stream bore my little boat with a gentle sweep
+      round a bend of the river; and lo! on a broad lawn, which rose from the
+      water&rsquo;s edge with a long green slope to a clear elevation from which the
+      trees receded on all sides, stood a stately palace glimmering ghostly in
+      the moonshine: it seemed to be built throughout of the whitest marble.
+      There was no reflection of moonlight from windows&mdash;there seemed to be
+      none; so there was no cold glitter; only, as I said, a ghostly shimmer.
+      Numberless shadows tempered the shine, from column and balcony and tower.
+      For everywhere galleries ran along the face of the buildings; wings were
+      extended in many directions; and numberless openings, through which the
+      moonbeams vanished into the interior, and which served both for doors and
+      windows, had their separate balconies in front, communicating with a
+      common gallery that rose on its own pillars. Of course, I did not discover
+      all this from the river, and in the moonlight. But, though I was there for
+      many days, I did not succeed in mastering the inner topography of the
+      building, so extensive and complicated was it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here I wished to land, but the boat had no oars on board. However, I found
+      that a plank, serving for a seat, was unfastened, and with that I brought
+      the boat to the bank and scrambled on shore. Deep soft turf sank beneath
+      my feet, as I went up the ascent towards the palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I reached it, I saw that it stood on a great platform of marble, with
+      an ascent, by broad stairs of the same, all round it. Arrived on the
+      platform, I found there was an extensive outlook over the forest, which,
+      however, was rather veiled than revealed by the moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering by a wide gateway, but without gates, into an inner court,
+      surrounded on all sides by great marble pillars supporting galleries
+      above, I saw a large fountain of porphyry in the middle, throwing up a
+      lofty column of water, which fell, with a noise as of the fusion of all
+      sweet sounds, into a basin beneath; overflowing which, it ran into a
+      single channel towards the interior of the building. Although the moon was
+      by this time so low in the west, that not a ray of her light fell into the
+      court, over the height of the surrounding buildings; yet was the court
+      lighted by a second reflex from the sun of other lands. For the top of the
+      column of water, just as it spread to fall, caught the moonbeams, and like
+      a great pale lamp, hung high in the night air, threw a dim memory of light
+      (as it were) over the court below. This court was paved in diamonds of
+      white and red marble. According to my custom since I entered Fairy Land,
+      of taking for a guide whatever I first found moving in any direction, I
+      followed the stream from the basin of the fountain. It led me to a great
+      open door, beneath the ascending steps of which it ran through a low arch
+      and disappeared. Entering here, I found myself in a great hall, surrounded
+      with white pillars, and paved with black and white. This I could see by
+      the moonlight, which, from the other side, streamed through open windows
+      into the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its height I could not distinctly see. As soon as I entered, I had the
+      feeling so common to me in the woods, that there were others there besides
+      myself, though I could see no one, and heard no sound to indicate a
+      presence. Since my visit to the Church of Darkness, my power of seeing the
+      fairies of the higher orders had gradually diminished, until it had almost
+      ceased. But I could frequently believe in their presence while unable to
+      see them. Still, although I had company, and doubtless of a safe kind, it
+      seemed rather dreary to spend the night in an empty marble hall, however
+      beautiful, especially as the moon was near the going down, and it would
+      soon be dark. So I began at the place where I entered, and walked round
+      the hall, looking for some door or passage that might lead me to a more
+      hospitable chamber. As I walked, I was deliciously haunted with the
+      feeling that behind some one of the seemingly innumerable pillars, one who
+      loved me was waiting for me. Then I thought she was following me from
+      pillar to pillar as I went along; but no arms came out of the faint
+      moonlight, and no sigh assured me of her presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length I came to an open corridor, into which I turned; notwithstanding
+      that, in doing so, I left the light behind. Along this I walked with
+      outstretched hands, groping my way, till, arriving at another corridor,
+      which seemed to strike off at right angles to that in which I was, I saw
+      at the end a faintly glimmering light, too pale even for moonshine,
+      resembling rather a stray phosphorescence. However, where everything was
+      white, a little light went a great way. So I walked on to the end, and a
+      long corridor it was. When I came up to the light, I found that it
+      proceeded from what looked like silver letters upon a door of ebony; and,
+      to my surprise even in the home of wonder itself, the letters formed the
+      words, <i>The Chamber of Sir Anodos</i>. Although I had as yet no right to the
+      honours of a knight, I ventured to conclude that the chamber was indeed
+      intended for me; and, opening the door without hesitation, I entered. Any
+      doubt as to whether I was right in so doing, was soon dispelled. What to
+      my dark eyes seemed a blaze of light, burst upon me. A fire of large
+      pieces of some sweet-scented wood, supported by dogs of silver, was
+      burning on the hearth, and a bright lamp stood on a table, in the midst of
+      a plentiful meal, apparently awaiting my arrival. But what surprised me
+      more than all, was, that the room was in every respect a copy of my own
+      room, the room whence the little stream from my basin had led me into
+      Fairy Land. There was the very carpet of grass and moss and daisies, which
+      I had myself designed; the curtains of pale blue silk, that fell like a
+      cataract over the windows; the old-fashioned bed, with the chintz
+      furniture, on which I had slept from boyhood. &ldquo;Now I shall sleep,&rdquo; I said
+      to myself. &ldquo;My shadow dares not come here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat down to the table, and began to help myself to the good things
+      before me with confidence. And now I found, as in many instances before,
+      how true the fairy tales are; for I was waited on, all the time of my
+      meal, by invisible hands. I had scarcely to do more than look towards
+      anything I wanted, when it was brought me, just as if it had come to me of
+      itself. My glass was kept filled with the wine I had chosen, until I
+      looked towards another bottle or decanter; when a fresh glass was
+      substituted, and the other wine supplied. When I had eaten and drank more
+      heartily and joyfully than ever since I entered Fairy Land, the whole was
+      removed by several attendants, of whom some were male and some female, as
+      I thought I could distinguish from the way the dishes were lifted from the
+      table, and the motion with which they were carried out of the room. As
+      soon as they were all taken away, I heard a sound as of the shutting of a
+      door, and knew that I was left alone. I sat long by the fire, meditating,
+      and wondering how it would all end; and when at length, wearied with
+      thinking, I betook myself to my own bed, it was half with a hope that,
+      when I awoke in the morning, I should awake not only in my own room, but
+      in my own castle also; and that I should walk, out upon my own native
+      soil, and find that Fairy Land was, after all, only a vision of the night.
+      The sound of the falling waters of the fountain floated me into oblivion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;A wilderness of building, sinking far
+             And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth,
+             Far sinking into splendour&mdash;without end:
+             Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
+             With alabaster domes, and silver spires,
+             And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
+             Uplifted.&rdquo;
+                                         WORDSWORTH.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But when, after a sleep, which, although dreamless, yet left behind it a
+      sense of past blessedness, I awoke in the full morning, I found, indeed,
+      that the room was still my own; but that it looked abroad upon an unknown
+      landscape of forest and hill and dale on the one side&mdash;and on the
+      other, upon the marble court, with the great fountain, the crest of which
+      now flashed glorious in the sun, and cast on the pavement beneath a shower
+      of faint shadows from the waters that fell from it into the marble basin
+      below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to all authentic accounts of the treatment of travellers in
+      Fairy Land, I found by my bedside a complete suit of fresh clothing, just
+      such as I was in the habit of wearing; for, though varied sufficiently
+      from the one removed, it was yet in complete accordance with my tastes. I
+      dressed myself in this, and went out. The whole palace shone like silver
+      in the sun. The marble was partly dull and partly polished; and every
+      pinnacle, dome, and turret ended in a ball, or cone, or cusp of silver. It
+      was like frost-work, and too dazzling, in the sun, for earthly eyes like
+      mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will not attempt to describe the environs, save by saying, that all the
+      pleasures to be found in the most varied and artistic arrangement of wood
+      and river, lawn and wild forest, garden and shrubbery, rocky hill and
+      luxurious vale; in living creatures wild and tame, in gorgeous birds,
+      scattered fountains, little streams, and reedy lakes&mdash;all were here.
+      Some parts of the palace itself I shall have occasion to describe more
+      minutely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For this whole morning I never thought of my demon shadow; and not till
+      the weariness which supervened on delight brought it again to my memory,
+      did I look round to see if it was behind me: it was scarcely discernible.
+      But its presence, however faintly revealed, sent a pang to my heart, for
+      the pain of which, not all the beauties around me could compensate. It was
+      followed, however, by the comforting reflection that, peradventure, I
+      might here find the magic word of power to banish the demon and set me
+      free, so that I should no longer be a man beside myself. The Queen of
+      Fairy Land, thought I, must dwell here: surely she will put forth her
+      power to deliver me, and send me singing through the further gates of her
+      country back to my own land. &ldquo;Shadow of me!&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;which art not me,
+      but which representest thyself to me as me; here I may find a shadow of
+      light which will devour thee, the shadow of darkness! Here I may find a
+      blessing which will fall on thee as a curse, and damn thee to the
+      blackness whence thou hast emerged unbidden.&rdquo; I said this, stretched at
+      length on the slope of the lawn above the river; and as the hope arose
+      within me, the sun came forth from a light fleecy cloud that swept across
+      his face; and hill and dale, and the great river winding on through the
+      still mysterious forest, flashed back his rays as with a silent shout of
+      joy; all nature lived and glowed; the very earth grew warm beneath me; a
+      magnificent dragon-fly went past me like an arrow from a bow, and a whole
+      concert of birds burst into choral song.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heat of the sun soon became too intense even for passive support. I
+      therefore rose, and sought the shelter of one of the arcades. Wandering
+      along from one to another of these, wherever my heedless steps led me, and
+      wondering everywhere at the simple magnificence of the building, I arrived
+      at another hall, the roof of which was of a pale blue, spangled with
+      constellations of silver stars, and supported by porphyry pillars of a
+      paler red than ordinary.&mdash;In this house (I may remark in passing),
+      silver seemed everywhere preferred to gold; and such was the purity of the
+      air, that it showed nowhere signs of tarnishing.&mdash;The whole of the
+      floor of this hall, except a narrow path behind the pillars, paved with
+      black, was hollowed into a huge basin, many feet deep, and filled with the
+      purest, most liquid and radiant water. The sides of the basin were white
+      marble, and the bottom was paved with all kinds of refulgent stones, of
+      every shape and hue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In their arrangement, you would have supposed, at first sight, that there
+      was no design, for they seemed to lie as if cast there from careless and
+      playful hands; but it was a most harmonious confusion; and as I looked at
+      the play of their colours, especially when the waters were in motion, I
+      came at last to feel as if not one little pebble could be displaced,
+      without injuring the effect of the whole. Beneath this floor of the water,
+      lay the reflection of the blue inverted roof, fretted with its silver
+      stars, like a second deeper sea, clasping and upholding the first. The
+      fairy bath was probably fed from the fountain in the court. Led by an
+      irresistible desire, I undressed, and plunged into the water. It clothed
+      me as with a new sense and its object both in one. The waters lay so close
+      to me, they seemed to enter and revive my heart. I rose to the surface,
+      shook the water from my hair, and swam as in a rainbow, amid the
+      coruscations of the gems below seen through the agitation caused by my
+      motion. Then, with open eyes, I dived, and swam beneath the surface. And
+      here was a new wonder. For the basin, thus beheld, appeared to extend on
+      all sides like a sea, with here and there groups as of ocean rocks,
+      hollowed by ceaseless billows into wondrous caves and grotesque pinnacles.
+      Around the caves grew sea-weeds of all hues, and the corals glowed
+      between; while far off, I saw the glimmer of what seemed to be creatures
+      of human form at home in the waters. I thought I had been enchanted; and
+      that when I rose to the surface, I should find myself miles from land,
+      swimming alone upon a heaving sea; but when my eyes emerged from the
+      waters, I saw above me the blue spangled vault, and the red pillars
+      around. I dived again, and found myself once more in the heart of a great
+      sea. I then arose, and swam to the edge, where I got out easily, for the
+      water reached the very brim, and, as I drew near washed in tiny waves over
+      the black marble border. I dressed, and went out, deeply refreshed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now I began to discern faint, gracious forms, here and there
+      throughout the building. Some walked together in earnest conversation.
+      Others strayed alone. Some stood in groups, as if looking at and talking
+      about a picture or a statue. None of them heeded me. Nor were they plainly
+      visible to my eyes. Sometimes a group, or single individual, would fade
+      entirely out of the realm of my vision as I gazed. When evening came, and
+      the moon arose, clear as a round of a horizon-sea when the sun hangs over
+      it in the west, I began to see them all more plainly; especially when they
+      came between me and the moon; and yet more especially, when I myself was
+      in the shade. But, even then, I sometimes saw only the passing wave of a
+      white robe; or a lovely arm or neck gleamed by in the moonshine; or white
+      feet went walking alone over the moony sward. Nor, I grieve to say, did I
+      ever come much nearer to these glorious beings, or ever look upon the
+      Queen of the Fairies herself. My destiny ordered otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this palace of marble and silver, and fountains and moonshine, I spent
+      many days; waited upon constantly in my room with everything desirable,
+      and bathing daily in the fairy bath. All this time I was little troubled
+      with my demon shadow I had a vague feeling that he was somewhere about the
+      palace; but it seemed as if the hope that I should in this place be
+      finally freed from his hated presence, had sufficed to banish him for a
+      time. How and where I found him, I shall soon have to relate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third day after my arrival, I found the library of the palace; and
+      here, all the time I remained, I spent most of the middle of the day. For
+      it was, not to mention far greater attractions, a luxurious retreat from
+      the noontide sun. During the mornings and afternoons, I wandered about the
+      lovely neighbourhood, or lay, lost in delicious day-dreams, beneath some
+      mighty tree on the open lawn. My evenings were by-and-by spent in a part
+      of the palace, the account of which, and of my adventures in connection
+      with it, I must yet postpone for a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The library was a mighty hall, lighted from the roof, which was formed of
+      something like glass, vaulted over in a single piece, and stained
+      throughout with a great mysterious picture in gorgeous colouring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The walls were lined from floor to roof with books and books: most of them
+      in ancient bindings, but some in strange new fashions which I had never
+      seen, and which, were I to make the attempt, I could ill describe. All
+      around the walls, in front of the books, ran galleries in rows,
+      communicating by stairs. These galleries were built of all kinds of
+      coloured stones; all sorts of marble and granite, with porphyry, jasper,
+      lapis lazuli, agate, and various others, were ranged in wonderful melody
+      of successive colours. Although the material, then, of which these
+      galleries and stairs were built, rendered necessary a certain degree of
+      massiveness in the construction, yet such was the size of the place, that
+      they seemed to run along the walls like cords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over some parts of the library, descended curtains of silk of various
+      dyes, none of which I ever saw lifted while I was there; and I felt
+      somehow that it would be presumptuous in me to venture to look within
+      them. But the use of the other books seemed free; and day after day I came
+      to the library, threw myself on one of the many sumptuous eastern carpets,
+      which lay here and there on the floor, and read, and read, until weary; if
+      that can be designated as weariness, which was rather the faintness of
+      rapturous delight; or until, sometimes, the failing of the light invited
+      me to go abroad, in the hope that a cool gentle breeze might have arisen
+      to bathe, with an airy invigorating bath, the limbs which the glow of the
+      burning spirit within had withered no less than the glow of the blazing
+      sun without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One peculiarity of these books, or at least most of those I looked into, I
+      must make a somewhat vain attempt to describe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, for instance, it was a book of metaphysics I opened, I had scarcely
+      read two pages before I seemed to myself to be pondering over discovered
+      truth, and constructing the intellectual machine whereby to communicate
+      the discovery to my fellow men. With some books, however, of this nature,
+      it seemed rather as if the process was removed yet a great way further
+      back; and I was trying to find the root of a manifestation, the spiritual
+      truth whence a material vision sprang; or to combine two propositions,
+      both apparently true, either at once or in different remembered moods, and
+      to find the point in which their invisibly converging lines would unite in
+      one, revealing a truth higher than either and differing from both; though
+      so far from being opposed to either, that it was that whence each derived
+      its life and power. Or if the book was one of travels, I found myself the
+      traveller. New lands, fresh experiences, novel customs, rose around me. I
+      walked, I discovered, I fought, I suffered, I rejoiced in my success. Was
+      it a history? I was the chief actor therein. I suffered my own blame; I
+      was glad in my own praise. With a fiction it was the same. Mine was the
+      whole story. For I took the place of the character who was most like
+      myself, and his story was mine; until, grown weary with the life of years
+      condensed in an hour, or arrived at my deathbed, or the end of the volume,
+      I would awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the consciousness of my
+      present life, recognising the walls and roof around me, and finding I
+      joyed or sorrowed only in a book. If the book was a poem, the words
+      disappeared, or took the subordinate position of an accompaniment to the
+      succession of forms and images that rose and vanished with a soundless
+      rhythm, and a hidden rime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one, with a mystical title, which I cannot recall, I read of a world
+      that is not like ours. The wondrous account, in such a feeble, fragmentary
+      way as is possible to me, I would willingly impart. Whether or not it was
+      all a poem, I cannot tell; but, from the impulse I felt, when I first
+      contemplated writing it, to break into rime, to which impulse I shall give
+      way if it comes upon me again, I think it must have been, partly at least,
+      in verse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Chained is the Spring.  The night-wind bold
+              Blows over the hard earth;
+             Time is not more confused and cold,
+              Nor keeps more wintry mirth.
+
+            &ldquo;Yet blow, and roll the world about;
+               Blow, Time&mdash;blow, winter&rsquo;s Wind!
+             Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out,
+               And Spring the frost behind.&rdquo;
+                                         G. E. M.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They who believe in the influences of the stars over the fates of men,
+      are, in feeling at least, nearer the truth than they who regard the
+      heavenly bodies as related to them merely by a common obedience to an
+      external law. All that man sees has to do with man. Worlds cannot be
+      without an intermundane relationship. The community of the centre of all
+      creation suggests an interradiating connection and dependence of the
+      parts. Else a grander idea is conceivable than that which is already
+      imbodied. The blank, which is only a forgotten life, lying behind the
+      consciousness, and the misty splendour, which is an undeveloped life,
+      lying before it, may be full of mysterious revelations of other connexions
+      with the worlds around us, than those of science and poetry. No shining
+      belt or gleaming moon, no red and green glory in a self-encircling
+      twin-star, but has a relation with the hidden things of a man&rsquo;s soul, and,
+      it may be, with the secret history of his body as well. They are portions
+      of the living house wherein he abides.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+             Through the realms of the monarch Sun
+         Creeps a world, whose course had begun,
+         On a weary path with a weary pace,
+         Before the Earth sprang forth on her race:
+         But many a time the Earth had sped
+         Around the path she still must tread,
+         Ere the elder planet, on leaden wing,
+         Once circled the court of the planet&rsquo;s king.
+
+            There, in that lonely and distant star,
+         The seasons are not as our seasons are;
+         But many a year hath Autumn to dress
+         The trees in their matron loveliness;
+         As long hath old Winter in triumph to go
+         O&rsquo;er beauties dead in his vaults below;
+         And many a year the Spring doth wear
+         Combing the icicles from her hair;
+         And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,
+         With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon:
+         And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
+         Till a burst of tears is the heart&rsquo;s relief.
+
+            Children, born when Winter is king,
+         May never rejoice in the hoping Spring;
+         Though their own heart-buds are bursting with joy,
+         And the child hath grown to the girl or boy;
+         But may die with cold and icy hours
+         Watching them ever in place of flowers.
+         And some who awake from their primal sleep,
+         When the sighs of Summer through forests creep,
+         Live, and love, and are loved again;
+         Seek for pleasure, and find its pain;
+         Sink to their last, their forsaken sleeping,
+         With the same sweet odours around them creeping.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Now the children, there, are not born as the children are born in worlds
+      nearer to the sun. For they arrive no one knows how. A maiden, walking
+      alone, hears a cry: for even there a cry is the first utterance; and
+      searching about, she findeth, under an overhanging rock, or within a clump
+      of bushes, or, it may be, betwixt gray stones on the side of a hill, or in
+      any other sheltered and unexpected spot, a little child. This she taketh
+      tenderly, and beareth home with joy, calling out, &ldquo;Mother, mother&rdquo;&mdash;if
+      so be that her mother lives&mdash;&ldquo;I have got a baby&mdash;I have found a
+      child!&rdquo; All the household gathers round to see;&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Where is it? What
+      is it like? Where did you find it?</i>&rdquo; and such-like questions, abounding.
+      And thereupon she relates the whole story of the discovery; for by the
+      circumstances, such as season of the year, time of the day, condition of
+      the air, and such like, and, especially, the peculiar and never-repeated
+      aspect of the heavens and earth at the time, and the nature of the place
+      of shelter wherein it is found, is determined, or at least indicated, the
+      nature of the child thus discovered. Therefore, at certain seasons, and in
+      certain states of the weather, according, in part, to their own fancy, the
+      young women go out to look for children. They generally avoid seeking
+      them, though they cannot help sometimes finding them, in places and with
+      circumstances uncongenial to their peculiar likings. But no sooner is a
+      child found, than its claim for protection and nurture obliterates all
+      feeling of choice in the matter. Chiefly, however, in the season of
+      summer, which lasts so long, coming as it does after such long intervals;
+      and mostly in the warm evenings, about the middle of twilight; and
+      principally in the woods and along the river banks, do the maidens go
+      looking for children just as children look for flowers. And ever as the
+      child grows, yea, more and more as he advances in years, will his face
+      indicate to those who understand the spirit of Nature, and her utterances
+      in the face of the world, the nature of the place of his birth, and the
+      other circumstances thereof; whether a clear morning sun guided his mother
+      to the nook whence issued the boy&rsquo;s low cry; or at eve the lonely maiden
+      (for the same woman never finds a second, at least while the first lives)
+      discovers the girl by the glimmer of her white skin, lying in a nest like
+      that of the lark, amid long encircling grasses, and the upward-gazing eyes
+      of the lowly daisies; whether the storm bowed the forest trees around, or
+      the still frost fixed in silence the else flowing and babbling stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they grow up, the men and women are but little together. There is
+      this peculiar difference between them, which likewise distinguishes the
+      women from those of the earth. The men alone have arms; the women have
+      only wings. Resplendent wings are they, wherein they can shroud themselves
+      from head to foot in a panoply of glistering glory. By these wings alone,
+      it may frequently be judged in what seasons, and under what aspects, they
+      were born. From those that came in winter, go great white wings, white as
+      snow; the edge of every feather shining like the sheen of silver, so that
+      they flash and glitter like frost in the sun. But underneath, they are
+      tinged with a faint pink or rose-colour. Those born in spring have wings
+      of a brilliant green, green as grass; and towards the edges the feathers
+      are enamelled like the surface of the grass-blades. These again are white
+      within. Those that are born in summer have wings of a deep rose-colour,
+      lined with pale gold. And those born in autumn have purple wings, with a
+      rich brown on the inside. But these colours are modified and altered in
+      all varieties, corresponding to the mood of the day and hour, as well as
+      the season of the year; and sometimes I found the various colours so
+      intermingled, that I could not determine even the season, though doubtless
+      the hieroglyphic could be deciphered by more experienced eyes. One
+      splendour, in particular, I remember&mdash;wings of deep carmine, with an
+      inner down of warm gray, around a form of brilliant whiteness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had been found as the sun went down through a low sea-fog, casting
+      crimson along a broad sea-path into a little cave on the shore, where a
+      bathing maiden saw her lying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But though I speak of sun and fog, and sea and shore, the world there is
+      in some respects very different from the earth whereon men live. For
+      instance, the waters reflect no forms. To the unaccustomed eye they
+      appear, if undisturbed, like the surface of a dark metal, only that the
+      latter would reflect indistinctly, whereas they reflect not at all, except
+      light which falls immediately upon them. This has a great effect in
+      causing the landscapes to differ from those on the earth. On the stillest
+      evening, no tall ship on the sea sends a long wavering reflection almost
+      to the feet of him on shore; the face of no maiden brightens at its own
+      beauty in a still forest-well. The sun and moon alone make a glitter on
+      the surface. The sea is like a sea of death, ready to ingulf and never to
+      reveal: a visible shadow of oblivion. Yet the women sport in its waters
+      like gorgeous sea-birds. The men more rarely enter them. But, on the
+      contrary, the sky reflects everything beneath it, as if it were built of
+      water like ours. Of course, from its concavity there is some distortion of
+      the reflected objects; yet wondrous combinations of form are often to be
+      seen in the overhanging depth. And then it is not shaped so much like a
+      round dome as the sky of the earth, but, more of an egg-shape, rises to a
+      great towering height in the middle, appearing far more lofty than the
+      other. When the stars come out at night, it shows a mighty cupola,
+      &ldquo;fretted with golden fires,&rdquo; wherein there is room for all tempests to
+      rush and rave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One evening in early summer, I stood with a group of men and women on a
+      steep rock that overhung the sea. They were all questioning me about my
+      world and the ways thereof. In making reply to one of their questions, I
+      was compelled to say that children are not born in the Earth as with them.
+      Upon this I was assailed with a whole battery of inquiries, which at first
+      I tried to avoid; but, at last, I was compelled, in the vaguest manner I
+      could invent, to make some approach to the subject in question.
+      Immediately a dim notion of what I meant, seemed to dawn in the minds of
+      most of the women. Some of them folded their great wings all around them,
+      as they generally do when in the least offended, and stood erect and
+      motionless. One spread out her rosy pinions, and flashed from the
+      promontory into the gulf at its foot. A great light shone in the eyes of
+      one maiden, who turned and walked slowly away, with her purple and white
+      wings half dispread behind her. She was found, the next morning, dead
+      beneath a withered tree on a bare hill-side, some miles inland. They
+      buried her where she lay, as is their custom; for, before they die, they
+      instinctively search for a spot like the place of their birth, and having
+      found one that satisfies them, they lie down, fold their wings around
+      them, if they be women, or cross their arms over their breasts, if they
+      are men, just as if they were going to sleep; and so sleep indeed. The
+      sign or cause of coming death is an indescribable longing for something,
+      they know not what, which seizes them, and drives them into solitude,
+      consuming them within, till the body fails. When a youth and a maiden look
+      too deep into each other&rsquo;s eyes, this longing seizes and possesses them;
+      but instead of drawing nearer to each other, they wander away, each alone,
+      into solitary places, and die of their desire. But it seems to me, that
+      thereafter they are born babes upon our earth: where, if, when grown, they
+      find each other, it goes well with them; if not, it will seem to go ill.
+      But of this I know nothing. When I told them that the women on the Earth
+      had not wings like them, but arms, they stared, and said how bold and
+      masculine they must look; not knowing that their wings, glorious as they
+      are, are but undeveloped arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But see the power of this book, that, while recounting what I can recall
+      of its contents, I write as if myself had visited the far-off planet,
+      learned its ways and appearances, and conversed with its men and women.
+      And so, while writing, it seemed to me that I had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The book goes on with the story of a maiden, who, born at the close of
+      autumn, and living in a long, to her endless winter, set out at last to
+      find the regions of spring; for, as in our earth, the seasons are divided
+      over the globe. It begins something like this:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            She watched them dying for many a day,
+            Dropping from off the old trees away,
+            One by one; or else in a shower
+            Crowding over the withered flower
+            For as if they had done some grievous wrong,
+            The sun, that had nursed them and loved them so long,
+            Grew weary of loving, and, turning back,
+            Hastened away on his southern track;
+            And helplessly hung each shrivelled leaf,
+            Faded away with an idle grief.
+            And the gusts of wind, sad Autumn&rsquo;s sighs,
+            Mournfully swept through their families;
+            Casting away with a helpless moan
+            All that he yet might call his own,
+            As the child, when his bird is gone for ever,
+            Flingeth the cage on the wandering river.
+            And the giant trees, as bare as Death,
+            Slowly bowed to the great Wind&rsquo;s breath;
+            And groaned with trying to keep from groaning
+            Amidst the young trees bending and moaning.
+            And the ancient planet&rsquo;s mighty sea
+            Was heaving and falling most restlessly,
+            And the tops of the waves were broken and white,
+            Tossing about to ease their might;
+            And the river was striving to reach the main,
+            And the ripple was hurrying back again.
+            Nature lived in sadness now;
+            Sadness lived on the maiden&rsquo;s brow,
+            As she watched, with a fixed, half-conscious eye,
+            One lonely leaf that trembled on high,
+            Till it dropped at last from the desolate bough&mdash;
+            Sorrow, oh, sorrow! &lsquo;tis winter now.
+            And her tears gushed forth, though it was but a leaf,
+            For little will loose the swollen fountain of grief:
+            When up to the lip the water goes,
+            It needs but a drop, and it overflows.
+
+            Oh! many and many a dreary year
+            Must pass away ere the buds appear:
+            Many a night of darksome sorrow
+            Yield to the light of a joyless morrow,
+            Ere birds again, on the clothed trees,
+            Shall fill the branches with melodies.
+            She will dream of meadows with wakeful streams;
+            Of wavy grass in the sunny beams;
+            Of hidden wells that soundless spring,
+            Hoarding their joy as a holy thing;
+            Of founts that tell it all day long
+            To the listening woods, with exultant song;
+            She will dream of evenings that die into nights,
+            Where each sense is filled with its own delights,
+            And the soul is still as the vaulted sky,
+            Lulled with an inner harmony;
+
+            And the flowers give out to the dewy night,
+            Changed into perfume, the gathered light;
+            And the darkness sinks upon all their host,
+            Till the sun sail up on the eastern coast&mdash;
+            She will wake and see the branches bare,
+            Weaving a net in the frozen air.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The story goes on to tell how, at last, weary with wintriness, she
+      travelled towards the southern regions of her globe, to meet the spring on
+      its slow way northwards; and how, after many sad adventures, many
+      disappointed hopes, and many tears, bitter and fruitless, she found at
+      last, one stormy afternoon, in a leafless forest, a single snowdrop
+      growing betwixt the borders of the winter and spring. She lay down beside
+      it and died. I almost believe that a child, pale and peaceful as a
+      snowdrop, was born in the Earth within a fixed season from that stormy
+      afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+             &ldquo;I saw a ship sailing upon the sea
+              Deeply laden as ship could be;
+              But not so deep as in love I am
+              For I care not whether I sink or swim.&rdquo;
+                                     Old Ballad.
+
+            &ldquo;But Love is such a Mystery
+                 I cannot find it out:
+              For when I think I&rsquo;m best resolv&rsquo;d,
+                 I then am in most doubt.&rdquo;
+                                SIR JOHN SUCKLING.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      One story I will try to reproduce. But, alas! it is like trying to
+      reconstruct a forest out of broken branches and withered leaves. In the
+      fairy book, everything was just as it should be, though whether in words
+      or something else, I cannot tell. It glowed and flashed the thoughts upon
+      the soul, with such a power that the medium disappeared from the
+      consciousness, and it was occupied only with the things themselves. My
+      representation of it must resemble a translation from a rich and powerful
+      language, capable of embodying the thoughts of a splendidly developed
+      people, into the meagre and half-articulate speech of a savage tribe. Of
+      course, while I read it, I was Cosmo, and his history was mine. Yet, all
+      the time, I seemed to have a kind of double consciousness, and the story a
+      double meaning. Sometimes it seemed only to represent a simple story of
+      ordinary life, perhaps almost of universal life; wherein two souls, loving
+      each other and longing to come nearer, do, after all, but behold each
+      other as in a glass darkly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As through the hard rock go the branching silver veins; as into the solid
+      land run the creeks and gulfs from the unresting sea; as the lights and
+      influences of the upper worlds sink silently through the earth&rsquo;s
+      atmosphere; so doth Faerie invade the world of men, and sometimes startle
+      the common eye with an association as of cause and effect, when between
+      the two no connecting links can be traced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo von Wehrstahl was a student at the University of Prague. Though of a
+      noble family, he was poor, and prided himself upon the independence that
+      poverty gives; for what will not a man pride himself upon, when he cannot
+      get rid of it? A favourite with his fellow students, he yet had no
+      companions; and none of them had ever crossed the threshold of his lodging
+      in the top of one of the highest houses in the old town. Indeed, the
+      secret of much of that complaisance which recommended him to his fellows,
+      was the thought of his unknown retreat, whither in the evening he could
+      betake himself and indulge undisturbed in his own studies and reveries.
+      These studies, besides those subjects necessary to his course at the
+      University, embraced some less commonly known and approved; for in a
+      secret drawer lay the works of Albertus Magnus and Cornelius Agrippa,
+      along with others less read and more abstruse. As yet, however, he had
+      followed these researches only from curiosity, and had turned them to no
+      practical purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His lodging consisted of one large low-ceiled room, singularly bare of
+      furniture; for besides a couple of wooden chairs, a couch which served for
+      dreaming on both by day and night, and a great press of black oak, there
+      was very little in the room that could be called furniture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But curious instruments were heaped in the corners; and in one stood a
+      skeleton, half-leaning against the wall, half-supported by a string about
+      its neck. One of its hands, all of fingers, rested on the heavy pommel of
+      a great sword that stood beside it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Various weapons were scattered about over the floor. The walls were
+      utterly bare of adornment; for the few strange things, such as a large
+      dried bat with wings dispread, the skin of a porcupine, and a stuffed
+      sea-mouse, could hardly be reckoned as such. But although his fancy
+      delighted in vagaries like these, he indulged his imagination with far
+      different fare. His mind had never yet been filled with an absorbing
+      passion; but it lay like a still twilight open to any wind, whether the
+      low breath that wafts but odours, or the storm that bows the great trees
+      till they strain and creak. He saw everything as through a rose-coloured
+      glass. When he looked from his window on the street below, not a maiden
+      passed but she moved as in a story, and drew his thoughts after her till
+      she disappeared in the vista. When he walked in the streets, he always
+      felt as if reading a tale, into which he sought to weave every face of
+      interest that went by; and every sweet voice swept his soul as with the
+      wing of a passing angel. He was in fact a poet without words; the more
+      absorbed and endangered, that the springing-waters were dammed back into
+      his soul, where, finding no utterance, they grew, and swelled, and
+      undermined. He used to lie on his hard couch, and read a tale or a poem,
+      till the book dropped from his hand; but he dreamed on, he knew not
+      whether awake or asleep, until the opposite roof grew upon his sense, and
+      turned golden in the sunrise. Then he arose too; and the impulses of
+      vigorous youth kept him ever active, either in study or in sport, until
+      again the close of the day left him free; and the world of night, which
+      had lain drowned in the cataract of the day, rose up in his soul, with all
+      its stars, and dim-seen phantom shapes. But this could hardly last long.
+      Some one form must sooner or later step within the charmed circle, enter
+      the house of life, and compel the bewildered magician to kneel and
+      worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, towards dusk, he was wandering dreamily in one of the
+      principal streets, when a fellow student roused him by a slap on the
+      shoulder, and asked him to accompany him into a little back alley to look
+      at some old armour which he had taken a fancy to possess. Cosmo was
+      considered an authority in every matter pertaining to arms, ancient or
+      modern. In the use of weapons, none of the students could come near him;
+      and his practical acquaintance with some had principally contributed to
+      establish his authority in reference to all. He accompanied him willingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered a narrow alley, and thence a dirty little court, where a low
+      arched door admitted them into a heterogeneous assemblage of everything
+      musty, and dusty, and old, that could well be imagined. His verdict on the
+      armour was satisfactory, and his companion at once concluded the purchase.
+      As they were leaving the place, Cosmo&rsquo;s eye was attracted by an old mirror
+      of an elliptical shape, which leaned against the wall, covered with dust.
+      Around it was some curious carving, which he could see but very
+      indistinctly by the glimmering light which the owner of the shop carried
+      in his hand. It was this carving that attracted his attention; at least so
+      it appeared to him. He left the place, however, with his friend, taking no
+      further notice of it. They walked together to the main street, where they
+      parted and took opposite directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner was Cosmo left alone, than the thought of the curious old mirror
+      returned to him. A strong desire to see it more plainly arose within him,
+      and he directed his steps once more towards the shop. The owner opened the
+      door when he knocked, as if he had expected him. He was a little, old,
+      withered man, with a hooked nose, and burning eyes constantly in a slow
+      restless motion, and looking here and there as if after something that
+      eluded them. Pretending to examine several other articles, Cosmo at last
+      approached the mirror, and requested to have it taken down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take it down yourself, master; I cannot reach it,&rdquo; said the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo took it down carefully, when he saw that the carving was indeed
+      delicate and costly, being both of admirable design and execution;
+      containing withal many devices which seemed to embody some meaning to
+      which he had no clue. This, naturally, in one of his tastes and
+      temperament, increased the interest he felt in the old mirror; so much,
+      indeed, that he now longed to possess it, in order to study its frame at
+      his leisure. He pretended, however, to want it only for use; and saying he
+      feared the plate could be of little service, as it was rather old, he
+      brushed away a little of the dust from its face, expecting to see a dull
+      reflection within. His surprise was great when he found the reflection
+      brilliant, revealing a glass not only uninjured by age, but wondrously
+      clear and perfect (should the whole correspond to this part) even for one
+      newly from the hands of the maker. He asked carelessly what the owner
+      wanted for the thing. The old man replied by mentioning a sum of money far
+      beyond the reach of poor Cosmo, who proceeded to replace the mirror where
+      it had stood before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think the price too high?&rdquo; said the old man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know that it is too much for you to ask,&rdquo; replied Cosmo; &ldquo;but it
+      is far too much for me to give.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man held up his light towards Cosmo&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;I like your look,&rdquo;
+       said he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo could not return the compliment. In fact, now he looked closely at
+      him for the first time, he felt a kind of repugnance to him, mingled with
+      a strange feeling of doubt whether a man or a woman stood before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; he continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cosmo von Wehrstahl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, ah! I thought as much. I see your father in you. I knew your father
+      very well, young sir. I dare say in some odd corners of my house, you
+      might find some old things with his crest and cipher upon them still.
+      Well, I like you: you shall have the mirror at the fourth part of what I
+      asked for it; but upon one condition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo; said Cosmo; for, although the price was still a great deal
+      for him to give, he could just manage it; and the desire to possess the
+      mirror had increased to an altogether unaccountable degree, since it had
+      seemed beyond his reach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That if you should ever want to get rid of it again, you will let me have
+      the first offer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; replied Cosmo, with a smile; adding, &ldquo;a moderate condition
+      indeed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On your honour?&rdquo; insisted the seller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On my honour,&rdquo; said the buyer; and the bargain was concluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will carry it home for you,&rdquo; said the old man, as Cosmo took it in his
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; I will carry it myself,&rdquo; said he; for he had a peculiar dislike
+      to revealing his residence to any one, and more especially to this person,
+      to whom he felt every moment a greater antipathy. &ldquo;Just as you please,&rdquo;
+       said the old creature, and muttered to himself as he held his light at the
+      door to show him out of the court: &ldquo;Sold for the sixth time! I wonder what
+      will be the upshot of it this time. I should think my lady had enough of
+      it by now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo carried his prize carefully home. But all the way he had an
+      uncomfortable feeling that he was watched and dogged. Repeatedly he looked
+      about, but saw nothing to justify his suspicions. Indeed, the streets were
+      too crowded and too ill lighted to expose very readily a careful spy, if
+      such there should be at his heels. He reached his lodging in safety, and
+      leaned his purchase against the wall, rather relieved, strong as he was,
+      to be rid of its weight; then, lighting his pipe, threw himself on the
+      couch, and was soon lapt in the folds of one of his haunting dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned home earlier than usual the next day, and fixed the mirror to
+      the wall, over the hearth, at one end of his long room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then carefully wiped away the dust from its face, and, clear as the
+      water of a sunny spring, the mirror shone out from beneath the envious
+      covering. But his interest was chiefly occupied with the curious carving
+      of the frame. This he cleaned as well as he could with a brush; and then
+      he proceeded to a minute examination of its various parts, in the hope of
+      discovering some index to the intention of the carver. In this, however,
+      he was unsuccessful; and, at length, pausing with some weariness and
+      disappointment, he gazed vacantly for a few moments into the depth of the
+      reflected room. But ere long he said, half aloud: &ldquo;What a strange thing a
+      mirror is! and what a wondrous affinity exists between it and a man&rsquo;s
+      imagination! For this room of mine, as I behold it in the glass, is the
+      same, and yet not the same. It is not the mere representation of the room
+      I live in, but it looks just as if I were reading about it in a story I
+      like. All its commonness has disappeared. The mirror has lifted it out of
+      the region of fact into the realm of art; and the very representing of it
+      to me has clothed with interest that which was otherwise hard and bare;
+      just as one sees with delight upon the stage the representation of a
+      character from which one would escape in life as from something
+      unendurably wearisome. But is it not rather that art rescues nature from
+      the weary and sated regards of our senses, and the degrading injustice of
+      our anxious everyday life, and, appealing to the imagination, which dwells
+      apart, reveals Nature in some degree as she really is, and as she
+      represents herself to the eye of the child, whose every-day life, fearless
+      and unambitious, meets the true import of the wonder-teeming world around
+      him, and rejoices therein without questioning? That skeleton, now&mdash;I
+      almost fear it, standing there so still, with eyes only for the unseen,
+      like a watch-tower looking across all the waste of this busy world into
+      the quiet regions of rest beyond. And yet I know every bone and every
+      joint in it as well as my own fist. And that old battle-axe looks as if
+      any moment it might be caught up by a mailed hand, and, borne forth by the
+      mighty arm, go crashing through casque, and skull, and brain, invading the
+      Unknown with yet another bewildered ghost. I should like to live in <i>that</i>
+      room if I could only get into it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely had the half-moulded words floated from him, as he stood gazing
+      into the mirror, when, striking him as with a flash of amazement that
+      fixed him in his posture, noiseless and unannounced, glided suddenly
+      through the door into the reflected room, with stately motion, yet
+      reluctant and faltering step, the graceful form of a woman, clothed all in
+      white. Her back only was visible as she walked slowly up to the couch in
+      the further end of the room, on which she laid herself wearily, turning
+      towards him a face of unutterable loveliness, in which suffering, and
+      dislike, and a sense of compulsion, strangely mingled with the beauty. He
+      stood without the power of motion for some moments, with his eyes
+      irrecoverably fixed upon her; and even after he was conscious of the
+      ability to move, he could not summon up courage to turn and look on her,
+      face to face, in the veritable chamber in which he stood. At length, with
+      a sudden effort, in which the exercise of the will was so pure, that it
+      seemed involuntary, he turned his face to the couch. It was vacant. In
+      bewilderment, mingled with terror, he turned again to the mirror: there,
+      on the reflected couch, lay the exquisite lady-form. She lay with closed
+      eyes, whence two large tears were just welling from beneath the veiling
+      lids; still as death, save for the convulsive motion of her bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo himself could not have described what he felt. His emotions were of
+      a kind that destroyed consciousness, and could never be clearly recalled.
+      He could not help standing yet by the mirror, and keeping his eyes fixed
+      on the lady, though he was painfully aware of his rudeness, and feared
+      every moment that she would open hers, and meet his fixed regard. But he
+      was, ere long, a little relieved; for, after a while, her eyelids slowly
+      rose, and her eyes remained uncovered, but unemployed for a time; and
+      when, at length, they began to wander about the room, as if languidly
+      seeking to make some acquaintance with her environment, they were never
+      directed towards him: it seemed nothing but what was in the mirror could
+      affect her vision; and, therefore, if she saw him at all, it could only be
+      his back, which, of necessity, was turned towards her in the glass. The
+      two figures in the mirror could not meet face to face, except he turned
+      and looked at her, present in his room; and, as she was not there, he
+      concluded that if he were to turn towards the part in his room
+      corresponding to that in which she lay, his reflection would either be
+      invisible to her altogether, or at least it must appear to her to gaze
+      vacantly towards her, and no meeting of the eyes would produce the
+      impression of spiritual proximity. By-and-by her eyes fell upon the
+      skeleton, and he saw her shudder and close them. She did not open them
+      again, but signs of repugnance continued evident on her countenance. Cosmo
+      would have removed the obnoxious thing at once, but he feared to
+      discompose her yet more by the assertion of his presence which the act
+      would involve. So he stood and watched her. The eyelids yet shrouded the
+      eyes, as a costly case the jewels within; the troubled expression
+      gradually faded from the countenance, leaving only a faint sorrow behind;
+      the features settled into an unchanging expression of rest; and by these
+      signs, and the slow regular motion of her breathing, Cosmo knew that she
+      slept. He could now gaze on her without embarrassment. He saw that her
+      figure, dressed in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of her face; and
+      so harmonious, that either the delicately moulded foot, or any finger of
+      the equally delicate hand, was an index to the whole. As she lay, her
+      whole form manifested the relaxation of perfect repose. He gazed till he
+      was weary, and at last seated himself near the new-found shrine, and
+      mechanically took up a book, like one who watches by a sick-bed. But his
+      eyes gathered no thoughts from the page before him. His intellect had been
+      stunned by the bold contradiction, to its face, of all its experience, and
+      now lay passive, without assertion, or speculation, or even conscious
+      astonishment; while his imagination sent one wild dream of blessedness
+      after another coursing through his soul. How long he sat he knew not; but
+      at length he roused himself, rose, and, trembling in every portion of his
+      frame, looked again into the mirror. She was gone. The mirror reflected
+      faithfully what his room presented, and nothing more. It stood there like
+      a golden setting whence the central jewel has been stolen away&mdash;like
+      a night-sky without the glory of its stars. She had carried with her all
+      the strangeness of the reflected room. It had sunk to the level of the one
+      without.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the first pangs of his disappointment had passed, Cosmo began to
+      comfort himself with the hope that she might return, perhaps the next
+      evening, at the same hour. Resolving that if she did, she should not at
+      least be scared by the hateful skeleton, he removed that and several other
+      articles of questionable appearance into a recess by the side of the
+      hearth, whence they could not possibly cast any reflection into the
+      mirror; and having made his poor room as tidy as he could, sought the
+      solace of the open sky and of a night wind that had begun to blow, for he
+      could not rest where he was. When he returned, somewhat composed, he could
+      hardly prevail with himself to lie down on his bed; for he could not help
+      feeling as if she had lain upon it; and for him to lie there now would be
+      something like sacrilege. However, weariness prevailed; and laying himself
+      on the couch, dressed as he was, he slept till day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a beating heart, beating till he could hardly breathe, he stood in
+      dumb hope before the mirror, on the following evening. Again the reflected
+      room shone as through a purple vapour in the gathering twilight.
+      Everything seemed waiting like himself for a coming splendour to glorify
+      its poor earthliness with the presence of a heavenly joy. And just as the
+      room vibrated with the strokes of the neighbouring church bell, announcing
+      the hour of six, in glided the pale beauty, and again laid herself on the
+      couch. Poor Cosmo nearly lost his senses with delight. She was there once
+      more! Her eyes sought the corner where the skeleton had stood, and a faint
+      gleam of satisfaction crossed her face, apparently at seeing it empty. She
+      looked suffering still, but there was less of discomfort expressed in her
+      countenance than there had been the night before. She took more notice of
+      the things about her, and seemed to gaze with some curiosity on the
+      strange apparatus standing here and there in her room. At length, however,
+      drowsiness seemed to overtake her, and again she fell asleep. Resolved not
+      to lose sight of her this time, Cosmo watched the sleeping form. Her
+      slumber was so deep and absorbing that a fascinating repose seemed to pass
+      contagiously from her to him as he gazed upon her; and he started as if
+      from a dream, when the lady moved, and, without opening her eyes, rose,
+      and passed from the room with the gait of a somnambulist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo was now in a state of extravagant delight. Most men have a secret
+      treasure somewhere. The miser has his golden hoard; the virtuoso his pet
+      ring; the student his rare book; the poet his favourite haunt; the lover
+      his secret drawer; but Cosmo had a mirror with a lovely lady in it. And
+      now that he knew by the skeleton, that she was affected by the things
+      around her, he had a new object in life: he would turn the bare chamber in
+      the mirror into a room such as no lady need disdain to call her own. This
+      he could effect only by furnishing and adorning his. And Cosmo was poor.
+      Yet he possessed accomplishments that could be turned to account;
+      although, hitherto, he had preferred living on his slender allowance, to
+      increasing his means by what his pride considered unworthy of his rank. He
+      was the best swordsman in the University; and now he offered to give
+      lessons in fencing and similar exercises, to such as chose to pay him well
+      for the trouble. His proposal was heard with surprise by the students; but
+      it was eagerly accepted by many; and soon his instructions were not
+      confined to the richer students, but were anxiously sought by many of the
+      young nobility of Prague and its neighbourhood. So that very soon he had a
+      good deal of money at his command. The first thing he did was to remove
+      his apparatus and oddities into a closet in the room. Then he placed his
+      bed and a few other necessaries on each side of the hearth, and parted
+      them from the rest of the room by two screens of Indian fabric. Then he
+      put an elegant couch for the lady to lie upon, in the corner where his bed
+      had formerly stood; and, by degrees, every day adding some article of
+      luxury, converted it, at length, into a rich boudoir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every night, about the same time, the lady entered. The first time she saw
+      the new couch, she started with a half-smile; then her face grew very sad,
+      the tears came to her eyes, and she laid herself upon the couch, and
+      pressed her face into the silken cushions, as if to hide from everything.
+      She took notice of each addition and each change as the work proceeded;
+      and a look of acknowledgment, as if she knew that some one was ministering
+      to her, and was grateful for it, mingled with the constant look of
+      suffering. At length, after she had lain down as usual one evening, her
+      eyes fell upon some paintings with which Cosmo had just finished adorning
+      the walls. She rose, and to his great delight, walked across the room, and
+      proceeded to examine them carefully, testifying much pleasure in her looks
+      as she did so. But again the sorrowful, tearful expression returned, and
+      again she buried her face in the pillows of her couch. Gradually, however,
+      her countenance had grown more composed; much of the suffering manifest on
+      her first appearance had vanished, and a kind of quiet, hopeful expression
+      had taken its place; which, however, frequently gave way to an anxious,
+      troubled look, mingled with something of sympathetic pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, how fared Cosmo? As might be expected in one of his temperament,
+      his interest had blossomed into love, and his love&mdash;shall I call it
+      <i>ripened</i>, or&mdash;<i>withered</i> into passion. But, alas! he loved a shadow. He
+      could not come near her, could not speak to her, could not hear a sound
+      from those sweet lips, to which his longing eyes would cling like bees to
+      their honey-founts. Ever and anon he sang to himself:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;I shall die for love of the maiden;&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      and ever he looked again, and died not, though his heart seemed ready to
+      break with intensity of life and longing. And the more he did for her, the
+      more he loved her; and he hoped that, although she never appeared to see
+      him, yet she was pleased to think that one unknown would give his life to
+      her. He tried to comfort himself over his separation from her, by thinking
+      that perhaps some day she would see him and make signs to him, and that
+      would satisfy him; &ldquo;for,&rdquo; thought he, &ldquo;is not this all that a loving soul
+      can do to enter into communion with another? Nay, how many who love never
+      come nearer than to behold each other as in a mirror; seem to know and yet
+      never know the inward life; never enter the other soul; and part at last,
+      with but the vaguest notion of the universe on the borders of which they
+      have been hovering for years? If I could but speak to her, and knew that
+      she heard me, I should be satisfied.&rdquo; Once he contemplated painting a
+      picture on the wall, which should, of necessity, convey to the lady a
+      thought of himself; but, though he had some skill with the pencil, he
+      found his hand tremble so much when he began the attempt, that he was
+      forced to give it up. . . . . .
+    </p>
+<p>
+        &ldquo;Who lives, he dies; who dies, he is alive.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+<p>
+One evening, as he stood gazing on his treasure, he thought he
+saw a faint expression of self-consciousness on her countenance, as if
+she surmised that passionate eyes were fixed upon her. This grew; till
+at last the red blood rose over her neck, and cheek, and brow. Cosmo&rsquo;s
+longing to approach her became almost delirious. This night she was
+dressed in an evening costume, resplendent with diamonds. This could add
+nothing to her beauty, but it presented it in a new aspect; enabled her
+loveliness to make a new manifestation of itself in a new embodiment.
+For essential beauty is infinite; and, as the soul of Nature needs an
+endless succession of varied forms to embody her loveliness, countless
+faces of beauty springing forth, not any two the same, at any one of
+her heart-throbs; so the individual form needs an infinite change of its
+environments, to enable it to uncover all the phases of its loveliness.
+Diamonds glittered from amidst her hair, half hidden in its luxuriance,
+like stars through dark rain-clouds; and the bracelets on her white arms
+flashed all the colours of a rainbow of lightnings, as she lifted her
+snowy hands to cover her burning face. But her beauty shone down all its
+adornment. &ldquo;If I might have but one of her feet to kiss,&rdquo; thought Cosmo,
+&ldquo;I should be content.&rdquo; Alas! he deceived himself, for passion is never
+content. Nor did he know that there are <i>two</i> ways out of her enchanted
+house. But, suddenly, as if the pang had been driven into his heart
+from without, revealing itself first in pain, and afterwards in definite
+form, the thought darted into his mind, &ldquo;She has a lover somewhere.
+Remembered words of his bring the colour on her face now. I am nowhere
+to her. She lives in another world all day, and all night, after she
+leaves me. Why does she come and make me love her, till I, a strong man,
+am too faint to look upon her more?&rdquo; He looked again, and her face was
+pale as a lily. A sorrowful compassion seemed to rebuke the glitter of
+the restless jewels, and the slow tears rose in her eyes. She left her
+room sooner this evening than was her wont. Cosmo remained alone, with a
+feeling as if his bosom had been suddenly left empty and hollow, and the
+weight of the whole world was crushing in its walls. The next evening,
+for the first time since she began to come, she came not.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      And now Cosmo was in wretched plight. Since the thought of a rival had
+      occurred to him, he could not rest for a moment. More than ever he longed
+      to see the lady face to face. He persuaded himself that if he but knew the
+      worst he would be satisfied; for then he could abandon Prague, and find
+      that relief in constant motion, which is the hope of all active minds when
+      invaded by distress. Meantime he waited with unspeakable anxiety for the
+      next night, hoping she would return: but she did not appear. And now he
+      fell really ill. Rallied by his fellow students on his wretched looks, he
+      ceased to attend the lectures. His engagements were neglected. He cared
+      for nothing. The sky, with the great sun in it, was to him a heartless,
+      burning desert. The men and women in the streets were mere puppets,
+      without motives in themselves, or interest to him. He saw them all as on
+      the ever-changing field of a <i>camera obscura</i>. She&mdash;she alone and
+      altogether&mdash;was his universe, his well of life, his incarnate good.
+      For six evenings she came not. Let his absorbing passion, and the slow
+      fever that was consuming his brain, be his excuse for the resolution which
+      he had taken and begun to execute, before that time had expired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reasoning with himself, that it must be by some enchantment connected with
+      the mirror, that the form of the lady was to be seen in it, he determined
+      to attempt to turn to account what he had hitherto studied principally
+      from curiosity. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; said he to himself, &ldquo;if a spell can force her
+      presence in that glass (and she came unwillingly at first), may not a
+      stronger spell, such as I know, especially with the aid of her
+      half-presence in the mirror, if ever she appears again, compel her living
+      form to come to me here? If I do her wrong, let love be my excuse. I want
+      only to know my doom from her own lips.&rdquo; He never doubted, all the time,
+      that she was a real earthly woman; or, rather, that there was a woman,
+      who, somehow or other, threw this reflection of her form into the magic
+      mirror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened his secret drawer, took out his books of magic, lighted his
+      lamp, and read and made notes from midnight till three in the morning, for
+      three successive nights. Then he replaced his books; and the next night
+      went out in quest of the materials necessary for the conjuration. These
+      were not easy to find; for, in love-charms and all incantations of this
+      nature, ingredients are employed scarcely fit to be mentioned, and for the
+      thought even of which, in connexion with her, he could only excuse himself
+      on the score of his bitter need. At length he succeeded in procuring all
+      he required; and on the seventh evening from that on which she had last
+      appeared, he found himself prepared for the exercise of unlawful and
+      tyrannical power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He cleared the centre of the room; stooped and drew a circle of red on the
+      floor, around the spot where he stood; wrote in the four quarters mystical
+      signs, and numbers which were all powers of seven or nine; examined the
+      whole ring carefully, to see that no smallest break had occurred in the
+      circumference; and then rose from his bending posture. As he rose, the
+      church clock struck seven; and, just as she had appeared the first time,
+      reluctant, slow, and stately, glided in the lady. Cosmo trembled; and
+      when, turning, she revealed a countenance worn and wan, as with sickness
+      or inward trouble, he grew faint, and felt as if he dared not proceed. But
+      as he gazed on the face and form, which now possessed his whole soul, to
+      the exclusion of all other joys and griefs, the longing to speak to her,
+      to know that she heard him, to hear from her one word in return, became so
+      unendurable, that he suddenly and hastily resumed his preparations.
+      Stepping carefully from the circle, he put a small brazier into its
+      centre. He then set fire to its contents of charcoal, and while it burned
+      up, opened his window and seated himself, waiting, beside it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a sultry evening. The air was full of thunder. A sense of luxurious
+      depression filled the brain. The sky seemed to have grown heavy, and to
+      compress the air beneath it. A kind of purplish tinge pervaded the
+      atmosphere, and through the open window came the scents of the distant
+      fields, which all the vapours of the city could not quench. Soon the
+      charcoal glowed. Cosmo sprinkled upon it the incense and other substances
+      which he had compounded, and, stepping within the circle, turned his face
+      from the brazier and towards the mirror. Then, fixing his eyes upon the
+      face of the lady, he began with a trembling voice to repeat a powerful
+      incantation. He had not gone far, before the lady grew pale; and then,
+      like a returning wave, the blood washed all its banks with its crimson
+      tide, and she hid her face in her hands. Then he passed to a conjuration
+      stronger yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lady rose and walked uneasily to and fro in her room. Another spell;
+      and she seemed seeking with her eyes for some object on which they wished
+      to rest. At length it seemed as if she suddenly espied him; for her eyes
+      fixed themselves full and wide upon his, and she drew gradually, and
+      somewhat unwillingly, close to her side of the mirror, just as if his eyes
+      had fascinated her. Cosmo had never seen her so near before. Now at least,
+      eyes met eyes; but he could not quite understand the expression of hers.
+      They were full of tender entreaty, but there was something more that he
+      could not interpret. Though his heart seemed to labour in his throat, he
+      would allow no delight or agitation to turn him from his task. Looking
+      still in her face, he passed on to the mightiest charm he knew. Suddenly
+      the lady turned and walked out of the door of her reflected chamber. A
+      moment after she entered his room with veritable presence; and, forgetting
+      all his precautions, he sprang from the charmed circle, and knelt before
+      her. There she stood, the living lady of his passionate visions, alone
+      beside him, in a thundery twilight, and the glow of a magic fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why,&rdquo; said the lady, with a trembling voice, &ldquo;didst thou bring a poor
+      maiden through the rainy streets alone?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the
+      mirror there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, the mirror!&rdquo; and she looked up at it, and shuddered. &ldquo;Alas! I am but
+      a slave, while that mirror exists. But do not think it was the power of
+      thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing desire to see me, that beat at
+      the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Canst thou love me then?&rdquo; said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death, but
+      almost inarticulate with emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not know,&rdquo; she replied sadly; &ldquo;that I cannot tell, so long as I am
+      bewildered with enchantments. It were indeed a joy too great, to lay my
+      head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think thou lovest me, though I
+      do not know;&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Cosmo rose from his knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love thee as&mdash;nay, I know not what&mdash;for since I have loved
+      thee, there is nothing else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He seized her hand: she withdrew it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the
+      mirror.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And shall I see thyself instead?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo&rsquo;s bosom. Now she was in his power. She
+      did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To break
+      the mirror would be to destroy his very life to banish out of his universe
+      the only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but a prison, if he
+      annihilated the one window that looked into the paradise of love. Not yet
+      pure in love, he hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a wail of sorrow the lady rose to her feet. &ldquo;Ah! he loves me not; he
+      loves me not even as I love him; and alas! I care more for his love than
+      even for the freedom I ask.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not wait to be willing,&rdquo; cried Cosmo; and sprang to the corner
+      where the great sword stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime it had grown very dark; only the embers cast a red glow through
+      the room. He seized the sword by the steel scabbard, and stood before the
+      mirror; but as he heaved a great blow at it with the heavy pommel, the
+      blade slipped half-way out of the scabbard, and the pommel struck the wall
+      above the mirror. At that moment, a terrible clap of thunder seemed to
+      burst in the very room beside them; and ere Cosmo could repeat the blow,
+      he fell senseless on the hearth. When he came to himself, he found that
+      the lady and the mirror had both disappeared. He was seized with a brain
+      fever, which kept him to his couch for weeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he recovered his reason, he began to think what could have become of
+      the mirror. For the lady, he hoped she had found her way back as she came;
+      but as the mirror involved her fate with its own, he was more immediately
+      anxious about that. He could not think she had carried it away. It was
+      much too heavy, even if it had not been too firmly fixed in the wall, for
+      her to remove it. Then again, he remembered the thunder; which made him
+      believe that it was not the lightning, but some other blow that had struck
+      him down. He concluded that, either by supernatural agency, he having
+      exposed himself to the vengeance of the demons in leaving the circle of
+      safety, or in some other mode, the mirror had probably found its way back
+      to its former owner; and, horrible to think of, might have been by this
+      time once more disposed of, delivering up the lady into the power of
+      another man; who, if he used his power no worse than he himself had done,
+      might yet give Cosmo abundant cause to curse the selfish indecision which
+      prevented him from shattering the mirror at once. Indeed, to think that
+      she whom he loved, and who had prayed to him for freedom, should be still
+      at the mercy, in some degree, of the possessor of the mirror, and was at
+      least exposed to his constant observation, was in itself enough to madden
+      a chary lover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxiety to be well retarded his recovery; but at length he was able to
+      creep abroad. He first made his way to the old broker&rsquo;s, pretending to be
+      in search of something else. A laughing sneer on the creature&rsquo;s face
+      convinced him that he knew all about it; but he could not see it amongst
+      his furniture, or get any information out of him as to what had become of
+      it. He expressed the utmost surprise at hearing it had been stolen, a
+      surprise which Cosmo saw at once to be counterfeited; while, at the same
+      time, he fancied that the old wretch was not at all anxious to have it
+      mistaken for genuine. Full of distress, which he concealed as well as he
+      could, he made many searches, but with no avail. Of course he could ask no
+      questions; but he kept his ears awake for any remotest hint that might set
+      him in a direction of search. He never went out without a short heavy
+      hammer of steel about him, that he might shatter the mirror the moment he
+      was made happy by the sight of his lost treasure, if ever that blessed
+      moment should arrive. Whether he should see the lady again, was now a
+      thought altogether secondary, and postponed to the achievement of her
+      freedom. He wandered here and there, like an anxious ghost, pale and
+      haggard; gnawed ever at the heart, by the thought of what she might be
+      suffering&mdash;all from his fault.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One night, he mingled with a crowd that filled the rooms of one of the
+      most distinguished mansions in the city; for he accepted every invitation,
+      that he might lose no chance, however poor, of obtaining some information
+      that might expedite his discovery. Here he wandered about, listening to
+      every stray word that he could catch, in the hope of a revelation. As he
+      approached some ladies who were talking quietly in a corner, one said to
+      another:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you heard of the strange illness of the Princess von Hohenweiss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; she has been ill for more than a year now. It is very sad for so
+      fine a creature to have such a terrible malady. She was better for some
+      weeks lately, but within the last few days the same attacks have returned,
+      apparently accompanied with more suffering than ever. It is altogether an
+      inexplicable story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there a story connected with her illness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have only heard imperfect reports of it; but it is said that she gave
+      offence some eighteen months ago to an old woman who had held an office of
+      trust in the family, and who, after some incoherent threats, disappeared.
+      This peculiar affection followed soon after. But the strangest part of the
+      story is its association with the loss of an antique mirror, which stood
+      in her dressing-room, and of which she constantly made use.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the speaker&rsquo;s voice sank to a whisper; and Cosmo, although his very
+      soul sat listening in his ears, could hear no more. He trembled too much
+      to dare to address the ladies, even if it had been advisable to expose
+      himself to their curiosity. The name of the Princess was well known to
+      him, but he had never seen her; except indeed it was she, which now he
+      hardly doubted, who had knelt before him on that dreadful night. Fearful
+      of attracting attention, for, from the weak state of his health, he could
+      not recover an appearance of calmness, he made his way to the open air,
+      and reached his lodgings; glad in this, that he at least knew where she
+      lived, although he never dreamed of approaching her openly, even if he
+      should be happy enough to free her from her hateful bondage. He hoped,
+      too, that as he had unexpectedly learned so much, the other and far more
+      important part might be revealed to him ere long.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen Steinwald lately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have not seen him for some time. He is almost a match for me at the
+      rapier, and I suppose he thinks he needs no more lessons.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder what has become of him. I want to see him very much. Let me see;
+      the last time I saw him he was coming out of that old broker&rsquo;s den, to
+      which, if you remember, you accompanied me once, to look at some armour.
+      That is fully three weeks ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This hint was enough for Cosmo. Von Steinwald was a man of influence in
+      the court, well known for his reckless habits and fierce passions. The
+      very possibility that the mirror should be in his possession was hell
+      itself to Cosmo. But violent or hasty measures of any sort were most
+      unlikely to succeed. All that he wanted was an opportunity of breaking the
+      fatal glass; and to obtain this he must bide his time. He revolved many
+      plans in his mind, but without being able to fix upon any.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, one evening, as he was passing the house of Von Steinwald, he
+      saw the windows more than usually brilliant. He watched for a while, and
+      seeing that company began to arrive, hastened home, and dressed as richly
+      as he could, in the hope of mingling with the guests unquestioned: in
+      effecting which, there could be no difficulty for a man of his carriage.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      In a lofty, silent chamber, in another part of the city, lay a form more
+      like marble than a living woman. The loveliness of death seemed frozen
+      upon her face, for her lips were rigid, and her eyelids closed. Her long
+      white hands were crossed over her breast, and no breathing disturbed their
+      repose. Beside the dead, men speak in whispers, as if the deepest rest of
+      all could be broken by the sound of a living voice. Just so, though the
+      soul was evidently beyond the reach of all intimations from the senses,
+      the two ladies, who sat beside her, spoke in the gentlest tones of subdued
+      sorrow. &ldquo;She has lain so for an hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This cannot last long, I fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How much thinner she has grown within the last few weeks! If she would
+      only speak, and explain what she suffers, it would be better for her. I
+      think she has visions in her trances, but nothing can induce her to refer
+      to them when she is awake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does she ever speak in these trances?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never heard her; but they say she walks sometimes, and once put
+      the whole household in a terrible fright by disappearing for a whole hour,
+      and returning drenched with rain, and almost dead with exhaustion and
+      fright. But even then she would give no account of what had happened.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A scarce audible murmur from the yet motionless lips of the lady here
+      startled her attendants. After several ineffectual attempts at
+      articulation, the word &ldquo;<i>Cosmo!</i>&rdquo; burst from her. Then she lay still as
+      before; but only for a moment. With a wild cry, she sprang from the couch
+      erect on the floor, flung her arms above her head, with clasped and
+      straining hands, and, her wide eyes flashing with light, called aloud,
+      with a voice exultant as that of a spirit bursting from a sepulchre, &ldquo;I am
+      free! I am free! I thank thee!&rdquo; Then she flung herself on the couch, and
+      sobbed; then rose, and paced wildly up and down the room, with gestures of
+      mingled delight and anxiety. Then turning to her motionless attendants&mdash;&ldquo;Quick,
+      Lisa, my cloak and hood!&rdquo; Then lower&mdash;&ldquo;I must go to him. Make haste,
+      Lisa! You may come with me, if you will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In another moment they were in the street, hurrying along towards one of
+      the bridges over the Moldau. The moon was near the zenith, and the streets
+      were almost empty. The Princess soon outstripped her attendant, and was
+      half-way over the bridge, before the other reached it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you free, lady? The mirror is broken: are you free?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were spoken close beside her, as she hurried on. She turned; and
+      there, leaning on the parapet in a recess of the bridge, stood Cosmo, in a
+      splendid dress, but with a white and quivering face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cosmo!&mdash;I am free&mdash;and thy servant for ever. I was coming to
+      you now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I to you, for Death made me bold; but I could get no further. Have I
+      atoned at all? Do I love you a little&mdash;truly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, I know now that you love me, my Cosmo; but what do you say about
+      death?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not reply. His hand was pressed against his side. She looked more
+      closely: the blood was welling from between the fingers. She flung her
+      arms around him with a faint bitter wail.
+    </p>
+<p>
+When Lisa came up, she found her mistress kneeling above a wan dead
+face, which smiled on in the spectral moonbeams.
+</p>
+<p>
+And now I will say no more about these wondrous volumes; though
+I could tell many a tale out of them, and could, perhaps, vaguely
+represent some entrancing thoughts of a deeper kind which I found within
+them. From many a sultry noon till twilight, did I sit in that grand
+hall, buried and risen again in these old books. And I trust I have
+carried away in my soul some of the exhalations of their undying leaves.
+In after hours of deserved or needful sorrow, portions of what I read
+there have often come to me again, with an unexpected comforting;
+which was not fruitless, even though the comfort might seem in itself
+groundless and vain.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                                         &ldquo;Your gallery
+             Ha we pass&rsquo;d through, not without much content
+             In many singularities; but we saw not
+             That which my daughter came to look upon,
+             The state of her mother.&rdquo;
+                                      <i>Winter&rsquo;s Tale</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It seemed to me strange, that all this time I had heard no music in the
+      fairy palace. I was convinced there must be music in it, but that my sense
+      was as yet too gross to receive the influence of those mysterious motions
+      that beget sound. Sometimes I felt sure, from the way the few figures of
+      which I got such transitory glimpses passed me, or glided into vacancy
+      before me, that they were moving to the law of music; and, in fact,
+      several times I fancied for a moment that I heard a few wondrous tones
+      coming I knew not whence. But they did not last long enough to convince me
+      that I had heard them with the bodily sense. Such as they were, however,
+      they took strange liberties with me, causing me to burst suddenly into
+      tears, of which there was no presence to make me ashamed, or casting me
+      into a kind of trance of speechless delight, which, passing as suddenly,
+      left me faint and longing for more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, on an evening, before I had been a week in the palace, I was
+      wandering through one lighted arcade and corridor after another. At length
+      I arrived, through a door that closed behind me, in another vast hall of
+      the palace. It was filled with a subdued crimson light; by which I saw
+      that slender pillars of black, built close to walls of white marble, rose
+      to a great height, and then, dividing into innumerable divergent arches,
+      supported a roof, like the walls, of white marble, upon which the arches
+      intersected intricately, forming a fretting of black upon the white, like
+      the network of a skeleton-leaf. The floor was black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between several pairs of the pillars upon every side, the place of the
+      wall behind was occupied by a crimson curtain of thick silk, hanging in
+      heavy and rich folds. Behind each of these curtains burned a powerful
+      light, and these were the sources of the glow that filled the hall. A
+      peculiar delicious odour pervaded the place. As soon as I entered, the old
+      inspiration seemed to return to me, for I felt a strong impulse to sing;
+      or rather, it seemed as if some one else was singing a song in my soul,
+      which wanted to come forth at my lips, imbodied in my breath. But I kept
+      silence; and feeling somewhat overcome by the red light and the perfume,
+      as well as by the emotion within me, and seeing at one end of the hall a
+      great crimson chair, more like a throne than a chair, beside a table of
+      white marble, I went to it, and, throwing myself in it, gave myself up to
+      a succession of images of bewildering beauty, which passed before my
+      inward eye, in a long and occasionally crowded train. Here I sat for
+      hours, I suppose; till, returning somewhat to myself, I saw that the red
+      light had paled away, and felt a cool gentle breath gliding over my
+      forehead. I rose and left the hall with unsteady steps, finding my way
+      with some difficulty to my own chamber, and faintly remembering, as I
+      went, that only in the marble cave, before I found the sleeping statue,
+      had I ever had a similar experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this, I repaired every morning to the same hall; where I sometimes
+      sat in the chair and dreamed deliciously, and sometimes walked up and down
+      over the black floor. Sometimes I acted within myself a whole drama,
+      during one of these perambulations; sometimes walked deliberately through
+      the whole epic of a tale; sometimes ventured to sing a song, though with a
+      shrinking fear of I knew not what. I was astonished at the beauty of my
+      own voice as it rang through the place, or rather crept undulating, like a
+      serpent of sound, along the walls and roof of this superb music-hall.
+      Entrancing verses arose within me as of their own accord, chanting
+      themselves to their own melodies, and requiring no addition of music to
+      satisfy the inward sense. But, ever in the pauses of these, when the
+      singing mood was upon me, I seemed to hear something like the distant
+      sound of multitudes of dancers, and felt as if it was the unheard music,
+      moving their rhythmic motion, that within me blossomed in verse and song.
+      I felt, too, that could I but see the dance, I should, from the harmony of
+      complicated movements, not of the dancers in relation to each other
+      merely, but of each dancer individually in the manifested plastic power
+      that moved the consenting harmonious form, understand the whole of the
+      music on the billows of which they floated and swung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, one night, suddenly, when this feeling of dancing came upon me,
+      I bethought me of lifting one of the crimson curtains, and looking if,
+      perchance, behind it there might not be hid some other mystery, which
+      might at least remove a step further the bewilderment of the present one.
+      Nor was I altogether disappointed. I walked to one of the magnificent
+      draperies, lifted a corner, and peeped in. There, burned a great, crimson,
+      globe-shaped light, high in the cubical centre of another hall, which
+      might be larger or less than that in which I stood, for its dimensions
+      were not easily perceived, seeing that floor and roof and walls were
+      entirely of black marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roof was supported by the same arrangement of pillars radiating in
+      arches, as that of the first hall; only, here, the pillars and arches were
+      of dark red. But what absorbed my delighted gaze, was an innumerable
+      assembly of white marble statues, of every form, and in multitudinous
+      posture, filling the hall throughout. These stood, in the ruddy glow of
+      the great lamp, upon pedestals of jet black. Around the lamp shone in
+      golden letters, plainly legible from where I stood, the two words&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                     TOUCH NOT!
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There was in all this, however, no solution to the sound of dancing; and
+      now I was aware that the influence on my mind had ceased. I did not go in
+      that evening, for I was weary and faint, but I hoarded up the expectation
+      of entering, as of a great coming joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next night I walked, as on the preceding, through the hall. My mind was
+      filled with pictures and songs, and therewith so much absorbed, that I did
+      not for some time think of looking within the curtain I had last night
+      lifted. When the thought of doing so occurred to me first, I happened to
+      be within a few yards of it. I became conscious, at the same moment, that
+      the sound of dancing had been for some time in my ears. I approached the
+      curtain quickly, and, lifting it, entered the black hall. Everything was
+      still as death. I should have concluded that the sound must have proceeded
+      from some other more distant quarter, which conclusion its faintness
+      would, in ordinary circumstances, have necessitated from the first; but
+      there was a something about the statues that caused me still to remain in
+      doubt. As I said, each stood perfectly still upon its black pedestal: but
+      there was about every one a certain air, not of motion, but as if it had
+      just ceased from movement; as if the rest were not altogether of the
+      marbly stillness of thousands of years. It was as if the peculiar
+      atmosphere of each had yet a kind of invisible tremulousness; as if its
+      agitated wavelets had not yet subsided into a perfect calm. I had the
+      suspicion that they had anticipated my appearance, and had sprung, each,
+      from the living joy of the dance, to the death-silence and blackness of
+      its isolated pedestal, just before I entered. I walked across the central
+      hall to the curtain opposite the one I had lifted, and, entering there,
+      found all the appearances similar; only that the statues were different,
+      and differently grouped. Neither did they produce on my mind that
+      impression&mdash;of motion just expired, which I had experienced from the
+      others. I found that behind every one of the crimson curtains was a
+      similar hall, similarly lighted, and similarly occupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next night, I did not allow my thoughts to be absorbed as before with
+      inward images, but crept stealthily along to the furthest curtain in the
+      hall, from behind which, likewise, I had formerly seemed to hear the sound
+      of dancing. I drew aside its edge as suddenly as I could, and, looking in,
+      saw that the utmost stillness pervaded the vast place. I walked in, and
+      passed through it to the other end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There I found that it communicated with a circular corridor, divided from
+      it only by two rows of red columns. This corridor, which was black, with
+      red niches holding statues, ran entirely about the statue-halls, forming a
+      communication between the further ends of them all; further, that is, as
+      regards the central hall of white whence they all diverged like radii,
+      finding their circumference in the corridor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Round this corridor I now went, entering all the halls, of which there
+      were twelve, and finding them all similarly constructed, but filled with
+      quite various statues, of what seemed both ancient and modern sculpture.
+      After I had simply walked through them, I found myself sufficiently tired
+      to long for rest, and went to my own room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the night I dreamed that, walking close by one of the curtains, I was
+      suddenly seized with the desire to enter, and darted in. This time I was
+      too quick for them. All the statues were in motion, statues no longer, but
+      men and women&mdash;all shapes of beauty that ever sprang from the brain
+      of the sculptor, mingled in the convolutions of a complicated dance.
+      Passing through them to the further end, I almost started from my sleep on
+      beholding, not taking part in the dance with the others, nor seemingly
+      endued with life like them, but standing in marble coldness and rigidity
+      upon a black pedestal in the extreme left corner&mdash;my lady of the
+      cave; the marble beauty who sprang from her tomb or her cradle at the call
+      of my songs. While I gazed in speechless astonishment and admiration, a
+      dark shadow, descending from above like the curtain of a stage, gradually
+      hid her entirely from my view. I felt with a shudder that this shadow was
+      perchance my missing demon, whom I had not seen for days. I awoke with a
+      stifled cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, the next evening I began my journey through the halls (for I
+      knew not to which my dream had carried me), in the hope of proving the
+      dream to be a true one, by discovering my marble beauty upon her black
+      pedestal. At length, on reaching the tenth hall, I thought I recognised
+      some of the forms I had seen dancing in my dream; and to my bewilderment,
+      when I arrived at the extreme corner on the left, there stood, the only
+      one I had yet seen, a vacant pedestal. It was exactly in the position
+      occupied, in my dream, by the pedestal on which the white lady stood. Hope
+      beat violently in my heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said I to myself, &ldquo;if yet another part of the dream would but come
+      true, and I should succeed in surprising these forms in their nightly
+      dance; it might be the rest would follow, and I should see on the pedestal
+      my marble queen. Then surely if my songs sufficed to give her life before,
+      when she lay in the bonds of alabaster, much more would they be sufficient
+      then to give her volition and motion, when she alone of assembled crowds
+      of marble forms, would be standing rigid and cold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the difficulty was, to surprise the dancers. I had found that a
+      premeditated attempt at surprise, though executed with the utmost care and
+      rapidity, was of no avail. And, in my dream, it was effected by a sudden
+      thought suddenly executed. I saw, therefore, that there was no plan of
+      operation offering any probability of success, but this: to allow my mind
+      to be occupied with other thoughts, as I wandered around the great
+      centre-hall; and so wait till the impulse to enter one of the others
+      should happen to arise in me just at the moment when I was close to one of
+      the crimson curtains. For I hoped that if I entered any one of the twelve
+      halls at the right moment, that would as it were give me the right of
+      entrance to all the others, seeing they all had communication behind. I
+      would not diminish the hope of the right chance, by supposing it necessary
+      that a desire to enter should awake within me, precisely when I was close
+      to the curtains of the tenth hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first the impulses to see recurred so continually, in spite of the
+      crowded imagery that kept passing through my mind, that they formed too
+      nearly a continuous chain, for the hope that any one of them would succeed
+      as a surprise. But as I persisted in banishing them, they recurred less
+      and less often; and after two or three, at considerable intervals, had
+      come when the spot where I happened to be was unsuitable, the hope
+      strengthened, that soon one might arise just at the right moment; namely,
+      when, in walking round the hall, I should be close to one of the curtains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the right moment and the impulse coincided. I darted into the
+      ninth hall. It was full of the most exquisite moving forms. The whole
+      space wavered and swam with the involutions of an intricate dance. It
+      seemed to break suddenly as I entered, and all made one or two bounds
+      towards their pedestals; but, apparently on finding that they were
+      thoroughly overtaken, they returned to their employment (for it seemed
+      with them earnest enough to be called such) without further heeding me.
+      Somewhat impeded by the floating crowd, I made what haste I could towards
+      the bottom of the hall; whence, entering the corridor, I turned towards
+      the tenth. I soon arrived at the corner I wanted to reach, for the
+      corridor was comparatively empty; but, although the dancers here, after a
+      little confusion, altogether disregarded my presence, I was dismayed at
+      beholding, even yet, a vacant pedestal. But I had a conviction that she
+      was near me. And as I looked at the pedestal, I thought I saw upon it,
+      vaguely revealed as if through overlapping folds of drapery, the
+      indistinct outlines of white feet. Yet there was no sign of drapery or
+      concealing shadow whatever. But I remembered the descending shadow in my
+      dream. And I hoped still in the power of my songs; thinking that what
+      could dispel alabaster, might likewise be capable of dispelling what
+      concealed my beauty now, even if it were the demon whose darkness had
+      overshadowed all my life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+              &ldquo;<i>Alexander</i>. &lsquo;When will you finish Campaspe?&rsquo; 
+               <i>Apelles</i>.  &lsquo;Never finish: for always in absolute
+               beauty there is somewhat above art.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+                                           LYLY&rsquo;S <i>Campaspe</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was
+      present unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless of
+      the innumerable forms of beauty that crowded my way: these might cross my
+      eyes, but the unseen filled my brain. I wandered long, up and down the
+      silent space: no songs came. My soul was not still enough for songs. Only
+      in the silence and darkness of the soul&rsquo;s night, do those stars of the
+      inward firmament sink to its lower surface from the singing realms beyond,
+      and shine upon the conscious spirit. Here all effort was unavailing. If
+      they came not, they could not be found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next night, it was just the same. I walked through the red glimmer of the
+      silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as lonely trod my soul up and
+      down the halls of the brain. At last I entered one of the statue-halls.
+      The dance had just commenced, and I was delighted to find that I was free
+      of their assembly. I walked on till I came to the sacred corner. There I
+      found the pedestal just as I had left it, with the faint glimmer as of
+      white feet still resting on the dead black. As soon as I saw it, I seemed
+      to feel a presence which longed to become visible; and, as it were, called
+      to me to gift it with self-manifestation, that it might shine on me. The
+      power of song came to me. But the moment my voice, though I sang low and
+      soft, stirred the air of the hall, the dancers started; the quick
+      interweaving crowd shook, lost its form, divided; each figure sprang to
+      its pedestal, and stood, a self-evolving life no more, but a rigid,
+      life-like, marble shape, with the whole form composed into the expression
+      of a single state or act. Silence rolled like a spiritual thunder through
+      the grand space. My song had ceased, scared at its own influences. But I
+      saw in the hand of one of the statues close by me, a harp whose chords yet
+      quivered. I remembered that as she bounded past me, her harp had brushed
+      against my arm; so the spell of the marble had not infolded it. I sprang
+      to her, and with a gesture of entreaty, laid my hand on the harp. The
+      marble hand, probably from its contact with the uncharmed harp, had
+      strength enough to relax its hold, and yield the harp to me. No other
+      motion indicated life. Instinctively I struck the chords and sang. And not
+      to break upon the record of my song, I mention here, that as I sang the
+      first four lines, the loveliest feet became clear upon the black pedestal;
+      and ever as I sang, it was as if a veil were being lifted up from before
+      the form, but an invisible veil, so that the statue appeared to grow
+      before me, not so much by evolution, as by infinitesimal degrees of added
+      height. And, while I sang, I did not feel that I stood by a statue, as
+      indeed it appeared to be, but that a real woman-soul was revealing itself
+      by successive stages of imbodiment, and consequent manifestatlon and
+      expression.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        Feet of beauty, firmly planting
+             Arches white on rosy heel!
+         Whence the life-spring, throbbing, panting,
+             Pulses upward to reveal!
+         Fairest things know least despising;
+             Foot and earth meet tenderly:
+         &lsquo;Tis the woman, resting, rising
+             Upward to sublimity,
+         Rise the limbs, sedately sloping,
+             Strong and gentle, full and free;
+         Soft and slow, like certain hoping,
+             Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.
+         Up to speech!  As up to roses
+             Pants the life from leaf to flower,
+         So each blending change discloses,
+             Nearer still, expression&rsquo;s power.
+
+         Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining
+             Up and outward fearlessly!
+         Temple columns, close combining,
+             Lift a holy mystery.
+         Heart of mine! what strange surprises
+             Mount aloft on such a stair!
+         Some great vision upward rises,
+             Curving, bending, floating fair.
+
+         Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow
+             Lead my fascinated eye;
+         Some apocalypse will follow,
+             Some new world of deity.
+         Zoned unseen, and outward swelling,
+             With new thoughts and wonders rife,
+         Queenly majesty foretelling,
+             See the expanding house of life!
+
+         Sudden heaving, unforbidden
+             Sighs eternal, still the same&mdash;
+         Mounts of snow have summits hidden
+             In the mists of uttered flame.
+         But the spirit, dawning nearly
+             Finds no speech for earnest pain;
+         Finds a soundless sighing merely&mdash;
+             Builds its stairs, and mounts again.
+
+         Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,
+             Sendeth out her waiting pair;
+         Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,
+             Half inclasping visions rare;
+         And the great arms, heartways bending;
+             Might of Beauty, drawing home
+         There returning, and re-blending,
+             Where from roots of love they roam.
+
+         Build thy slopes of radiance beamy
+             Spirit, fair with womanhood!
+         Tower thy precipice, white-gleamy,
+             Climb unto the hour of good.
+         Dumb space will be rent asunder,
+             Now the shining column stands
+         Ready to be crowned with wonder
+             By the builder&rsquo;s joyous hands.
+
+         All the lines abroad are spreading,
+             Like a fountain&rsquo;s falling race.
+         Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,
+             Airy foot to rest the face!
+         Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,
+             Sweet approach of lip and breath!
+         Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,
+             Waits to die ecstatic death.
+
+         Span across in treble curving,
+             Bow of promise, upper lip!
+         Set them free, with gracious swerving;
+             Let the wing-words float and dip.
+         <i>Dumb art thou?</i>  O Love immortal,
+             More than words thy speech must be;
+         Childless yet the tender portal
+             Of the home of melody.
+
+         Now the nostrils open fearless,
+             Proud in calm unconsciousness,
+         Sure it must be something peerless
+             That the great Pan would express!
+         Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,
+             In the pure, dear lady-face.
+         Lo, a blinding burst of splendour!&mdash;
+             &lsquo;Tis the free soul&rsquo;s issuing grace.
+
+         Two calm lakes of molten glory
+             Circling round unfathomed deeps!
+         Lightning-flashes, transitory,
+             Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.
+         This the gate, at last, of gladness,
+             To the outward striving <i>me</i>:
+         In a rain of light and sadness,
+             Out its loves and longings flee!
+
+         With a presence I am smitten
+             Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;
+         Presence greater yet than written
+             Even in the glorious eyes.
+         Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,
+             I may look till I am lost;
+         Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,
+             In a sea without a coast.
+
+         Windows open to the glorious!
+             Time and space, oh, far beyond!
+         Woman, ah! thou art victorious,
+             And I perish, overfond.
+         Springs aloft the yet Unspoken
+             In the forehead&rsquo;s endless grace,
+         Full of silences unbroken;
+             Infinite, unfeatured face.
+
+         Domes above, the mount of wonder;
+             Height and hollow wrapt in night;
+         Hiding in its caverns under
+             Woman-nations in their might.
+         Passing forms, the highest Human
+             Faints away to the Divine
+         Features none, of man or woman,
+             Can unveil the holiest shine.
+
+         Sideways, grooved porches only
+             Visible to passing eye,
+         Stand the silent, doorless, lonely
+             Entrance-gates of melody.
+         But all sounds fly in as boldly,
+             Groan and song, and kiss and cry
+         At their galleries, lifted coldly,
+             Darkly, &lsquo;twixt the earth and sky.
+
+         Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest
+             So, in faint, half-glad despair,
+         From the summit thou o&rsquo;erflowest
+             In a fall of torrent hair;
+         Hiding what thou hast created
+             In a half-transparent shroud:
+         Thus, with glory soft-abated,
+             Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;Ev&rsquo;n the Styx, which ninefold her infoldeth
+             Hems not Ceres&rsquo; daughter in its flow;
+         But she grasps the apple&mdash;ever holdeth
+             Her, sad Orcus, down below.&rdquo;
+                       SCHILLER, <i>Das Ideal und das Leben</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ever as I sang, the veil was uplifted; ever as I sang, the signs of life
+      grew; till, when the eyes dawned upon me, it was with that sunrise of
+      splendour which my feeble song attempted to re-imbody.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wonder is, that I was not altogether overcome, but was able to
+      complete my song as the unseen veil continued to rise. This ability came
+      solely from the state of mental elevation in which I found myself. Only
+      because uplifted in song, was I able to endure the blaze of the dawn. But
+      I cannot tell whether she looked more of statue or more of woman; she
+      seemed removed into that region of phantasy where all is intensely vivid,
+      but nothing clearly defined. At last, as I sang of her descending hair,
+      the glow of soul faded away, like a dying sunset. A lamp within had been
+      extinguished, and the house of life shone blank in a winter morn. She was
+      a statue once more&mdash;but visible, and that was much gained. Yet the
+      revulsion from hope and fruition was such, that, unable to restrain
+      myself, I sprang to her, and, in defiance of the law of the place, flung
+      my arms around her, as if I would tear her from the grasp of a visible
+      Death, and lifted her from the pedestal down to my heart. But no sooner
+      had her feet ceased to be in contact with the black pedestal, than she
+      shuddered and trembled all over; then, writhing from my arms, before I
+      could tighten their hold, she sprang into the corridor, with the
+      reproachful cry, &ldquo;You should not have touched me!&rdquo; darted behind one of
+      the exterior pillars of the circle, and disappeared. I followed almost as
+      fast; but ere I could reach the pillar, the sound of a closing door, the
+      saddest of all sounds sometimes, fell on my ear; and, arriving at the spot
+      where she had vanished, I saw, lighted by a pale yellow lamp which hung
+      above it, a heavy, rough door, altogether unlike any others I had seen in
+      the palace; for they were all of ebony, or ivory, or covered with
+      silver-plates, or of some odorous wood, and very ornate; whereas this
+      seemed of old oak, with heavy nails and iron studs. Notwithstanding the
+      precipitation of my pursuit, I could not help reading, in silver letters
+      beneath the lamp: &ldquo;<i>No one enters here without the leave of the Queen</i>.&rdquo; But
+      what was the Queen to me, when I followed my white lady? I dashed the door
+      to the wall and sprang through. Lo! I stood on a waste windy hill. Great
+      stones like tombstones stood all about me. No door, no palace was to be
+      seen. A white figure gleamed past me, wringing her hands, and crying, &ldquo;Ah!
+      you should have sung to me; you should have sung to me!&rdquo; and disappeared
+      behind one of the stones. I followed. A cold gust of wind met me from
+      behind the stone; and when I looked, I saw nothing but a great hole in the
+      earth, into which I could find no way of entering. Had she fallen in? I
+      could not tell. I must wait for the daylight. I sat down and wept, for
+      there was no help.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         &ldquo;First, I thought, almost despairing,
+             This must crush my spirit now;
+          Yet I bore it, and am bearing&mdash;
+             Only do not ask me how.&rdquo;
+                              HEINE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the daylight came, it brought the possibility of action, but with it
+      little of consolation. With the first visible increase of light, I gazed
+      into the chasm, but could not, for more than an hour, see sufficiently
+      well to discover its nature. At last I saw it was almost a perpendicular
+      opening, like a roughly excavated well, only very large. I could perceive
+      no bottom; and it was not till the sun actually rose, that I discovered a
+      sort of natural staircase, in many parts little more than suggested, which
+      led round and round the gulf, descending spirally into its abyss. I saw at
+      once that this was my path; and without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation, glad to
+      quit the sunlight, which stared at me most heartlessly, I commenced my
+      tortuous descent. It was very difficult. In some parts I had to cling to
+      the rocks like a bat. In one place, I dropped from the track down upon the
+      next returning spire of the stair; which being broad in this particular
+      portion, and standing out from the wall at right angles, received me upon
+      my feet safe, though somewhat stupefied by the shock. After descending a
+      great way, I found the stair ended at a narrow opening which entered the
+      rock horizontally. Into this I crept, and, having entered, had just room
+      to turn round. I put my head out into the shaft by which I had come down,
+      and surveyed the course of my descent. Looking up, I saw the stars;
+      although the sun must by this time have been high in the heavens. Looking
+      below, I saw that the sides of the shaft went sheer down, smooth as glass;
+      and far beneath me, I saw the reflection of the same stars I had seen in
+      the heavens when I looked up. I turned again, and crept inwards some
+      distance, when the passage widened, and I was at length able to stand and
+      walk upright. Wider and loftier grew the way; new paths branched off on
+      every side; great open halls appeared; till at last I found myself
+      wandering on through an underground country, in which the sky was of rock,
+      and instead of trees and flowers, there were only fantastic rocks and
+      stones. And ever as I went, darker grew my thoughts, till at last I had no
+      hope whatever of finding the white lady: I no longer called her to myself
+      <i>my</i> white lady. Whenever a choice was necessary, I always chose the path
+      which seemed to lead downwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length I began to find that these regions were inhabited. From behind a
+      rock a peal of harsh grating laughter, full of evil humour, rang through
+      my ears, and, looking round, I saw a queer, goblin creature, with a great
+      head and ridiculous features, just such as those described, in German
+      histories and travels, as Kobolds. &ldquo;What do you want with me?&rdquo; I said. He
+      pointed at me with a long forefinger, very thick at the root, and
+      sharpened to a point, and answered, &ldquo;He! he! he! what do <i>you</i> want here?&rdquo;
+       Then, changing his tone, he continued, with mock humility&mdash;&ldquo;Honoured
+      sir, vouchsafe to withdraw from thy slaves the lustre of thy august
+      presence, for thy slaves cannot support its brightness.&rdquo; A second
+      appeared, and struck in: &ldquo;You are so big, you keep the sun from us. We
+      can&rsquo;t see for you, and we&rsquo;re so cold.&rdquo; Thereupon arose, on all sides, the
+      most terrific uproar of laughter, from voices like those of children in
+      volume, but scrannel and harsh as those of decrepit age, though,
+      unfortunately, without its weakness. The whole pandemonium of fairy
+      devils, of all varieties of fantastic ugliness, both in form and feature,
+      and of all sizes from one to four feet, seemed to have suddenly assembled
+      about me. At length, after a great babble of talk among themselves, in a
+      language unknown to me, and after seemingly endless gesticulation,
+      consultation, elbow-nudging, and unmitigated peals of laughter, they
+      formed into a circle about one of their number, who scrambled upon a
+      stone, and, much to my surprise, and somewhat to my dismay, began to sing,
+      in a voice corresponding in its nature to his talking one, from beginning
+      to end, the song with which I had brought the light into the eyes of the
+      white lady. He sang the same air too; and, all the time, maintained a face
+      of mock entreaty and worship; accompanying the song with the travestied
+      gestures of one playing on the lute. The whole assembly kept silence,
+      except at the close of every verse, when they roared, and danced, and
+      shouted with laughter, and flung themselves on the ground, in real or
+      pretended convulsions of delight. When he had finished, the singer threw
+      himself from the top of the stone, turning heels over head several times
+      in his descent; and when he did alight, it was on the top of his head, on
+      which he hopped about, making the most grotesque gesticulations with his
+      legs in the air. Inexpressible laughter followed, which broke up in a
+      shower of tiny stones from innumerable hands. They could not materially
+      injure me, although they cut me on the head and face. I attempted to run
+      away, but they all rushed upon me, and, laying hold of every part that
+      afforded a grasp, held me tight. Crowding about me like bees, they shouted
+      an insect-swarm of exasperating speeches up into my face, among which the
+      most frequently recurring were&mdash;&ldquo;You shan&rsquo;t have her; you shan&rsquo;t have
+      her; he! he! he! She&rsquo;s for a better man; how he&rsquo;ll kiss her! how he&rsquo;ll
+      kiss her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The galvanic torrent of this battery of malevolence stung to life within
+      me a spark of nobleness, and I said aloud, &ldquo;Well, if he is a better man,
+      let him have her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They instantly let go their hold of me, and fell back a step or two, with
+      a whole broadside of grunts and humphs, as of unexpected and disappointed
+      approbation. I made a step or two forward, and a lane was instantly opened
+      for me through the midst of the grinning little antics, who bowed most
+      politely to me on every side as I passed. After I had gone a few yards, I
+      looked back, and saw them all standing quite still, looking after me, like
+      a great school of boys; till suddenly one turned round, and with a loud
+      whoop, rushed into the midst of the others. In an instant, the whole was
+      one writhing and tumbling heap of contortion, reminding me of the live
+      pyramids of intertwined snakes of which travellers make report. As soon as
+      one was worked out of the mass, he bounded off a few paces, and then, with
+      a somersault and a run, threw himself gyrating into the air, and descended
+      with all his weight on the summit of the heaving and struggling chaos of
+      fantastic figures. I left them still busy at this fierce and apparently
+      aimless amusement. And as I went, I sang&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        If a nobler waits for thee,
+             I will weep aside;
+         It is well that thou should&rsquo;st be,
+             Of the nobler, bride.
+
+        For if love builds up the home,
+             Where the heart is free,
+         Homeless yet the heart must roam,
+             That has not found thee.
+
+        One must suffer: I, for her
+             Yield in her my part
+         Take her, thou art worthier&mdash;
+             Still I be still, my heart!
+
+         Gift ungotten! largess high
+             Of a frustrate will!
+          But to yield it lovingly
+             Is a something still.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Then a little song arose of itself in my soul; and I felt for the moment,
+      while it sank sadly within me, as if I was once more walking up and down
+      the white hall of Phantasy in the Fairy Palace. But this lasted no longer
+      than the song; as will be seen.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        Do not vex thy violet
+             Perfume to afford:
+         Else no odour thou wilt get
+             From its little hoard.
+
+        In thy lady&rsquo;s gracious eyes
+             Look not thou too long;
+         Else from them the glory flies,
+             And thou dost her wrong.
+
+        Come not thou too near the maid,
+             Clasp her not too wild;
+         Else the splendour is allayed,
+             And thy heart beguiled.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A crash of laughter, more discordant and deriding than any I had yet
+      heard, invaded my ears. Looking on in the direction of the sound, I saw a
+      little elderly woman, much taller, however, than the goblins I had just
+      left, seated upon a stone by the side of the path. She rose, as I drew
+      near, and came forward to meet me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was very plain and commonplace in appearance, without being hideously
+      ugly. Looking up in my face with a stupid sneer, she said: &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it a
+      pity you haven&rsquo;t a pretty girl to walk all alone with you through this
+      sweet country? How different everything would look? wouldn&rsquo;t it? Strange
+      that one can never have what one would like best! How the roses would
+      bloom and all that, even in this infernal hole! wouldn&rsquo;t they, Anodos? Her
+      eyes would light up the old cave, wouldn&rsquo;t they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That depends on who the pretty girl should be,&rdquo; replied I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not so very much matter that,&rdquo; she answered; &ldquo;look here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I had turned to go away as I gave my reply, but now I stopped and looked
+      at her. As a rough unsightly bud might suddenly blossom into the most
+      lovely flower; or rather, as a sunbeam bursts through a shapeless cloud,
+      and transfigures the earth; so burst a face of resplendent beauty, as it
+      were <i>through</i> the unsightly visage of the woman, destroying it with light
+      as it dawned through it. A summer sky rose above me, gray with heat;
+      across a shining slumberous landscape, looked from afar the peaks of
+      snow-capped mountains; and down from a great rock beside me fell a sheet
+      of water mad with its own delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay with me,&rdquo; she said, lifting up her exquisite face, and looking full
+      in mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I drew back. Again the infernal laugh grated upon my ears; again the rocks
+      closed in around me, and the ugly woman looked at me with wicked, mocking
+      hazel eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall have your reward,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;You shall see your white lady
+      again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That lies not with you,&rdquo; I replied, and turned and left her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She followed me with shriek upon shriek of laughter, as I went on my way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may mention here, that although there was always light enough to see my
+      path and a few yards on every side of me, I never could find out the
+      source of this sad sepulchral illumination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;In the wind&rsquo;s uproar, the sea&rsquo;s raging grim,
+          And the sighs that are born in him.&rdquo;
+                                      HEINE.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;From dreams of bliss shall men awake
+          One day, but not to weep:
+          The dreams remain; they only break
+          The mirror of the sleep.&rdquo;
+                                     JEAN PAUL, <i>Hesperus</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      How I got through this dreary part of my travels, I do not know. I do not
+      think I was upheld by the hope that any moment the light might break in
+      upon me; for I scarcely thought about that. I went on with a dull
+      endurance, varied by moments of uncontrollable sadness; for more and more
+      the conviction grew upon me that I should never see the white lady again.
+      It may seem strange that one with whom I had held so little communion
+      should have so engrossed my thoughts; but benefits conferred awaken love
+      in some minds, as surely as benefits received in others. Besides being
+      delighted and proud that <i>my</i> songs had called the beautiful creature to
+      life, the same fact caused me to feel a tenderness unspeakable for her,
+      accompanied with a kind of feeling of property in her; for so the goblin
+      Selfishness would reward the angel Love. When to all this is added, an
+      overpowering sense of her beauty, and an unquestioning conviction that
+      this was a true index to inward loveliness, it may be understood how it
+      came to pass that my imagination filled my whole soul with the play of its
+      own multitudinous colours and harmonies around the form which yet stood, a
+      gracious marble radiance, in the midst of <i>its</i> white hall of phantasy. The
+      time passed by unheeded; for my thoughts were busy. Perhaps this was also
+      in part the cause of my needing no food, and never thinking how I should
+      find any, during this subterraneous part of my travels. How long they
+      endured I could not tell, for I had no means of measuring time; and when I
+      looked back, there was such a discrepancy between the decisions of my
+      imagination and my judgment, as to the length of time that had passed,
+      that I was bewildered, and gave up all attempts to arrive at any
+      conclusion on the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A gray mist continually gathered behind me. When I looked back towards the
+      past, this mist was the medium through which my eyes had to strain for a
+      vision of what had gone by; and the form of the white lady had receded
+      into an unknown region. At length the country of rock began to close again
+      around me, gradually and slowly narrowing, till I found myself walking in
+      a gallery of rock once more, both sides of which I could touch with my
+      outstretched hands. It narrowed yet, until I was forced to move carefully,
+      in order to avoid striking against the projecting pieces of rock. The roof
+      sank lower and lower, until I was compelled, first to stoop, and then to
+      creep on my hands and knees. It recalled terrible dreams of childhood; but
+      I was not much afraid, because I felt sure that this was my path, and my
+      only hope of leaving Fairy Land, of which I was now almost weary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, on getting past an abrupt turn in the passage, through which I
+      had to force myself, I saw, a few yards ahead of me, the long-forgotten
+      daylight shining through a small opening, to which the path, if path it
+      could now be called, led me. With great difficulty I accomplished these
+      last few yards, and came forth to the day. I stood on the shore of a
+      wintry sea, with a wintry sun just a few feet above its horizon-edge. It
+      was bare, and waste, and gray. Hundreds of hopeless waves rushed
+      constantly shorewards, falling exhausted upon a beach of great loose
+      stones, that seemed to stretch miles and miles in both directions. There
+      was nothing for the eye but mingling shades of gray; nothing for the ear
+      but the rush of the coming, the roar of the breaking, and the moan of the
+      retreating wave. No rock lifted up a sheltering severity above the
+      dreariness around; even that from which I had myself emerged rose scarcely
+      a foot above the opening by which I had reached the dismal day, more
+      dismal even than the tomb I had left. A cold, death-like wind swept across
+      the shore, seeming to issue from a pale mouth of cloud upon the horizon.
+      Sign of life was nowhere visible. I wandered over the stones, up and down
+      the beach, a human imbodiment of the nature around me. The wind increased;
+      its keen waves flowed through my soul; the foam rushed higher up the
+      stones; a few dead stars began to gleam in the east; the sound of the
+      waves grew louder and yet more despairing. A dark curtain of cloud was
+      lifted up, and a pale blue rent shone between its foot and the edge of the
+      sea, out from which rushed an icy storm of frozen wind, that tore the
+      waters into spray as it passed, and flung the billows in raving heaps upon
+      the desolate shore. I could bear it no longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not be tortured to death,&rdquo; I cried; &ldquo;I will meet it half-way. The
+      life within me is yet enough to bear me up to the face of Death, and then
+      I die unconquered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before it had grown so dark, I had observed, though without any particular
+      interest, that on one part of the shore a low platform of rock seemed to
+      run out far into the midst of the breaking waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Towards this I now went, scrambling over smooth stones, to which scarce
+      even a particle of sea-weed clung; and having found it, I got on it, and
+      followed its direction, as near as I could guess, out into the tumbling
+      chaos. I could hardly keep my feet against the wind and sea. The waves
+      repeatedly all but swept me off my path; but I kept on my way, till I
+      reached the end of the low promontory, which, in the fall of the waves,
+      rose a good many feet above the surface, and, in their rise, was covered
+      with their waters. I stood one moment and gazed into the heaving abyss
+      beneath me; then plunged headlong into the mounting wave below. A
+      blessing, like the kiss of a mother, seemed to alight on my soul; a calm,
+      deeper than that which accompanies a hope deferred, bathed my spirit. I
+      sank far into the waters, and sought not to return. I felt as if once more
+      the great arms of the beech-tree were around me, soothing me after the
+      miseries I had passed through, and telling me, like a little sick child,
+      that I should be better to-morrow. The waters of themselves lifted me, as
+      with loving arms, to the surface. I breathed again, but did not unclose my
+      eyes. I would not look on the wintry sea, and the pitiless gray sky. Thus
+      I floated, till something gently touched me. It was a little boat floating
+      beside me. How it came there I could not tell; but it rose and sank on the
+      waters, and kept touching me in its fall, as if with a human will to let
+      me know that help was by me. It was a little gay-coloured boat, seemingly
+      covered with glistering scales like those of a fish, all of brilliant
+      rainbow hues. I scrambled into it, and lay down in the bottom, with a
+      sense of exquisite repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I drew over me a rich, heavy, purple cloth that was beside me; and,
+      lying still, knew, by the sound of the waters, that my little bark was
+      fleeting rapidly onwards. Finding, however, none of that stormy motion
+      which the sea had manifested when I beheld it from the shore, I opened my
+      eyes; and, looking first up, saw above me the deep violet sky of a warm
+      southern night; and then, lifting my head, saw that I was sailing fast
+      upon a summer sea, in the last border of a southern twilight. The aureole
+      of the sun yet shot the extreme faint tips of its longest rays above the
+      horizon-waves, and withdrew them not. It was a perpetual twilight. The
+      stars, great and earnest, like children&rsquo;s eyes, bent down lovingly towards
+      the waters; and the reflected stars within seemed to float up, as if
+      longing to meet their embraces. But when I looked down, a new wonder met
+      my view. For, vaguely revealed beneath the wave, I floated above my whole
+      Past. The fields of my childhood flitted by; the halls of my youthful
+      labours; the streets of great cities where I had dwelt; and the assemblies
+      of men and women wherein I had wearied myself seeking for rest. But so
+      indistinct were the visions, that sometimes I thought I was sailing on a
+      shallow sea, and that strange rocks and forests of sea-plants beguiled my
+      eye, sufficiently to be transformed, by the magic of the phantasy, into
+      well-known objects and regions. Yet, at times, a beloved form seemed to
+      lie close beneath me in sleep; and the eyelids would tremble as if about
+      to forsake the conscious eye; and the arms would heave upwards, as if in
+      dreams they sought for a satisfying presence. But these motions might come
+      only from the heaving of the waters between those forms and me. Soon I
+      fell asleep, overcome with fatigue and delight. In dreams of unspeakable
+      joy&mdash;of restored friendships; of revived embraces; of love which said
+      it had never died; of faces that had vanished long ago, yet said with
+      smiling lips that they knew nothing of the grave; of pardons implored, and
+      granted with such bursting floods of love, that I was almost glad I had
+      sinned&mdash;thus I passed through this wondrous twilight. I awoke with
+      the feeling that I had been kissed and loved to my heart&rsquo;s content; and
+      found that my boat was floating motionless by the grassy shore of a little
+      island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;In still rest, in changeless simplicity, I bear,
+     uninterrupted, the consciousness of the whole of Humanity
+     within me.&rdquo;&mdash;SCHLEIERMACHERS, <i>Monologen</i>.
+
+            &ldquo;... such a sweetness, such a grace,
+                 In all thy speech appear,
+              That what to th&rsquo;eye a beauteous face,
+                 That thy tongue is to the ear.&rdquo;
+                                           &mdash;COWLEY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The water was deep to the very edge; and I sprang from the little boat
+      upon a soft grassy turf. The island seemed rich with a profusion of all
+      grasses and low flowers. All delicate lowly things were most plentiful;
+      but no trees rose skywards, not even a bush overtopped the tall grasses,
+      except in one place near the cottage I am about to describe, where a few
+      plants of the gum-cistus, which drops every night all the blossoms that
+      the day brings forth, formed a kind of natural arbour. The whole island
+      lay open to the sky and sea. It rose nowhere more than a few feet above
+      the level of the waters, which flowed deep all around its border. Here
+      there seemed to be neither tide nor storm. A sense of persistent calm and
+      fulness arose in the mind at the sight of the slow, pulse-like rise and
+      fall of the deep, clear, unrippled waters against the bank of the island,
+      for shore it could hardly be called, being so much more like the edge of a
+      full, solemn river. As I walked over the grass towards the cottage, which
+      stood at a little distance from the bank, all the flowers of childhood
+      looked at me with perfect child-eyes out of the grass. My heart, softened
+      by the dreams through which it had passed, overflowed in a sad, tender
+      love towards them. They looked to me like children impregnably fortified
+      in a helpless confidence. The sun stood half-way down the western sky,
+      shining very soft and golden; and there grew a second world of shadows
+      amidst the world of grasses and wild flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cottage was square, with low walls, and a high pyramidal roof thatched
+      with long reeds, of which the withered blossoms hung over all the eaves.
+      It is noticeable that most of the buildings I saw in Fairy Land were
+      cottages. There was no path to a door, nor, indeed, was there any track
+      worn by footsteps in the island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cottage rose right out of the smooth turf. It had no windows that I
+      could see; but there was a door in the centre of the side facing me, up to
+      which I went. I knocked, and the sweetest voice I had ever heard said,
+      &ldquo;Come in.&rdquo; I entered. A bright fire was burning on a hearth in the centre
+      of the earthern floor, and the smoke found its way out at an opening in
+      the centre of the pyramidal roof. Over the fire hung a little pot, and
+      over the pot bent a woman-face, the most wonderful, I thought, that I had
+      ever beheld. For it was older than any countenance I had ever looked upon.
+      There was not a spot in which a wrinkle could lie, where a wrinkle lay
+      not. And the skin was ancient and brown, like old parchment. The woman&rsquo;s
+      form was tall and spare: and when she stood up to welcome me, I saw that
+      she was straight as an arrow. Could that voice of sweetness have issued
+      from those lips of age? Mild as they were, could they be the portals
+      whence flowed such melody? But the moment I saw her eyes, I no longer
+      wondered at her voice: they were absolutely young&mdash;those of a woman
+      of five-and-twenty, large, and of a clear gray. Wrinkles had beset them
+      all about; the eyelids themselves were old, and heavy, and worn; but the
+      eyes were very incarnations of soft light. She held out her hand to me,
+      and the voice of sweetness again greeted me, with the single word,
+      &ldquo;Welcome.&rdquo; She set an old wooden chair for me, near the fire, and went on
+      with her cooking. A wondrous sense of refuge and repose came upon me. I
+      felt like a boy who has got home from school, miles across the hills,
+      through a heavy storm of wind and snow. Almost, as I gazed on her, I
+      sprang from my seat to kiss those old lips. And when, having finished her
+      cooking, she brought some of the dish she had prepared, and set it on a
+      little table by me, covered with a snow-white cloth, I could not help
+      laying my head on her bosom, and bursting into happy tears. She put her
+      arms round me, saying, &ldquo;Poor child; poor child!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As I continued to weep, she gently disengaged herself, and, taking a
+      spoon, put some of the food (I did not know what it was) to my lips,
+      entreating me most endearingly to swallow it. To please her, I made an
+      effort, and succeeded. She went on feeding me like a baby, with one arm
+      round me, till I looked up in her face and smiled: then she gave me the
+      spoon and told me to eat, for it would do me good. I obeyed her, and found
+      myself wonderfully refreshed. Then she drew near the fire an old-fashioned
+      couch that was in the cottage, and making me lie down upon it, sat at my
+      feet, and began to sing. Amazing store of old ballads rippled from her
+      lips, over the pebbles of ancient tunes; and the voice that sang was sweet
+      as the voice of a tuneful maiden that singeth ever from very fulness of
+      song. The songs were almost all sad, but with a sound of comfort. One I
+      can faintly recall. It was something like this:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            Sir Aglovaile through the churchyard rode;
+                 <i>Sing, All alone I lie:</i>
+             Little recked he where&rsquo;er he yode,
+                 <i>All alone, up in the sky</i>.
+
+             Swerved his courser, and plunged with fear
+                 <i>All alone i lie:</i>
+             His cry might have wakened the dead men near,
+                 <i>All alone, up in the sky</i>.
+
+            The very dead that lay at his feet,
+             Lapt in the mouldy winding-sheet.
+
+            But he curbed him and spurred him, until he stood
+             Still in his place, like a horse of wood,
+
+            With nostrils uplift, and eyes wide and wan;
+             But the sweat in streams from his fetlocks ran.
+
+            A ghost grew out of the shadowy air,
+             And sat in the midst of her moony hair.
+
+            In her gleamy hair she sat and wept;
+             In the dreamful moon they lay and slept;
+
+            The shadows above, and the bodies below,
+             Lay and slept in the moonbeams slow.
+
+            And she sang, like the moan of an autumn wind
+             Over the stubble left behind:
+
+              <i>Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+               A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+              And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+               And life is never the same again.
+
+              Alas, how hardly things go right!
+               &lsquo;Tis hard to watch on a summer night,
+              For the sigh will come and the kiss will stay,
+               And the summer night is a winter day.</i>
+
+            &ldquo;Oh, lovely ghosts my heart is woes
+             To see thee weeping and wailing so.
+
+            Oh, lovely ghost,&rdquo; said the fearless knight,
+             &ldquo;Can the sword of a warrior set it right?
+
+            Or prayer of bedesman, praying mild,
+             As a cup of water a feverish child,
+
+            Sooth thee at last, in dreamless mood
+             To sleep the sleep a dead lady should?
+
+            Thine eyes they fill me with longing sore,
+             As if I had known thee for evermore.
+
+            Oh, lovely ghost, I could leave the day
+             To sit with thee in the moon away
+
+            If thou wouldst trust me, and lay thy head
+             To rest on a bosom that is not dead.&rdquo;
+              The lady sprang up with a strange ghost-cry,
+             And she flung her white ghost-arms on high:
+
+            And she laughed a laugh that was not gay,
+             And it lengthened out till it died away;
+
+            And the dead beneath turned and moaned,
+             And the yew-trees above they shuddered and groaned.
+
+            &ldquo;Will he love me twice with a love that is vain?
+             Will he kill the poor ghost yet again?
+
+            I thought thou wert good; but I said, and wept:
+             &lsquo;Can I have dreamed who have not slept?&rsquo; 
+
+            And I knew, alas! or ever I would,
+             Whether I dreamed, or thou wert good.
+
+            When my baby died, my brain grew wild.
+             I awoke, and found I was with my child.&rdquo;
+ 
+            &ldquo;If thou art the ghost of my Adelaide,
+             How is it?  Thou wert but a village maid,
+
+            And thou seemest an angel lady white,
+             Though thin, and wan, and past delight.&rdquo;
+ 
+            The lady smiled a flickering smile,
+             And she pressed her temples hard the while.
+
+            &ldquo;Thou seest that Death for a woman can
+             Do more than knighthood for a man.&rdquo;
+ 
+            &ldquo;But show me the child thou callest mine,
+             Is she out to-night in the ghost&rsquo;s sunshine?&rdquo;
+ 
+            &ldquo;In St. Peter&rsquo;s Church she is playing on,
+             At hide-and-seek, with Apostle John.
+
+            When the moonbeams right through the window go,
+             Where the twelve are standing in glorious show,
+
+            She says the rest of them do not stir,
+             But one comes down to play with her.
+
+            Then I can go where I list, and weep,
+             For good St. John my child will keep.&rdquo;
+ 
+            &ldquo;Thy beauty filleth the very air,
+              Never saw I a woman so fair.&rdquo;
+ 
+            &ldquo;Come, if thou darest, and sit by my side;
+              But do not touch me, or woe will betide.
+
+            Alas, I am weak: I might well know
+             This gladness betokens some further woe.
+
+            Yet come.  It will come.  I will bear it.  I can.
+             For thou lovest me yet&mdash;though but as a man.&rdquo;
+ 
+            The knight dismounted in earnest speed;
+              Away through the tombstones thundered the steed,
+
+            And fell by the outer wall, and died.
+             But the knight he kneeled by the lady&rsquo;s side;
+
+            Kneeled beside her in wondrous bliss,
+             Rapt in an everlasting kiss:
+
+            Though never his lips come the lady nigh,
+             And his eyes alone on her beauty lie.
+
+            All the night long, till the cock crew loud,
+             He kneeled by the lady, lapt in her shroud.
+
+            And what they said, I may not say:
+             Dead night was sweeter than living day.
+
+            How she made him so blissful glad
+             Who made her and found her so ghostly sad,
+
+            I may not tell; but it needs no touch
+             To make them blessed who love so much.
+
+            &ldquo;Come every night, my ghost, to me;
+             And one night I will come to thee.
+
+            &lsquo;Tis good to have a ghostly wife:
+             She will not tremble at clang of strife;
+
+            She will only hearken, amid the din,
+             Behind the door, if he cometh in.&rdquo;
+ 
+            And this is how Sir Aglovaile
+            Often walked in the moonlight pale.
+
+            And oft when the crescent but thinned the gloom,
+             Full orbed moonlight filled his room;
+
+            And through beneath his chamber door,
+             Fell a ghostly gleam on the outer floor;
+
+            And they that passed, in fear averred
+             That murmured words they often heard.
+
+            &lsquo;Twas then that the eastern crescent shone
+              Through the chancel window, and good St. John
+
+            Played with the ghost-child all the night,
+             And the mother was free till the morning light,
+
+            And sped through the dawning night, to stay
+             With Aglovaile till the break of day.
+
+            And their love was a rapture, lone and high,
+             And dumb as the moon in the topmost sky.
+
+            One night Sir Aglovaile, weary, slept
+             And dreamed a dream wherein he wept.
+
+            A warrior he was, not often wept he,
+             But this night he wept full bitterly.
+
+            He woke&mdash;beside him the ghost-girl shone
+             Out of the dark: &lsquo;twas the eve of St. John.
+
+            He had dreamed a dream of a still, dark wood,
+             Where the maiden of old beside him stood;
+
+            But a mist came down, and caught her away,
+             And he sought her in vain through the pathless day,
+
+            Till he wept with the grief that can do no more,
+             And thought he had dreamt the dream before.
+
+            From bursting heart the weeping flowed on;
+             And lo! beside him the ghost-girl shone;
+
+            Shone like the light on a harbour&rsquo;s breast,
+             Over the sea of his dream&rsquo;s unrest;
+
+            Shone like the wondrous, nameless boon,
+             That the heart seeks ever, night or noon:
+
+            Warnings forgotten, when needed most,
+             He clasped to his bosom the radiant ghost.
+
+            She wailed aloud, and faded, and sank.
+             With upturn&rsquo;d white face, cold and blank,
+
+            In his arms lay the corpse of the maiden pale,
+             And she came no more to Sir Aglovaile.
+
+            Only a voice, when winds were wild,
+             Sobbed and wailed like a chidden child.
+
+            <i>Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+             A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+             And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+             And life is never the same again.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This was one of the simplest of her songs, which, perhaps, is the cause of
+      my being able to remember it better than most of the others. While she
+      sung, I was in Elysium, with the sense of a rich soul upholding,
+      embracing, and overhanging mine, full of all plenty and bounty. I felt as
+      if she could give me everything I wanted; as if I should never wish to
+      leave her, but would be content to be sung to and fed by her, day after
+      day, as years rolled by. At last I fell asleep while she sang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I awoke, I knew not whether it was night or day. The fire had sunk to
+      a few red embers, which just gave light enough to show me the woman
+      standing a few feet from me, with her back towards me, facing the door by
+      which I had entered. She was weeping, but very gently and plentifully. The
+      tears seemed to come freely from her heart. Thus she stood for a few
+      minutes; then, slowly turning at right angles to her former position, she
+      faced another of the four sides of the cottage. I now observed, for the
+      first time, that here was a door likewise; and that, indeed, there was one
+      in the centre of every side of the cottage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she looked towards the second door, her tears ceased to flow, but
+      sighs took their place. She often closed her eyes as she stood; and every
+      time she closed her eyes, a gentle sigh seemed to be born in her heart,
+      and to escape at her lips. But when her eyes were open, her sighs were
+      deep and very sad, and shook her whole frame. Then she turned towards the
+      third door, and a cry as of fear or suppressed pain broke from her; but
+      she seemed to hearten herself against the dismay, and to front it
+      steadily; for, although I often heard a slight cry, and sometimes a moan,
+      yet she never moved or bent her head, and I felt sure that her eyes never
+      closed. Then she turned to the fourth door, and I saw her shudder, and
+      then stand still as a statue; till at last she turned towards me and
+      approached the fire. I saw that her face was white as death. But she gave
+      one look upwards, and smiled the sweetest, most child-innocent smile; then
+      heaped fresh wood on the fire, and, sitting down by the blaze, drew her
+      wheel near her, and began to spin. While she spun, she murmured a low
+      strange song, to which the hum of the wheel made a kind of infinite
+      symphony. At length she paused in her spinning and singing, and glanced
+      towards me, like a mother who looks whether or not her child gives signs
+      of waking. She smiled when she saw that my eyes were open. I asked her
+      whether it was day yet. She answered, &ldquo;It is always day here, so long as I
+      keep my fire burning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I felt wonderfully refreshed; and a great desire to see more of the island
+      awoke within me. I rose, and saying that I wished to look about me, went
+      towards the door by which I had entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stay a moment,&rdquo; said my hostess, with some trepidation in her voice.
+      &ldquo;Listen to me. You will not see what you expect when you go out of that
+      door. Only remember this: whenever you wish to come back to me, enter
+      wherever you see this mark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She held up her left hand between me and the fire. Upon the palm, which
+      appeared almost transparent, I saw, in dark red, a mark like this &mdash;>
+      which I took care to fix in my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She then kissed me, and bade me good-bye with a solemnity that awed me;
+      and bewildered me too, seeing I was only going out for a little ramble in
+      an island, which I did not believe larger than could easily be compassed
+      in a few hours&rsquo; walk at most. As I went she resumed her spinning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I opened the door, and stepped out. The moment my foot touched the smooth
+      sward, I seemed to issue from the door of an old barn on my father&rsquo;s
+      estate, where, in the hot afternoons, I used to go and lie amongst the
+      straw, and read. It seemed to me now that I had been asleep there. At a
+      little distance in the field, I saw two of my brothers at play. The moment
+      they caught sight of me, they called out to me to come and join them,
+      which I did; and we played together as we had done years ago, till the red
+      sun went down in the west, and the gray fog began to rise from the river.
+      Then we went home together with a strange happiness. As we went, we heard
+      the continually renewed larum of a landrail in the long grass. One of my
+      brothers and I separated to a little distance, and each commenced running
+      towards the part whence the sound appeared to come, in the hope of
+      approaching the spot where the bird was, and so getting at least a sight
+      of it, if we should not be able to capture the little creature. My
+      father&rsquo;s voice recalled us from trampling down the rich long grass, soon
+      to be cut down and laid aside for the winter. I had quite forgotten all
+      about Fairy Land, and the wonderful old woman, and the curious red mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My favourite brother and I shared the same bed. Some childish dispute
+      arose between us; and our last words, ere we fell asleep, were not of
+      kindness, notwithstanding the pleasures of the day. When I woke in the
+      morning, I missed him. He had risen early, and had gone to bathe in the
+      river. In another hour, he was brought home drowned. Alas! alas! if we had
+      only gone to sleep as usual, the one with his arm about the other! Amidst
+      the horror of the moment, a strange conviction flashed across my mind,
+      that I had gone through the very same once before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rushed out of the house, I knew not why, sobbing and crying bitterly. I
+      ran through the fields in aimless distress, till, passing the old barn, I
+      caught sight of a red mark on the door. The merest trifles sometimes rivet
+      the attention in the deepest misery; the intellect has so little to do
+      with grief. I went up to look at this mark, which I did not remember ever
+      to have seen before. As I looked at it, I thought I would go in and lie
+      down amongst the straw, for I was very weary with running about and
+      weeping. I opened the door; and there in the cottage sat the old woman as
+      I had left her, at her spinning-wheel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not expect you quite so soon,&rdquo; she said, as I shut the door behind
+      me. I went up to the couch, and threw myself on it with that fatigue
+      wherewith one awakes from a feverish dream of hopeless grief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old woman sang:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        The great sun, benighted,
+             May faint from the sky;
+         But love, once uplighted,
+             Will never more die.
+
+        Form, with its brightness,
+             From eyes will depart:
+         It walketh, in whiteness,
+             The halls of the heart.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ere she had ceased singing, my courage had returned. I started from the
+      couch, and, without taking leave of the old woman, opened the door of
+      Sighs, and sprang into what should appear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I stood in a lordly hall, where, by a blazing fire on the hearth, sat a
+      lady, waiting, I knew, for some one long desired. A mirror was near me,
+      but I saw that my form had no place within its depths, so I feared not
+      that I should be seen. The lady wonderfully resembled my marble lady, but
+      was altogether of the daughters of men, and I could not tell whether or
+      not it was she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not for me she waited. The tramp of a great horse rang through the
+      court without. It ceased, and the clang of armour told that his rider
+      alighted, and the sound of his ringing heels approached the hall. The door
+      opened; but the lady waited, for she would meet her lord alone. He strode
+      in: she flew like a home-bound dove into his arms, and nestled on the hard
+      steel. It was the knight of the soiled armour. But now the armour shone
+      like polished glass; and strange to tell, though the mirror reflected not
+      my form, I saw a dim shadow of myself in the shining steel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;O my beloved, thou art come, and I am blessed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her soft fingers speedily overcame the hard clasp of his helmet; one by
+      one she undid the buckles of his armour; and she toiled under the weight
+      of the mail, as she <i>would</i> carry it aside. Then she unclasped his greaves,
+      and unbuckled his spurs; and once more she sprang into his arms, and laid
+      her head where she could now feel the beating of his heart. Then she
+      disengaged herself from his embrace, and, moving back a step or two, gazed
+      at him. He stood there a mighty form, crowned with a noble head, where all
+      sadness had disappeared, or had been absorbed in solemn purpose. Yet I
+      suppose that he looked more thoughtful than the lady had expected to see
+      him, for she did not renew her caresses, although his face glowed with
+      love, and the few words he spoke were as mighty deeds for strength; but
+      she led him towards the hearth, and seated him in an ancient chair, and
+      set wine before him, and sat at his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sad,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;when I think of the youth whom I met twice in the
+      forests of Fairy Land; and who, you say, twice, with his songs, roused you
+      from the death-sleep of an evil enchantment. There was something noble in
+      him, but it was a nobleness of thought, and not of deed. He may yet perish
+      of vile fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; returned the lady, &ldquo;you saved him once, and for that I thank you;
+      for may I not say that I somewhat loved him? But tell me how you fared,
+      when you struck your battle-axe into the ash-tree, and he came and found
+      you; for so much of the story you had told me, when the beggar-child came
+      and took you away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As soon as I saw him,&rdquo; rejoined the knight, &ldquo;I knew that earthly arms
+      availed not against such as he; and that my soul must meet him in its
+      naked strength. So I unclasped my helm, and flung it on the ground; and,
+      holding my good axe yet in my hand, gazed at him with steady eyes. On he
+      came, a horror indeed, but I did not flinch. Endurance must conquer, where
+      force could not reach. He came nearer and nearer, till the ghastly face
+      was close to mine. A shudder as of death ran through me; but I think I did
+      not move, for he seemed to quail, and retreated. As soon as he gave back,
+      I struck one more sturdy blow on the stem of his tree, that the forest
+      rang; and then looked at him again. He writhed and grinned with rage and
+      apparent pain, and again approached me, but retreated sooner than before.
+      I heeded him no more, but hewed with a will at the tree, till the trunk
+      creaked, and the head bowed, and with a crash it fell to the earth. Then I
+      looked up from my labour, and lo! the spectre had vanished, and I saw him
+      no more; nor ever in my wanderings have I heard of him again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well struck! well withstood! my hero,&rdquo; said the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; said the knight, somewhat troubled, &ldquo;dost thou love the youth
+      still?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; she replied, &ldquo;how can I help it? He woke me from worse than death;
+      he loved me. I had never been for thee, if he had not sought me first. But
+      I love him not as I love thee. He was but the moon of my night; thou art
+      the sun of my day, O beloved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art right,&rdquo; returned the noble man. &ldquo;It were hard, indeed, not to
+      have some love in return for such a gift as he hath given thee. I, too,
+      owe him more than words can speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Humbled before them, with an aching and desolate heart, I yet could not
+      restrain my words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me, then, be the moon of thy night still, O woman! And when thy day
+      is beclouded, as the fairest days will be, let some song of mine comfort
+      thee, as an old, withered, half-forgotten thing, that belongs to an
+      ancient mournful hour of uncompleted birth, which yet was beautiful in its
+      time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They sat silent, and I almost thought they were listening. The colour of
+      the lady&rsquo;s eyes grew deeper and deeper; the slow tears grew, and filled
+      them, and overflowed. They rose, and passed, hand in hand, close to where
+      I stood; and each looked towards me in passing. Then they disappeared
+      through a door which closed behind them; but, ere it closed, I saw that
+      the room into which it opened was a rich chamber, hung with gorgeous
+      arras. I stood with an ocean of sighs frozen in my bosom. I could remain
+      no longer. She was near me, and I could not see her; near me in the arms
+      of one loved better than I, and I would not see her, and I would not be by
+      her. But how to escape from the nearness of the best beloved? I had not
+      this time forgotten the mark; for the fact that I could not enter the
+      sphere of these living beings kept me aware that, for me, I moved in a
+      vision, while they moved in life. I looked all about for the mark, but
+      could see it nowhere; for I avoided looking just where it was. There the
+      dull red cipher glowed, on the very door of their secret chamber. Struck
+      with agony, I dashed it open, and fell at the feet of the ancient woman,
+      who still spun on, the whole dissolved ocean of my sighs bursting from me
+      in a storm of tearless sobs. Whether I fainted or slept, I do not know;
+      but, as I returned to consciousness, before I seemed to have power to
+      move, I heard the woman singing, and could distinguish the words:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        O light of dead and of dying days!
+             O Love! in thy glory go,
+         In a rosy mist and a moony maze,
+             O&rsquo;er the pathless peaks of snow.
+
+        But what is left for the cold gray soul,
+             That moans like a wounded dove?
+         One wine is left in the broken bowl!&mdash;
+             &lsquo;Tis&mdash;<i>To love, and love and love</i>.
+</pre>
+<p>
+ Now I could weep.  When she saw me weeping, she sang:
+</p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        Better to sit at the waters&rsquo; birth,
+             Than a sea of waves to win;
+         To live in the love that floweth forth,
+             Than the love that cometh in.
+
+        Be thy heart a well of love, my child,
+             Flowing, and free, and sure;
+         For a cistern of love, though undefiled,
+             Keeps not the spirit pure.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I rose from the earth, loving the white lady as I had never loved her
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I walked up to the door of Dismay, and opened it, and went out. And
+      lo! I came forth upon a crowded street, where men and women went to and
+      fro in multitudes. I knew it well; and, turning to one hand, walked sadly
+      along the pavement. Suddenly I saw approaching me, a little way off, a
+      form well known to me (<i>well-known!</i>&mdash;alas, how weak the word!) in the
+      years when I thought my boyhood was left behind, and shortly before I
+      entered the realm of Fairy Land. Wrong and Sorrow had gone together,
+      hand-in-hand as it is well they do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unchangeably dear was that face. It lay in my heart as a child lies in its
+      own white bed; but I could not meet her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anything but that,&rdquo; I said, and, turning aside, sprang up the steps to a
+      door, on which I fancied I saw the mystic sign. I entered&mdash;not the
+      mysterious cottage, but her home. I rushed wildly on, and stood by the
+      door of her room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is out,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I will see the old room once more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I opened the door gently, and stood in a great solemn church. A deep-toned
+      bell, whose sounds throbbed and echoed and swam through the empty
+      building, struck the hour of midnight. The moon shone through the windows
+      of the clerestory, and enough of the ghostly radiance was diffused through
+      the church to let me see, walking with a stately, yet somewhat trailing
+      and stumbling step, down the opposite aisle, for I stood in one of the
+      transepts, a figure dressed in a white robe, whether for the night, or for
+      that longer night which lies too deep for the day, I could not tell. Was
+      it she? and was this her chamber? I crossed the church, and followed. The
+      figure stopped, seemed to ascend as it were a high bed, and lay down. I
+      reached the place where it lay, glimmering white. The bed was a tomb. The
+      light was too ghostly to see clearly, but I passed my hand over the face
+      and the hands and the feet, which were all bare. They were cold&mdash;they
+      were marble, but I knew them. It grew dark. I turned to retrace my steps,
+      but found, ere long, that I had wandered into what seemed a little chapel.
+      I groped about, seeking the door. Everything I touched belonged to the
+      dead. My hands fell on the cold effigy of a knight who lay with his legs
+      crossed and his sword broken beside him. He lay in his noble rest, and I
+      lived on in ignoble strife. I felt for the left hand and a certain finger;
+      I found there the ring I knew: he was one of my own ancestors. I was in
+      the chapel over the burial-vault of my race. I called aloud: &ldquo;If any of
+      the dead are moving here, let them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am
+      still alive; and let some dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in
+      the land of the dead, and see no light.&rdquo; A warm kiss alighted on my lips
+      through the dark. And I said, &ldquo;The dead kiss well; I will not be afraid.&rdquo;
+       And a great hand was reached out of the dark, and grasped mine for a
+      moment, mightily and tenderly. I said to myself: &ldquo;The veil between, though
+      very dark, is very thin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Groping my way further, I stumbled over the heavy stone that covered the
+      entrance of the vault: and, in stumbling, descried upon the stone the
+      mark, glowing in red fire. I caught the great ring. All my effort could
+      not have moved the huge slab; but it opened the door of the cottage, and I
+      threw myself once more, pale and speechless, on the couch beside the
+      ancient dame. She sang once more:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        Thou dreamest: on a rock thou art,
+             High o&rsquo;er the broken wave;
+         Thou fallest with a fearful start
+             But not into thy grave;
+         For, waking in the morning&rsquo;s light,
+         Thou smilest at the vanished night
+
+        So wilt thou sink, all pale and dumb,
+             Into the fainting gloom;
+         But ere the coming terrors come,
+             Thou wak&rsquo;st&mdash;where is the tomb?
+         Thou wak&rsquo;st&mdash;the dead ones smile above,
+         With hovering arms of sleepless love.
+</pre>
+<p>
+ She paused; then sang again:
+</p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        We weep for gladness, weep for grief;
+             The tears they are the same;
+         We sigh for longing, and relief;
+             The sighs have but one name,
+
+        And mingled in the dying strife,
+             Are moans that are not sad
+          The pangs of death are throbs of life,
+             Its sighs are sometimes glad.
+
+         The face is very strange and white:
+             It is Earth&rsquo;s only spot
+         That feebly flickers back the light
+             The living seeth not.
+</pre>
+<p>
+ I fell asleep, and slept a dreamless sleep, for I know not how
+long. When I awoke, I found that my hostess had moved from where she had
+been sitting, and now sat between me and the fourth door.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      I guessed that her design was to prevent my entering there. I sprang from
+      the couch, and darted past her to the door. I opened it at once and went
+      out. All I remember is a cry of distress from the woman: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t go there,
+      my child! Don&rsquo;t go there!&rdquo; But I was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew nothing more; or, if I did, I had forgot it all when I awoke to
+      consciousness, lying on the floor of the cottage, with my head in the lap
+      of the woman, who was weeping over me, and stroking my hair with both
+      hands, talking to me as a mother might talk to a sick and sleeping, or a
+      dead child. As soon as I looked up and saw her, she smiled through her
+      tears; smiled with withered face and young eyes, till her countenance was
+      irradiated with the light of the smile. Then she bathed my head and face
+      and hands in an icy cold, colourless liquid, which smelt a little of damp
+      earth. Immediately I was able to sit up. She rose and put some food before
+      me. When I had eaten, she said: &ldquo;Listen to me, my child. You must leave me
+      directly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave you!&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I am so happy with you. I never was so happy in my
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must go,&rdquo; she rejoined sadly. &ldquo;Listen! What do you hear?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear the sound as of a great throbbing of water.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! you do hear it? Well, I had to go through that door&mdash;the door of
+      the Timeless&rdquo; (and she shuddered as she pointed to the fourth door)&mdash;&ldquo;to
+      find you; for if I had not gone, you would never have entered again; and
+      because I went, the waters around my cottage will rise and rise, and flow
+      and come, till they build a great firmament of waters over my dwelling.
+      But as long as I keep my fire burning, they cannot enter. I have fuel
+      enough for years; and after one year they will sink away again, and be
+      just as they were before you came. I have not been buried for a hundred
+      years now.&rdquo; And she smiled and wept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alas! alas!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;I have brought this evil on the best and kindest
+      of friends, who has filled my heart with great gifts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not think of that,&rdquo; she rejoined. &ldquo;I can bear it very well. You will
+      come back to me some day, I know. But I beg you, for my sake, my dear
+      child, to do one thing. In whatever sorrow you may be, however
+      inconsolable and irremediable it may appear, believe me that the old woman
+      in the cottage, with the young eyes&rdquo; (and she smiled), &ldquo;knows something,
+      though she must not always tell it, that would quite satisfy you about it,
+      even in the worst moments of your distress. Now you must go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how can I go, if the waters are all about, and if the doors all lead
+      into other regions and other worlds?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not an island,&rdquo; she replied; &ldquo;but is joined to the land by a
+      narrow neck; and for the door, I will lead you myself through the right
+      one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took my hand, and led me through the third door; whereupon I found
+      myself standing in the deep grassy turf on which I had landed from the
+      little boat, but upon the opposite side of the cottage. She pointed out
+      the direction I must take, to find the isthmus and escape the rising
+      waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then putting her arms around me, she held me to her bosom; and as I kissed
+      her, I felt as if I were leaving my mother for the first time, and could
+      not help weeping bitterly. At length she gently pushed me away, and with
+      the words, &ldquo;Go, my son, and do something worth doing,&rdquo; turned back, and,
+      entering the cottage, closed the door behind her. I felt very desolate as
+      I went.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            &ldquo;Thou hadst no fame; that which thou didst like good
+         Was but thy appetite that swayed thy blood
+         For that time to the best; for as a blast
+         That through a house comes, usually doth cast
+         Things out of order, yet by chance may come
+         And blow some one thing to his proper room,
+         So did thy appetite, and not thy zeal,
+         Sway thee by chance to do some one thing well.&rdquo;
+                               FLETCHER&rsquo;S <i>Faithful Shepherdess</i>.
+
+            &ldquo;The noble hart that harbours vertuous thought
+         And is with childe of glorious great intent,
+         Can never rest, until it forth have brought
+         Th&rsquo; eternall brood of glorie excellent.&rdquo;
+                               SPENSER, <i>The Faerie Queene</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I had not gone very far before I felt that the turf beneath my feet was
+      soaked with the rising waters. But I reached the isthmus in safety. It was
+      rocky, and so much higher than the level of the peninsula, that I had
+      plenty of time to cross. I saw on each side of me the water rising
+      rapidly, altogether without wind, or violent motion, or broken waves, but
+      as if a slow strong fire were glowing beneath it. Ascending a steep
+      acclivity, I found myself at last in an open, rocky country. After
+      travelling for some hours, as nearly in a straight line as I could, I
+      arrived at a lonely tower, built on the top of a little hill, which
+      overlooked the whole neighbouring country. As I approached, I heard the
+      clang of an anvil; and so rapid were the blows, that I despaired of making
+      myself heard till a pause in the work should ensue. It was some minutes
+      before a cessation took place; but when it did, I knocked loudly, and had
+      not long to wait; for, a moment after, the door was partly opened by a
+      noble-looking youth, half-undressed, glowing with heat, and begrimed with
+      the blackness of the forge. In one hand he held a sword, so lately from
+      the furnace that it yet shone with a dull fire. As soon as he saw me, he
+      threw the door wide open, and standing aside, invited me very cordially to
+      enter. I did so; when he shut and bolted the door most carefully, and then
+      led the way inwards. He brought me into a rude hall, which seemed to
+      occupy almost the whole of the ground floor of the little tower, and which
+      I saw was now being used as a workshop. A huge fire roared on the hearth,
+      beside which was an anvil. By the anvil stood, in similar undress, and in
+      a waiting attitude, hammer in hand, a second youth, tall as the former,
+      but far more slightly built. Reversing the usual course of perception in
+      such meetings, I thought them, at first sight, very unlike; and at the
+      second glance, knew that they were brothers. The former, and apparently
+      the elder, was muscular and dark, with curling hair, and large hazel eyes,
+      which sometimes grew wondrously soft. The second was slender and fair, yet
+      with a countenance like an eagle, and an eye which, though pale blue,
+      shone with an almost fierce expression. He stood erect, as if looking from
+      a lofty mountain crag, over a vast plain outstretched below. As soon as we
+      entered the hall, the elder turned to me, and I saw that a glow of
+      satisfaction shone on both their faces. To my surprise and great pleasure,
+      he addressed me thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, will you sit by the fire and rest, till we finish this part of
+      our work?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I signified my assent; and, resolved to await any disclosure they might be
+      inclined to make, seated myself in silence near the hearth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The elder brother then laid the sword in the fire, covered it well over,
+      and when it had attained a sufficient degree of heat, drew it out and laid
+      it on the anvil, moving it carefully about, while the younger, with a
+      succession of quick smart blows, appeared either to be welding it, or
+      hammering one part of it to a consenting shape with the rest. Having
+      finished, they laid it carefully in the fire; and, when it was very hot
+      indeed, plunged it into a vessel full of some liquid, whence a blue flame
+      sprang upwards, as the glowing steel entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There they left it; and drawing two stools to the fire, sat down, one on
+      each side of me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are very glad to see you, brother. We have been expecting you for some
+      days,&rdquo; said the dark-haired youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am proud to be called your brother,&rdquo; I rejoined; &ldquo;and you will not
+      think I refuse the name, if I desire to know why you honour me with it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! then he does not know about it,&rdquo; said the younger. &ldquo;We thought you
+      had known of the bond betwixt us, and the work we have to do together. You
+      must tell him, brother, from the first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the elder began:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our father is king of this country. Before we were born, three giant
+      brothers had appeared in the land. No one knew exactly when, and no one
+      had the least idea whence they came. They took possession of a ruined
+      castle that had stood unchanged and unoccupied within the memory of any of
+      the country people. The vaults of this castle had remained uninjured by
+      time, and these, I presume, they made use of at first. They were rarely
+      seen, and never offered the least injury to any one; so that they were
+      regarded in the neighbourhood as at least perfectly harmless, if not
+      rather benevolent beings. But it began to be observed, that the old castle
+      had assumed somehow or other, no one knew when or how, a somewhat
+      different look from what it used to have. Not only were several breaches
+      in the lower part of the walls built up, but actually some of the
+      battlements which yet stood, had been repaired, apparently to prevent them
+      from falling into worse decay, while the more important parts were being
+      restored. Of course, every one supposed the giants must have a hand in the
+      work, but no one ever saw them engaged in it. The peasants became yet more
+      uneasy, after one, who had concealed himself, and watched all night, in
+      the neighbourhood of the castle, reported that he had seen, in full
+      moonlight, the three huge giants working with might and main, all night
+      long, restoring to their former position some massive stones, formerly
+      steps of a grand turnpike stair, a great portion of which had long since
+      fallen, along with part of the wall of the round tower in which it had
+      been built. This wall they were completing, foot by foot, along with the
+      stair. But the people said they had no just pretext for interfering:
+      although the real reason for letting the giants alone was, that everybody
+      was far too much afraid of them to interrupt them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At length, with the help of a neighbouring quarry, the whole of the
+      external wall of the castle was finished. And now the country folks were
+      in greater fear than before. But for several years the giants remained
+      very peaceful. The reason of this was afterwards supposed to be the fact,
+      that they were distantly related to several good people in the country;
+      for, as long as these lived, they remained quiet; but as soon as they were
+      all dead the real nature of the giants broke out. Having completed the
+      outside of their castle, they proceeded, by spoiling the country houses
+      around them, to make a quiet luxurious provision for their comfort within.
+      Affairs reached such a pass, that the news of their robberies came to my
+      father&rsquo;s ears; but he, alas! was so crippled in his resources, by a war he
+      was carrying on with a neighbouring prince, that he could only spare a
+      very few men, to attempt the capture of their stronghold. Upon these the
+      giants issued in the night, and slew every man of them. And now, grown
+      bolder by success and impunity, they no longer confined their depredations
+      to property, but began to seize the persons of their distinguished
+      neighbours, knights and ladies, and hold them in durance, the misery of
+      which was heightened by all manner of indignity, until they were redeemed
+      by their friends, at an exorbitant ransom. Many knights have adventured
+      their overthrow, but to their own instead; for they have all been slain,
+      or captured, or forced to make a hasty retreat. To crown their enormities,
+      if any man now attempts their destruction, they, immediately upon his
+      defeat, put one or more of their captives to a shameful death, on a turret
+      in sight of all passers-by; so that they have been much less molested of
+      late; and we, although we have burned, for years, to attack these demons
+      and destroy them, dared not, for the sake of their captives, risk the
+      adventure, before we should have reached at least our earliest manhood.
+      Now, however, we are preparing for the attempt; and the grounds of this
+      preparation are these. Having only the resolution, and not the experience
+      necessary for the undertaking, we went and consulted a lonely woman of
+      wisdom, who lives not very far from here, in the direction of the quarter
+      from which you have come. She received us most kindly, and gave us what
+      seems to us the best of advice. She first inquired what experience we had
+      had in arms. We told her we had been well exercised from our boyhood, and
+      for some years had kept ourselves in constant practice, with a view to
+      this necessity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;But you have not actually fought for life and death?&rsquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were forced to confess we had not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;So much the better in some respects,&rsquo; she replied. &lsquo;Now listen to me. Go
+      first and work with an armourer, for as long time as you find needful to
+      obtain a knowledge of his craft; which will not be long, seeing your
+      hearts will be all in the work. Then go to some lonely tower, you two
+      alone. Receive no visits from man or woman. There forge for yourselves
+      every piece of armour that you wish to wear, or to use, in your coming
+      encounter. And keep up your exercises. As, however, two of you can be no
+      match for the three giants, I will find you, if I can, a third brother,
+      who will take on himself the third share of the fight, and the
+      preparation. Indeed, I have already seen one who will, I think, be the
+      very man for your fellowship, but it will be some time before he comes to
+      me. He is wandering now without an aim. I will show him to you in a glass,
+      and, when he comes, you will know him at once. If he will share your
+      endeavours, you must teach him all you know, and he will repay you well,
+      in present song, and in future deeds.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She opened the door of a curious old cabinet that stood in the room. On
+      the inside of this door was an oval convex mirror. Looking in it for some
+      time, we at length saw reflected the place where we stood, and the old
+      dame seated in her chair. Our forms were not reflected. But at the feet of
+      the dame lay a young man, yourself, weeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Surely this youth will not serve our ends,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;for he weeps.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old woman smiled. &lsquo;Past tears are present strength,&rsquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said my brother, &lsquo;I saw you weep once over an eagle you shot.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That was because it was so like you, brother,&rsquo; I replied; &lsquo;but indeed,
+      this youth may have better cause for tears than that&mdash;I was wrong.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Wait a while,&rsquo; said the woman; &lsquo;if I mistake not, he will make you weep
+      till your tears are dry for ever. Tears are the only cure for weeping. And
+      you may have need of the cure, before you go forth to fight the giants.
+      You must wait for him, in your tower, till he comes.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now if you will join us, we will soon teach you to make your armour; and
+      we will fight together, and work together, and love each other as never
+      three loved before. And you will sing to us, will you not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will, when I can,&rdquo; I answered; &ldquo;but it is only at times that the
+      power of song comes upon me. For that I must wait; but I have a feeling
+      that if I work well, song will not be far off to enliven the labour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was all the compact made: the brothers required nothing more, and I
+      did not think of giving anything more. I rose, and threw off my upper
+      garments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know the uses of the sword,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;I am ashamed of my white hands
+      beside yours so nobly soiled and hard; but that shame will soon be wiped
+      away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; we will not work to-day. Rest is as needful as toil. Bring the
+      wine, brother; it is your turn to serve to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The younger brother soon covered a table with rough viands, but good wine;
+      and we ate and drank heartily, beside our work. Before the meal was over,
+      I had learned all their story. Each had something in his heart which made
+      the conviction, that he would victoriously perish in the coming conflict,
+      a real sorrow to him. Otherwise they thought they would have lived enough.
+      The causes of their trouble were respectively these:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they wrought with an armourer, in a city famed for workmanship in
+      steel and silver, the elder had fallen in love with a lady as far beneath
+      him in real rank, as she was above the station he had as apprentice to an
+      armourer. Nor did he seek to further his suit by discovering himself; but
+      there was simply so much manhood about him, that no one ever thought of
+      rank when in his company. This is what his brother said about it. The lady
+      could not help loving him in return. He told her when he left her, that he
+      had a perilous adventure before him, and that when it was achieved, she
+      would either see him return to claim her, or hear that he had died with
+      honour. The younger brother&rsquo;s grief arose from the fact, that, if they
+      were both slain, his old father, the king, would be childless. His love
+      for his father was so exceeding, that to one unable to sympathise with it,
+      it would have appeared extravagant. Both loved him equally at heart; but
+      the love of the younger had been more developed, because his thoughts and
+      anxieties had not been otherwise occupied. When at home, he had been his
+      constant companion; and, of late, had ministered to the infirmities of his
+      growing age. The youth was never weary of listening to the tales of his
+      sire&rsquo;s youthful adventures; and had not yet in the smallest degree lost
+      the conviction, that his father was the greatest man in the world. The
+      grandest triumph possible to his conception was, to return to his father,
+      laden with the spoils of one of the hated giants. But they both were in
+      some dread, lest the thought of the loneliness of these two might occur to
+      them, in the moment when decision was most necessary, and disturb, in some
+      degree, the self-possession requisite for the success of their attempt.
+      For, as I have said, they were yet untried in actual conflict. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo;
+       thought I, &ldquo;I see to what the powers of my gift must minister.&rdquo; For my own
+      part, I did not dread death, for I had nothing to care to live for; but I
+      dreaded the encounter because of the responsibility connected with it. I
+      resolved however to work hard, and thus grow cool, and quick, and
+      forceful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time passed away in work and song, in talk and ramble, in friendly
+      fight and brotherly aid. I would not forge for myself armour of heavy mail
+      like theirs, for I was not so powerful as they, and depended more for any
+      success I might secure, upon nimbleness of motion, certainty of eye, and
+      ready response of hand. Therefore I began to make for myself a shirt of
+      steel plates and rings; which work, while more troublesome, was better
+      suited to me than the heavier labour. Much assistance did the brothers
+      give me, even after, by their instructions, I was able to make some
+      progress alone. Their work was in a moment abandoned, to render any
+      required aid to mine. As the old woman had promised, I tried to repay them
+      with song; and many were the tears they both shed over my ballads and
+      dirges. The songs they liked best to hear were two which I made for them.
+      They were not half so good as many others I knew, especially some I had
+      learned from the wise woman in the cottage; but what comes nearest to our
+      needs we like the best.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+I       The king sat on his throne
+            Glowing in gold and red;
+         The crown in his right hand shone,
+             And the gray hairs crowned his head.
+
+        His only son walks in,
+            And in walls of steel he stands:
+         Make me, O father, strong to win,
+             With the blessing of holy hands.&rdquo;
+ 
+        He knelt before his sire,
+             Who blessed him with feeble smile
+          His eyes shone out with a kingly fire,
+             But his old lips quivered the while.
+
+        &ldquo;Go to the fight, my son,
+             Bring back the giant&rsquo;s head;
+         And the crown with which my brows have done,
+             Shall glitter on thine instead.&rdquo;
+ 
+        &ldquo;My father, I seek no crowns,
+             But unspoken praise from thee;
+         For thy people&rsquo;s good, and thy renown,
+             I will die to set them free.&rdquo;
+ 
+        The king sat down and waited there,
+             And rose not, night nor day;
+         Till a sound of shouting filled the air,
+             And cries of a sore dismay.
+
+        Then like a king he sat once more,
+             With the crown upon his head;
+         And up to the throne the people bore
+             A mighty giant dead.
+
+        And up to the throne the people bore
+             A pale and lifeless boy.
+         The king rose up like a prophet of yore,
+             In a lofty, deathlike joy.
+
+        He put the crown on the chilly brow:
+             &ldquo;Thou should&rsquo;st have reigned with me
+         But Death is the king of both, and now
+             I go to obey with thee.
+
+        &ldquo;Surely some good in me there lay,
+             To beget the noble one.&rdquo;
+          The old man smiled like a winter day,
+             And fell beside his son.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+II      &ldquo;O lady, thy lover is dead,&rdquo; they cried;
+         &ldquo;He is dead, but hath slain the foe;
+         He hath left his name to be magnified
+             In a song of wonder and woe.&rdquo;
+ 
+        &ldquo;Alas! I am well repaid,&rdquo; said she,
+             &ldquo;With a pain that stings like joy:
+         For I feared, from his tenderness to me,
+             That he was but a feeble boy.
+
+        &ldquo;Now I shall hold my head on high,
+             The queen among my kind;
+         If ye hear a sound, &lsquo;tis only a sigh
+             For a glory left behind.&rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      The first three times I sang these songs they both wept passionately. But
+      after the third time, they wept no more. Their eyes shone, and their faces
+      grew pale, but they never wept at any of my songs again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;I put my life in my hands.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Book of Judges</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was finished. We
+      armed each other, and tested the strength of the defence, with many blows
+      of loving force. I was inferior in strength to both my brothers, but a
+      little more agile than either; and upon this agility, joined to precision
+      in hitting with the point of my weapon, I grounded my hopes of success in
+      the ensuing combat. I likewise laboured to develop yet more the keenness
+      of sight with which I was naturally gifted; and, from the remarks of my
+      companions, I soon learned that my endeavours were not in vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The morning arrived on which we had determined to make the attempt, and
+      succeed or perish&mdash;perhaps both. We had resolved to fight on foot;
+      knowing that the mishap of many of the knights who had made the attempt,
+      had resulted from the fright of their horses at the appearance of the
+      giants; and believing with Sir Gawain, that, though mare&rsquo;s sons might be
+      false to us, the earth would never prove a traitor. But most of our
+      preparations were, in their immediate aim at least, frustrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We rose, that fatal morning, by daybreak. We had rested from all labour
+      the day before, and now were fresh as the lark. We bathed in cold spring
+      water, and dressed ourselves in clean garments, with a sense of
+      preparation, as for a solemn festivity. When we had broken our fast, I
+      took an old lyre, which I had found in the tower and had myself repaired,
+      and sung for the last time the two ballads of which I have said so much
+      already. I followed them with this, for a closing song:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+             With the blow that ends the strife
+         And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+             Around the pain of life!
+
+        We are dead, my brothers!  Our bodies clasp,
+             As an armour, our souls about;
+         This hand is the battle-axe I grasp,
+             And this my hammer stout.
+
+        Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead;
+             No noise can break our rest;
+         The calm of the grave is about the head,
+             And the heart heaves not the breast.
+
+         And our life we throw to our people back,
+             To live with, a further store;
+         We leave it them, that there be no lack
+             In the land where we live no more.
+
+         Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+             With the blow that ends the strife
+          And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+             Around the noise of life!
+</pre>
+<p>
+ As the last few tones of the instrument were following, like a
+dirge, the death of the song, we all sprang to our feet. For, through
+one of the little windows of the tower, towards which I had looked as
+I sang, I saw, suddenly rising over the edge of the slope on which our
+tower stood, three enormous heads. The brothers knew at once, by my
+looks, what caused my sudden movement. We were utterly unarmed, and
+there was no time to arm.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      But we seemed to adopt the same resolution simultaneously; for each caught
+      up his favourite weapon, and, leaving his defence behind, sprang to the
+      door. I snatched up a long rapier, abruptly, but very finely pointed, in
+      my sword-hand, and in the other a sabre; the elder brother seized his
+      heavy battle-axe; and the younger, a great, two-handed sword, which he
+      wielded in one hand like a feather. We had just time to get clear of the
+      tower, embrace and say good-bye, and part to some little distance, that we
+      might not encumber each other&rsquo;s motions, ere the triple giant-brotherhood
+      drew near to attack us. They were about twice our height, and armed to the
+      teeth. Through the visors of their helmets their monstrous eyes shone with
+      a horrible ferocity. I was in the middle position, and the middle giant
+      approached me. My eyes were busy with his armour, and I was not a moment
+      in settling my mode of attack. I saw that his body-armour was somewhat
+      clumsily made, and that the overlappings in the lower part had more play
+      than necessary; and I hoped that, in a fortunate moment, some joint would
+      open a little, in a visible and accessible part. I stood till he came near
+      enough to aim a blow at me with the mace, which has been, in all ages, the
+      favourite weapon of giants, when, of course, I leaped aside, and let the
+      blow fall upon the spot where I had been standing. I expected this would
+      strain the joints of his armour yet more. Full of fury, he made at me
+      again; but I kept him busy, constantly eluding his blows, and hoping thus
+      to fatigue him. He did not seem to fear any assault from me, and I
+      attempted none as yet; but while I watched his motions in order to avoid
+      his blows, I, at the same time, kept equal watch upon those joints of his
+      armour, through some one of which I hoped to reach his life. At length, as
+      if somewhat fatigued, he paused a moment, and drew himself slightly up; I
+      bounded forward, foot and hand, ran my rapier right through to the armour
+      of his back, let go the hilt, and passing under his right arm, turned as
+      he fell, and flew at him with my sabre. At one happy blow I divided the
+      band of his helmet, which fell off, and allowed me, with a second cut
+      across the eyes, to blind him quite; after which I clove his head, and
+      turned, uninjured, to see how my brothers had fared. Both the giants were
+      down, but so were my brothers. I flew first to the one and then to the
+      other couple. Both pairs of combatants were dead, and yet locked together,
+      as in the death-struggle. The elder had buried his battle-axe in the body
+      of his foe, and had fallen beneath him as he fell. The giant had strangled
+      him in his own death-agonies. The younger had nearly hewn off the left leg
+      of his enemy; and, grappled with in the act, had, while they rolled
+      together on the earth, found for his dagger a passage betwixt the gorget
+      and cuirass of the giant, and stabbed him mortally in the throat. The
+      blood from the giant&rsquo;s throat was yet pouring over the hand of his foe,
+      which still grasped the hilt of the dagger sheathed in the wound. They lay
+      silent. I, the least worthy, remained the sole survivor in the lists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I stood exhausted amidst the dead, after the first worthy deed of my
+      life, I suddenly looked behind me, and there lay the Shadow, black in the
+      sunshine. I went into the lonely tower, and there lay the useless armour
+      of the noble youths&mdash;supine as they.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ah, how sad it looked! It was a glorious death, but it was death. My songs
+      could not comfort me now. I was almost ashamed that I was alive, when
+      they, the true-hearted, were no more. And yet I breathed freer to think
+      that I had gone through the trial, and had not failed. And perhaps I may
+      be forgiven, if some feelings of pride arose in my bosom, when I looked
+      down on the mighty form that lay dead by my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After all, however,&rdquo; I said to myself, and my heart sank, &ldquo;it was only
+      skill. Your giant was but a blunderer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I left the bodies of friends and foes, peaceful enough when the
+      death-fight was over, and, hastening to the country below, roused the
+      peasants. They came with shouting and gladness, bringing waggons to carry
+      the bodies. I resolved to take the princes home to their father, each as
+      he lay, in the arms of his country&rsquo;s foe. But first I searched the giants,
+      and found the keys of their castle, to which I repaired, followed by a
+      great company of the people. It was a place of wonderful strength. I
+      released the prisoners, knights and ladies, all in a sad condition, from
+      the cruelties and neglects of the giants. It humbled me to see them
+      crowding round me with thanks, when in truth the glorious brothers, lying
+      dead by their lonely tower, were those to whom the thanks belonged. I had
+      but aided in carrying out the thought born in their brain, and uttered in
+      visible form before ever I laid hold thereupon. Yet I did count myself
+      happy to have been chosen for their brother in this great deed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few hours spent in refreshing and clothing the prisoners, we all
+      commenced our journey towards the capital. This was slow at first; but, as
+      the strength and spirits of the prisoners returned, it became more rapid;
+      and in three days we reached the palace of the king. As we entered the
+      city gates, with the huge bulks lying each on a waggon drawn by horses,
+      and two of them inextricably intertwined with the dead bodies of their
+      princes, the people raised a shout and then a cry, and followed in
+      multitudes the solemn procession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will not attempt to describe the behaviour of the grand old king. Joy
+      and pride in his sons overcame his sorrow at their loss. On me he heaped
+      every kindness that heart could devise or hand execute. He used to sit and
+      question me, night after night, about everything that was in any way
+      connected with them and their preparations. Our mode of life, and relation
+      to each other, during the time we spent together, was a constant theme. He
+      entered into the minutest details of the construction of the armour, even
+      to a peculiar mode of riveting some of the plates, with unwearying
+      interest. This armour I had intended to beg of the king, as my sole
+      memorials of the contest; but, when I saw the delight he took in
+      contemplating it, and the consolation it appeared to afford him in his
+      sorrow, I could not ask for it; but, at his request, left my own, weapons
+      and all, to be joined with theirs in a trophy, erected in the grand square
+      of the palace. The king, with gorgeous ceremony, dubbed me knight with his
+      own old hand, in which trembled the sword of his youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the short time I remained, my company was, naturally, much courted
+      by the young nobles. I was in a constant round of gaiety and diversion,
+      notwithstanding that the court was in mourning. For the country was so
+      rejoiced at the death of the giants, and so many of their lost friends had
+      been restored to the nobility and men of wealth, that the gladness
+      surpassed the grief. &ldquo;Ye have indeed left your lives to your people, my
+      great brothers!&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I was ever and ever haunted by the old shadow, which I had not seen
+      all the time that I was at work in the tower. Even in the society of the
+      ladies of the court, who seemed to think it only their duty to make my
+      stay there as pleasant to me as possible, I could not help being conscious
+      of its presence, although it might not be annoying me at the time. At
+      length, somewhat weary of uninterrupted pleasure, and nowise strengthened
+      thereby, either in body or mind, I put on a splendid suit of armour of
+      steel inlaid with silver, which the old king had given me, and, mounting
+      the horse on which it had been brought to me, took my leave of the palace,
+      to visit the distant city in which the lady dwelt, whom the elder prince
+      had loved. I anticipated a sore task, in conveying to her the news of his
+      glorious fate: but this trial was spared me, in a manner as strange as
+      anything that had happened to me in Fairy Land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;No one has my form but the <i>I</i>.&rdquo;
+           <i>Schoppe</i>, in JEAN PAUL&rsquo;S <i>Titan</i>.
+
+                    &ldquo;Joy&rsquo;s a subtil elf.
+         I think man&rsquo;s happiest when he forgets himself.&rdquo;
+                        CYRIL TOURNEUR, <i>The Revenger&rsquo;s Tragedy</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      On the third day of my journey, I was riding gently along a road,
+      apparently little frequented, to judge from the grass that grew upon it. I
+      was approaching a forest. Everywhere in Fairy Land forests are the places
+      where one may most certainly expect adventures. As I drew near, a youth,
+      unarmed, gentle, and beautiful, who had just cut a branch from a yew
+      growing on the skirts of the wood, evidently to make himself a bow, met
+      me, and thus accosted me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sir knight, be careful as thou ridest through this forest; for it is said
+      to be strangely enchanted, in a sort which even those who have been
+      witnesses of its enchantment can hardly describe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I thanked him for his advice, which I promised to follow, and rode on. But
+      the moment I entered the wood, it seemed to me that, if enchantment there
+      was, it must be of a good kind; for the Shadow, which had been more than
+      usually dark and distressing, since I had set out on this journey,
+      suddenly disappeared. I felt a wonderful elevation of spirits, and began
+      to reflect on my past life, and especially on my combat with the giants,
+      with such satisfaction, that I had actually to remind myself, that I had
+      only killed one of them; and that, but for the brothers, I should never
+      have had the idea of attacking them, not to mention the smallest power of
+      standing to it. Still I rejoiced, and counted myself amongst the glorious
+      knights of old; having even the unspeakable presumption&mdash;my shame and
+      self-condemnation at the memory of it are such, that I write it as the
+      only and sorest penance I can perform&mdash;to think of myself (will the
+      world believe it?) as side by side with Sir Galahad! Scarcely had the
+      thought been born in my mind, when, approaching me from the left, through
+      the trees, I espied a resplendent knight, of mighty size, whose armour
+      seemed to shine of itself, without the sun. When he drew near, I was
+      astonished to see that this armour was like my own; nay, I could trace,
+      line for line, the correspondence of the inlaid silver to the device on my
+      own. His horse, too, was like mine in colour, form, and motion; save that,
+      like his rider, he was greater and fiercer than his counterpart. The
+      knight rode with beaver up. As he halted right opposite to me in the
+      narrow path, barring my way, I saw the reflection of my countenance in the
+      centre plate of shining steel on his breastplate. Above it rose the same
+      face&mdash;his face&mdash;only, as I have said, larger and fiercer. I was
+      bewildered. I could not help feeling some admiration of him, but it was
+      mingled with a dim conviction that he was evil, and that I ought to fight
+      with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me pass,&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I will,&rdquo; he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something within me said: &ldquo;Spear in rest, and ride at him! else thou art
+      for ever a slave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I tried, but my arm trembled so much, that I could not couch my lance. To
+      tell the truth, I, who had overcome the giant, shook like a coward before
+      this knight. He gave a scornful laugh, that echoed through the wood,
+      turned his horse, and said, without looking round, &ldquo;Follow me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I obeyed, abashed and stupefied. How long he led, and how long I followed,
+      I cannot tell. &ldquo;I never knew misery before,&rdquo; I said to myself. &ldquo;Would that
+      I had at least struck him, and had had my death-blow in return! Why, then,
+      do I not call to him to wheel and defend himself? Alas! I know not why,
+      but I cannot. One look from him would cow me like a beaten hound.&rdquo; I
+      followed, and was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length we came to a dreary square tower, in the middle of a dense
+      forest. It looked as if scarce a tree had been cut down to make room for
+      it. Across the very door, diagonally, grew the stem of a tree, so large
+      that there was just room to squeeze past it in order to enter. One
+      miserable square hole in the roof was the only visible suggestion of a
+      window. Turret or battlement, or projecting masonry of any kind, it had
+      none. Clear and smooth and massy, it rose from its base, and ended with a
+      line straight and unbroken. The roof, carried to a centre from each of the
+      four walls, rose slightly to the point where the rafters met. Round the
+      base lay several little heaps of either bits of broken branches, withered
+      and peeled, or half-whitened bones; I could not distinguish which. As I
+      approached, the ground sounded hollow beneath my horse&rsquo;s hoofs. The knight
+      took a great key from his pocket, and reaching past the stem of the tree,
+      with some difficulty opened the door. &ldquo;Dismount,&rdquo; he commanded. I obeyed.
+      He turned my horse&rsquo;s head away from the tower, gave him a terrible blow
+      with the flat side of his sword, and sent him madly tearing through the
+      forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;enter, and take your companion with you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked round: knight and horse had vanished, and behind me lay the
+      horrible shadow. I entered, for I could not help myself; and the shadow
+      followed me. I had a terrible conviction that the knight and he were one.
+      The door closed behind me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now I was indeed in pitiful plight. There was literally nothing in the
+      tower but my shadow and me. The walls rose right up to the roof; in which,
+      as I had seen from without, there was one little square opening. This I
+      now knew to be the only window the tower possessed. I sat down on the
+      floor, in listless wretchedness. I think I must have fallen asleep, and
+      have slept for hours; for I suddenly became aware of existence, in
+      observing that the moon was shining through the hole in the roof. As she
+      rose higher and higher, her light crept down the wall over me, till at
+      last it shone right upon my head. Instantaneously the walls of the tower
+      seemed to vanish away like a mist. I sat beneath a beech, on the edge of a
+      forest, and the open country lay, in the moonlight, for miles and miles
+      around me, spotted with glimmering houses and spires and towers. I thought
+      with myself, &ldquo;Oh, joy! it was only a dream; the horrible narrow waste is
+      gone, and I wake beneath a beech-tree, perhaps one that loves me, and I
+      can go where I will.&rdquo; I rose, as I thought, and walked about, and did what
+      I would, but ever kept near the tree; for always, and, of course, since my
+      meeting with the woman of the beech-tree far more than ever, I loved that
+      tree. So the night wore on. I waited for the sun to rise, before I could
+      venture to renew my journey. But as soon as the first faint light of the
+      dawn appeared, instead of shining upon me from the eye of the morning, it
+      stole like a fainting ghost through the little square hole above my head;
+      and the walls came out as the light grew, and the glorious night was
+      swallowed up of the hateful day. The long dreary day passed. My shadow lay
+      black on the floor. I felt no hunger, no need of food. The night came. The
+      moon shone. I watched her light slowly descending the wall, as I might
+      have watched, adown the sky, the long, swift approach of a helping angel.
+      Her rays touched me, and I was free. Thus night after night passed away. I
+      should have died but for this. Every night the conviction returned, that I
+      was free. Every morning I sat wretchedly disconsolate. At length, when the
+      course of the moon no longer permitted her beams to touch me, the night
+      was dreary as the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I slept, I was somewhat consoled by my dreams; but all the time I
+      dreamed, I knew that I was only dreaming. But one night, at length, the
+      moon, a mere shred of pallor, scattered a few thin ghostly rays upon me;
+      and I think I fell asleep and dreamed. I sat in an autumn night before the
+      vintage, on a hill overlooking my own castle. My heart sprang with joy.
+      Oh, to be a child again, innocent, fearless, without shame or desire! I
+      walked down to the castle. All were in consternation at my absence. My
+      sisters were weeping for my loss. They sprang up and clung to me, with
+      incoherent cries, as I entered. My old friends came flocking round me. A
+      gray light shone on the roof of the hall. It was the light of the dawn
+      shining through the square window of my tower. More earnestly than ever, I
+      longed for freedom after this dream; more drearily than ever, crept on the
+      next wretched day. I measured by the sunbeams, caught through the little
+      window in the trap of my tower, how it went by, waiting only for the
+      dreams of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About noon, I started as if something foreign to all my senses and all my
+      experience, had suddenly invaded me; yet it was only the voice of a woman
+      singing. My whole frame quivered with joy, surprise, and the sensation of
+      the unforeseen. Like a living soul, like an incarnation of Nature, the
+      song entered my prison-house. Each tone folded its wings, and laid itself,
+      like a caressing bird, upon my heart. It bathed me like a sea; inwrapt me
+      like an odorous vapour; entered my soul like a long draught of clear
+      spring-water; shone upon me like essential sunlight; soothed me like a
+      mother&rsquo;s voice and hand. Yet, as the clearest forest-well tastes sometimes
+      of the bitterness of decayed leaves, so to my weary, prisoned heart, its
+      cheerfulness had a sting of cold, and its tenderness unmanned me with the
+      faintness of long-departed joys. I wept half-bitterly, half-luxuriously;
+      but not long. I dashed away the tears, ashamed of a weakness which I
+      thought I had abandoned. Ere I knew, I had walked to the door, and seated
+      myself with my ears against it, in order to catch every syllable of the
+      revelation from the unseen outer world. And now I heard each word
+      distinctly. The singer seemed to be standing or sitting near the tower,
+      for the sounds indicated no change of place. The song was something like
+      this:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+         The sun, like a golden knot on high,
+         Gathers the glories of the sky,
+         And binds them into a shining tent,
+         Roofing the world with the firmament.
+         And through the pavilion the rich winds blow,
+         And through the pavilion the waters go.
+         And the birds for joy, and the trees for prayer,
+         Bowing their heads in the sunny air,
+         And for thoughts, the gently talking springs,
+         That come from the centre with secret things&mdash;
+         All make a music, gentle and strong,
+         Bound by the heart into one sweet song.
+         And amidst them all, the mother Earth
+         Sits with the children of her birth;
+         She tendeth them all, as a mother hen
+         Her little ones round her, twelve or ten:
+         Oft she sitteth, with hands on knee,
+         Idle with love for her family.
+         Go forth to her from the dark and the dust,
+         And weep beside her, if weep thou must;
+         If she may not hold thee to her breast,
+         Like a weary infant, that cries for rest
+         At least she will press thee to her knee,
+         And tell a low, sweet tale to thee,
+         Till the hue to thy cheeky and the light to thine eye,
+         Strength to thy limbs, and courage high
+         To thy fainting heart, return amain,
+         And away to work thou goest again.
+         From the narrow desert, O man of pride,
+         Come into the house, so high and wide.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Hardly knowing what I did, I opened the door. Why had I not done so
+      before? I do not know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I could see no one; but when I had forced myself past the tree
+      which grew across the entrance, I saw, seated on the ground, and leaning
+      against the tree, with her back to my prison, a beautiful woman. Her
+      countenance seemed known to me, and yet unknown. She looked at me and
+      smiled, when I made my appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! were you the prisoner there? I am very glad I have wiled you out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know me then?&rdquo; &ldquo;Do you not know me? But you hurt me, and that, I
+      suppose, makes it easy for a man to forget. You broke my globe. Yet I
+      thank you. Perhaps I owe you many thanks for breaking it. I took the
+      pieces, all black, and wet with crying over them, to the Fairy Queen.
+      There was no music and no light in them now. But she took them from me,
+      and laid them aside; and made me go to sleep in a great hall of white,
+      with black pillars, and many red curtains. When I woke in the morning, I
+      went to her, hoping to have my globe again, whole and sound; but she sent
+      me away without it, and I have not seen it since. Nor do I care for it
+      now. I have something so much better. I do not need the globe to play to
+      me; for I can sing. I could not sing at all before. Now I go about
+      everywhere through Fairy Land, singing till my heart is like to break,
+      just like my globe, for very joy at my own songs. And wherever I go, my
+      songs do good, and deliver people. And now I have delivered you, and I am
+      so happy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She ceased, and the tears came into her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, I had been gazing at her; and now fully recognised the face
+      of the child, glorified in the countenance of the woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was ashamed and humbled before her; but a great weight was lifted from
+      my thoughts. I knelt before her, and thanked her, and begged her to
+      forgive me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rise, rise,&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;I have nothing to forgive; I thank you. But now I
+      must be gone, for I do not know how many may be waiting for me, here and
+      there, through the dark forests; and they cannot come out till I come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She rose, and with a smile and a farewell, turned and left me. I dared not
+      ask her to stay; in fact, I could hardly speak to her. Between her and me,
+      there was a great gulf. She was uplifted, by sorrow and well-doing, into a
+      region I could hardly hope ever to enter. I watched her departure, as one
+      watches a sunset. She went like a radiance through the dark wood, which
+      was henceforth bright to me, from simply knowing that such a creature was
+      in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was bearing the sun to the unsunned spots. The light and the music of
+      her broken globe were now in her heart and her brain. As she went, she
+      sang; and I caught these few words of her song; and the tones seemed to
+      linger and wind about the trees after she had disappeared:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+             Thou goest thine, and I go mine&mdash;
+             Many ways we wend;
+             Many days, and many ways,
+             Ending in one end.
+
+             Many a wrong, and its curing song;
+             Many a road, and many an inn;
+             Room to roam, but only one home
+             For all the world to win.
+</pre>
+<p>
+ And so she vanished.  With a sad heart, soothed by humility, and
+the knowledge of her peace and gladness, I bethought me what now I
+should do. First, I must leave the tower far behind me, lest, in some
+evil moment, I might be once more caged within its horrible walls. But
+it was ill walking in my heavy armour; and besides I had now no right
+to the golden spurs and the resplendent mail, fitly dulled with long
+neglect. I might do for a squire; but I honoured knighthood too highly,
+to call myself any longer one of the noble brotherhood. I stripped off
+all my armour, piled it under the tree, just where the lady had been
+seated, and took my unknown way, eastward through the woods. Of all my
+weapons, I carried only a short axe in my hand.
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to myself, &ldquo;I am
+      what I am, nothing more.&rdquo; &ldquo;I have failed,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I have lost myself&mdash;would
+      it had been my shadow.&rdquo; I looked round: the shadow was nowhere to be seen.
+      Ere long, I learned that it was not myself, but only my shadow, that I had
+      lost. I learned that it is better, a thousand-fold, for a proud man to
+      fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied
+      innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a man;
+      that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his
+      manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or dimmed, or grown less
+      precious; I only saw it too plainly, to set myself for a moment beside it.
+      Indeed, my ideal soon became my life; whereas, formerly, my life had
+      consisted in a vain attempt to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least
+      myself in my ideal. Now, however, I took, at first, what perhaps was a
+      mistaken pleasure, in despising and degrading myself. Another self seemed
+      to arise, like a white spirit from a dead man, from the dumb and trampled
+      self of the past. Doubtless, this self must again die and be buried, and
+      again, from its tomb, spring a winged child; but of this my history as yet
+      bears not the record.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Self will come to life even in the slaying of self; but there is ever
+      something deeper and stronger than it, which will emerge at last from the
+      unknown abysses of the soul: will it be as a solemn gloom, burning with
+      eyes? or a clear morning after the rain? or a smiling child, that finds
+      itself nowhere, and everywhere?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;High erected thought, seated in a heart of courtesy.&rdquo;
+                                 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
+
+            &ldquo;A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
+                 A full assurance given by lookes,
+              Continuall comfort in a face,
+                 The lineaments of Gospel bookes.&rdquo;
+                            MATTHEW ROYDON, on Sir Philip Sidney.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I had not gone far, for I had but just lost sight of the hated tower, when
+      a voice of another sort, sounding near or far, as the trees permitted or
+      intercepted its passage, reached me. It was a full, deep, manly voice, but
+      withal clear and melodious. Now it burst on the ear with a sudden swell,
+      and anon, dying away as suddenly, seemed to come to me across a great
+      space. Nevertheless, it drew nearer; till, at last, I could distinguish
+      the words of the song, and get transient glimpses of the singer, between
+      the columns of the trees. He came nearer, dawning upon me like a growing
+      thought. He was a knight, armed from head to heel, mounted upon a
+      strange-looking beast, whose form I could not understand. The words which
+      I heard him sing were like these:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          Heart be stout,
+           And eye be true;
+          Good blade out!
+           And ill shall rue.
+
+          Courage, horse!
+           Thou lackst no skill;
+          Well thy force
+           Hath matched my will.
+
+          For the foe
+           With fiery breath,
+          At a blow,
+           Is still in death.
+
+          Gently, horse!
+           Tread fearlessly;
+         &lsquo;Tis his corse
+           That burdens thee.
+
+          The sun&rsquo;s eye
+           Is fierce at noon;
+          Thou and I
+           Will rest full soon.
+
+          And new strength
+           New work will meet;
+          Till, at length,
+           Long rest is sweet.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And now horse and rider had arrived near enough for me to see, fastened by
+      the long neck to the hinder part of the saddle, and trailing its hideous
+      length on the ground behind, the body of a great dragon. It was no wonder
+      that, with such a drag at his heels, the horse could make but slow
+      progress, notwithstanding his evident dismay. The horrid, serpent-like
+      head, with its black tongue, forked with red, hanging out of its jaws,
+      dangled against the horse&rsquo;s side. Its neck was covered with long blue
+      hair, its sides with scales of green and gold. Its back was of corrugated
+      skin, of a purple hue. Its belly was similar in nature, but its colour was
+      leaden, dashed with blotches of livid blue. Its skinny, bat-like wings and
+      its tail were of a dull gray. It was strange to see how so many gorgeous
+      colours, so many curving lines, and such beautiful things as wings and
+      hair and scales, combined to form the horrible creature, intense in
+      ugliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight was passing me with a salutation; but, as I walked towards him,
+      he reined up, and I stood by his stirrup. When I came near him, I saw to
+      my surprise and pleasure likewise, although a sudden pain, like a birth of
+      fire, sprang up in my heart, that it was the knight of the soiled armour,
+      whom I knew before, and whom I had seen in the vision, with the lady of
+      the marble. But I could have thrown my arms around him, because she loved
+      him. This discovery only strengthened the resolution I had formed, before
+      I recognised him, of offering myself to the knight, to wait upon him as a
+      squire, for he seemed to be unattended. I made my request in as few words
+      as possible. He hesitated for a moment, and looked at me thoughtfully. I
+      saw that he suspected who I was, but that he continued uncertain of his
+      suspicion. No doubt he was soon convinced of its truth; but all the time I
+      was with him, not a word crossed his lips with reference to what he
+      evidently concluded I wished to leave unnoticed, if not to keep concealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Squire and knight should be friends,&rdquo; said he: &ldquo;can you take me by the
+      hand?&rdquo; And he held out the great gauntleted right hand. I grasped it
+      willingly and strongly. Not a word more was said. The knight gave the sign
+      to his horse, which again began his slow march, and I walked beside and a
+      little behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had not gone very far before we arrived at a little cottage; from
+      which, as we drew near, a woman rushed out with the cry:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My child! my child! have you found my child?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have found her,&rdquo; replied the knight, &ldquo;but she is sorely hurt. I was
+      forced to leave her with the hermit, as I returned. You will find her
+      there, and I think she will get better. You see I have brought you a
+      present. This wretch will not hurt you again.&rdquo; And he undid the creature&rsquo;s
+      neck, and flung the frightful burden down by the cottage door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman was now almost out of sight in the wood; but the husband stood
+      at the door, with speechless thanks in his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must bury the monster,&rdquo; said the knight. &ldquo;If I had arrived a moment
+      later, I should have been too late. But now you need not fear, for such a
+      creature as this very rarely appears, in the same part, twice during a
+      lifetime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you not dismount and rest you, Sir Knight?&rdquo; said the peasant, who
+      had, by this time, recovered himself a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I will, thankfully,&rdquo; said he; and, dismounting, he gave the reins to
+      me, and told me to unbridle the horse, and lead him into the shade. &ldquo;You
+      need not tie him up,&rdquo; he added; &ldquo;he will not run away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When I returned, after obeying his orders, and entered the cottage, I saw
+      the knight seated, without his helmet, and talking most familiarly with
+      the simple host. I stood at the open door for a moment, and, gazing at
+      him, inwardly justified the white lady in preferring him to me. A nobler
+      countenance I never saw. Loving-kindness beamed from every line of his
+      face. It seemed as if he would repay himself for the late arduous combat,
+      by indulging in all the gentleness of a womanly heart. But when the talk
+      ceased for a moment, he seemed to fall into a reverie. Then the exquisite
+      curves of the upper lip vanished. The lip was lengthened and compressed at
+      the same moment. You could have told that, within the lips, the teeth were
+      firmly closed. The whole face grew stern and determined, all but fierce;
+      only the eyes burned on like a holy sacrifice, uplift on a granite rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman entered, with her mangled child in her arms. She was pale as her
+      little burden. She gazed, with a wild love and despairing tenderness, on
+      the still, all but dead face, white and clear from loss of blood and
+      terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight rose. The light that had been confined to his eyes, now shone
+      from his whole countenance. He took the little thing in his arms, and,
+      with the mother&rsquo;s help, undressed her, and looked to her wounds. The tears
+      flowed down his face as he did so. With tender hands he bound them up,
+      kissed the pale cheek, and gave her back to her mother. When he went home,
+      all his tale would be of the grief and joy of the parents; while to me,
+      who had looked on, the gracious countenance of the armed man, beaming from
+      the panoply of steel, over the seemingly dead child, while the powerful
+      hands turned it and shifted it, and bound it, if possible even more gently
+      than the mother&rsquo;s, formed the centre of the story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After we had partaken of the best they could give us, the knight took his
+      leave, with a few parting instructions to the mother as to how she should
+      treat the child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I brought the knight his steed, held the stirrup while he mounted, and
+      then followed him through the wood. The horse, delighted to be free of his
+      hideous load, bounded beneath the weight of man and armour, and could
+      hardly be restrained from galloping on. But the knight made him time his
+      powers to mine, and so we went on for an hour or two. Then the knight
+      dismounted, and compelled me to get into the saddle, saying: &ldquo;Knight and
+      squire must share the labour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Holding by the stirrup, he walked along by my side, heavily clad as he
+      was, with apparent ease. As we went, he led a conversation, in which I
+      took what humble part my sense of my condition would permit me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somehow or other,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;notwithstanding the beauty of this country
+      of Faerie, in which we are, there is much that is wrong in it. If there
+      are great splendours, there are corresponding horrors; heights and depths;
+      beautiful women and awful fiends; noble men and weaklings. All a man has
+      to do, is to better what he can. And if he will settle it with himself,
+      that even renown and success are in themselves of no great value, and be
+      content to be defeated, if so be that the fault is not his; and so go to
+      his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he will get it done; and
+      fare none the worse in the end, that he was not burdened with provision
+      and precaution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But he will not always come off well,&rdquo; I ventured to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps not,&rdquo; rejoined the knight, &ldquo;in the individual act; but the result
+      of his lifetime will content him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it will fare with you, doubtless,&rdquo; thought I; &ldquo;but for me&mdash;-&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Venturing to resume the conversation after a pause, I said, hesitatingly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask for what the little beggar-girl wanted your aid, when she came
+      to your castle to find you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot help wondering how you know of that; but there is something
+      about you quite strange enough to entitle you to the privilege of the
+      country; namely, to go unquestioned. I, however, being only a man, such as
+      you see me, am ready to tell you anything you like to ask me, as far as I
+      can. The little beggar-girl came into the hall where I was sitting, and
+      told me a very curious story, which I can only recollect very vaguely, it
+      was so peculiar. What I can recall is, that she was sent to gather wings.
+      As soon as she had gathered a pair of wings for herself, she was to fly
+      away, she said, to the country she came from; but where that was, she
+      could give no information.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She said she had to beg her wings from the butterflies and moths; and
+      wherever she begged, no one refused her. But she needed a great many of
+      the wings of butterflies and moths to make a pair for her; and so she had
+      to wander about day after day, looking for butterflies, and night after
+      night, looking for moths; and then she begged for their wings. But the day
+      before, she had come into a part of the forest, she said, where there were
+      multitudes of splendid butterflies flitting about, with wings which were
+      just fit to make the eyes in the shoulders of hers; and she knew she could
+      have as many of them as she liked for the asking; but as soon as she began
+      to beg, there came a great creature right up to her, and threw her down,
+      and walked over her. When she got up, she saw the wood was full of these
+      beings stalking about, and seeming to have nothing to do with each other.
+      As soon as ever she began to beg, one of them walked over her; till at
+      last in dismay, and in growing horror of the senseless creatures, she had
+      run away to look for somebody to help her. I asked her what they were
+      like. She said, like great men, made of wood, without knee-or
+      elbow-joints, and without any noses or mouths or eyes in their faces. I
+      laughed at the little maiden, thinking she was making child&rsquo;s game of me;
+      but, although she burst out laughing too, she persisted in asserting the
+      truth of her story.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Only come, knight, come and see; I will lead you.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I armed myself, to be ready for anything that might happen, and
+      followed the child; for, though I could make nothing of her story, I could
+      see she was a little human being in need of some help or other. As she
+      walked before me, I looked attentively at her. Whether or not it was from
+      being so often knocked down and walked over, I could not tell, but her
+      clothes were very much torn, and in several places her white skin was
+      peeping through. I thought she was hump-backed; but on looking more
+      closely, I saw, through the tatters of her frock&mdash;do not laugh at me&mdash;a
+      bunch on each shoulder, of the most gorgeous colours. Looking yet more
+      closely, I saw that they were of the shape of folded wings, and were made
+      of all kinds of butterfly-wings and moth-wings, crowded together like the
+      feathers on the individual butterfly pinion; but, like them, most
+      beautifully arranged, and producing a perfect harmony of colour and shade.
+      I could now more easily believe the rest of her story; especially as I
+      saw, every now and then, a certain heaving motion in the wings, as if they
+      longed to be uplifted and outspread. But beneath her scanty garments
+      complete wings could not be concealed, and indeed, from her own story,
+      they were yet unfinished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After walking for two or three hours (how the little girl found her way,
+      I could not imagine), we came to a part of the forest, the very air of
+      which was quivering with the motions of multitudes of resplendent
+      butterflies; as gorgeous in colour, as if the eyes of peacocks&rsquo; feathers
+      had taken to flight, but of infinite variety of hue and form, only that
+      the appearance of some kind of eye on each wing predominated. &lsquo;There they
+      are, there they are!&rsquo; cried the child, in a tone of victory mingled with
+      terror. Except for this tone, I should have thought she referred to the
+      butterflies, for I could see nothing else. But at that moment an enormous
+      butterfly, whose wings had great eyes of blue surrounded by confused
+      cloudy heaps of more dingy colouring, just like a break in the clouds on a
+      stormy day towards evening, settled near us. The child instantly began
+      murmuring: &lsquo;Butterfly, butterfly, give me your wings&rsquo;; when, the moment
+      after, she fell to the ground, and began crying as if hurt. I drew my
+      sword and heaved a great blow in the direction in which the child had
+      fallen. It struck something, and instantly the most grotesque imitation of
+      a man became visible. You see this Fairy Land is full of oddities and all
+      sorts of incredibly ridiculous things, which a man is compelled to meet
+      and treat as real existences, although all the time he feels foolish for
+      doing so. This being, if being it could be called, was like a block of
+      wood roughly hewn into the mere outlines of a man; and hardly so, for it
+      had but head, body, legs, and arms&mdash;the head without a face, and the
+      limbs utterly formless. I had hewn off one of its legs, but the two
+      portions moved on as best they could, quite independent of each other; so
+      that I had done no good. I ran after it, and clove it in twain from the
+      head downwards; but it could not be convinced that its vocation was not to
+      walk over people; for, as soon as the little girl began her begging again,
+      all three parts came bustling up; and if I had not interposed my weight
+      between her and them, she would have been trampled again under them. I saw
+      that something else must be done. If the wood was full of the creatures,
+      it would be an endless work to chop them so small that they could do no
+      injury; and then, besides, the parts would be so numerous, that the
+      butterflies would be in danger from the drift of flying chips. I served
+      this one so, however; and then told the girl to beg again, and point out
+      the direction in which one was coming. I was glad to find, however, that I
+      could now see him myself, and wondered how they could have been invisible
+      before. I would not allow him to walk over the child; but while I kept him
+      off, and she began begging again, another appeared; and it was all I could
+      do, from the weight of my armour, to protect her from the stupid,
+      persevering efforts of the two. But suddenly the right plan occurred to
+      me. I tripped one of them up, and, taking him by the legs, set him up on
+      his head, with his heels against a tree. I was delighted to find he could
+      not move. Meantime the poor child was walked over by the other, but it was
+      for the last time. Whenever one appeared, I followed the same plan&mdash;tripped
+      him up and set him on his head; and so the little beggar was able to
+      gather her wings without any trouble, which occupation she continued for
+      several hours in my company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What became of her?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I took her home with me to my castle, and she told me all her story; but
+      it seemed to me, all the time, as if I were hearing a child talk in its
+      sleep. I could not arrange her story in my mind at all, although it seemed
+      to leave hers in some certain order of its own. My wife&mdash;-&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the knight checked himself, and said no more. Neither did I urge the
+      conversation farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we journeyed for several days, resting at night in such shelter as we
+      could get; and when no better was to be had, lying in the forest under
+      some tree, on a couch of old leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I loved the knight more and more. I believe never squire served his master
+      with more care and joyfulness than I. I tended his horse; I cleaned his
+      armour; my skill in the craft enabled me to repair it when necessary; I
+      watched his needs; and was well repaid for all by the love itself which I
+      bore him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This,&rdquo; I said to myself, &ldquo;is a true man. I will serve him, and give him
+      all worship, seeing in him the imbodiment of what I would fain become. If
+      I cannot be noble myself, I will yet be servant to his nobleness.&rdquo; He, in
+      return, soon showed me such signs of friendship and respect, as made my
+      heart glad; and I felt that, after all, mine would be no lost life, if I
+      might wait on him to the world&rsquo;s end, although no smile but his should
+      greet me, and no one but him should say, &ldquo;Well done! he was a good
+      servant!&rdquo; at last. But I burned to do something more for him than the
+      ordinary routine of a squire&rsquo;s duty permitted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, we began to observe an appearance of roads in the wood.
+      Branches had been cut down, and openings made, where footsteps had worn no
+      path below. These indications increased as we passed on, till, at length,
+      we came into a long, narrow avenue, formed by felling the trees in its
+      line, as the remaining roots evidenced. At some little distance, on both
+      hands, we observed signs of similar avenues, which appeared to converge
+      with ours, towards one spot. Along these we indistinctly saw several forms
+      moving, which seemed, with ourselves, to approach the common centre. Our
+      path brought us, at last, up to a wall of yew-trees, growing close
+      together, and intertwining their branches so, that nothing could be seen
+      beyond it. An opening was cut in it like a door, and all the wall was
+      trimmed smooth and perpendicular. The knight dismounted, and waited till I
+      had provided for his horse&rsquo;s comfort; upon which we entered the place
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a great space, bare of trees, and enclosed by four walls of yew,
+      similar to that through which we had entered. These trees grew to a very
+      great height, and did not divide from each other till close to the top,
+      where their summits formed a row of conical battlements all around the
+      walls. The space contained was a parallelogram of great length. Along each
+      of the two longer sides of the interior, were ranged three ranks of men,
+      in white robes, standing silent and solemn, each with a sword by his side,
+      although the rest of his costume and bearing was more priestly than
+      soldierly. For some distance inwards, the space between these opposite
+      rows was filled with a company of men and women and children, in holiday
+      attire. The looks of all were directed inwards, towards the further end.
+      Far beyond the crowd, in a long avenue, seeming to narrow in the distance,
+      went the long rows of the white-robed men. On what the attention of the
+      multitude was fixed, we could not tell, for the sun had set before we
+      arrived, and it was growing dark within. It grew darker and darker. The
+      multitude waited in silence. The stars began to shine down into the
+      enclosure, and they grew brighter and larger every moment. A wind arose,
+      and swayed the pinnacles of the tree-tops; and made a strange sound, half
+      like music, half like moaning, through the close branches and leaves of
+      the tree-walls. A young girl who stood beside me, clothed in the same
+      dress as the priests, bowed her head, and grew pale with awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The knight whispered to me, &ldquo;How solemn it is! Surely they wait to hear
+      the voice of a prophet. There is something good near!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But I, though somewhat shaken by the feeling expressed by my master, yet
+      had an unaccountable conviction that here was something bad. So I resolved
+      to be keenly on the watch for what should follow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly a great star, like a sun, appeared high in the air over the
+      temple, illuminating it throughout; and a great song arose from the men in
+      white, which went rolling round and round the building, now receding to
+      the end, and now approaching, down the other side, the place where we
+      stood. For some of the singers were regularly ceasing, and the next to
+      them as regularly taking up the song, so that it crept onwards with
+      gradations produced by changes which could not themselves be detected, for
+      only a few of those who were singing ceased at the same moment. The song
+      paused; and I saw a company of six of the white-robed men walk up the
+      centre of the human avenue, surrounding a youth gorgeously attired beneath
+      his robe of white, and wearing a chaplet of flowers on his head. I
+      followed them closely, with my keenest observation; and, by accompanying
+      their slow progress with my eyes, I was able to perceive more clearly what
+      took place when they arrived at the other end. I knew that my sight was so
+      much more keen than that of most people, that I had good reason to suppose
+      I should see more than the rest could, at such a distance. At the farther
+      end a throne stood upon a platform, high above the heads of the
+      surrounding priests. To this platform I saw the company begin to ascend,
+      apparently by an inclined plane or gentle slope. The throne itself was
+      elevated again, on a kind of square pedestal, to the top of which led a
+      flight of steps. On the throne sat a majestic-looking figure, whose
+      posture seemed to indicate a mixture of pride and benignity, as he looked
+      down on the multitude below. The company ascended to the foot of the
+      throne, where they all kneeled for some minutes; then they rose and passed
+      round to the side of the pedestal upon which the throne stood. Here they
+      crowded close behind the youth, putting him in the foremost place, and one
+      of them opened a door in the pedestal, for the youth to enter. I was sure
+      I saw him shrink back, and those crowding behind pushed him in. Then,
+      again, arose a burst of song from the multitude in white, which lasted
+      some time. When it ceased, a new company of seven commenced its march up
+      the centre. As they advanced, I looked up at my master: his noble
+      countenance was full of reverence and awe. Incapable of evil himself, he
+      could scarcely suspect it in another, much less in a multitude such as
+      this, and surrounded with such appearances of solemnity. I was certain it
+      was the really grand accompaniments that overcame him; that the stars
+      overhead, the dark towering tops of the yew-trees, and the wind that, like
+      an unseen spirit, sighed through their branches, bowed his spirit to the
+      belief, that in all these ceremonies lay some great mystical meaning
+      which, his humility told him, his ignorance prevented him from
+      understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More convinced than before, that there was evil here, I could not endure
+      that my master should be deceived; that one like him, so pure and noble,
+      should respect what, if my suspicions were true, was worse than the
+      ordinary deceptions of priestcraft. I could not tell how far he might be
+      led to countenance, and otherwise support their doings, before he should
+      find cause to repent bitterly of his error. I watched the new procession
+      yet more keenly, if possible, than the former. This time, the central
+      figure was a girl; and, at the close, I observed, yet more indubitably,
+      the shrinking back, and the crowding push. What happened to the victims, I
+      never learned; but I had learned enough, and I could bear it no longer. I
+      stooped, and whispered to the young girl who stood by me, to lend me her
+      white garment. I wanted it, that I might not be entirely out of keeping
+      with the solemnity, but might have at least this help to passing
+      unquestioned. She looked up, half-amused and half-bewildered, as if
+      doubting whether I was in earnest or not. But in her perplexity, she
+      permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it down from her shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in the crowd,
+      I rose apparently in the habit of one of the worshippers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the return of her
+      stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed, and, if it was a man that
+      sat upon the throne, to attack him with hands bare, as I supposed his must
+      be, I made my way through the crowd to the front, while the singing yet
+      continued, desirous of reaching the platform while it was unoccupied by
+      any of the priests. I was permitted to walk up the long avenue of white
+      robes unmolested, though I saw questioning looks in many of the faces as I
+      passed. I presume my coolness aided my passage; for I felt quite
+      indifferent as to my own fate; not feeling, after the late events of my
+      history, that I was at all worth taking care of; and enjoying, perhaps,
+      something of an evil satisfaction, in the revenge I was thus taking upon
+      the self which had fooled me so long. When I arrived on the platform, the
+      song had just ceased, and I felt as if all were looking towards me. But
+      instead of kneeling at its foot, I walked right up the stairs to the
+      throne, laid hold of a great wooden image that seemed to sit upon it, and
+      tried to hurl it from its seat. In this I failed at first, for I found it
+      firmly fixed. But in dread lest, the first shock of amazement passing
+      away, the guards would rush upon me before I had effected my purpose, I
+      strained with all my might; and, with a noise as of the cracking, and
+      breaking, and tearing of rotten wood, something gave way, and I hurled the
+      image down the steps. Its displacement revealed a great hole in the
+      throne, like the hollow of a decayed tree, going down apparently a great
+      way. But I had no time to examine it, for, as I looked into it, up out of
+      it rushed a great brute, like a wolf, but twice the size, and tumbled me
+      headlong with itself, down the steps of the throne. As we fell, however, I
+      caught it by the throat, and the moment we reached the platform, a
+      struggle commenced, in which I soon got uppermost, with my hand upon its
+      throat, and knee upon its heart. But now arose a wild cry of wrath and
+      revenge and rescue. A universal hiss of steel, as every sword was swept
+      from its scabbard, seemed to tear the very air in shreds. I heard the rush
+      of hundreds towards the platform on which I knelt. I only tightened my
+      grasp of the brute&rsquo;s throat. His eyes were already starting from his head,
+      and his tongue was hanging out. My anxious hope was, that, even after they
+      had killed me, they would be unable to undo my gripe of his throat, before
+      the monster was past breathing. I therefore threw all my will, and force,
+      and purpose, into the grasping hand. I remember no blow. A faintness came
+      over me, and my consciousness departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;We are ne&rsquo;er like angels till our passions die.&rdquo;
+                                        DEKKER.
+
+        &ldquo;This wretched <i>Inn</i>, where we scarce stay to bait,
+                 We call our <i>Dwelling-Place</i>:
+                 We call one <i>Step a Race</i>:
+         But angels in their full enlightened state,
+         Angels, who <i>Live</i>, and know what &lsquo;tis to <i>Be</i>,
+         Who all the nonsense of our language see,
+         Who speak <i>things</i>, and our <i>words</i>, their ill-drawn
+              <i>pictures</i>, scorn,
+            When we, by a foolish figure, say,
+            <i>Behold an old man dead!</i> then they
+         Speak properly, and cry, <i>Behold a man-child born!</i>&rdquo;
+                                              COWLEY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I was dead, and right content. I lay in my coffin, with my hands folded in
+      peace. The knight, and the lady I loved, wept over me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her tears fell on my face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said the knight, &ldquo;I rushed amongst them like a madman. I hewed them
+      down like brushwood. Their swords battered on me like hail, but hurt me
+      not. I cut a lane through to my friend. He was dead. But he had throttled
+      the monster, and I had to cut the handful out of its throat, before I
+      could disengage and carry off his body. They dared not molest me as I
+      brought him back.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has died well,&rdquo; said the lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My spirit rejoiced. They left me to my repose. I felt as if a cool hand
+      had been laid upon my heart, and had stilled it. My soul was like a summer
+      evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when the drops are yet glistening on
+      the trees in the last rays of the down-going sun, and the wind of the
+      twilight has begun to blow. The hot fever of life had gone by, and I
+      breathed the clear mountain-air of the land of Death. I had never dreamed
+      of such blessedness. It was not that I had in any way ceased to be what I
+      had been. The very fact that anything can die, implies the existence of
+      something that cannot die; which must either take to itself another form,
+      as when the seed that is sown dies, and arises again; or, in conscious
+      existence, may, perhaps, continue to lead a purely spiritual life. If my
+      passions were dead, the souls of the passions, those essential mysteries
+      of the spirit which had imbodied themselves in the passions, and had given
+      to them all their glory and wonderment, yet lived, yet glowed, with a
+      pure, undying fire. They rose above their vanishing earthly garments, and
+      disclosed themselves angels of light. But oh, how beautiful beyond the old
+      form! I lay thus for a time, and lived as it were an unradiating
+      existence; my soul a motionless lake, that received all things and gave
+      nothing back; satisfied in still contemplation, and spiritual
+      consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere long, they bore me to my grave. Never tired child lay down in his
+      white bed, and heard the sound of his playthings being laid aside for the
+      night, with a more luxurious satisfaction of repose than I knew, when I
+      felt the coffin settle on the firm earth, and heard the sound of the
+      falling mould upon its lid. It has not the same hollow rattle within the
+      coffin, that it sends up to the edge of the grave. They buried me in no
+      graveyard. They loved me too much for that, I thank them; but they laid me
+      in the grounds of their own castle, amid many trees; where, as it was
+      spring-time, were growing primroses, and blue-bells, and all the families
+      of the woods
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that I lay in her bosom, the whole earth, and each of her many births,
+      was as a body to me, at my will. I seemed to feel the great heart of the
+      mother beating into mine, and feeding me with her own life, her own
+      essential being and nature. I heard the footsteps of my friends above, and
+      they sent a thrill through my heart. I knew that the helpers had gone, and
+      that the knight and the lady remained, and spoke low, gentle, tearful
+      words of him who lay beneath the yet wounded sod. I rose into a single
+      large primrose that grew by the edge of the grave, and from the window of
+      its humble, trusting face, looked full in the countenance of the lady. I
+      felt that I could manifest myself in the primrose; that it said a part of
+      what I wanted to say; just as in the old time, I had used to betake myself
+      to a song for the same end. The flower caught her eye. She stooped and
+      plucked it, saying, &ldquo;Oh, you beautiful creature!&rdquo; and, lightly kissing it,
+      put it in her bosom. It was the first kiss she had ever given me. But the
+      flower soon began to wither, and I forsook it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evening. The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy beams yet
+      illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above the world. I arose,
+      I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself upon it, floated with it in
+      sight of the sinking sun. He sank, and the cloud grew gray; but the
+      grayness touched not my heart. It carried its rose-hue within; for now I
+      could love without needing to be loved again. The moon came gliding up
+      with all the past in her wan face. She changed my couch into a ghostly
+      pallor, and threw all the earth below as to the bottom of a pale sea of
+      dreams. But she could not make me sad. I knew now, that it is by loving,
+      and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another;
+      yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not the
+      being loved by each other, that originates and perfects and assures their
+      blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any
+      soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close
+      to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in proportion as
+      selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power which springs
+      therefrom dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return. All true
+      love will, one day, behold its own image in the eyes of the beloved, and
+      be humbly glad. This is possible in the realms of lofty Death. &ldquo;Ah! my
+      friends,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;how I will tend you, and wait upon you, and haunt
+      you with my love.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My floating chariot bore me over a great city. Its faint dull sound
+      steamed up into the air&mdash;a sound&mdash;how composed?&rdquo; How many
+      hopeless cries,&rdquo; thought I, &ldquo;and how many mad shouts go to make up the
+      tumult, here so faint where I float in eternal peace, knowing that they
+      will one day be stilled in the surrounding calm, and that despair dies
+      into infinite hope, and the seeming impossible there, is the law here!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, O pale-faced women, and gloomy-browed men, and forgotten children,
+      how I will wait on you, and minister to you, and, putting my arms about
+      you in the dark, think hope into your hearts, when you fancy no one is
+      near! Soon as my senses have all come back, and have grown accustomed to
+      this new blessed life, I will be among you with the love that healeth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this, a pang and a terrible shudder went through me; a writhing as of
+      death convulsed me; and I became once again conscious of a more limited,
+      even a bodily and earthly life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+        &ldquo;Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one,
+          and perhaps will.&rdquo;&mdash;NOVALIS.
+
+            &ldquo;And on the ground, which is my modres gate,
+            I knocke with my staf; erlich and late,
+            And say to hire, Leve mother, let me in.&rdquo;
+                        CHAUCER, <i>The Pardoneres Tale</i>.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sinking from such a state of ideal bliss, into the world of shadows which
+      again closed around and infolded me, my first dread was, not unnaturally,
+      that my own shadow had found me again, and that my torture had commenced
+      anew. It was a sad revulsion of feeling. This, indeed, seemed to
+      correspond to what we think death is, before we die. Yet I felt within me
+      a power of calm endurance to which I had hitherto been a stranger. For, in
+      truth, that I should be able if only to think such things as I had been
+      thinking, was an unspeakable delight. An hour of such peace made the
+      turmoil of a lifetime worth striving through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I found myself lying in the open air, in the early morning, before
+      sunrise. Over me rose the summer heaven, expectant of the sun. The clouds
+      already saw him, coming from afar; and soon every dewdrop would rejoice in
+      his individual presence within it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay motionless for a few minutes; and then slowly rose and looked about
+      me. I was on the summit of a little hill; a valley lay beneath, and a
+      range of mountains closed up the view upon that side. But, to my horror,
+      across the valley, and up the height of the opposing mountains, stretched,
+      from my very feet, a hugely expanding shade. There it lay, long and large,
+      dark and mighty. I turned away with a sick despair; when lo! I beheld the
+      sun just lifting his head above the eastern hill, and the shadow that fell
+      from me, lay only where his beams fell not. I danced for joy. It was only
+      the natural shadow, that goes with every man who walks in the sun. As he
+      arose, higher and higher, the shadow-head sank down the side of the
+      opposite hill, and crept in across the valley towards my feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that I was so joyously delivered from this fear, I saw and recognised
+      the country around me. In the valley below, lay my own castle, and the
+      haunts of my childhood were all about me hastened home. My sisters
+      received me with unspeakable joy; but I suppose they observed some change
+      in me, for a kind of respect, with a slight touch of awe in it, mingled
+      with their joy, and made me ashamed. They had been in great distress about
+      me. On the morning of my disappearance, they had found the floor of my
+      room flooded; and, all that day, a wondrous and nearly impervious mist had
+      hung about the castle and grounds. I had been gone, they told me,
+      twenty-one days. To me it seemed twenty-one years. Nor could I yet feel
+      quite secure in my new experiences. When, at night, I lay down once more
+      in my own bed, I did not feel at all sure that when I awoke, I should not
+      find myself in some mysterious region of Fairy Land. My dreams were
+      incessant and perturbed; but when I did awake, I saw clearly that I was in
+      my own home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My mind soon grew calm; and I began the duties of my new position,
+      somewhat instructed, I hoped, by the adventures that had befallen me in
+      Fairy Land. Could I translate the experience of my travels there, into
+      common life? This was the question. Or must I live it all over again, and
+      learn it all over again, in the other forms that belong to the world of
+      men, whose experience yet runs parallel to that of Fairy Land? These
+      questions I cannot answer yet. But I fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even yet, I find myself looking round sometimes with anxiety, to see
+      whether my shadow falls right away from the sun or no. I have never yet
+      discovered any inclination to either side. And if I am not unfrequently
+      sad, I yet cast no more of a shade on the earth, than most men who have
+      lived in it as long as I. I have a strange feeling sometimes, that I am a
+      ghost, sent into the world to minister to my fellow men, or, rather, to
+      repair the wrongs I have already done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the world be brighter for me, at least in those portions of it, where
+      my darkness falls not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus I, who set out to find my Ideal, came back rejoicing that I had lost
+      my Shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the thought of the blessedness I experienced, after my death in Fairy
+      Land, is too high for me to lay hold upon it and hope in it, I often think
+      of the wise woman in the cottage, and of her solemn assurance that she
+      knew something too good to be told. When I am oppressed by any sorrow or
+      real perplexity, I often feel as if I had only left her cottage for a
+      time, and would soon return out of the vision, into it again. Sometimes,
+      on such occasions, I find myself, unconsciously almost, looking about for
+      the mystic mark of red, with the vague hope of entering her door, and
+      being comforted by her wise tenderness. I then console myself by saying:
+      &ldquo;I have come through the door of Dismay; and the way back from the world
+      into which that has led me, is through my tomb. Upon that the red sign
+      lies, and I shall find it one day, and be glad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I will end my story with the relation of an incident which befell me a few
+      days ago. I had been with my reapers, and, when they ceased their work at
+      noon, I had lain down under the shadow of a great, ancient beech-tree,
+      that stood on the edge of the field. As I lay, with my eyes closed, I
+      began to listen to the sound of the leaves overhead. At first, they made
+      sweet inarticulate music alone; but, by-and-by, the sound seemed to begin
+      to take shape, and to be gradually moulding itself into words; till, at
+      last, I seemed able to distinguish these, half-dissolved in a little ocean
+      of circumfluent tones: &ldquo;A great good is coming&mdash;is coming&mdash;is
+      coming to thee, Anodos;&rdquo; and so over and over again. I fancied that the
+      sound reminded me of the voice of the ancient woman, in the cottage that
+      was four-square. I opened my eyes, and, for a moment, almost believed that
+      I saw her face, with its many wrinkles and its young eyes, looking at me
+      from between two hoary branches of the beech overhead. But when I looked
+      more keenly, I saw only twigs and leaves, and the infinite sky, in tiny
+      spots, gazing through between. Yet I know that good is coming to me&mdash;that
+      good is always coming; though few have at all times the simplicity and the
+      courage to believe it. What we call evil, is the only and best shape,
+      which, for the person and his condition at the time, could be assumed by
+      the best good. And so, <i>Farewell</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
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diff --git a/old/phafr10.txt b/old/phafr10.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Phantastes, by George MacDonald.
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+Phantastes, A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
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+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+{The non-english portions need proofing badly!  i have neglected
+them for the most part.  Chapter headers were italics as well and
+may yet have errors?  Illustrations of the hardcopy intermingle
+with the text often, and so their markings are "rudely" placed
+mid-sentence in this etext as well within {} marks.  my use of ??
+marks are spots that need to be checked with another printing or
+edition as something *seems* missing but i cannot say what.... 
+The poetry may have errors, particularly end of line punctuation.
+
+Illustration captions removed from text but list at
+front is still there because of references to them in the
+preface.
+
+
+Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software
+donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226.
+Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com>
+
+
+
+PHANTASTES
+A FAERIE ROMANCE FOR MEN AND WOMEN
+
+BY
+GEORGE MACDONALD
+
+A new Edition, with thirty-three new Illustrations by Arthur
+Hughes; edited by Greville MacDonald
+
+"In good sooth, my masters, this is no door.
+ Yet is it a little window, that looketh upon a great world."
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+For offering this new edition of my father's Phantastes, my
+reasons are three.  The first is to rescue the work from an
+edition illustrated without the author's sanction, and so
+unsuitably that all lovers of the book must have experienced some
+real grief in turning its pages.  With the copyright I secured
+also the whole of that edition and turned it into pulp.
+    My second reason is to pay a small tribute to my father by
+way of personal gratitude for this, his first prose work, which
+was published nearly fifty years ago.  Though unknown to many
+lovers of his greater writings, none of these has exceeded it in
+imaginative insight and power of expression.  To me it rings with
+the dominant chord of his life's purpose and work.
+    My third reason is that wider knowledge and love of the book
+should be made possible.  To this end I have been most happy in
+the help of my father's old friend, who has illustrated the
+book.  I know of no other living artist who is capable of
+portraying the spirit of Phantastes; and every reader of this
+edition will, I believe, feel that the illustrations are a part
+of the romance, and will gain through them some perception of the
+brotherhood between George MacDonald and Arthur Hughes.
+
+GREVILLE MACDONALD.
+September 1905.
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+                                                
+THE MEETING OF SIR GALAHAD AND SIX PERCIVALE 
+SUDDENLY THERE STOOD ON THE THRESHOLD A TINY WOMAN-FORM
+THE BRANCHES AND LEAVES ON THE CURTAINS OF MY BED WERE IN MOTION
+I SAW A COUNTRY MAIDEN COMING TOWARDS ME
+TAILPIECE TO CHAPTER III
+HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER IV
+TWO LARGE SOFT ARMS WERE THROWN AROUND ME FROM BEHIND
+I GAZED AFTER HER IN A KIND OF DESPAIR
+I FOUND MYSELF IN A LITTLE CAVE
+THE ASH SHUDDERED AND GROANED
+TAILPIECE TO CHAPTER VI
+I COULD HARDLY BELIEVE THAT THERE WAS A FAIRY LAND
+I DID NOT BELIEVE IN FAIRY LAND
+A RUNNER WITH GHOSTLY FEET
+THE MAIDEN CAME ALONG, SINGING AND DANCING,HAPPY AS A CHILD
+THE GOBLINS PERFORMED THE MOST ANTIC HOMAGE
+THE FAIRY PALACE IN THE MOONLIGHT
+TOO DAZZLING FOR EARTHLY EYES
+IN THE WOODS AND ALONG THE RIVER BANKS DO THE MAIDENS GO LOOKING
+     FOR CHILDREN
+SHE LAY WITH CLOSED EYES, WHENCE TWO TEARS WERE FAST WELLING
+HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER XIV
+I SPRANG TO HER, AND LAID MY HAND ON THE HARP
+A WHITE FIGURE GLEAMED PAST ME, WRINGING HER HANDS
+THEY ALL RUSHED UPON ME, AND HELD ME TIGHT
+A WINTRY SEA, BARE, AND WASTE, AND GRAY
+SHOW ME THE CHILD THOU CALLEST MINE
+THE TIME PASSED AWAY IN WORK AND SONG
+HEADPIECE TO CHAPTER XXI
+WE REACHED THE PALACE OF THE KING
+I SAW, LEANING AGAINST THE TREE, A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
+FASTENED TO THE SADDLE, WAS THE BODY OF A GREAT DRAGON
+I WAS DEAD, AND RIGHT CONTENT
+A VALLEY LAY BENEATH ME
+
+
+PHANTASTES
+A FAERIE ROMANCE
+
+
+    "Phantastes from `their fount all shapes deriving,
+    In new habiliments can quickly dight."
+                            FLETCHER'S Purple Island
+
+
+{Below is raw OCR it has not been proofed as i cannot read it!}
+    "Es lassen sich Erzahlungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch mit
+Association, wie Traume dengkeennohgneedizhusamdimenhang; jedoeh
+mit und voll schoner Worte sind, aber auch ohne allen Sinn und
+Zusammenhang, hochstens einzelne Strophen verstandlich, wie
+Bruchstucke aus den verjschledenartigsten Dingen, Diese svahre
+Poesie kann Wlrkung, wie Musik haben.  Darum ist die Natur so
+rein poetisch wle die Stube eines Zauberers, eines Physikers,
+eine Kinderstube elne Polterund Vorrathskammer
+
+"Ein Mahrchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammenhang.  Ein
+Ensemble wunderbarer Dinge und Begebenheiten, z.  B.  eine
+dMusNkalische Pbantasie, die harmonischen Folgen einer
+Aeolsharfe, die Natur slebst.
+    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
+
+
+"In einem echten Mahrchen muss ailes wunderbar, geheimnissvoll
+undzusammenhangendsein; alles belebt, jeder auf eineandereArt Die
+ganze Natur muss wunderlich mit der ganzen Geisterwelt gemiseht
+sein; hier tritt die Zeit der Anarehie, der Gesetzlosigkeit
+Frelheit, der Naturstand der Natur, die Zeit von der Welt ein
+entgegengesetztes und eben daruel'ndiehr Weld der Wahrheit
+durehaus Chaos der vollendeten Sehopfung ahnlich ist."--NOVALIS.
+
+~~~
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+                "A spirit        .   .   .
+                     .   .   .   .   .   .
+    The undulating and silent well,
+    And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom,
+    Now deepening the dark shades, for speech assuming,
+    Held commune with him; as if he and it
+    Were all that was."
+                            SHELLEY'S Alastor.
+
+
+I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which
+accompanies the return of consciousness.  As I lay and looked
+through the eastern window of my room, a faint streak of peach-
+colour, dividing a cloud that just rose above the low swell of
+the horizon, announced the approach of the sun.  As my thoughts,
+which a deep and apparently dreamless sleep had dissolved, began
+again to assume crystalline forms, the strange events of the
+foregoing night presented themselves anew to my wondering
+consciousness.  The day before had been my one-and-twentieth
+birthday.  Among other ceremonies investing me with my legal
+rights, the keys of an old secretary, in which my father had kept
+his private papers, had been delivered up to me.  As soon as I
+was left alone, I ordered lights in the chamber where the
+secretary stood, the first lights that had been there for many a
+year; for, since my father's death, the room had been left
+undisturbed.  But, as if the darkness had been too long an inmate
+to be easily expelled, and had dyed with blackness the walls to
+which, bat-like, it had clung, these tapers served but ill to
+light up the gloomy hangings, and seemed to throw yet darker
+shadows into the hollows of the deep-wrought cornice.  All the
+further portions of the room lay shrouded in a mystery whose
+deepest folds were gathered around the dark oak cabinet which I
+now approached with a strange mingling of reverence and
+curiosity.  Perhaps, like a geologist, I was about to turn up to
+the light some of the buried strata of the human world, with its
+fossil remains charred by passion and petrified by tears. 
+Perhaps I was to learn how my father, whose personal history was
+unknown to me, had woven his web of story; how he had found the
+world, and how the world had left him.  Perhaps I was to find
+only the records of lands and moneys, how gotten and how secured;
+coming down from strange men, and through troublous times, to me,
+who knew little or nothing of them all.  To solve my
+speculations, and to dispel the awe which was fast gathering
+around me as if the dead were drawing near, I approached the
+secretary; and having found the key that fitted the upper
+portion, I opened it with some difficulty, drew near it a heavy
+high-backed chair, and sat down before a multitude of little
+drawers and slides and pigeon-holes.  But the door of a little
+cupboard in the centre especially attracted my interest, as if
+there lay the secret of this long-hidden world.  Its key I found.
+
+One of the rusty hinges cracked and broke as I opened the door:
+it revealed a number of small pigeon-holes.  These, however,
+being but shallow compared with the depth of those around the
+little cupboard, the outer ones reaching to the back of the desk,
+I concluded that there must be some accessible space behind; and
+found, indeed, that they were formed in a separate framework,
+which admitted of the whole being pulled out in one piece. 
+Behind, I found a sort of flexible portcullis of small bars of
+wood laid close together horizontally.  After long search, and
+trying many ways to move it, I discovered at last a scarcely
+projecting point of steel on one side.  I pressed this repeatedly
+and hard with the point of an old tool that was lying near, till
+at length it yielded inwards; and the little slide, flying up
+suddenly, disclosed a chamber--empty, except that in one corner
+lay a little heap of withered rose-leaves, whose long- lived
+scent had long since departed; and, in another, a small packet of
+papers, tied with a bit of ribbon, whose colour had gone with the
+rose-scent.  Almost fearing to touch them, they witnessed so
+mutely to the law of oblivion, I leaned back in my chair, and
+regarded them for a moment; when suddenly there stood on the
+threshold of the little chamber, as though she had just emerged
+from its depth, a tiny woman-form, as perfect in shape as if she
+had been a small Greek statuette roused to life and motion.  Her
+dress was of a kind that could never grow old- fashioned, because
+it was simply natural: a robe plaited in a band around the neck,
+and confined by a belt about the waist, descended to her feet. 
+It was only afterwards, however, that I took notice of her dress,
+although my surprise was by no means of so overpowering a degree
+as such an apparition might naturally be expected to excite. 
+Seeing, however, as I suppose, some astonishment in my
+countenance, she came forward within a yard of me, and said, in a
+voice that strangely recalled a sensation of twilight, and reedy
+river banks, and a low wind, even in this deathly room:--
+
+"Anodos, you never saw such a little creature before, did you?"
+
+"No," said I; "and indeed I hardly believe I do now."
+
+"Ah! that is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the
+first time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition
+convince you of what you consider in itself unbelievable.  I am
+not going to argue with you, however, but to grant you a wish."
+
+ Here I could not help interrupting her with the foolish speech,
+of which, however, I had no cause to repent--
+
+"How can such a very little creature as you grant or
+refuse anything?"
+
+"Is that all the philosophy you have gained in one-and-twenty
+years?" said she.  "Form is much, but size is nothing.  It is a
+mere matter of relation.  I suppose your six-foot lordship does
+not feel altogether insignificant, though to others you do look
+small beside your old Uncle Ralph, who rises above you a great
+half-foot at least.  But size is of so little consequence with
+old  me, that I may as well accommodate myself to your foolish
+prejudices."
+ 
+So saying, she leapt from the desk upon the floor, where she
+stood a tall, gracious lady, with pale face and large blue eyes. 
+Her dark hair flowed behind, wavy but uncurled, down to her
+waist, and against it her form stood clear in its robe of white.
+
+"Now," said she, "you will believe me."
+
+Overcome with the presence of a beauty which I could now
+perceive, and drawn towards her by an attraction irresistible as
+incomprehensible, I suppose I stretched out my arms towards her,
+for she drew back a step or two, and said--
+
+"Foolish boy, if you could touch me, I should hurt you.  Besides,
+I was two hundred and thirty-seven years old, last Midsummer eve;
+and a man must not fall in love with his grandmother, you know."
+
+"But you are not my grandmother," said I.
+
+"How do you know that?" she retorted.  "I dare say you know
+something of your great-grandfathers a good deal further back
+than that; but you know very little about your great-grandmothers
+on either side.  Now, to the point.  Your little sister was
+reading a fairy-tale to you last night."
+
+"She was."
+
+"When she had finished, she said, as she closed the book,  `Is
+there a fairy-country, brother?'  You replied with a sigh, `I
+suppose there is, if one could find the way into it.'"
+
+"I did; but I meant something quite different from what you seem
+to think."
+
+"Never mind what I seem to think.  You shall find the way into
+Fairy Land to-morrow.  Now look in my eyes."
+
+Eagerly I did so.  They filled me with an unknown longing.  I
+remembered somehow that my mother died when I was a baby.  I
+looked deeper and deeper, till they spread around me like seas,
+and I sank in their waters.  I forgot all the rest, till I found
+myself at the window, whose gloomy curtains were withdrawn, and
+where I stood gazing on a whole heaven of stars, small and
+sparkling in the moonlight.  Below lay a sea, still as death and
+hoary in the moon, sweeping into bays and around capes and
+islands, away, away, I knew not whither.  Alas! it was no sea,
+but a low bog burnished by the moon.  "Surely there is such a sea
+somewhere!" said I to myself.  A low sweet voice beside me
+replied--
+
+"In Fairy Land, Anodos."
+
+I turned, but saw no one.  I closed the secretary, and went to my
+own room, and to bed.
+
+All this I recalled as I lay with half-closed eyes.  I was soon
+to find the truth of the lady's promise, that this day I should
+discover the road into Fairy Land.  
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"`Where is the stream?' cried he, with tears. `Seest thou its not
+in blue waves above us?'  He looked up, and lo! the blue stream
+was flowing gently over their heads."
+                      --NOVALIS, Heinrich von Ofterdingen.
+
+While these strange events were passing through my mind, I
+suddenly, as one awakes to the consciousness that the sea has
+been moaning by him for hours, or that the storm has been howling
+about his window all night, became aware of the sound of running
+water near me; and, looking out of bed, I saw that a large green
+marble basin, in which I was wont to wash, and which stood on a
+low pedestal of the same material in a corner of my room, was
+overflowing like a spring; and that a stream of clear water was
+running over the carpet, all the length of the room, finding its
+outlet I knew not where.  And, stranger still, where this carpet,
+which I had myself designed to imitate a field of grass and
+daisies, bordered the course of the little stream, the grass-
+blades and daisies seemed to wave in a tiny breeze that followed
+the water's flow; while under the rivulet they bent and swayed
+with every motion of the changeful current, as if they were about
+to dissolve with it, and, forsaking their fixed form, become
+fluent as the waters.
+
+My dressing-table was an old-fashioned piece of furniture of
+black oak, with drawers all down the front.  These were
+elaborately carved in foliage, of which ivy formed the chief
+part.  The nearer end of this table remained just as it had been,
+but on the further end a singular change had commenced.  I
+happened to fix my eye on a little cluster of ivy-leaves.  The
+first of these was evidently the work of the carver; the next
+looked curious; the third was unmistakable ivy; and just beyond
+it a tendril of clematis had twined itself about the gilt handle
+of one of the drawers.  Hearing next a slight motion above me, I
+looked up, and saw that the branches and leaves designed upon the
+curtains of my bed were slightly in motion.  Not knowing what
+change might follow next, I thought it high time to get up; and,
+springing from the bed, my bare feet alighted upon a cool green
+sward; and although I dressed in all haste, I found myself
+completing my toilet under the boughs of a great tree, whose top
+waved in the golden stream of the sunrise with many interchanging
+lights, and with shadows of leaf and branch gliding over leaf and
+branch, as the cool morning wind swung it to and fro, like a
+sinking sea-wave.
+
+After washing as well as I could in the clear stream, I rose and
+looked around me.  The tree under which I seemed to have lain all
+night was one of the advanced guard of a dense forest, towards
+which the rivulet ran.  Faint traces of a footpath, much
+overgrown with grass and moss, and with here and there a
+pimpernel even, were discernible along the right bank. 
+"This," thought I, "must surely be the path into Fairy Land,
+which the lady of last night promised I should so soon find."  I
+crossed the rivulet, and accompanied it, keeping the footpath on
+its right bank, until it led me, as I expected, into the wood. 
+Here I left it, without any good reason: and with a vague feeling
+that I ought to have followed its course, I took a more southerly
+direction.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+            "Man doth usurp all space,
+             Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in
+                    the face.
+             Never thine eyes behold a tree;
+             'Tis no sea thou seest in the sea,
+             'Tis but a disguised humanity.
+             To avoid thy fellow, vain thy plan;
+             All that interests a man, is man."
+                                        HENRY SUTTON.
+
+The trees, which were far apart where I entered, giving free
+passage to the level rays of the sun, closed rapidly as I
+advanced, so that ere long their crowded stems barred the
+sunlight out, forming as it were a thick grating between me and
+the East.  I seemed to be advancing towards a second midnight. 
+In the midst of the intervening twilight, however, before I
+entered what appeared to be the darkest portion of the forest, I
+saw a country maiden coming towards me from its very depths.  She
+did not seem to observe me, for she was apparently intent upon a
+bunch of wild flowers which she carried in her hand.  I could
+hardly see her face; for, though she came direct towards me, she
+never looked up.  But when we met, instead of passing, she turned
+and walked alongside of me for a few yards, still keeping her
+face downwards, and busied with her flowers.  She spoke rapidly,
+however, all the time, in a low tone, as if talking to herself,
+but evidently addressing the purport of her words to me.
+
+She seemed afraid of being observed by some lurking foe.  "Trust
+the Oak," said she; "trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great
+Beech. Take care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is
+too young not to be changeable.  But shun the Ash and the Alder;
+for the Ash is an ogre,--you will know him by his thick fingers;
+and the Alder will smother you with her web of hair, if you let
+her near you at night."  All this was uttered without pause or
+alteration of tone.  Then she turned suddenly and left me,
+walking still with the same unchanging gait.  I could not
+conjecture what she meant, but satisfied myself with thinking
+that it would be time enough to find out her meaning when there
+was need to make use of her warning, and that the occasion would
+reveal the admonition.  I concluded from the flowers that she
+carried, that the forest could not be everywhere so dense as it
+appeared from where I was now walking; and I was right in this
+conclusion.  For soon I came to a more open part, and by-and-by
+crossed a wide grassy glade, on which were several circles of
+brighter green.  But even here I was struck with the utter
+stillness.  No bird sang.  No insect hummed.  Not a living
+creature crossed my way.  Yet somehow the whole environment
+seemed only asleep, and to wear even in sleep an air of
+expectation.  The trees seemed all to have an expression of
+conscious mystery, as if they said to themselves, "we could, an'
+if we would."  They had all a meaning look about them.  Then I
+remembered that night is the fairies' day, and the moon their
+sun; and I thought--Everything sleeps and dreams now: when the
+night comes, it will be different.  At the same time I, being a
+man and a child of the day, felt some anxiety as to how I should
+fare among the elves and other children of the night who wake
+when mortals dream, and find their common life in those wondrous
+hours that flow noiselessly over the moveless death-like forms of
+men and women and children, lying strewn and parted beneath the
+weight of the heavy waves of night, which flow on and beat them
+down, and hold them drowned and senseless, until the ebbtide
+comes, and the waves sink away, back into the ocean of the dark. 
+But I took courage and went on.  Soon, however, I became again
+anxious, though from another cause.  I had eaten nothing that
+day, and for an hour past had been feeling the want of food.  So
+I grew afraid lest I should find nothing to meet my human
+necessities in this strange place; but once more I comforted
+myself with hope and went on.
+
+Before noon, I fancied I saw a thin blue smoke rising amongst the
+stems of larger trees in front of me; and soon I came to an open
+spot of ground in which stood a little cottage, so built that the
+stems of four great trees formed its corners, while their
+branches met and intertwined over its roof, heaping a great cloud
+of leaves over it, up towards the heavens.  I wondered at finding
+a human dwelling in this neighbourhood; and yet it did not look
+altogether human, though sufficiently so to encourage me to
+expect to find some sort of food.  Seeing no door, I went round
+to the other side, and there I found one, wide open.  A woman sat
+beside it, preparing some vegetables for dinner.  This was homely
+and comforting.  As I came near, she looked up, and seeing me,
+showed no surprise, but bent her head again over her work, and
+said in a low tone:
+
+"Did you see my daughter?"
+
+"I believe I did," said I.  "Can you give me something to eat,
+for I am very hungry?"
+"With pleasure," she replied, in the same tone; "but do not say
+anything more, till you come into the house, for the Ash is
+watching us."
+
+Having said this, she rose and led the way into the cottage;
+which, I now saw, was built of the stems of small trees set
+closely together, and was furnished with rough chairs and tables,
+from which even the bark had not been removed.  As soon as she
+had shut the door and set a chair--
+
+"You have fairy blood in you," said she, looking hard at me.
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"You could not have got so far into this wood if it were not so;
+and I am trying to find out some trace of it in your countenance.
+I think I see it."
+
+"What do you see?"
+
+"Oh, never mind: I may be mistaken in that."
+
+"But how then do you come to live here?"
+
+"Because I too have fairy blood in me."
+
+Here I, in my turn, looked hard at her, and thought I could
+perceive, notwithstanding the coarseness of her features, and
+especially the heaviness of her eyebrows, a something unusual--I
+could hardly call it grace, and yet it was an expression that
+strangely contrasted with the form of her features.  I noticed
+too that her hands were delicately formed, though brown with work
+and exposure.
+
+"I should be ill," she continued, "if I did not live on the
+borders of the fairies' country, and now and then eat of their
+food.  And I see by your eyes that you are not quite free of the
+same need; though, from your education and the activity of your
+mind, you have felt it less than I.  You may be further removed
+too from the fairy race."
+
+I remembered what the lady had said about my grandmothers.
+
+Here she placed some bread and some milk before me, with a kindly
+apology for the homeliness of the fare, with which, however, I
+was in no humour to quarrel.  I now thought it time to try to get
+some explanation of the strange words both of her daughter and
+herself.
+
+"What did you mean by speaking so about the Ash?"
+
+She rose and looked out of the little window.  My eyes followed
+her; but as the window was too small to allow anything to be seen
+from where I was sitting, I rose and looked over her shoulder.  I
+had just time to see, across the open space, on the edge of the
+denser forest, a single large ash-tree, whose foliage showed
+bluish, amidst the truer green of the other trees around it; when
+she pushed me back with an expression of impatience and terror,
+and then almost shut out the light from the window by setting up
+a large old book in it.
+
+"In general," said she, recovering her composure, "there is no
+danger in the daytime, for then he is sound asleep; but there is
+something unusual going on in the woods; there must be some
+solemnity among the fairies to-night, for all the trees are
+restless, and although they cannot come awake, they see and hear
+in their sleep."
+
+"But what danger is to be dreaded from him?"
+
+Instead of answering the question, she went again to the window
+and looked out, saying she feared the fairies would be
+interrupted by foul weather, for a storm was brewing in the west.
+
+"And the sooner it grows dark, the sooner the Ash will be awake,"
+added she.
+
+I asked her how she knew that there was any unusual excitement in
+the woods.  She replied--
+
+"Besides the look of the trees, the dog there is unhappy; and the
+eyes and ears of the white rabbit are redder than usual, and he
+frisks about as if he expected some fun.  If the cat were at
+home, she would have her back up; for the young fairies pull the
+sparks out of her tail with bramble thorns, and she knows when
+they are coming.  So do I, in another way."
+
+ At this instant, a grey cat rushed in like a demon, and
+disappeared in a hole in the wall.
+
+"There, I told you!" said the woman.
+
+ "But what of the ash-tree?" said I, returning once more to the
+subject.  Here, however, the young woman, whom I had met in the
+morning, entered.  A smile passed between the mother and
+daughter; and then the latter began to help her mother in little
+household duties.
+
+"I should like to stay here till the evening," I said; "and then
+go on my journey, if you will allow me."
+
+"You are welcome to do as you please; only it might be better to
+stay all night, than risk the dangers of the wood then.  Where
+are you going?"
+
+"Nay, that I do not know," I replied, "but I wish to see all that
+is to be seen, and therefore I should like to start just at
+sundown."
+"You are a bold youth, if you have any idea of what you are
+daring; but a rash one, if you know nothing about it; and, excuse
+me, you do not seem very well informed about the country and its
+manners.  However, no one comes here but for some reason, either
+known to himself or to those who have charge of him; so you shall
+do just as you wish."
+
+Accordingly I sat down, and feeling rather tired, and disinclined
+for further talk, I asked leave to look at the old book which
+still screened the window.  The woman brought it to me directly,
+but not before taking another look towards the forest, and then
+drawing a white blind over the window.  I sat down opposite to it
+by the table, on which I laid the great old volume, and read.  It
+contained many wondrous tales of Fairy Land, and olden times, and
+the Knights of King Arthur's table.  I read on and on, till the
+shades of the afternoon began to deepen; for in the midst of the
+forest it gloomed earlier than in the open country.  At length I
+came to this passage--
+
+"Here it chanced, that upon their quest, Sir Galahad and Sir
+Percivale rencountered in the depths of a great forest.  Now, Sir
+Galahad was dight all in harness of silver, clear and shining;
+the which is a delight to look upon, but full hasty to tarnish,
+and withouten the labour of a ready squire, uneath to be kept
+fair and clean.  And yet withouten squire or page, Sir Galahad's
+armour shone like the moon.  And he rode a great white mare,
+whose bases and other housings were black, but all besprent with
+fair lilys of silver sheen.  Whereas Sir Percivale bestrode a red
+horse, with a tawny mane and tail; whose trappings were all to-
+smirched with mud and mire; and his armour was wondrous rosty to
+behold, ne could he by any art furbish it again; so that as the
+sun in his going down shone twixt the bare trunks of the trees,
+full upon the knights twain, the one did seem all shining with
+light, and the other all to glow with ruddy fire.  Now it came
+about in this wise.  For Sir Percivale, after his escape from the
+demon lady, whenas the cross on the handle of his sword smote him
+to the heart, and he rove himself through the thigh, and escaped
+away, he came to a great wood; and, in nowise cured of his fault,
+yet bemoaning the same, the damosel of the alder tree encountered
+him, right fair to see; and with her fair words and false
+countenance she comforted him and beguiled him, until he followed
+her where she led him to a---"
+
+Here a low hurried cry from my hostess caused me to look up from
+the book, and I read no more.
+
+"Look there!" she said; "look at his fingers!"
+
+Just as I had been reading in the book, the setting sun was
+shining through a cleft in the clouds piled up in the west; and a
+shadow as of a large distorted hand, with thick knobs and humps
+on the fingers, so that it was much wider across the fingers than
+across the undivided part of the hand, passed slowly over the
+little blind, and then as slowly returned in the opposite
+direction.
+
+"He is almost awake, mother; and greedier than usual to-night."
+
+"Hush, child; you need not make him more angry with us than he
+is; for you do not know how soon something may happen to oblige
+us to be in the forest after nightfall."
+
+"But you are in the forest," said I; "how is it that you are safe
+here?"
+
+"He dares not come nearer than he is now," she replied; "for any
+of those four oaks, at the corners of our cottage, would tear him
+to pieces; they are our friends.  But he stands there and makes
+awful faces at us sometimes, and stretches out his long arms and
+fingers, and tries to kill us with fright; for, indeed, that is
+his favourite way of doing.  Pray, keep out of his way to-night."
+
+"Shall I be able to see these things?" said I.
+
+"That I cannot tell yet, not knowing how much of the fairy nature
+there is in you.  But we shall soon see whether you can discern
+the fairies in my little garden, and that will be some guide to
+us."
+
+"Are the trees fairies too, as well as the flowers?" I asked.
+
+"They are of the same race," she replied; "though those you call
+fairies in your country are chiefly the young children of the
+flower fairies.  They are very fond of having fun with the thick
+people, as they call you; for, like most children, they like fun
+better than anything else."
+
+"Why do you have flowers so near you then?  Do they not annoy
+you?"
+
+"Oh, no, they are very amusing, with their mimicries of grown
+people, and mock solemnities.  Sometimes they will act a whole
+play through before my eyes, with perfect composure and
+assurance, for they are not afraid of me.  Only, as soon as they
+have done, they burst into peals of tiny laughter, as if it was
+such a joke to have been serious over anything.  These I speak
+of, however, are the fairies of the garden.  They are more staid
+and educated than those of the fields and woods.  Of course they
+have near relations amongst the wild flowers, but they patronise
+them, and treat them as country cousins, who know nothing of
+life, and very little of manners.  Now and then, however, they
+are compelled to envy the grace and simplicity of the natural
+flowers."
+
+"Do they live IN the flowers?" I said.
+
+"I cannot tell," she replied.  "There is something in it I do not
+understand.  Sometimes they disappear altogether, even from me,
+though I know they are near.  They seem to die always with the
+flowers they resemble, and by whose names they are called; but
+whether they return to life with the fresh flowers, or, whether
+it be new flowers, new fairies, I cannot tell.  They have as many
+sorts of dispositions as men and women, while their moods are yet
+more variable; twenty different expressions will cross their
+little faces in half a minute.  I often amuse myself with
+watching them, but I have never been able to make personal
+acquaintance with any of them.  If I speak to one, he or she
+looks up in my face, as if I were not worth heeding, gives a
+little laugh, and runs away."  Here the woman started, as if
+suddenly recollecting herself, and said in a low voice to her
+daughter, "Make haste--go and watch him, and see in what
+direction he goes."
+
+I may as well mention here, that the conclusion I arrived at from
+the observations I was afterwards able to make, was, that the
+flowers die because the fairies go away; not that the fairies
+disappear because the flowers die.  The flowers seem a sort of
+houses for them, or outer bodies, which they can put on or off
+when they please.  Just as you could form some idea of the nature
+of a man from the kind of house he built, if he followed his own
+taste, so you could, without seeing the fairies, tell what any
+one of them is like, by looking at the flower till you feel that
+you understand it.  For just what the flower says to you, would
+the face and form of the fairy say; only so much more plainly as
+a face and human figure can express more than a flower.  For the
+house or the clothes, though like the inhabitant or the wearer,
+cannot be wrought into an equal power of utterance.  Yet you
+would see a strange resemblance, almost oneness, between the
+flower and the fairy, which you could not describe, but which
+described itself to you.  Whether all the flowers have fairies, I
+cannot determine, any more than I can be sure whether all men and
+women have souls.
+
+The woman and I continued the conversation for a few minutes
+longer.  I was much interested by the information she gave me,
+and astonished at the language in which she was able to convey
+it.  It seemed that intercourse with the fairies was no bad
+education in itself.  But now the daughter returned with the
+news, that the Ash had just gone away in a south-westerly
+direction; and, as my course seemed to lie eastward, she hoped I
+should be in no danger of meeting him if I departed at once.  I
+looked out of the little window, and there stood the ash-tree, to
+my eyes the same as before; but I believed that they knew better
+than I did, and prepared to go.  I pulled out my purse, but to my
+dismay there was nothing in it.  The woman with a smile begged me
+not to trouble myself, for money was not of the slightest use
+there; and as I might meet with people in my journeys whom I
+could not recognise to be fairies, it was well I had no money to
+offer, for nothing offended them so much.
+
+"They would think," she added, "that you were making game of
+them; and that is their peculiar privilege with regard to us." 
+So we went together into the little garden which sloped down
+towards a lower part of the wood.
+
+Here, to my great pleasure, all was life and bustle.  There was
+still light enough from the day to see a little; and the pale
+half-moon, halfway to the zenith, was reviving every moment. The
+whole garden was like a carnival, with tiny, gaily decorated
+forms, in groups, assemblies, processions, pairs or trios, moving
+stately on, running about wildly, or sauntering hither or
+thither.  From the cups or bells of tall flowers, as from
+balconies, some looked down on the masses below, now bursting
+with laughter, now grave as owls; but even in their deepest
+solemnity, seeming only to be waiting for the arrival of the next
+laugh.  Some were launched on a little marshy stream at the
+bottom, in boats chosen from the heaps of last year's leaves that
+lay about, curled and withered.  These soon sank with them;
+whereupon they swam ashore and got others.  Those who took fresh
+rose-leaves for their boats floated the longest; but for these
+they had to fight; for the fairy of the rose-tree complained
+bitterly that they were stealing her clothes, and defended her
+property bravely.
+
+"You can't wear half you've got," said some.
+
+"Never you mind; I don't choose you to have them: they are my
+property."
+
+"All for the good of the community!" said one, and ran off with a
+great hollow leaf.  But the rose-fairy sprang after him (what a
+beauty she was! only too like a drawing-room young lady), knocked
+him heels-over-head as he ran, and recovered her great red leaf. 
+But in the meantime twenty had hurried off in different
+directions with others just as good; and the little creature sat
+down and cried, and then, in a pet, sent a perfect pink snowstorm
+of petals from her tree, leaping from branch to branch, and
+stamping and shaking and pulling.  At last, after another good
+cry, she chose the biggest she could find, and ran away laughing,
+to launch her boat amongst the rest.
+
+But my attention was first and chiefly attracted by a group of
+fairies near the cottage, who were talking together around what
+seemed a last dying primrose.  They talked singing, and their
+talk made a song, something like this:
+
+
+
+    "Sister Snowdrop died
+        Before we were born."
+    "She came like a bride
+        In a snowy morn."
+    "What's a bride?"
+        "What is snow?
+    "Never tried."
+        "Do not know."
+    "Who told you about her?"
+        "Little Primrose there
+    Cannot do without her."
+        "Oh, so sweetly fair!"
+    "Never fear,
+        She will come,
+    Primrose dear."
+        "Is she dumb?"
+
+    "She'll come by-and-by."
+        "You will never see her."
+    "She went home to dies,
+        "Till the new year."
+    "Snowdrop!"  "'Tis no good
+        To invite her."
+    "Primrose is very rude,
+        "I will bite her."
+
+    "Oh, you naughty Pocket!
+        "Look, she drops her head."
+    "She deserved it, Rocket,
+        "And she was nearly dead."  
+    "To your hammock--off with you!"
+        "And swing alone."
+    "No one will laugh with you."
+        "No, not one."
+
+    "Now let us moan."
+        "And cover her o'er."
+    "Primrose is gone."
+        "All but the flower."
+    "Here is a leaf."
+        "Lay her upon it."
+    "Follow in grief."
+        "Pocket has done it."
+
+    "Deeper, poor creature!
+        Winter may come."
+    "He cannot reach her--
+        That is a hum."
+    "She is buried, the beauty!"
+        "Now she is done."
+    "That was the duty."
+        "Now for the fun."
+
+
+And with a wild laugh they sprang away, most of them towards the
+cottage.  During the latter part of the song-talk, they had
+formed themselves into a funeral procession, two of them bearing
+poor Primrose, whose death Pocket had hastened by biting her
+stalk, upon one of her own great leaves.  They bore her solemnly
+along some distance, and then buried her under a tree.  Although
+I say HER I saw nothing but the withered primrose-flower on its
+long stalk.  Pocket, who had been expelled from the company by
+common consent, went sulkily away towards her hammock, for she
+was the fairy of the calceolaria, and looked rather wicked.  When
+she reached its stem, she stopped and looked round.  I could not
+help speaking to her, for I stood near her.  I said, "Pocket, how
+could you be so naughty?"
+
+"I am never naughty," she said, half-crossly, half-defiantly;
+"only if you come near my hammock, I will bite you, and then you
+will go away."
+
+"Why did you bite poor Primrose?"
+
+"Because she said we should never see Snowdrop; as if we were not
+good enough to look at her, and she was, the proud thing!--served
+her right!"
+
+"Oh, Pocket, Pocket," said I; but by this time the party which
+had gone towards the house, rushed out again, shouting and
+screaming with laughter.  Half of them were on the cat's back,
+and half held on by her fur and tail, or ran beside her; till,
+more coming to their help, the furious cat was held fast; and
+they proceeded to pick the sparks out of her with thorns and
+pins, which they handled like harpoons.  Indeed, there were more
+instruments at work about her than there could have been sparks
+in her.  One little fellow who held on hard by the tip of the
+tail, with his feet planted on the ground at an angle of forty-
+five degrees, helping to keep her fast, administered a continuous
+flow of admonitions to Pussy.
+
+"Now, Pussy, be patient.  You know quite well it is all for your
+good.  You cannot be comfortable with all those sparks in you;
+and, indeed, I am charitably disposed to believe" (here he became
+very pompous) "that they are the cause of all your bad temper; so
+we must have them all out, every one; else we shall be reduced to
+the painful necessity of cutting your claws, and pulling out your
+eye-teeth.  Quiet!  Pussy, quiet!"
+
+But with a perfect hurricane of feline curses, the poor animal
+broke loose, and dashed across the garden and through the hedge,
+faster than even the fairies could follow.  "Never mind, never
+mind, we shall find her again; and by that time she will have
+laid in a fresh stock of sparks.  Hooray!"  And off they set,
+after some new mischief.
+
+But I will not linger to enlarge on the amusing display of these
+frolicsome creatures.  Their manners and habits are now so well
+known to the world, having been so often described by
+eyewitnesses, that it would be only indulging self-conceit, to
+add my account in full to the rest.  I cannot help wishing,
+however, that my readers could see them for themselves. 
+Especially do I desire that they should see the fairy of the
+daisy; a little, chubby, round-eyed child, with such innocent
+trust in his look!  Even the most mischievous of the fairies
+would not tease him, although he did not belong to their set at
+all, but was quite a little country bumpkin.  He wandered about
+alone, and looked at everything, with his hands in his little
+pockets, and a white night-cap on, the darling!  He was not so
+beautiful as many other wild flowers I saw afterwards, but so
+dear and loving in his looks and little confident ways.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+        "When bale is att hyest, boote is nyest."
+                                Ballad of Sir Aldingar.
+
+By this time, my hostess was quite anxious that I should be gone.
+So, with warm thanks for their hospitality, I took my leave, and
+went my way through the little garden towards the forest.  Some
+of the garden flowers had wandered into the wood, and were
+growing here and there along the path, but the trees soon became
+too thick and shadowy for them.  I particularly noticed some tall
+lilies, which grew on both sides of the way, with large
+dazzlingly white flowers, set off by the universal green.  It was
+now dark enough for me to see that every flower was shining with
+a light of its own.  Indeed it was by this light that I saw them,
+an internal, peculiar light, proceeding from each, and not
+reflected from a common source of light as in the daytime.  This
+light sufficed only for the plant itself, and was not strong
+enough to cast any but the faintest shadows around it, or to
+illuminate any of the neighbouring objects with other than the
+faintest tinge of its own individual hue.  From the lilies above
+mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every
+bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads,
+peeped at me, and drew back.  They seemed to inhabit them, as
+snails their shells but I was sure some of them were intruders,
+and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the
+ground and earthy creeping plants.  From the cups of Arum lilies,
+creatures with great heads and grotesque faces shot up like Jack-
+in-the-box, and made grimaces at me; or rose slowly and slily
+over the edge of the cup, and spouted water at me, slipping
+suddenly back, like those little soldier-crabs that inhabit the
+shells of sea-snails.  Passing a row of tall thistles, I saw them
+crowded with little faces, which peeped every one from behind its
+flower, and drew back as quickly; and I heard them saying to each
+other, evidently intending me to hear, but the speaker always
+hiding behind his tuft, when I looked in his direction, "Look at
+him!  Look at him!  He has begun a story without a beginning, and
+it will never have any end.  He! he! he!  Look at him!"
+
+But as I went further into the wood, these sights and sounds
+became fewer, giving way to others of a different character.  A
+little forest of wild hyacinths was alive with exquisite
+creatures, who stood nearly motionless, with drooping necks,
+holding each by the stem of her flower, and swaying gently with
+it, whenever a low breath of wind swung the crowded floral
+belfry.  In like manner, though differing of course in form and
+meaning, stood a group of harebells, like little angels waiting,
+ready, till they were wanted to go on some yet unknown message. 
+In darker nooks, by the mossy roots of the trees, or in little
+tufts of grass, each dwelling in a globe of its own green light,
+weaving a network of grass and its shadows, glowed the glowworms.
+
+They were just like the glowworms of our own land, for they are
+fairies everywhere; worms in the day, and glowworms at night,
+when their own can appear, and they can be themselves to others
+as well as themselves.  But they had their enemies here.  For I
+saw great strong-armed beetles, hurrying about with most unwieldy
+haste, awkward as elephant-calves, looking apparently for
+glowworms; for the moment a beetle espied one, through what to it
+was a forest of grass, or an underwood of moss, it pounced upon
+it, and bore it away, in spite of its feeble resistance. 
+Wondering what their object could be, I watched one of the
+beetles, and then I discovered a thing I could not account for. 
+But it is no use trying to account for things in Fairy Land; and
+one who travels there soon learns to forget the very idea of
+doing so, and takes everything as it comes; like a child, who,
+being in a chronic condition of wonder, is surprised at nothing. 
+What I saw was this.  Everywhere, here and there over the ground,
+lay little, dark-looking lumps of something more like earth than
+anything else, and about the size of a chestnut.  The beetles
+hunted in couples for these; and having found one, one of them
+stayed to watch it, while the other hurried to find a glowworm. 
+By signals, I presume, between them, the latter soon found his
+companion again: they then took the glowworm and held its
+luminous tail to the dark earthly pellet; when lo, it shot up
+into the air like a sky-rocket, seldom, however, reaching the
+height of the highest tree.  Just like a rocket too, it burst in
+the air, and fell in a shower of the most gorgeously coloured
+sparks of every variety of hue; golden and red, and purple and
+green, and blue and rosy fires crossed and inter-crossed each
+other, beneath the shadowy heads, and between the columnar stems
+of the forest trees.  They never used the same glowworm twice, I
+observed; but let him go, apparently uninjured by the use they
+had made of him.
+
+In other parts, the whole of the immediately surrounding foliage
+was illuminated by the interwoven dances in the air of splendidly
+coloured fire-flies, which sped hither and thither, turned,
+twisted, crossed, and recrossed, entwining every complexity of
+intervolved motion.  Here and there, whole mighty trees glowed
+with an emitted phosphorescent light.  You could trace the very
+course of the great roots in the earth by the faint light that
+came through; and every twig, and every vein on every leaf was a
+streak of pale fire.
+
+All this time, as I went through the wood, I was haunted with the
+feeling that other shapes, more like my own size and mien, were
+moving about at a little distance on all sides of me.  But as yet
+I could discern none of them, although the moon was high enough
+to send a great many of her rays down between the trees, and
+these rays were unusually bright, and sight-giving,
+notwithstanding she was only a half-moon.  I constantly imagined,
+however, that forms were visible in all directions except that to
+which my gaze was turned; and that they only became invisible, or
+resolved themselves into other woodland shapes, the moment my
+looks were directed towards them.  However this may have been,
+except for this feeling of presence, the woods seemed utterly
+bare of anything like human companionship, although my glance
+often fell on some object which I fancied to be a human form; for
+I soon found that I was quite deceived; as, the moment I fixed my
+regard on it, it showed plainly that it was a bush, or a tree, or
+a rock.
+
+Soon a vague sense of discomfort possessed me.  With variations
+of relief, this gradually increased; as if some evil thing were
+wandering about in my neighbourhood, sometimes nearer and
+sometimes further off, but still approaching.  The
+feelingcontinued and deepened, until all my pleasure in the shows
+of various kinds that everywhere betokened the presence of the
+merry fairies vanished by degrees, and left me full of anxiety
+and fear, which I was unable to associate with any definite
+object whatever.  At length the thought crossed my mind with
+horror:  "Can it be possible that the Ash is looking for me? or
+that, in his nightly wanderings, his path is gradually verging
+towards mine?"  I comforted myself, however, by remembering that
+he had started quite in another direction; one that would lead
+him, if he kept it, far apart from me; especially as, for the
+last two or three hours, I had been diligently journeying
+eastward.  I kept on my way, therefore, striving by direct effort
+of the will against the encroaching fear; and to this end
+occupying my mind, as much as I could, with other thoughts.  I
+was so far successful that, although I was conscious, if I
+yielded for a moment, I should be almost overwhelmed with horror,
+I was yet able to walk right on for an hour or more.  What I
+feared I could not tell.  Indeed, I was left in a state of the
+vaguest uncertainty as regarded the nature of my enemy, and knew
+not the mode or object of his attacks; for, somehow or other,
+none of my questions had succeeded in drawing a definite answer
+from the dame in the cottage.  How then to defend myself I knew
+not; nor even by what sign I might with certainty recognise the
+presence of my foe; for as yet this vague though powerful fear
+was all the indication of danger I had.  To add to my distress,
+the clouds in the west had risen nearly to the top of the skies,
+and they and the moon were travelling slowly towards each other. 
+Indeed, some of their advanced guard had already met her, and she
+had begun to wade through a filmy vapour that gradually deepened.
+
+At length she was for a moment almost entirely obscured.  When
+she shone out again, with a brilliancy increased by the contrast,
+I saw plainly on the path before me--from around which at this
+spot the trees receded, leaving a small space of green sward--the
+shadow of a large hand, with knotty joints and protuberances here
+and there.  Especially I remarked, even in the midst of my fear,
+the bulbous points of the fingers.  I looked hurriedly all
+around, but could see nothing from which such a shadow should
+fall.  Now, however, that I had a direction, however
+undetermined, in which to project my apprehension, the very sense
+of danger and need of action overcame that stifling which is the
+worst property of fear.  I reflected in a moment, that if this
+were indeed a shadow, it was useless to look for the object that
+cast it in any other direction than between the shadow and the
+moon.  I looked, and peered, and intensified my vision, all to no
+purpose.  I could see nothing of that kind, not even an ash-tree
+in the neighbourhood.  Still the shadow remained; not steady, but
+moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers close, and grind
+themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as if in
+uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey.  There seemed
+but one mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow.  I
+went forward boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would
+not heed, to the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the
+ground, laid my head within the form of the hand, and turned my
+eyes towards the moon Good heavens! what did I see?  I wonder
+that ever I arose, and that the very shadow of the hand did not
+hold me where I lay until fear had frozen my brain.  I saw the
+strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent, in the
+central parts, and gradually deepening in substance towards the
+outside, until it ended in extremities capable of casting such a
+shadow as fell from the hand, through the awful fingers of which
+I now saw the moon.  The hand was uplifted in the attitude of a
+paw about to strike its prey.  But the face, which throbbed with
+fluctuating and pulsatory visibility--not from changes in the
+light it reflected, but from changes in its own conditions of
+reflecting power, the alterations being from within, not from
+without--it was horrible.  I do not know how to describe it.  It
+caused a new sensation.  Just as one cannot translate a horrible
+odour, or a ghastly pain, or a fearful sound, into words, so I
+cannot describe this new form of awful hideousness.  I can only
+try to describe something that is not it, but seems somewhat
+parallel to it; or at least is suggested by it.  It reminded me
+of what I had heard of vampires; for the face resembled that of a
+corpse more than anything else I can think of; especially when I
+can conceive such a face in motion, but not suggesting any life
+as the source of the motion.  The features were rather handsome
+than otherwise, except the mouth, which had scarcely a curve in
+it.  The lips were of equal thickness; but the thickness was not
+at all remarkable, even although they looked slightly swollen. 
+They seemed fixedly open, but were not wide apart.  Of course I
+did not REMARK these lineaments at the time: I was too horrified
+for that.  I noted them afterwards, when the form returned on my
+inward sight with a vividness too intense to admit of my doubting
+the accuracy of the reflex.  But the most awful of the features
+were the eyes.  These were alive, yet not with life.
+
+They seemed lighted up with an infinite greed.  A gnawing
+voracity, which devoured the devourer, seemed to be the
+indwelling and propelling power of the whole ghostly apparition. 
+I lay for a few moments simply imbruted with terror; when another
+cloud, obscuring the moon, delivered me from the immediately
+paralysing effects of the presence to the vision of the object of
+horror, while it added the force of imagination to the power of
+fear within me; inasmuch as, knowing far worse cause for
+apprehension than before, I remained equally ignorant from what I
+had to defend myself, or how to take any precautions: he might be
+upon me in the darkness any moment.  I sprang to my feet, and
+sped I knew not whither, only away from the spectre.  I thought
+no longer of the path, and often narrowly escaped dashing myself
+against a tree, in my headlong flight of fear.
+
+Great drops of rain began to patter on the leaves.  Thunder began
+to mutter, then growl in the distance.  I ran on.  The rain fell
+heavier.  At length the thick leaves could hold it up no longer;
+and, like a second firmament, they poured their torrents on the
+earth.  I was soon drenched, but that was nothing.  I came to a
+small swollen stream that rushed through the woods.  I had a
+vague hope that if I crossed this stream, I should be in safety
+from my pursuer; but I soon found that my hope was as false as it
+was vague.  I dashed across the stream, ascended a rising ground,
+and reached a more open space, where stood only great trees. 
+Through them I directed my way, holding eastward as nearly as I
+could guess, but not at all certain that I was not moving in an
+opposite direction.  My mind was just reviving a little from its
+extreme terror, when, suddenly, a flash of lightning, or rather a
+cataract of successive flashes, behind me, seemed to throw on the
+ground in front of me, but far more faintly than before, from the
+extent of the source of the light, the shadow of the same
+horrible hand.  I sprang forward, stung to yet wilder speed; but
+had not run many steps before my foot slipped, and, vainly
+attempting to recover myself, I fell at the foot of one of the
+large trees.  Half-stunned, I yet raised myself, and almost
+involuntarily looked back.  All I saw was the hand within three
+feet of my face.  But, at the same moment, I felt two large soft
+arms thrown round me from behind; and a voice like a woman's
+said:  "Do not fear the goblin; he dares not hurt you now."  With
+that, the hand was suddenly withdrawn as from a fire, and
+disappeared in the darkness and the rain.  Overcome with the
+mingling of terror and joy, I lay for some time almost
+insensible.  The first thing I remember is the sound of a voice
+above me, full and low, and strangely reminding me of the sound
+of a gentle wind amidst the leaves of a great tree.  It murmured
+over and over again:  "I may love him, I may love him; for he is
+a man, and I am only a beech-tree."  I found I was seated on the
+ground, leaning against a human form, and supported still by the
+arms around me, which I knew to be those of a woman who must be
+rather above the human size, and largely proportioned.  I turned
+my head, but without moving otherwise, for I feared lest the arms
+should untwine themselves; and clear, somewhat mournful eyes met
+mine.  At least that is how they impressed me; but I could see
+very little of colour or outline as we sat in the dark and rainy
+shadow of the tree.  The face seemed very lovely, and solemn from
+its stillness; with the aspect of one who is quite content, but
+waiting for something.  I saw my conjecture from her arms was
+correct: she was above the human scale throughout, but not
+greatly.
+
+"Why do you call yourself a beech-tree?" I said.
+
+"Because I am one," she replied, in the same low, musical,
+murmuring voice.
+
+"You are a woman," I returned.
+
+"Do you think so?  Am I very like a woman then?"
+
+"You are a very beautiful woman.  Is it possible you should not
+know it?"
+
+"I am very glad you think so.  I fancy I feel like a woman
+sometimes.  I do so to-night--and always when the rain drips from
+my hair.  For there is an old prophecy in our woods that one day
+we shall all be men and women like you.  Do you know anything
+about it in your region?  Shall I be very happy when I am a
+woman?  I fear not, for it is always in nights like these that I
+feel like one.  But I long to be a woman for all that."
+
+I had let her talk on, for her voice was like a solution of all
+musical sounds.  I now told her that I could hardly say whether
+women were happy or not.  I knew one who had not been happy; and
+for my part, I had often longed for Fairy Land, as she now longed
+for the world of men.  But then neither of us had lived long, and
+perhaps people grew happier as they grew older. Only I doubted
+it. 
+
+I could not help sighing.  She felt the sigh, for her arms were
+still round me.  She asked me how old I was.
+
+"Twenty-one," said I.
+
+"Why, you baby!" said she, and kissed me with the sweetest kiss
+of winds and odours.  There was a cool faithfulness in the kiss
+that revived my heart wonderfully.  I felt that I feared the
+dreadful Ash no more.
+
+"What did the horrible Ash want with me?" I said.
+
+"I am not quite sure, but I think he wants to bury you at the
+foot of his tree.  But he shall not touch you, my child."
+
+"Are all the ash-trees as dreadful as he?"
+
+"Oh, no.  They are all disagreeable selfish creatures--(what
+horrid men they will make, if it be true!)--but this one has a
+hole in his heart that nobody knows of but one or two; and he is
+always trying to fill it up, but he cannot.  That must be what he
+wanted you for.  I wonder if he will ever be a man.  If he is, I
+hope they will kill him."
+
+"How kind of you to save me from him!"
+
+"I will take care that he shall not come near you again.  But
+there are some in the wood more like me, from whom, alas!  I
+cannot protect you.  Only if you see any of them very beautiful,
+try to walk round them."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I cannot tell you more.  But now I must tie some of my hair
+about you, and then the Ash will not touch you.  Here, cut some
+off.  You men have strange cutting things about you."
+
+She shook her long hair loose over me, never moving her arms.
+
+"I cannot cut your beautiful hair.  It would be a shame."
+
+"Not cut my hair!  It will have grown long enough before any is
+wanted again in this wild forest.  Perhaps it may never be of any
+use again--not till I am a woman."  And she sighed.
+
+As gently as I could, I cut with a knife a long tress of flowing,
+dark hair, she hanging her beautiful head over me.  When I had
+finished, she shuddered and breathed deep, as one does when an
+acute pain, steadfastly endured without sign of suffering, is at
+length relaxed.  She then took the hair and tied it round me,
+singing a strange, sweet song, which I could not understand, but
+which left in me a feeling like this--
+
+            "I saw thee ne'er before;
+             I see thee never more;
+             But love, and help, and pain, beautiful one,
+             Have made thee mine, till all my years are done."
+
+I cannot put more of it into words.  She closed her arms about me
+again, and went on singing.  The rain in the leaves, and a light
+wind that had arisen, kept her song company.  I was wrapt in a
+trance of still delight.  It told me the secret of the woods, and
+the flowers, and the birds.  At one time I felt as if I was
+wandering in childhood through sunny spring forests, over carpets
+of primroses, anemones, and little white starry things--I had
+almost said creatures, and finding new wonderful flowers at every
+turn.  At another, I lay half dreaming in the hot summer noon,
+with a book of old tales beside me, beneath a great beech; or, in
+autumn, grew sad because I trod on the leaves that had sheltered
+me, and received their last blessing in the sweet odours of
+decay; or, in a winter evening, frozen still, looked up, as I
+went home to a warm fireside, through the netted boughs and twigs
+to the cold, snowy moon, with her opal zone around her.  At last
+I had fallen asleep; for I know nothing more that passed till I
+found myself lying under a superb beech-tree, in the clear light
+of the morning, just before sunrise.  Around me was a girdle of
+fresh beech-leaves.  Alas!  I brought nothing with me out of
+Fairy Land, but memories--memories.  The great boughs of the
+beech hung drooping around me.  At my head rose its smooth stem,
+with its great sweeps of curving surface that swelled like
+undeveloped limbs.  The leaves and branches above kept on the
+song which had sung me asleep; only now, to my mind, it sounded
+like a farewell and a speedwell.  I sat a long time, unwilling to
+go; but my unfinished story urged me on.  I must act and wander. 
+With the sun well risen, I rose, and put my arms as far as they
+would reach around the beech-tree, and kissed it, and said good-
+bye.  A trembling went through the leaves; a few of the last
+drops of the night's rain fell from off them at my feet; and as I
+walked slowly away, I seemed to hear in a whisper once more the
+words:  "I may love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I
+am only a beech-tree."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+        "And she was smooth and full, as if one gush
+         Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep
+         Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep
+         Than bee from daisy."
+                                BEDDOIS' Pygmalion.
+
+        "Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,
+         Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day."
+                             Romance of Sir Launfal.
+
+
+I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born.  The only
+thing that damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between
+sorrow and delight that crossed my mind with the frequently
+returning thought of my last night's hostess.  "But then,"
+thought I, "if she is sorry, I could not help it; and she has all
+the pleasures she ever had.  Such a day as this is surely a joy
+to her, as much at least as to me.  And her life will perhaps be
+the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what came,
+but could not stay.  And if ever she is a woman, who knows but we
+may meet somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the
+universe."  Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction,
+as if I ought not to have left her, I went on.  There was little
+to distinguish the woods to-day from those of my own land; except
+that all the wild things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and
+the numberless other inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they
+did not run away from me, but gazed at me as I passed, frequently
+coming nearer, as if to examine me more closely.  Whether this
+came from utter ignorance, or from familiarity with the human
+appearance of beings who never hurt them, I could not tell.  As I
+stood once, looking up to the splendid flower of a parasite,
+which hung from the branch of a tree over my head, a large white
+rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its little feet on one of
+mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as I had been
+looking up at the flower above me.  I stooped and stroked it; but
+when I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind
+feet and scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look
+at me several times before I lost sight of it.  Now and then,
+too, a dim human figure would appear and disappear, at some
+distance, amongst the trees, moving like a sleep-walker.  But no
+one ever came near me.
+
+This day I found plenty of food in the forest--strange nuts and
+fruits I had never seen before.  I hesitated to eat them; but
+argued that, if I could live on the air of Fairy Land, I could
+live on its food also.  I found my reasoning correct, and the
+result was better than I had hoped; for it not only satisfied my
+hunger, but operated in such a way upon my senses that I was
+brought into far more complete relationship with the things
+around me.  The human forms appeared much more dense and defined;
+more tangibly visible, if I may say so.  I seemed to know better
+which direction to choose when any doubt arose.  I began to feel
+in some degree what the birds meant in their songs, though I
+could not express it in words, any more than you can some
+landscapes.  At times, to my surprise, I found myself listening
+attentively, and as if it were no unusual thing with me, to a
+conversation between two squirrels or monkeys.  The subjects were
+not very interesting, except as associated with the individual
+life and necessities of the little creatures: where the best nuts
+were to be found in the neighbourhood, and who could crack them
+best, or who had most laid up for the winter, and such like; only
+they never said where the store was.  There was no great
+difference in kind between their talk and our ordinary human
+conversation.  Some of the creatures I never heard speak at all,
+and believe they never do so, except under the impulse of some
+great excitement.  The mice talked; but the hedgehogs seemed very
+phlegmatic; and though I met a couple of moles above ground
+several times, they never said a word to each other in my
+hearing.  There were no wild beasts in the forest; at least, I
+did not see one larger than a wild cat.  There were plenty of
+snakes, however, and I do not think they were all harmless; but
+none ever bit me.
+
+Soon after mid-day I arrived at a bare rocky hill, of no great
+size, but very steep; and having no trees--scarcely even a bush--
+upon it, entirely exposed to the heat of the sun.  Over this my
+way seemed to lie, and I immediately began the ascent.  On
+reaching the top, hot and weary, I looked around me, and saw that
+the forest still stretched as far as the sight could reach on
+every side of me.  I observed that the trees, in the direction in
+which I was about to descend, did not come so near the foot of
+the hill as on the other side, and was especially regretting the
+unexpected postponement of shelter, because this side of the hill
+seemed more difficult to descend than the other had been to
+climb, when my eye caught the appearance of a natural path,
+winding down through broken rocks and along the course of a tiny
+stream, which I hoped would lead me more easily to the foot.  I
+tried it, and found the descent not at all laborious;
+nevertheless, when I reached the bottom, I was very tired and
+exhausted with the heat.  But just where the path seemed to end,
+rose a great rock, quite overgrown with shrubs and creeping
+plants, some of them in full and splendid blossom: these almost
+concealed an opening in the rock, into which the path appeared to
+lead.  I entered, thirsting for the shade which it promised. 
+What was my delight to find a rocky cell, all the angles rounded
+away with rich moss, and every ledge and projection crowded with
+lovely ferns, the variety of whose forms, and groupings, and
+shades wrought in me like a poem; for such a harmony could not
+exist, except they all consented to some one end!  A little well
+of the clearest water filled a mossy hollow in one corner.  I
+drank, and felt as if I knew what the elixir of life must be;
+then threw myself on a mossy mound that lay like a couch along
+the inner end.  Here I lay in a delicious reverie for some time;
+during which all lovely forms, and colours, and sounds seemed to
+use my brain as a common hall, where they could come and go,
+unbidden and unexcused.  I had never imagined that such capacity
+for simple happiness lay in me, as was now awakened by this
+assembly of forms and spiritual sensations, which yet were far
+too vague to admit of being translated into any shape common to
+my own and another mind.  I had lain for an hour, I should
+suppose, though it may have been far longer, when, the harmonious
+tumult in my mind having somewhat relaxed, I became aware that my
+eyes were fixed on a strange, time-worn bas-relief on the rock
+opposite to me.  This, after some pondering, I concluded to
+represent Pygmalion, as he awaited the quickening of his statue. 
+The sculptor sat more rigid than the figure to which his eyes
+were turned.  That seemed about to step from its pedestal and
+embrace the man, who waited rather than expected.
+
+"A lovely story," I said to myself.  "This cave, now, with the
+bushes cut away from the entrance to let the light in, might be
+such a place as he would choose, withdrawn from the notice of
+men, to set up his block of marble, and mould into a visible body
+the thought already clothed with form in the unseen hall of the
+sculptor's brain.  And, indeed, if I mistake not," I said,
+starting up, as a sudden ray of light arrived at that moment
+through a crevice in the roof, and lighted up a small portion of
+the rock, bare of vegetation, "this very rock is marble, white
+enough and delicate enough for any statue, even if destined to
+become an ideal woman in the arms of the sculptor."
+
+I took my knife and removed the moss from a part of the block on
+which I had been lying; when, to my surprise, I found it more
+like alabaster than ordinary marble, and soft to the edge of the
+knife.  In fact, it was alabaster.  By an inexplicable, though by
+no means unusual kind of impulse, I went on removing the moss
+from the surface of the stone; and soon saw that it was polished,
+or at least smooth, throughout.  I continued my labour; and after
+clearing a space of about a couple of square feet, I observed
+what caused me to prosecute the work with more interest and care
+than before.  For the ray of sunlight had now reached the spot I
+had cleared, and under its lustre the alabaster revealed its
+usual slight transparency when polished, except where my knife
+had scratched the surface; and I observed that the transparency
+seemed to have a definite limit, and to end upon an opaque body
+like the more solid, white marble.  I was careful to scratch no
+more.  And first, a vague anticipation gave way to a startling
+sense of possibility; then, as I proceeded, one revelation after
+another produced the entrancing conviction, that under the crust
+of alabaster lay a dimly visible form in marble, but whether of
+man or woman I could not yet tell.  I worked on as rapidly as the
+necessary care would permit; and when I had uncovered the whole
+mass, and rising from my knees, had retreated a little way, so
+that the effect of the whole might fall on me, I saw before me
+with sufficient plainness--though at the same time with
+considerable indistinctness, arising from the limited amount of
+light the place admitted, as well as from the nature of the
+object itself--a block of pure alabaster enclosing the form,
+apparently in marble, of a reposing woman.  She lay on one side,
+with her hand under her cheek, and her face towards me; but her
+hair had fallen partly over her face, so that I could not see the
+expression of the whole.  What I did see appeared to me perfectly
+lovely; more near the face that had been born with me in my soul,
+than anything I had seen before in nature or art.  The actual
+outlines of the rest of the form were so indistinct, that the
+more than semi-opacity of the alabaster seemed insufficient to
+account for the fact; and I conjectured that a light robe added
+its obscurity.  Numberless histories passed through my mind of
+change of substance from enchantment and other causes, and of
+imprisonments such as this before me.  I thought of the Prince of
+the Enchanted City, half marble and half a man; of Ariel; of
+Niobe; of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; of the bleeding trees;
+and many other histories.  Even my adventure of the preceding
+evening with the lady of the beech-tree contributed to arouse the
+wild hope, that by some means life might be given to this form
+also, and that, breaking from her alabaster tomb, she might
+glorify my eyes with her presence.  "For," I argued, "who can
+tell but this cave may be the home of Marble, and this, essential
+Marble--that spirit of marble which, present throughout, makes it
+capable of being moulded into any form?  Then if she should
+awake!  But how to awake her?  A kiss awoke the Sleeping Beauty!
+a kiss cannot reach her through the incrusting alabaster."  I
+kneeled, however, and kissed the pale coffin; but she slept on. 
+I bethought me of Orpheus, and the following stones--that trees
+should follow his music seemed nothing surprising now.  Might not
+a song awake this form, that the glory of motion might for a time
+displace the loveliness of rest?  Sweet sounds can go where
+kisses may not enter.  I sat and thought.  Now, although always
+delighting in music, I had never been gifted with the power of
+song, until I entered the fairy forest.  I had a voice, and I had
+a true sense of sound; but when I tried to sing, the one would
+not content the other, and so I remained silent.  This morning,
+however, I had found myself, ere I was aware, rejoicing in a
+song; but whether it was before or after I had eaten of the
+fruits of the forest, I could not satisfy myself.  I concluded it
+was after, however; and that the increased impulse to sing I now
+felt, was in part owing to having drunk of the little well, which
+shone like a brilliant eye in a corner of the cave.  It saw down
+on the ground by the "antenatal tomb," leaned upon it with my
+face towards the head of the figure within, and sang--the words
+and tones coming together, and inseparably connected, as if word
+and tone formed one thing; or, as if each word could be uttered
+only in that tone, and was incapable of distinction from it,
+except in idea, by an acute analysis.  I sang something like
+this: but the words are only a dull representation of a state
+whose very elevation precluded the possibility of remembrance;
+and in which I presume the words really employed were as far
+above these, as that state transcended this wherein I recall it:
+
+            "Marble woman, vainly sleeping
+             In the very death of dreams!
+             Wilt thou--slumber from thee sweeping,
+             All but what with vision teems--
+             Hear my voice come through the golden
+             Mist of memory and hope;
+             And with shadowy smile embolden
+             Me with primal Death to cope?
+
+            "Thee the sculptors all pursuing,
+             Have embodied but their own;
+             Round their visions, form enduring,
+             Marble vestments thou hast thrown;
+             But thyself, in silence winding,
+             Thou hast kept eternally;
+             Thee they found not, many finding--
+             I have found thee: wake for me."
+
+
+As I sang, I looked earnestly at the face so vaguely revealed
+before me.  I fancied, yet believed it to be but fancy, that
+through the dim veil of the alabaster, I saw a motion of the head
+as if caused by a sinking sigh.  I gazed more earnestly, and
+concluded that it was but fancy.  Neverthless I could not help
+singing again--
+
+            "Rest is now filled full of beauty,
+             And can give thee up, I ween;
+             Come thou forth, for other duty
+             Motion pineth for her queen.
+
+            "Or, if needing years to wake thee
+             From thy slumbrous solitudes,
+             Come, sleep-walking, and betake thee
+             To the friendly, sleeping woods.
+
+             Sweeter dreams are in the forest,
+             Round thee storms would never rave;
+             And when need of rest is sorest,
+             Glide thou then into thy cave.
+
+            "Or, if still thou choosest rather
+             Marble, be its spell on me;
+             Let thy slumber round me gather,
+             Let another dream with thee!"
+
+
+Again I paused, and gazed through the stony shroud, as if, by
+very force of penetrative sight, I would clear every lineament of
+the lovely face.  And now I thought the hand that had lain under
+the cheek, had slipped a little downward.  But then I could not
+be sure that I had at first observed its position accurately.  So
+I sang again; for the longing had grown into a passionate need of
+seeing her alive--
+
+            "Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I
+                Have set me singing by thy side,
+             Life hath forsook the upper sky,
+                And all the outer world hath died.
+
+            "Yea, I am dead; for thou hast drawn
+                My life all downward unto thee.
+             Dead moon of love! let twilight dawn:
+                Awake! and let the darkness flee.
+
+            "Cold lady of the lovely stone!
+                Awake! or I shall perish here;
+             And thou be never more alone,
+                My form and I for ages near.
+
+            "But words are vain; reject them all--
+                They utter but a feeble part:
+             Hear thou the depths from which they call,
+                The voiceless longing of my heart."
+
+
+There arose a slightly crashing sound.  Like a sudden apparition
+that comes and is gone, a white form, veiled in a light robe of
+whiteness, burst upwards from the stone, stood, glided forth, and
+gleamed away towards the woods.  For I followed to the mouth of
+the cave, as soon as the amazement and concentration of delight
+permitted the nerves of motion again to act; and saw the white
+form amidst the trees, as it crossed a little glade on the edge
+of the forest where the sunlight fell full, seeming to gather
+with intenser radiance on the one object that floated rather than
+flitted through its lake of beams.  I gazed after her in a kind
+of despair; found, freed, lost!  It seemed useless to follow, yet
+follow I must.  I marked the direction she took; and without once
+looking round to the forsaken cave, I hastened towards the
+forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, rain down
+upon him, and his happiness is unbounded."
+            "Thy red lips, like worms,
+             Travel over my cheek."
+                                        MOTHERWELL.
+
+But as I crossed the space between the foot of the hill and the
+forest, a vision of another kind delayed my steps.  Through an
+opening to the westward flowed, like a stream, the rays of the
+setting sun, and overflowed with a ruddy splendour the open space
+where I was.  And riding as it were down this stream towards me,
+came a horseman in what appeared red armour.  From frontlet to
+tail, the horse likewise shone red in the sunset.  I felt as if I
+must have seen the knight before; but as he drew near, I could
+recall no feature of his countenance.  Ere he came up to me,
+however, I remembered the legend of Sir Percival in the rusty
+armour, which I had left unfinished in the old book in the
+cottage: it was of Sir Percival that he reminded me.  And no
+wonder; for when he came close up to me, I saw that, from crest
+to heel, the whole surface of his armour was covered with a light
+rust.  The golden spurs shone, but the iron greaves glowed in the
+sunlight.  The MORNING STAR, which hung from his wrist, glittered
+and glowed with its silver and bronze.  His whole appearance was
+terrible; but his face did not answer to this appearance.  It was
+sad, even to gloominess; and something of shame seemed to cover
+it.  Yet it was noble and high, though thus beclouded; and the
+form looked lofty, although the head drooped, and the whole frame
+was bowed as with an inward grief.  The horse seemed to share in
+his master's dejection, and walked spiritless and slow.  I
+noticed, too, that the white plume on his helmet was discoloured
+and drooping.  "He has fallen in a joust with spears," I said to
+myself; "yet it becomes not a noble knight to be conquered in
+spirit because his body hath fallen."  He appeared not to observe
+me, for he was riding past without looking up, and started into a
+warlike attitude the moment the first sound of my voice reached
+him.  Then a flush, as of shame, covered all of his face that the
+lifted beaver disclosed.  He returned my greeting with distant
+courtesy, and passed on.  But suddenly, he reined up, sat a
+moment still, and then turning his horse, rode back to where I
+stood looking after him.
+
+"I am ashamed," he said, "to appear a knight, and in such a
+guise; but it behoves me to tell you to take warning from me,
+lest the same evil, in his kind, overtake the singer that has
+befallen the knight.  Hast thou ever read the story of Sir
+Percival and the"--(here he shuddered, that his armour rang)--
+"Maiden of the Alder-tree?"
+
+"In part, I have," said I; "for yesterday, at the entrance of
+this forest, I found in a cottage the volume wherein it is
+recorded."
+"Then take heed," he rejoined; "for, see my armour--I put it off;
+and as it befell to him, so has it befallen to me.  I that was
+proud am humble now.  Yet is she terribly beautiful--beware. 
+Never," he added, raising his head, "shall this armour be
+furbished, but by the blows of knightly encounter, until the last
+speck has disappeared from every spot where the battle-axe and
+sword of evil-doers, or noble foes, might fall; when I shall
+again lift my head, and say to my squire, `Do thy duty once more,
+and make this armour shine.'"
+
+Before I could inquire further, he had struck spurs into his
+horse and galloped away, shrouded from my voice in the noise of
+his armour.  For I called after him, anxious to know more about
+this fearful enchantress; but in vain--he heard me not.  "Yet," I
+said to myself, "I have now been often warned; surely I shall be
+well on my guard; and I am fully resolved I shall not be ensnared
+by any beauty, however beautiful.  Doubtless, some one man may
+escape, and I shall be he."  So I went on into the wood, still
+hoping to find, in some one of its mysterious recesses, my lost
+lady of the marble.  The sunny afternoon died into the loveliest
+twilight.  Great bats began to flit about with their own
+noiseless flight, seemingly purposeless, because its objects are
+unseen.  The monotonous music of the owl issued from all
+unexpected quarters in the half-darkness around me.  The glow-
+worm was alight here and there, burning out into the great
+universe.  The night-hawk heightened all the harmony and
+stillness with his oft-recurring, discordant jar.  Numberless
+unknown sounds came out of the unknown dusk; but all were of
+twilight-kind, oppressing the heart as with a condensed
+atmosphere of dreamy undefined love and longing.  The odours of
+night arose, and bathed me in that luxurious mournfulness
+peculiar to them, as if the plants whence they floated had been
+watered with bygone tears.  Earth drew me towards her bosom; I
+felt as if I could fall down and kiss her.  I forgot I was in
+Fairy Land, and seemed to be walking in a perfect night of our
+own old nursing earth.  Great stems rose about me, uplifting a
+thick multitudinous roof above me of branches, and twigs, and
+leaves--the bird and insect world uplifted over mine, with its
+own landscapes, its own thickets, and paths, and glades, and
+dwellings; its own bird-ways and insect-delights.  Great boughs
+crossed my path; great roots based the tree-columns, and mightily
+clasped the earth, strong to lift and strong to uphold.  It
+seemed an old, old forest, perfect in forest ways and pleasures. 
+And when, in the midst of this ecstacy, I remembered that under
+some close canopy of leaves, by some giant stem, or in some mossy
+cave, or beside some leafy well, sat the lady of the marble, whom
+my songs had called forth into the outer world, waiting (might it
+not be?) to meet and thank her deliverer in a twilight which
+would veil her confusion, the whole night became one dream-realm
+of joy, the central form of which was everywhere present,
+although unbeheld.  Then, remembering how my songs seemed to have
+called her from the marble, piercing through the pearly shroud of
+alabaster--"Why," thought I, "should not my voice reach her now,
+through the ebon night that inwraps her."  My voice burst into
+song so spontaneously that it seemed involuntarily.
+
+            "Not a sound
+             But, echoing in me,
+             Vibrates all around
+             With a blind delight,
+             Till it breaks on Thee,
+             Queen of Night!
+
+             Every tree,
+             O'ershadowing with gloom,
+             Seems to cover thee
+             Secret, dark, love-still'd,
+             In a holy room
+             Silence-filled.
+
+            "Let no moon
+             Creep up the heaven to-night;
+             I in darksome noon
+             Walking hopefully,
+             Seek my shrouded light--
+             Grope for thee!
+
+            "Darker grow
+             The borders of the dark!
+             Through the branches glow,
+             From the roof above,
+             Star and diamond-sparks
+             Light for love."
+
+
+Scarcely had the last sounds floated away from the hearing of my
+own ears, when I heard instead a low delicious laugh near me.  It
+was not the laugh of one who would not be heard, but the laugh of
+one who has just received something long and patiently desired--a
+laugh that ends in a low musical moan.  I started, and, turning
+sideways, saw a dim white figure seated beside an intertwining
+thicket of smaller trees and underwood.
+
+"It is my white lady!" I said, and flung myself on the ground
+beside her; striving, through the gathering darkness, to get a
+glimpse of the form which had broken its marble prison at my
+call.
+
+"It is your white lady!" said the sweetest voice, in reply,
+sending a thrill of speechless delight through a heart which all
+the love-charms of the preceding day and evening had been
+tempering for this culminating hour.  Yet, if I would have
+confessed it, there was something either in the sound of the
+voice, although it seemed sweetness itself, or else in this
+yielding which awaited no gradation of gentle approaches, that
+did not vibrate harmoniously with the beat of my inward music. 
+And likewise, when, taking her hand in mine, I drew closer to
+her, looking for the beauty of her face, which, indeed, I found
+too plenteously, a cold shiver ran through me; but "it is the
+marble," I said to myself, and heeded it not.
+
+She withdrew her hand from mine, and after that would scarce
+allow me to touch her.  It seemed strange, after the fulness of
+her first greeting, that she could not trust me to come close to
+her.  Though her words were those of a lover, she kept herself
+withdrawn as if a mile of space interposed between us.
+
+"Why did you run away from me when you woke in the cave?" I said.
+
+"Did I?" she returned.  "That was very unkind of me; but I did
+not know better."
+
+"I wish I could see you.  The night is very dark."
+
+"So it is.  Come to my grotto.  There is light there."
+
+"Have you another cave, then?"
+
+"Come and see."
+
+But she did not move until I rose first, and then she was on her
+feet before I could offer my hand to help her.  She came close to
+my side, and conducted me through the wood.  But once or twice,
+when, involuntarily almost, I was about to put my arm around her
+as we walked on through the warm gloom, she sprang away several
+paces, always keeping her face full towards me, and then stood
+looking at me, slightly stooping, in the attitude of one who
+fears some half-seen enemy.  It was too dark to discern the
+expression of her face.  Then she would return and walk close
+beside me again, as if nothing had happened.  I thought this
+strange; but, besides that I had almost, as I said before, given
+up the attempt to account for appearances in Fairy Land, I judged
+that it would be very unfair to expect from one who had slept so
+long and had been so suddenly awakened, a behaviour correspondent
+to what I might unreflectingly look for.  I knew not what she
+might have been dreaming about.  Besides, it was possible that,
+while her words were free, her sense of touch might be
+exquisitely delicate.
+
+At length, after walking a long way in the woods, we arrived at
+another thicket, through the intertexture of which was glimmering
+a pale rosy light.
+
+ "Push aside the branches," she said, "and make room for us to
+enter."
+
+I did as she told me.
+
+"Go in," she said; "I will follow you."
+
+I did as she desired, and found myself in a little cave, not very
+unlike the marble cave.  It was festooned and draperied with all
+kinds of green that cling to shady rocks.  In the furthest
+corner, half- hidden in leaves, through which it glowed, mingling
+lovely shadows between them, burned a bright rosy flame on a
+little earthen lamp.  The lady glided round by the wall from
+behind me, still keeping her face towards me, and seated herself
+in the furthest corner, with her back to the lamp, which she hid
+completely from my view.  I then saw indeed a form of perfect
+loveliness before me.  Almost it seemed as if the light of the
+rose-lamp shone through her (for it could not be reflected from
+her); such a delicate shade of pink seemed to shadow what in
+itself must be a marbly whiteness of hue.  I discovered
+afterwards, however, that there was one thing in it I did not
+like; which was, that the white part of the eye was tinged with
+the same slight roseate hue as the rest of the form.  It is
+strange that I cannot recall her features; but they, as well as
+her somewhat girlish figure, left on me simply and only the
+impression of intense loveliness.  I lay down at her feet, and
+gazed up into her face as I lay.  She began, and told me a
+strange tale, which, likewise, I cannot recollect; but which, at
+every turn and every pause, somehow or other fixed my eyes and
+thoughts upon her extreme beauty; seeming always to culminate in
+something that had a relation, revealed or hidden, but always
+operative, with her own loveliness.  I lay entranced.  It was a
+tale which brings back a feeling as of snows and tempests;
+torrents and water-sprites; lovers parted for long, and meeting
+at last; with a gorgeous summer night to close up the whole.  I
+listened till she and I were blended with the tale; till she and
+I were the whole history.  And we had met at last in this same
+cave of greenery, while the summer night hung round us heavy with
+love, and the odours that crept through the silence from the
+sleeping woods were the only signs of an outer world that invaded
+our solitude.  What followed I cannot clearly remember.  The
+succeeding horror almost obliterated it.  I woke as a grey dawn
+stole into the cave.  The damsel had disappeared; but in the
+shrubbery, at the mouth of the cave, stood a strange horrible
+object.  It looked like an open coffin set up on one end; only
+that the part for the head and neck was defined from the
+shoulder-part.  In fact, it was a rough representation of the
+human frame, only hollow, as if made of decaying bark torn from a
+tree.
+
+It had arms, which were only slightly seamed, down from the
+shoulder- blade by the elbow, as if the bark had healed again
+from the cut of a knife.  But the arms moved, and the hand and
+the fingers were tearing asunder a long silky tress of hair.  The
+thing turned round--it had for a face and front those of my
+enchantress, but now of a pale greenish hue in the light of the
+morning, and with dead lustreless eyes.  In the horror of the
+moment, another fear invaded me.  I put my hand to my waist, and
+found indeed that my girdle of beech-leaves was gone.  Hair again
+in her hands, she was tearing it fiercely.  Once more, as she
+turned, she laughed a low laugh, but now full of scorn and
+derision; and then she said, as if to a companion with whom she
+had been talking while I slept, "There he is; you can take him
+now."  I lay still, petrified with dismay and fear; for I now saw
+another figure beside her, which, although vague and indistinct,
+I yet recognised but too well.  It was the Ash-tree.  My beauty
+was the Maid of the Alder! and she was  giving me, spoiled of  my
+only availing defence, into the hands of bent his Gorgon-head, 
+and entered the cave.  I  could not stir.  He  drew near me.  His
+ghoul-eyes and his ghastly face fascinated me.  He came stooping,
+with the hideous hand outstretched, like a beast of prey.  I had
+given myself up to a death of unfathomable horror, when,
+suddenly, and just as he was on the point of seizing me, the
+dull, heavy blow of an axe echoed through the wood, followed by
+others in quick repetition.  The Ash shuddered and groaned,
+withdrew the outstretched hand, retreated backwards to the mouth
+of the cave, then turned and disappeared amongst the trees.  The
+other walking Death looked at me once, with a careless dislike on
+her beautifully moulded features; then, heedless any more to
+conceal her hollow deformity, turned her frightful back and
+likewise vanished amid the green obscurity without.  I lay and
+wept.  The Maid of the Alder-tree had befooled me--nearly slain
+me--in spite of all the warnings I had received from those who
+knew my danger.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+         "Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew sayes,
+          A little Ime hurt, but yett not slaine;
+          He but lye downe and bleede awhile,
+          And then Ile rise and fight againe."
+                        Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton.
+
+But I could not remain where I was any longer, though the
+daylight was hateful to me, and the thought of the great,
+innocent, bold sunrise unendurable.  Here there was no well to
+cool my face, smarting with the bitterness of my own tears.  Nor
+would I have washed in the well of that grotto, had it flowed
+clear as the rivers of Paradise.  I rose, and feebly left the
+sepulchral cave.  I took my way I knew not whither, but still
+towards the sunrise.  The birds were singing; but not for me. 
+All the creatures spoke a language of their own, with which I had
+nothing to do, and to which I cared not to find the key any more.
+
+I walked listlessly along.  What distressed me most--more even
+than my own folly--was the perplexing question, How can beauty
+and ugliness dwell so near?  Even with her altered complexion and
+her face of dislike; disenchanted of the belief that clung around
+her; known for a living, walking sepulchre, faithless, deluding,
+traitorous; I felt notwithstanding all this, that she was
+beautiful.  Upon this I pondered with undiminished perplexity,
+though not without some gain.  Then I began to make surmises as
+to the mode of my deliverance; and concluded that some hero,
+wandering in search of adventure, had heard how the forest was
+infested; and, knowing it was useless to attack the evil thing in
+person, had assailed with his battle-axe the body in which he
+dwelt, and on which he was dependent for his power of mischief in
+the wood.  "Very likely," I thought, "the repentant-knight, who
+warned me of the evil which has befallen me, was busy retrieving
+his lost honour, while I was sinking into the same sorrow with
+himself; and, hearing of the dangerous and mysterious being,
+arrived at his tree in time to save me from being dragged to its
+roots, and buried like carrion, to nourish him for yet deeper
+insatiableness."  I found afterwards that my conjecture was
+correct.  I wondered how he had fared when his blows recalled the
+Ash himself, and that too I learned afterwards.
+
+I walked on the whole day, with intervals of rest, but without
+food; for I could not have eaten, had any been offered me; till,
+in the afternoon, I seemed to approach the outskirts of the
+forest, and at length arrived at a farm-house.  An unspeakable
+joy arose in my heart at beholding an abode of human beings once
+more, and I hastened up to the door, and knocked.  A
+kind-looking, matronly woman, still handsome, made her
+appearance; who, as soon as she saw me, said kindly, "Ah, my poor
+boy, you have come from the wood!  Were you in it last night?"
+
+I should have ill endured, the day before, to be called BOY; but
+now the motherly kindness of the word went to my heart; and, like
+a boy indeed, I burst into tears.  She soothed me right gently;
+and, leading me into a room, made me lie down on a settle, while
+she went to find me some refreshment.  She soon returned with
+food, but I could not eat.  She almost compelled me to swallow
+some wine, when I revived sufficiently to be able to answer some
+of her questions.  I told her the whole story.
+
+"It is just as I feared," she said; "but you are now for the
+night beyond the reach of any of these dreadful creatures.  It is
+no wonder they could delude a child like you.  But I must beg
+you, when my husband comes in, not to say a word about these
+things; for he thinks me even half crazy for believing anything
+of the sort.  But I must believe my senses, as he cannot believe
+beyond his, which give him no intimations of this kind.  I think
+he could spend the whole of Midsummer-eve in the wood and come
+back with the report that he saw nothing worse than himself. 
+Indeed, good man, he would hardly find anything better than
+himself, if he had seven more senses given him."
+
+"But tell me how it is that she could be so beautiful without any
+heart at all--without any place even for a heart to live in."
+
+"I cannot quite tell," she said; "but I am sure she would not
+look so beautiful if she did not take means to make herself look
+more beautiful than she is.  And then, you know, you began by
+being in love with her before you saw her beauty, mistaking her
+for the lady of the marble--another kind altogether, I should
+think.  But the chief thing that makes her beautiful is this:
+that, although she loves no man, she loves the love of any man;
+and when she finds one in her power, her desire to bewitch him
+and gain his love (not for the sake of his love either, but that
+she may be conscious anew of her own beauty, through the
+admiration he manifests), makes her very lovely--with a self-
+destructive beauty, though; for it is that which is constantly
+wearing her away within, till, at last, the decay will reach her
+face, and her whole front, when all the lovely mask of nothing
+will fall to pieces, and she be vanished for ever.  So a wise
+man, whom she met in the wood some years ago, and who, I think,
+for all his wisdom, fared no better than you, told me, when, like
+you, he spent the next night here, and recounted to me his
+adventures." 
+
+I thanked her very warmly for her solution, though it was but
+partial; wondering much that in her, as in woman I met on my
+first entering the forest, there should be such superiority to
+her apparent condition.  Here she left me to take some rest;
+though, indeed, I was too much agitated to rest in any other way
+than by simply ceasing to move.
+
+In half an hour, I heard a heavy step approach and enter the
+house.  A jolly voice, whose slight huskiness appeared to proceed
+from overmuch laughter, called out "Betsy, the pigs' trough is
+quite empty, and that is a pity.  Let them swill, lass!  They're
+of no use but to get fat.  Ha! ha! ha!  Gluttony is not forbidden
+in their commandments.  Ha! ha! ha!"  The very voice, kind and
+jovial, seemed to disrobe the room of the strange look which all
+new places wear--to disenchant it out of the realm of the ideal
+into that of the actual.  It began to look as if I had known
+every corner of it for twenty years; and when, soon after, the
+dame came and fetched me to partake of their early supper, the
+grasp of his great hand, and the harvest-moon of his benevolent
+face, which was needed to light up the rotundity of the globe
+beneath it, produced such a reaction in me, that, for a moment, I
+could hardly believe that there was a Fairy Land; and that all I
+had passed through since I left home, had not been the wandering
+dream of a diseased imagination, operating on a too mobile frame,
+not merely causing me indeed to travel, but peopling for me with
+vague phantoms the regions through which my actual steps had led
+me.  But the next moment my eye fell upon a little girl who was
+sitting in the chimney-corner, with a little book open on her
+knee, from which she had apparently just looked up to fix great
+inquiring eyes upon me.  I believed in Fairy Land again.  She
+went on with her reading, as soon as she saw that I observed her
+looking at me.  I went near, and peeping over her shoulder, saw
+that she was reading "The History of Graciosa and Percinet."
+
+"Very improving book, sir," remarked the old farmer, with a good-
+humoured laugh.  "We are in the very hottest corner of Fairy Land
+here.  Ha! ha!  Stormy night, last night, sir."
+
+"Was it, indeed?" I rejoined.  "It was not so with me.  A
+lovelier night I never saw."
+"Indeed!  Where were you last night?"
+
+"I spent it in the forest.  I had lost my way."
+
+"Ah! then, perhaps, you will be able to convince my good woman,
+that there is nothing very remarkable about the forest; for, to
+tell the truth, it bears but a bad name in these parts.  I dare
+say you saw nothing worse than yourself there?"
+
+"I hope I did," was my inward reply; but, for an audible one, I
+contented myself with saying, "Why, I certainly did see some
+appearances I could hardly account for; but that is nothing to be
+wondered at in an unknown wild forest, and with the uncertain
+light of the moon alone to go by."
+
+"Very true! you speak like a sensible man, sir.  We have but few
+sensible folks round about us.  Now, you would hardly credit it,
+but my wife believes every fairy-tale that ever was written.  I
+cannot account for it.  She is a most sensible woman in
+everything else."
+
+"But should not that make you treat her belief with something of
+respect, though you cannot share in it yourself?"
+
+"Yes, that is all very well in theory; but when you come to live
+every day in the midst of absurdity, it is far less easy to
+behave respectfully to it.  Why, my wife actually believes the
+story of the `White Cat.'  You know it, I dare say."
+
+"I read all these tales when a child, and know that one
+especially well."
+
+"But, father," interposed the little girl in the chimney-corner,
+"you know quite well that mother is descended from that very
+princess who was changed by the wicked fairy into a white cat. 
+Mother has told me so a many times, and you ought to believe
+everything she says."
+
+"I can easily believe that," rejoined the farmer, with another
+fit of laughter; "for, the other night, a mouse came gnawing and
+scratching beneath the floor, and would not let us go to sleep. 
+Your mother sprang out of bed, and going as near it as she could,
+mewed so infernally like a great cat, that the noise ceased
+instantly.  I believe the poor mouse died of the fright, for we
+have never heard it again.  Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+The son, an ill-looking youth, who had entered during the
+conversation, joined in his father's laugh; but his laugh was
+very different from the old man's: it was polluted with a sneer. 
+I watched him, and saw that, as soon as it was over, he looked
+scared, as if he dreaded some evil consequences to follow his
+presumption.  The woman stood near, waiting till we should seat
+ourselves at the table, and listening to it all with an amused
+air, which had something in it of the look with which one listens
+to the sententious remarks of a pompous child.  We sat down to
+supper, and I ate heartily.  My bygone distresses began already
+to look far off.
+
+"In what direction are you going?" asked the old man.
+
+"Eastward," I replied; nor could I have given a more definite
+answer.  "Does the forest extend much further in that direction?"
+
+"Oh! for miles and miles; I do not know how far.  For although I
+have lived on the borders of it all my life, I have been too busy
+to make journeys of discovery into it.  Nor do I see what I could
+discover.  It is only trees and trees, till one is sick of them. 
+By the way, if you follow the eastward track from here, you will
+pass close to what the children say is the very house of the ogre
+that Hop-o'-my-Thumb visited, and ate his little daughters with
+the crowns of gold."
+
+"Oh, father! ate his little daughters!  No; he only changed their
+gold crowns for nightcaps; and the great long-toothed ogre killed
+them in mistake; but I do not think even he ate them, for you
+know they were his own little ogresses."
+
+"Well, well, child; you know all about it a great deal better
+than I do.  However, the house has, of course, in such a foolish
+neighbourhood as this, a bad enough name; and I must confess
+there is a woman living in it, with teeth long enough, and white
+enough too, for the lineal descendant of the greatest ogre that
+ever was made.  I think you had better not go near her."
+
+In such talk as this the night wore on.  When supper was
+finished, which lasted some time, my hostess conducted me to my
+chamber.
+
+"If you had not had enough of it already," she said, "I would
+have put you in another room, which looks towards the forest; and
+where you would most likely have seen something more of its
+inhabitants.  For they frequently pass the window, and even enter
+the room sometimes.  Strange creatures spend whole nights in it,
+at certain seasons of the year.  I am used to it, and do not mind
+it.  No more does my little girl, who sleeps in it always.  But
+this room looks southward towards the open country, and they
+never show themselves here; at least I never saw any."
+
+I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experience that I might
+have, of the inhabitants of Fairy Land; but the effect of the
+farmer's company, and of my own later adventures, was such, that
+I chose rather an undisturbed night in my more human quarters;
+which, with their clean white curtains and white linen, were very
+inviting to my weariness.
+
+In the morning I awoke refreshed, after a profound and dreamless
+sleep.  The sun was high, when I looked out of the window,
+shining over a wide, undulating, cultivated country.  Various
+garden-vegetables were growing beneath my window.  Everything was
+radiant with clear sunlight.  The dew-drops were sparkling their
+busiest; the cows in a near-by field were eating as if they had
+not been at it all day yesterday; the maids were singing at their
+work as they passed to and fro between the out-houses: I did not
+believe in Fairy Land.  I went down, and found the family already
+at breakfast.  But before I entered the room where they sat, the
+little girl came to me, and looked up in my face, as though she
+wanted to say something to me.  I stooped towards her; she put
+her arms round my neck, and her mouth to my ear, and whispered--
+
+"A white lady has been flitting about the house all night."
+
+"No whispering behind doors!" cried the farmer; and we entered
+together.  "Well, how have you slept?  No bogies, eh?"
+
+"Not one, thank you; I slept uncommonly well."
+
+"I am glad to hear it.  Come and breakfast."
+
+After breakfast, the farmer and his son went out; and I was left
+alone with the mother and daughter.
+
+"When I looked out of the window this morning," I said, "I felt
+almost certain that Fairy Land was all a delusion of my brain;
+but whenever I come near you or your little daughter, I feel
+differently.  Yet I could persuade myself, after my last
+adventures, to go back, and have nothing more to do with such
+strange beings."
+
+"How will you go back?" said the woman.
+
+"Nay, that I do not know."
+
+"Because I have heard, that, for those who enter Fairy Land,
+there is no way of going back.  They must go on, and go through
+it.  How, I do not in the least know."
+
+"That is quite the impression on my own mind.  Something compels
+me to go on, as if my only path was onward, but I feel less
+inclined this morning to continue my adventures."
+
+"Will you come and see my little child's room?  She sleeps in the
+one I told you of, looking towards the forest."
+
+"Willingly," I said.
+
+So we went together, the little girl running before to open the
+door for us.  It was a large room, full of old-fashioned
+furniture, that seemed to have once belonged to some great house.
+
+The window was built with a low arch, and filled with
+lozenge-shaped panes.  The wall was very thick, and built of
+solid stone.  I could see that part of the house had been erected
+against the remains of some old castle or abbey, or other great
+building; the fallen stones of which had probably served to
+complete it.  But as soon as I looked out of the window, a gush
+of wonderment and longing flowed over my soul like the tide of a
+great sea.  Fairy Land lay before me, and drew me towards it with
+an irresistible attraction.  The trees bathed their great heads
+in the waves of the morning, while their roots were planted deep
+in gloom; save where on the borders the sunshine broke against
+their stems, or swept in long streams through their avenues,
+washing with brighter hue all the leaves over which it flowed;
+revealing the rich brown of the decayed leaves and fallen
+pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the long grasses and tiny
+forests of moss that covered the channel over which it passed in
+motionless rivers of light.  I turned hurriedly to bid my hostess
+farewell without further delay.  She smiled at my haste, but with
+an anxious look.
+
+"You had better not go near the house of the ogre, I think.  My
+son will show you into another path, which will join the first
+beyond it."
+
+Not wishing to be headstrong or too confident any more, I agreed;
+and having taken leave of my kind entertainers, went into the
+wood, accompanied by the youth.  He scarcely spoke as we went
+along; but he led me through the trees till we struck upon a
+path.  He told me to follow it, and, with a muttered "good
+morning" left me.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+"I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole."
+            GOETHE.--Mephistopheles in Faust.
+
+My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could
+not regain my former elasticity of mind.  I found cheerfulness to
+be like life itself--not to be created by any argument. 
+Afterwards I learned, that the best way to manage some kinds of
+pain fill thoughts, is to dare them to do their worst; to let
+them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and you find
+you still have a residue of life they cannot kill.  So, better
+and worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing in the
+forest.  In the middle of this clearing stood a long, low hut,
+built with one end against a single tall cypress, which rose like
+a spire to the building.  A vague misgiving crossed my mind when
+I saw it; but I must needs go closer, and look through a little
+half-open door, near the opposite end from the cypress.  Window I
+saw none.  On peeping in, and looking towards the further end, I
+saw a lamp burning, with a dim, reddish flame, and the head of a
+woman, bent downwards, as if reading by its light.  I could see
+nothing more for a few moments.  At length, as my eyes got used
+to the dimness of the place, I saw that the part of the rude
+building near me was used for household purposes; for several
+rough utensils lay here and there, and a bed stood in the corner.
+
+An irresistible attraction caused me to enter.  The woman never
+raised her face, the upper part of which alone I could see
+distinctly; but, as soon as I stepped within the threshold, she
+began to read aloud, in a low and not altogether unpleasing
+voice, from an ancient little volume which she held open with one
+hand on the table upon which stood the lamp.  What she read was
+something like this:
+
+"So, then, as darkness had no beginning, neither will it ever
+have an end.  So, then, is it eternal.  The negation of aught
+else, is its affirmation.  Where the light cannot come, there
+abideth the darkness.  The light doth but hollow a mine out of
+the infinite extension of the darkness.  And ever upon the steps
+of the light treadeth the darkness; yea, springeth in fountains
+and wells amidst it, from the secret channels of its mighty sea. 
+Truly, man is but a passing flame, moving unquietly amid the
+surrounding rest of night; without which he yet could not be, and
+whereof he is in part compounded."
+
+As I drew nearer, and she read on, she moved a little to turn a
+leaf of the dark old volume, and I saw that her face was sallow
+and slightly forbidding.  Her forehead was high, and her black
+eyes repressedly quiet.  But she took no notice of me.  This end
+of the cottage, if cottage it could be called, was destitute of
+furniture, except the table with the lamp, and the chair on which
+the woman sat.  In one corner was a door, apparently of a
+cupboard in the wall, but which might lead to a room beyond. 
+Still the irresistible desire which had made me enter the
+building urged me:  I must open that door, and see what was
+beyond it.  I approached, and laid my hand on the rude latch. 
+Then the woman spoke, but without lifting her head or looking at
+me:  "You had better not open that door."  This was uttered quite
+quietly; and she went on with her reading, partly in silence,
+partly aloud; but both modes seemed equally intended for herself
+alone.  The prohibition, however, only increased my desire to
+see; and as she took no further notice, I gently opened the door
+to its full width, and looked in.  At first, I saw nothing worthy
+of attention.  It seemed a common closet, with shelves on each
+hand, on which stood various little necessaries for the humble
+uses of a cottage.  In one corner stood one or two brooms, in
+another a hatchet and other common tools; showing that it was in
+use every hour of the day for household purposes.  But, as I
+looked, I saw that there were no shelves at the back, and that an
+empty space went in further; its termination appearing to be a
+faintly glimmering wall or curtain, somewhat less, however, than
+the width and height of the doorway where I stood.  But, as I
+continued looking, for a few seconds, towards this faintly
+luminous limit, my eyes came into true relation with their
+object.  All at once, with such a shiver as when one is suddenly
+conscious of the presence of another in a room where he has, for
+hours, considered himself alone, I saw that the seemingly
+luminous extremity was a sky, as of night, beheld through the
+long perspective of a narrow, dark passage, through what, or
+built of what, I could not tell.  As I gazed, I clearly discerned
+two or three stars glimmering faintly in the distant blue.  But,
+suddenly, and as if it had been running fast from a far distance
+for this very point, and had turned the corner without abating
+its swiftness, a dark figure sped into and along the passage from
+the blue opening at the remote end.  I started back and
+shuddered, but kept looking, for I could not help it.  On and on
+it came, with a speedy approach but delayed arrival; till, at
+last, through the many gradations of approach, it seemed to come
+within the sphere of myself, rushed up to me, and passed me into
+the cottage.  All I could tell of its appearance was, that it
+seemed to be a dark human figure.  Its motion was entirely
+noiseless, and might be called a gliding, were it not that it
+appeared that of a runner, but with ghostly feet.  I had moved
+back yet a little to let him pass me, and looked round after him
+instantly.  I could not see him.
+
+"Where is he?" I said, in some alarm, to the woman, who still sat
+reading.
+
+"There, on the floor, behind you," she said, pointing with her
+arm half-outstretched, but not lifting her eyes.  I turned and
+looked, but saw nothing.  Then with a feeling that there was yet
+something behind me, I looked round over my shoulder; and there,
+on the ground, lay a black shadow, the size of a man.  It was so
+dark, that I could see it in the dim light of the lamp, which
+shone full upon it, apparently without thinning at all the
+intensity of its hue.
+
+"I told you," said the woman, "you had better not look into that
+closet."
+
+"What is it?" I said, with a growing sense of horror.
+
+"It is only your shadow that has found you," she replied. 
+Everybody's shadow is ranging up and down looking for him.  I
+believe you call it by a different name in your world: yours has
+found you, as every person's is almost certain to do who looks
+into that closet, especially after meeting one in the forest,
+whom I dare say you have met."
+
+Here, for the first time, she lifted her head, and looked full at
+me: her mouth was full of long, white, shining teeth; and I knew
+that I was in the house of the ogre.  I could not speak, but
+turned and left the house, with the shadow at my heels.  "A nice
+sort of valet to have," I said to myself bitterly, as I stepped
+into the sunshine, and, looking over my shoulder, saw that it lay
+yet blacker in the full blaze of the sunlight.  Indeed, only when
+I stood between it and the sun, was the blackness at all
+diminished.  I was so bewildered-- stunned--both by the event
+itself and its suddenness, that I could not at all realise to
+myself what it would be to have such a constant and strange
+attendance; but with a dim conviction that my present dislike
+would soon grow to loathing, I took my dreary way through the
+wood.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+        "O lady! we receive but what we give,
+         And in our life alone does nature live:
+         Ours is her wedding garments ours her shrorwd!
+                 .   .   .   .   .
+         Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth,
+         A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud,                
+
+         Enveloping the Earth--
+         And from the soul itself must there be sent            
+         A sweet and potent voice of its own birth,
+         Of all sweet sounds the life and element!"
+                                        COLERIDGE.
+
+From this time, until I arrived at the palace of Fairy Land, I
+can attempt no consecutive account of my wanderings and
+adventures.  Everything, henceforward, existed for me in its
+relation to my attendant.  What influence he exercised upon
+everything into contact with which I was brought, may be
+understood from a few detached instances.  To begin with this
+very day on which he first joined me: after I had walked
+heartlessly along for two or three hours, I was very weary, and
+lay down to rest in a most delightful part of the forest,
+carpeted with wild flowers.  I lay for half an hour in a dull
+repose, and then got up to pursue my way.  The flowers on the
+spot where I had lain were crushed to the earth: but I saw that
+they would soon lift their heads and rejoice again in the sun and
+air.  Not so those on which my shadow had lain.  The very outline
+of it could be traced in the withered lifeless grass, and the
+scorched and shrivelled flowers which stood there, dead, and
+hopeless of any resurrection.  I shuddered, and hastened away
+with sad forebodings.
+
+In a few days, I had reason to dread an extension of its baleful
+influences from the fact, that it was no longer confined to one
+position in regard to myself.  Hitherto, when seized with an
+irresistible desire to look on my evil demon (which longing would
+unaccountably seize me at any moment, returning at longer or
+shorter intervals, sometimes every minute), I had to turn my head
+backwards, and look over my shoulder; in which position, as long
+as I could retain it, I was fascinated.  But one day, having come
+out on a clear grassy hill, which commanded a glorious prospect,
+though of what I cannot now tell, my shadow moved round, and came
+in front of me.  And, presently, a new manifestation increased my
+distress.  For it began to coruscate, and shoot out on all sides
+a radiation of dim shadow.  These rays of gloom issued from the
+central shadow as from a black sun, lengthening and shortening
+with continual change.  But wherever a ray struck, that part of
+earth, or sea, or sky, became void, and desert, and sad to my
+heart.  On this, the first development of its new power, one ray
+shot out beyond the rest, seeming to lengthen infinitely, until
+it smote the great sun on the face, which withered and darkened
+beneath the blow.  I turned away and went on.  The shadow
+retreated to its former position; and when I looked again, it had
+drawn in all its spears of darkness, and followed like a dog at
+my heels.
+
+Once, as I passed by a cottage, there came out a lovely fairy
+child, with two wondrous toys, one in each hand.  The one was the
+tube through which the fairy-gifted poet looks when he beholds
+the same thing everywhere; the other that through which he looks
+when he combines into new forms of loveliness those images of
+beauty which his own choice has gathered from all regions wherein
+he has travelled.  Round the child's head was an aureole of
+emanating rays.  As I looked at him in wonder and delight, round
+crept from behind me the something dark, and the child stood in
+my shadow.  Straightway he was a commonplace boy, with a rough
+broad-brimmed straw hat, through which brim the sun shone from
+behind.  The toys he carried were a multiplying-glass and a
+kaleidoscope.  I sighed and departed.
+
+One evening, as a great silent flood of western gold flowed
+through an avenue in the woods, down the stream, just as when I
+saw him first, came the sad knight, riding on his chestnut steed.
+
+But his armour did not shine half so red as when I saw him first.
+
+Many a blow of mighty sword and axe, turned aside by the strength
+of his mail, and glancing adown the surface, had swept from its
+path the fretted rust, and the glorious steel had answered the
+kindly blow with the thanks of returning light.  These streaks
+and spots made his armour look like the floor of a forest in the
+sunlight.  His forehead was higher than before, for the
+contracting wrinkles were nearly gone; and the sadness that
+remained on his face was the sadness of a dewy summer twilight,
+not that of a frosty autumn morn.  He, too, had met the
+Alder-maiden as I, but he had plunged into the torrent of mighty
+deeds, and the stain was nearly washed away.  No shadow followed
+him.  He had not entered the dark house; he had not had time to
+open the closet door.  "Will he ever look in?" I said to myself. 
+"MUST his shadow find him some day?"  But I could not answer my
+own questions.
+
+We travelled together for two days, and I began to love him.  It
+was plain that he suspected my story in some degree; and I saw
+him once or twice looking curiously and anxiously at my attendant
+gloom, which all this time had remained very obsequiously behind
+me; but I offered no explanation, and he asked none.  Shame at my
+neglect of his warning, and a horror which shrunk from even
+alluding to its cause, kept me silent; till, on the evening of
+the second day, some noble words from my companion roused all my
+heart; and I was at the point of falling on his neck, and telling
+him the whole story; seeking, if not for helpful advice, for of
+that I was hopeless, yet for the comfort of sympathy--when round
+slid the shadow and inwrapt my friend; and I could not trust him.
+
+The glory of his brow vanished; the light of his eye grew cold;
+and I held my peace.  The next morning we parted.
+
+But the most dreadful thing of all was, that I now began to feel
+something like satisfaction in the presence of the shadow.  I
+began to be rather vain of my attendant, saying to myself, "In a
+land like this, with so many illusions everywhere, I need his aid
+to disenchant the things around me.  He does away with all
+appearances, and shows me things in their true colour and form. 
+And I am not one to be fooled with the vanities of the common
+crowd.  I will not see beauty where there is none.  I will dare
+to behold things as they are.  And if I live in a waste instead
+of a paradise, I will live knowing where I live."  But of this a
+certain exercise of his power which soon followed quite cured me,
+turning my feelings towards him once more into loathing and
+distrust.  It was thus: 
+
+One bright noon, a little maiden joined me, coming through the
+wood in a direction at right angles to my path.  She came along
+singing and dancing, happy as a child, though she seemed almost a
+woman.  In her hands--now in one, now in another--she carried a
+small globe, bright and clear as the purest crystal.  This seemed
+at once her plaything and her greatest treasure.  At one moment,
+you would have thought her utterly careless of it, and at
+another, overwhelmed with anxiety for its safety.  But I believe
+she was taking care of it all the time, perhaps not least when
+least occupied about it.  She stopped by me with a smile, and
+bade me good day with the sweetest voice.  I felt a wonderful
+liking to the child--for she produced on me more the impression
+of a child, though my understanding told me differently.  We
+talked a little, and then walked on together in the direction I
+had been pursuing.  I asked her about the globe she carried, but
+getting no definite answer, I held out my hand to take it.  She
+drew back, and said, but smiling almost invitingly the while,
+"You must not touch it;"--then, after a moment's pause--"Or if
+you do, it must be very gently."  I touched it with a finger.  A
+slight vibratory motion arose in it, accompanied, or perhaps
+manifested, by a faint sweet sound.  I touched it again, and the
+sound increased.  I touched it the third time: a tiny torrent of
+harmony rolled out of the little globe.  She would not let me
+touch it any more.
+
+We travelled on together all that day.  She left me when twilight
+came on; but next day, at noon, she met me as before, and again
+we travelled till evening.  The third day she came once more at
+noon, and we walked on together.  Now, though we had talked about
+a great many things connected with Fairy Land, and the life she
+had led hitherto, I had never been able to learn anything about
+the globe.  This day, however, as we went on, the shadow glided
+round and inwrapt the maiden.  It could not change her.  But my
+desire to know about the globe, which in his gloom began to waver
+as with an inward light, and to shoot out flashes of
+many-coloured flame, grew irresistible.  I put out both my hands
+and laid hold of it.  It began to sound as before.  The sound
+rapidly increased, till it grew a low tempest of harmony, and the
+globe trembled, and quivered, and throbbed between my hands.  I
+had not the heart to pull it away from the maiden, though I held
+it in spite of her attempts to take it from me; yes, I shame to
+say, in spite of her prayers, and, at last, her tears.  The music
+went on growing in, intensity and complication of tones, and the
+globe vibrated and heaved; till at last it burst in our hands,
+and a black vapour broke upwards from out of it; then turned, as
+if blown sideways, and enveloped the maiden, hiding even the
+shadow in its blackness.  She held fast the fragments, which I
+abandoned, and fled from me into the forest in the direction
+whence she had come, wailing like a child, and crying, "You have
+broken my globe; my globe is broken--my globe is broken!"  I
+followed her, in the hope of comforting her; but had not pursued
+her far, before a sudden cold gust of wind bowed the tree-tops
+above us, and swept through their stems around us; a great cloud
+overspread the day, and a fierce tempest came on, in which I lost
+sight of her.  It lies heavy on my heart to this hour.  At night,
+ere I fall asleep, often, whatever I may be thinking about, I
+suddenly hear her voice, crying out, "You have broken my globe;
+my globe is broken; ah, my globe!"
+
+Here I will mention one more strange thing; but whether this
+peculiarity was owing to my shadow at all, I am not able to
+assure myself.  I came to a village, the inhabitants of which
+could not at first sight be distinguished from the dwellers in
+our land.  They rather avoided than sought my company, though
+they were very pleasant when I addressed them.  But at last I
+observed, that whenever I came within a certain distance of any
+one of them, which distance, however, varied with different
+individuals, the whole appearance of the person began to change;
+and this change increased in degree as I approached.  When I
+receded to the former distance, the former appearance was
+restored.  The nature of the change was grotesque, following no
+fixed rule.  The nearest resemblance to it that I know, is the
+distortion produced in your countenance when you look at it as
+reflected in a concave or convex surface--say, either side of a
+bright spoon.  Of this phenomenon I first became aware in rather
+a ludicrous way.  My host's daughter was a very pleasant pretty
+girl, who made herself more agreeable to me than most of those
+about me.  For some days my companion-shadow had been less
+obtrusive than usual; and such was the reaction of spirits
+occasioned by the simple mitigation of torment, that, although I
+had cause enough besides to be gloomy, I felt light and
+comparatively happy.  My impression is, that she was quite aware
+of the law of appearances that existed between the people of the
+place and myself, and had resolved to amuse herself at my
+expense; for one evening, after some jesting and raillery, she,
+somehow or other, provoked me to attempt to kiss her.  But she
+was well defended from any assault of the kind.  Her countenance
+became, of a sudden, absurdly hideous; the pretty mouth was
+elongated and otherwise amplified sufficiently to have allowed of
+six simultaneous kisses.  I started back in bewildered dismay;
+she burst into the merriest fit of laughter, and ran from the
+room.  I soon found that the same undefinable law of change
+operated between me and all the other villagers; and that, to
+feel I was in pleasant company, it was absolutely necessary for
+me to discover and observe the right focal distance between
+myself and each one with whom I had to do.  This done, all went
+pleasantly enough.  Whether, when I happened to neglect this
+precaution, I presented to them an equally ridiculous appearance,
+I did not ascertain; but I presume that the alteration was common
+to the approximating parties.  I was likewise unable to determine
+whether I was a necessary party to the production of this strange
+transformation, or whether it took place as well, under the given
+circumstances, between the inhabitants themselves.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER X
+
+        "From Eden's bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
+         To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
+         Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields.
+         To guide the wanderers to the happy fields."
+
+ After leaving this village, where I had rested for nearly a
+week, I travelled through a desert region of dry sand and
+glittering rocks, peopled principally by goblin-fairies.  When I
+first entered their domains, and, indeed, whenever I fell in with
+another tribe of them, they began mocking me with offered
+handfuls of gold and jewels, making hideous grimaces at me, and
+performing the most antic homage, as if they thought I expected
+reverence, and meant to humour me like a maniac.  But ever, as
+soon as one cast his eyes on the shadow behind me, he made a wry
+face, partly of pity, partly of contempt, and looked ashamed, as
+if he had been caught doing something inhuman; then, throwing
+down his handful of gold, and ceasing all his grimaces, he stood
+aside to let me pass in peace, and made signs to his companions
+to do the like.  I had no inclination to observe them much, for
+the shadow was in my heart as well as at my heels.  I walked
+listlessly and almost hopelessly along, till I arrived one day at
+a small spring; which, bursting cool from the heart of a
+sun-heated rock, flowed somewhat southwards from the direction I
+had been taking.  I drank of this spring, and found myself
+wonderfully refreshed.  A kind of love to the cheerful little
+stream arose in my heart.  It was born in a desert; but it seemed
+to say to itself, "I will flow, and sing, and lave my banks, till
+I make my desert a paradise."  I thought I could not do better
+than follow it, and see what it made of it.  So down with the
+stream I went, over rocky lands, burning with sunbeams.  But the
+rivulet flowed not far, before a few blades of grass appeared on
+its banks, and then, here and there, a stunted bush.  Sometimes
+it disappeared altogether under ground; and after I had wandered
+some distance, as near as I could guess, in the direction it
+seemed to take, I would suddenly hear it again, singing,
+sometimes far away to my right or left, amongst new rocks, over
+which it made new cataracts of watery melodies.  The verdure on
+its banks increased as it flowed; other streams joined it; and at
+last, after many days' travel, I found myself, one gorgeous
+summer evening, resting by the side of a broad river, with a
+glorious horse-chestnut tree towering above me, and dropping its
+blossoms, milk-white and rosy-red, all about me.  As I sat, a
+gush of joy sprang forth in my heart, and over flowed at my eyes.
+
+Through my tears, the whole landscape glimmered in such
+bewildering loveliness, that I felt as if I were entering Fairy
+Land for the first time, and some loving hand were waiting to
+cool my head, and a loving word to warm my heart.  Roses, wild
+roses, everywhere!  So plentiful were they, they not only
+perfumed the air, they seemed to dye it a faint rose-hue.  The
+colour floated abroad with the scent, and clomb, and spread,
+until the whole west blushed and glowed with the gathered incense
+of roses.  And my heart fainted with longing in my bosom.
+
+Could I but see the Spirit of the Earth, as I saw once the in
+dwelling woman of the beech-tree, and my beauty of the pale
+marble, I should be content.  Content!--Oh, how gladly would I
+die of the light of her eyes!  Yea, I would cease to be, if that
+would bring me one word of love from the one mouth.  The twilight
+sank around, and infolded me with sleep.  I slept as I had not
+slept for months.  I did not awake till late in the morning;
+when, refreshed in body and mind, I rose as from the death that
+wipes out the sadness of life, and then dies itself in the new
+morrow.  Again I followed the stream; now climbing a steep rocky
+bank that hemmed it in; now wading through long grasses and wild
+flowers in its path; now through meadows; and anon through woods
+that crowded down to the very lip of the water.
+
+At length, in a nook of the river, gloomy with the weight of
+overhanging foliage, and still and deep as a soul in which the
+torrent eddies of pain have hollowed a great gulf, and then,
+subsiding in violence, have left it full of a motionless,
+fathomless sorrow--I saw a little boat lying.  So still was the
+water here, that the boat needed no fastening.  It lay as if some
+one had just stepped ashore, and would in a moment return.  But
+as there were no signs of presence, and no track through the
+thick bushes; and, moreover, as I was in Fairy Land where one
+does very much as he pleases, I forced my way to the brink,
+stepped into the boat, pushed it, with the help of the
+tree-branches, out into the stream, lay down in the bottom, and
+let my boat and me float whither the stream would carry us.  I
+seemed to lose myself in the great flow of sky above me unbroken
+in its infinitude, except when now and then, coming nearer the
+shore at a bend in the river, a tree would sweep its mighty head
+silently above mine, and glide away back into the past, never
+more to fling its shadow over me.  I fell asleep in this cradle,
+in which mother Nature was rocking her weary child; and while I
+slept, the sun slept not, but went round his arched way.  When I
+awoke, he slept in the waters, and I went on my silent path
+beneath a round silvery moon.  And a pale moon looked up from the
+floor of the great blue cave that lay in the abysmal silence
+beneath.
+
+Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call the
+reality?--not so grand or so strong, it may be, but always
+lovelier?  Fair as is the gliding sloop on the shining sea, the
+wavering, trembling, unresting sail below is fairer still.  Yea,
+the reflecting ocean itself, reflected in the mirror, has a
+wondrousness about its waters that somewhat vanishes when I turn
+towards itself.  All mirrors are magic mirrors.  The commonest
+room is a room in a poem when I turn to the glass.  (And this
+reminds me, while I write, of a strange story which I read in the
+fairy palace, and of which I will try to make a feeble memorial
+in its place.)  In whatever way it may be accounted for, of one
+thing we may be sure, that this feeling is no cheat; for there is
+no cheating in nature and the simple unsought feelings of the
+soul.  There must be a truth involved in it, though we may but in
+part lay hold of the meaning.  Even the memories of past pain are
+beautiful; and past delights, though beheld only through clefts
+in the grey clouds of sorrow, are lovely as Fairy Land.  But how
+have I wandered into the deeper fairyland of the soul, while as
+yet I only float towards the fairy palace of Fairy Land!  The
+moon, which is the lovelier memory or reflex of the down-gone
+sun, the joyous day seen in the faint mirror of the brooding
+night, had rapt me away.
+
+I sat up in the boat.  Gigantic forest trees were about me;
+through which, like a silver snake, twisted and twined the great
+river.  The little waves, when I moved in the boat, heaved and
+fell with a plash as of molten silver, breaking the image of the
+moon into a thousand morsels, fusing again into one, as the
+ripples of laughter die into the still face of joy.  The sleeping
+woods, in undefined massiveness; the water that flowed in its
+sleep; and, above all, the enchantress moon, which had cast them
+all, with her pale eye, into the charmed slumber, sank into my
+soul, and I felt as if I had died in a dream, and should never
+more awake.
+
+From this I was partly aroused by a glimmering of white, that,
+through the trees on the left, vaguely crossed my vision, as I
+gazed upwards.  But the trees again hid the object; and at the
+moment, some strange melodious bird took up its song, and sang,
+not an ordinary bird-song, with constant repetitions of the same
+melody, but what sounded like a continuous strain, in which one
+thought was expressed, deepening in intensity as evolved in
+progress.  It sounded like a welcome already overshadowed with
+the coming farewell.  As in all sweetest music, a tinge of
+sadness was in every note.  Nor do we know how much of the
+pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows.  Joy
+cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be
+deepest joy.  Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and
+flingeth wide the doors she may not enter.  Almost we linger with
+Sorrow for very love.
+
+As the song concluded the stream bore my little boat with a
+gentle sweep round a bend of the river; and lo! on a broad lawn,
+which rose from the water's edge with a long green slope to a
+clear elevation from which the trees receded on all sides, stood
+a stately palace glimmering ghostly in the moonshine: it seemed
+to be built throughout of the whitest marble.  There was no
+reflection of moonlight from windows--there seemed to be none; so
+there was no cold glitter; only, as I said, a ghostly shimmer. 
+Numberless shadows tempered the shine, from column and balcony
+and tower.  For everywhere galleries ran along the face of the
+buildings; wings were extended in many directions; and numberless
+openings, through which the moonbeams vanished into the interior,
+and which served both for doors and windows, had their separate
+balconies in front, communicating with a common gallery that rose
+on its own pillars.  Of course, I did not discover all this from
+the river, and in the moonlight.  But, though I was there for
+many days, I did not succeed in mastering the inner topography of
+the building, so extensive and complicated was it.
+
+Here I wished to land, but the boat had no oars on board. 
+However, I found that a plank, serving for a seat, was
+unfastened, and with that I brought the boat to the bank and
+scrambled on shore.  Deep soft turf sank beneath my feet, as I
+went up the ascent towards the palace.
+
+When I reached it, I saw that it stood on a great platform of
+marble, with an ascent, by broad stairs of the same, all round
+it.  Arrived on the platform, I found there was an extensive
+outlook over the forest, which, however, was rather veiled than
+revealed by the moonlight.
+
+Entering by a wide gateway, but without gates, into an inner
+court, surrounded on all sides by great marble pillars supporting
+galleries above, I saw a large fountain of porphyry in the
+middle, throwing up a lofty column of water, which fell, with a
+noise as of the fusion of all sweet sounds, into a basin beneath;
+overflowing which, it ran into a single channel towards the
+interior of the building.  Although the moon was by this time so
+low in the west, that not a ray of her light fell into the court,
+over the height of the surrounding buildings; yet was the court
+lighted by a second reflex from the sun of other lands.  For the
+top of the column of water, just as it spread to fall, caught the
+moonbeams, and like a great pale lamp, hung high in the night
+air, threw a dim memory of light (as it were) over the court
+below.  This court was paved in diamonds of white and red marble.
+According to my custom since I entered Fairy Land, of taking for
+a guide whatever I first found moving in any direction, I
+followed the stream from the basin of the fountain.  It led me to
+a great open door, beneath the ascending steps of which it ran
+through a low arch and disappeared.  Entering here, I found
+myself in a great hall, surrounded with white pillars, and paved
+with black and white.  This I could see by the moonlight, which,
+from the other side, streamed through open windows into the hall.
+
+Its height I could not distinctly see.  As soon as I entered, I
+had the feeling so common to me in the woods, that there were
+others there besides myself, though I could see no one, and heard
+no sound to indicate a presence.  Since my visit to the Church of
+Darkness, my power of seeing the fairies of the higher orders had
+gradually diminished, until it had almost ceased.  But I could
+frequently believe in their presence while unable to see them. 
+Still, although I had company, and doubtless of a safe kind, it
+seemed rather dreary to spend the night in an empty marble hall,
+however beautiful, especially as the moon was near the going
+down, and it would soon be dark.  So I began at the place where I
+entered, and walked round the hall, looking for some door or
+passage that might lead me to a more hospitable chamber.  As I
+walked, I was deliciously haunted with the feeling that behind
+some one of the seemingly innumerable pillars, one who loved me
+was waiting for me.  Then I thought she was following me from
+pillar to pillar as I went along; but no arms came out of the
+faint moonlight, and no sigh assured me of her presence.
+
+At length I came to an open corridor, into which I turned;
+notwithstanding that, in doing so, I left the light behind. 
+Along this I walked with outstretched hands, groping my way,
+till, arriving at another corridor, which seemed to strike off at
+right angles to that in which I was, I saw at the end a faintly
+glimmering light, too pale even for moonshine, resembling rather
+a stray phosphorescence.  However, where everything was white, a
+little light went a great way.  So I walked on to the end, and a
+long corridor it was.  When I came up to the light, I found that
+it proceeded from what looked like silver letters upon a door of
+ebony; and, to my surprise even in the home of wonder itself, the
+letters formed the words, THE CHAMBER OF SIR ANODOS.  Although I
+had as yet no right to the honours of a knight, I ventured to
+conclude that the chamber was indeed intended for me; and,
+opening the door without hesitation, I entered.  Any doubt as to
+whether I was right in so doing, was soon dispelled.  What to my
+dark eyes seemed a blaze of light, burst upon me.  A fire of
+large pieces of some sweet-scented wood, supported by dogs of
+silver, was burning on the hearth, and a bright lamp stood on a
+table, in the midst of a plentiful meal, apparently awaiting my
+arrival.  But what surprised me more than all, was, that the room
+was in every respect a copy of my own room, the room whence the
+little stream from my basin had led me into Fairy Land.  There
+was the very carpet of grass and moss and daisies, which I had
+myself designed; the curtains of pale blue silk, that fell like a
+cataract over the windows; the old- fashioned bed, with the
+chintz furniture, on which I had slept from boyhood.  "Now I
+shall sleep," I said to myself.  "My shadow dares not come here."
+
+I sat down to the table, and began to help myself to the good
+things before me with confidence.  And now I found, as in many
+instances before, how true the fairy tales are; for I was waited
+on, all the time of my meal, by invisible hands.  I had scarcely
+to do more than look towards anything I wanted, when it was
+brought me, just as if it had come to me of itself.  My glass was
+kept filled with the wine I had chosen, until I looked towards
+another bottle or decanter; when a fresh glass was substituted,
+and the other wine supplied.  When I had eaten and drank more
+heartily and joyfully than ever since I entered Fairy Land, the
+whole was removed by several attendants, of whom some were male
+and some female, as I thought I could distinguish from the way
+the dishes were lifted from the table, and the motion with which
+they were carried out of the room.  As soon as they were all
+taken away, I heard a sound as of the shutting of a door, and
+knew that I was left alone.  I sat long by the fire, meditating,
+and wondering how it would all end; and when at length, wearied
+with thinking, I betook myself to my own bed, it was half with a
+hope that, when I awoke in the morning, I should awake not only
+in my own room, but in my own castle also; and that I should
+walk, out upon my own native soil, and find that Fairy Land was,
+after all, only a vision of the night.  The sound of the falling
+waters of the fountain floated me into oblivion.  
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+            "A wilderness of building, sinking far
+             And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth,
+             Far sinking into splendour--without end:
+             Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
+             With alabaster domes, and silver spires,
+             And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
+             Uplifted."
+                                        WORDSWORTH.
+
+But when, after a sleep, which, although dreamless, yet left
+behind it a sense of past blessedness, I awoke in the full
+morning, I found, indeed, that the room was still my own; but
+that it looked abroad upon an unknown landscape of forest and
+hill and dale on the one side--and on the other, upon the marble
+court, with the great fountain, the crest of which now flashed
+glorious in the sun, and cast on the pavement beneath a shower of
+faint shadows from the waters that fell from it into the marble
+basin below.
+
+Agreeably to all authentic accounts of the treatment of
+travellers in Fairy Land, I found by my bedside a complete suit
+of fresh clothing, just such as I was in the habit of wearing;
+for, though varied sufficiently from the one removed, it was yet
+in complete accordance with my tastes.  I dressed myself in this,
+and went out.  The whole palace shone like silver in the sun. 
+The marble was partly dull and partly polished; and every
+pinnacle, dome, and turret ended in a ball, or cone, or cusp of
+silver.  It was like frost-work, and too dazzling, in the sun,
+for earthly eyes like mine.
+
+I will not attempt to describe the environs, save by saying, that
+all the pleasures to be found in the most varied and artistic
+arrangement of wood and river, lawn and wild forest, garden and
+shrubbery, rocky hill and luxurious vale; in living creatures
+wild and tame, in gorgeous birds, scattered fountains, little
+streams, and reedy lakes-- all were here.  Some parts of the
+palace itself I shall have occasion to describe more minutely.
+
+For this whole morning I never thought of my demon shadow; and
+not till the weariness which supervened on delight brought it
+again to my memory, did I look round to see if it was behind me:
+it was scarcely discernible.  But its presence, however faintly
+revealed, sent a pang to my heart, for the pain of which, not all
+the beauties around me could compensate.  It was followed,
+however, by the comforting reflection that, peradventure, I might
+here find the magic word of power to banish the demon and set me
+free, so that I should no longer be a man beside myself.  The
+Queen of Fairy Land, thought I, must dwell here: surely she will
+put forth her power to deliver me, and send me singing through
+the further gates of her country back to my own land.  "Shadow of
+me!" I said; "which art not me, but which representest thyself to
+me as me; here I may find a shadow of light which will devour
+thee, the shadow of darkness!  Here I may find a blessing which
+will fall on thee as a curse, and damn thee to the blackness
+whence thou hast emerged unbidden."  I said this, stretched at
+length on the slope of the lawn above the river; and as the hope
+arose within me, the sun came forth from a light fleecy cloud
+that swept across his face; and hill and dale, and the great
+river winding on through the still mysterious forest, flashed
+back his rays as with a silent shout of joy; all nature lived and
+glowed; the very earth grew warm beneath me; a magnificent
+dragon-fly went past me like an arrow from a bow, and a whole
+concert of birds burst into choral song.
+
+The heat of the sun soon became too intense even for passive
+support.  I therefore rose, and sought the shelter of one of the
+arcades.  Wandering along from one to another of these, wherever
+my heedless steps led me, and wondering everywhere at the simple
+magnificence of the building, I arrived at another hall, the roof
+of which was of a pale blue, spangled with constellations of
+silver stars, and supported by porphyry pillars of a paler red
+than ordinary.--In this house (I may remark in passing), silver
+seemed everywhere preferred to gold; and such was the purity of
+the air, that it showed nowhere signs of tarnishing.--The whole
+of the floor of this hall, except a narrow path behind the
+pillars, paved with black, was hollowed into a huge basin, many
+feet deep, and filled with the purest, most liquid and radiant
+water.  The sides of the basin were white marble, and the bottom
+was paved with all kinds of refulgent stones, of every shape and
+hue.
+
+In their arrangement, you would have supposed, at first sight,
+that there was no design, for they seemed to lie as if cast there
+from careless and playful hands; but it was a most harmonious
+confusion; and as I looked at the play of their colours,
+especially when the waters were in motion, I came at last to feel
+as if not one little pebble could be displaced, without injuring
+the effect of the whole.  Beneath this floor of the water, lay
+the reflection of the blue inverted roof, fretted with its silver
+stars, like a second deeper sea, clasping and upholding the
+first.  The fairy bath was probably fed from the fountain in the
+court.  Led by an irresistible desire, I undressed, and plunged
+into the water.  It clothed me as with a new sense and its object
+both in one.  The waters lay so close to me, they seemed to enter
+and revive my heart.  I rose to the surface, shook the water from
+my hair, and swam as in a rainbow, amid the coruscations of the
+gems below seen through the agitation caused by my motion.  Then,
+with open eyes, I dived, and swam beneath the surface.  And here
+was a new wonder.  For the basin, thus beheld, appeared to extend
+on all sides like a sea, with here and there groups as of ocean
+rocks, hollowed by ceaseless billows into wondrous caves and
+grotesque pinnacles.  Around the caves grew sea-weeds of all
+hues, and the corals glowed between; while far off, I saw the
+glimmer of what seemed to be creatures of human form at home in
+the waters.  I thought I had been enchanted; and that when I rose
+to the surface, I should find myself miles from land, swimming
+alone upon a heaving sea; but when my eyes emerged from the
+waters, I saw above me the blue spangled vault, and the red
+pillars around.  I dived again, and found myself once more in the
+heart of a great sea.  I then arose, and swam to the edge, where
+I got out easily, for the water reached the very brim, and, as I
+drew near washed in tiny waves over the black marble border.  I
+dressed, and went out, deeply refreshed.
+
+And now I began to discern faint, gracious forms, here and there
+throughout the building.  Some walked together in earnest
+conversation.  Others strayed alone.  Some stood in groups, as if
+looking at and talking about a picture or a statue.  None of them
+heeded me.  Nor were they plainly visible to my eyes.  Sometimes
+a group, or single individual, would fade entirely out of the
+realm of my vision as I gazed.  When evening came, and the moon
+arose, clear as a round of a horizon-sea when the sun hangs over
+it in the west, I began to see them all more plainly; especially
+when they came between me and the moon; and yet more especially,
+when I myself was in the shade.  But, even then, I sometimes saw
+only the passing wave of a white robe; or a lovely arm or neck
+gleamed by in the moonshine; or white feet went walking alone
+over the moony sward.  Nor, I grieve to say, did I ever come much
+nearer to these glorious beings, or ever look upon the Queen of
+the Fairies herself.  My destiny ordered otherwise.
+
+In this palace of marble and silver, and fountains and moonshine,
+I spent many days; waited upon constantly in my room with
+everything desirable, and bathing daily in the fairy bath.  All
+this time I was little troubled with my demon shadow I had a
+vague feeling that he was somewhere about the palace; but it
+seemed as if the hope that I should in this place be finally
+freed from his hated presence, had sufficed to banish him for a
+time.  How and where I found him, I shall soon have to relate.
+
+The third day after my arrival, I found the library of the
+palace; and here, all the time I remained, I spent most of the
+middle of the day.  For it was, not to mention far greater
+attractions, a luxurious retreat from the noontide sun.  During
+the mornings and afternoons, I wandered about the lovely
+neighbourhood, or lay, lost in delicious day-dreams, beneath some
+mighty tree on the open lawn.  My evenings were by-and-by spent
+in a part of the palace, the account of which, and of my
+adventures in connection with it, I must yet postpone for a
+little.
+
+The library was a mighty hall, lighted from the roof, which was
+formed of something like glass, vaulted over in a single piece,
+and stained throughout with a great mysterious picture in
+gorgeous colouring.
+
+The walls were lined from floor to roof with books and books:
+most of them in ancient bindings, but some in strange new
+fashions which I had never seen, and which, were I to make the
+attempt, I could ill describe.  All around the walls, in front of
+the books, ran galleries in rows, communicating by stairs.  These
+galleries were built of all kinds of coloured stones; all sorts
+of marble and granite, with porphyry, jasper, lapis lazuli,
+agate, and various others, were ranged in wonderful melody of
+successive colours.  Although the material, then, of which these
+galleries and stairs were built, rendered necessary a certain
+degree of massiveness in the construction, yet such was the size
+of the place, that they seemed to run along the walls like cords.
+
+Over some parts of the library, descended curtains of silk of
+various dyes, none of which I ever saw lifted while I was there;
+and I felt somehow that it would be presumptuous in me to venture
+to look within them.  But the use of the other books seemed free;
+and day after day I came to the library, threw myself on one of
+the many sumptuous eastern carpets, which lay here and there on
+the floor, and read, and read, until weary; if that can be
+designated as weariness, which was rather the faintness of
+rapturous delight; or until, sometimes, the failing of the light
+invited me to go abroad, in the hope that a cool gentle breeze
+might have arisen to bathe, with an airy invigorating bath, the
+limbs which the glow of the burning spirit within had withered no
+less than the glow of the blazing sun without. 
+
+One peculiarity of these books, or at least most of those I
+looked into, I must make a somewhat vain attempt to describe.
+
+If, for instance, it was a book of metaphysics I opened, I had
+scarcely read two pages before I seemed to myself to be pondering
+over discovered truth, and constructing the intellectual machine
+whereby to communicate the discovery to my fellow men.  With some
+books, however, of this nature, it seemed rather as if the
+process was removed yet a great way further back; and I was
+trying to find the root of a manifestation, the spiritual truth
+whence a material vision sprang; or to combine two propositions,
+both apparently true, either at once or in different remembered
+moods, and to find the point in which their invisibly converging
+lines would unite in one, revealing a truth higher than either
+and differing from both; though so far from being opposed to
+either, that it was that whence each derived its life and power. 
+Or if the book was one of travels, I found myself the traveller. 
+New lands, fresh experiences, novel customs, rose around me.  I
+walked, I discovered, I fought, I suffered, I rejoiced in my
+success.  Was it a history?  I was the chief actor therein.  I
+suffered my own blame; I was glad in my own praise.  With a
+fiction it was the same.  Mine was the whole story.  For I took
+the place of the character who was most like myself, and his
+story was mine; until, grown weary with the life of years
+condensed in an hour, or arrived at my deathbed, or the end of
+the volume, I would awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the
+consciousness of my present life, recognising the walls and roof
+around me, and finding I joyed or sorrowed only in a book.  If
+the book was a poem, the words disappeared, or took the
+subordinate position of an accompaniment to the succession of
+forms and images that rose and vanished with a soundless rhythm,
+and a hidden rime.
+
+In one, with a mystical title, which I cannot recall, I read of a
+world that is not like ours.  The wondrous account, in such a
+feeble, fragmentary way as is possible to me, I would willingly
+impart.  Whether or not it was all a poem, I cannot tell; but,
+from the impulse I felt, when I first contemplated writing it, to
+break into rime, to which impulse I shall give way if it comes
+upon me again, I think it must have been, partly at least, in
+verse.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+            "Chained is the Spring.  The night-wind bold
+              Blows over the hard earth;
+             Time is not more confused and cold,
+              Nor keeps more wintry mirth.
+
+            "Yet blow, and roll the world about;
+               Blow, Time--blow, winter's Wind!
+             Through chinks of Time, heaven peepeth out,
+               And Spring the frost behind."                      
+                                        G. E. M.
+
+They who believe in the influences of the stars over the fates of
+men, are, in feeling at least, nearer the truth than they who
+regard the heavenly bodies as related to them merely by a common
+obedience to an external law.  All that man sees has to do with
+man.  Worlds cannot be without an intermundane relationship.  The
+community of the centre of all creation suggests an
+interradiating connection and dependence of the parts.  Else a
+grander idea is conceivable than that which is already imbodied. 
+The blank, which is only a forgotten life, lying behind the
+consciousness, and the misty splendour, which is an undeveloped
+life, lying before it, may be full of mysterious revelations of
+other connexions with the worlds around us, than those of science
+and poetry.  No shining belt or gleaming moon, no red and green
+glory in a self-encircling twin-star, but has a relation with the
+hidden things of a man's soul, and, it may be, with the secret
+history of his body as well.  They are portions of the living
+house wherein he abides.
+
+             Through the realms of the monarch Sun
+         Creeps a world, whose course had begun,
+         On a weary path with a weary pace,
+         Before the Earth sprang forth on her race:
+         But many a time the Earth had sped
+         Around the path she still must tread,
+         Ere the elder planet, on leaden wing,
+         Once circled the court of the planet's king.
+
+            There, in that lonely and distant star,
+         The seasons are not as our seasons are;
+         But many a year hath Autumn to dress
+         The trees in their matron loveliness;
+         As long hath old Winter in triumph to go
+         O'er beauties dead in his vaults below;
+         And many a year the Spring doth wear
+         Combing the icicles from her hair;
+         And Summer, dear Summer, hath years of June,
+         With large white clouds, and cool showers at noon:
+         And a beauty that grows to a weight like grief,
+         Till a burst of tears is the heart's relief.
+
+            Children, born when Winter is king,
+         May never rejoice in the hoping Spring;
+         Though their own heart-buds are bursting with joy,      
+         And the child hath grown to the girl or boy;
+         But may die with cold and icy hours
+         Watching them ever in place of flowers.
+         And some who awake from their primal sleep,
+         When the sighs of Summer through forests creep,
+         Live, and love, and are loved again;
+         Seek for pleasure, and find its pain;
+         Sink to their last, their forsaken sleeping,
+         With the same sweet odours around them creeping.
+
+Now the children, there, are not born as the children are born in
+worlds nearer to the sun.  For they arrive no one knows how.  A
+maiden, walking alone, hears a cry: for even there a cry is the
+first utterance; and searching about, she findeth, under an
+overhanging rock, or within a clump of bushes, or, it may be,
+betwixt gray stones on the side of a hill, or in any other
+sheltered and unexpected spot, a little child.  This she taketh
+tenderly, and beareth home with joy, calling out, "Mother,
+mother"--if so be that her mother lives--"I have got a baby--I
+have found a child!"  All the household gathers round to
+see;--"WHERE IS IT?  WHAT IS IT LIKE?  WHERE DID YOU FIND IT?"
+and such-like questions, abounding.  And thereupon she relates
+the whole story of the discovery; for by the circumstances, such
+as season of the year, time of the day, condition of the air, and
+such like, and, especially, the peculiar and never-repeated
+aspect of the heavens and earth at the time, and the nature of
+the place of shelter wherein it is found, is determined, or at
+least indicated, the nature of the child thus discovered. 
+Therefore, at certain seasons, and in certain states of the
+weather, according, in part, to their own fancy, the young women
+go out to look for children.  They generally avoid seeking them,
+though they cannot help sometimes finding them, in places and
+with circumstances uncongenial to their peculiar likings.  But no
+sooner is a child found, than its claim for protection and
+nurture obliterates all feeling of choice in the matter. 
+Chiefly, however, in the season of summer, which lasts so long,
+coming as it does after such long intervals; and mostly in the
+warm evenings, about the middle of twilight; and principally in
+the woods and along the river banks, do the maidens go looking
+for children just as children look for flowers.  And ever as the
+child grows, yea, more and more as he advances in years, will his
+face indicate to those who understand the spirit of Nature, and
+her utterances in the face of the world, the nature of the place
+of his birth, and the other circumstances thereof; whether a
+clear morning sun guided his mother to the nook whence issued the
+boy's low cry; or at eve the lonely maiden (for the same woman
+never finds a second, at least while the first lives) discovers
+the girl by the glimmer of her white skin, lying in a nest like
+that of the lark, amid long encircling grasses, and the
+upward-gazing eyes of the lowly daisies; whether the storm bowed
+the forest trees around, or the still frost fixed in silence the
+else flowing and babbling stream.
+
+After they grow up, the men and women are but little together. 
+There is this peculiar difference between them, which likewise
+distinguishes the women from those of the earth.  The men alone
+have arms; the women have only wings.  Resplendent wings are
+they, wherein they can shroud themselves from head to foot in a
+panoply of glistering glory.  By these wings alone, it may
+frequently be judged in what seasons, and under what aspects,
+they were born.  From those that came in winter, go great white
+wings, white as snow; the edge of every feather shining like the
+sheen of silver, so that they flash and glitter like frost in the
+sun.  But underneath, they are tinged with a faint pink or rose-
+colour.  Those born in spring have wings of a brilliant green,
+green as grass; and towards the edges the feathers are enamelled
+like the surface of the grass-blades.  These again are white
+within.  Those that are born in summer have wings of a deep
+rose-colour, lined with pale gold.  And those born in autumn have
+purple wings, with a rich brown on the inside.  But these colours
+are modified and altered in all varieties, corresponding to the
+mood of the day and hour, as well as the season of the year; and
+sometimes I found the various colours so intermingled, that I
+could not determine even the season, though doubtless the
+hieroglyphic could be deciphered by more experienced eyes.  One
+splendour, in particular, I remember--wings of deep carmine, with
+an inner down of warm gray, around a form of brilliant whiteness.
+
+She had been found as the sun went down through a low sea- fog,
+casting crimson along a broad sea-path into a little cave on the
+shore, where a bathing maiden saw her lying.
+
+But though I speak of sun and fog, and sea and shore, the world
+there is in some respects very different from the earth whereon
+men live.  For instance, the waters reflect no forms.  To the
+unaccustomed eye they appear, if undisturbed, like the surface of
+a dark metal, only that the latter would reflect indistinctly,
+whereas they reflect not at all, except light which falls
+immediately upon them.  This has a great effect in causing the
+landscapes to differ from those on the earth.  On the stillest
+evening, no tall ship on the sea sends a long wavering reflection
+almost to the feet of him on shore; the face of no maiden
+brightens at its own beauty in a still forest-well.  The sun and
+moon alone make a glitter on the surface.  The sea is like a sea
+of death, ready to ingulf and never to reveal: a visible shadow
+of oblivion.  Yet the women sport in its waters like gorgeous
+sea-birds.  The men more rarely enter them.  But, on the
+contrary, the sky reflects everything beneath it, as if it were
+built of water like ours.  Of course, from its concavity there is
+some distortion of the reflected objects; yet wondrous
+combinations of form are often to be seen in the overhanging
+depth.  And then it is not shaped so much like a round dome as
+the sky of the earth, but, more of an egg-shape, rises to a great
+towering height in the middle, appearing far more lofty than the
+other.  When the stars come out at night, it shows a mighty
+cupola, "fretted with golden fires," wherein there is room for
+all tempests to rush and rave.
+
+One evening in early summer, I stood with a group of men and
+women on a steep rock that overhung the sea.  They were all
+questioning me about my world and the ways thereof.  In making
+reply to one of their questions, I was compelled to say that
+children are not born in the Earth as with them.  Upon this I was
+assailed with a whole battery of inquiries, which at first I
+tried to avoid; but, at last, I was compelled, in the vaguest
+manner I could invent, to make some approach to the subject in
+question.  Immediately a dim notion of what I meant, seemed to
+dawn in the minds of most of the women.  Some of them folded
+their great wings all around them, as they generally do when in
+the least offended, and stood erect and motionless.  One spread
+out her rosy pinions, and flashed from the promontory into the
+gulf at its foot.  A great light shone in the eyes of one maiden,
+who turned and walked slowly away, with her purple and white
+wings half dispread behind her.  She was found, the next morning,
+dead beneath a withered tree on a bare hill-side, some miles
+inland.  They buried her where she lay, as is their custom; for,
+before they die, they instinctively search for a spot like the
+place of their birth, and having found one that satisfies them,
+they lie down, fold their wings around them, if they be women, or
+cross their arms over their breasts, if they are men, just as if
+they were going to sleep; and so sleep indeed.  The sign or cause
+of coming death is an indescribable longing for something, they
+know not what, which seizes them, and drives them into solitude,
+consuming them within, till the body fails.  When a youth and a
+maiden look too deep into each other's eyes, this longing seizes
+and possesses them; but instead of drawing nearer to each other,
+they wander away, each alone, into solitary places, and die of
+their desire.  But it seems to me, that thereafter they are born
+babes upon our earth: where, if, when grown, they find each
+other, it goes well with them; if not, it will seem to go ill. 
+But of this I know nothing.  When I told them that the women on
+the Earth had not wings like them, but arms, they stared, and
+said how bold and masculine they must look; not knowing that
+their wings, glorious as they are, are but undeveloped arms.
+
+But see the power of this book, that, while recounting what I can
+recall of its contents, I write as if myself had visited the
+far-off planet, learned its ways and appearances, and conversed
+with its men and women.  And so, while writing, it seemed to me
+that I had.
+
+The book goes on with the story of a maiden, who, born at the
+close of autumn, and living in a long, to her endless winter, set
+out at last to find the regions of spring; for, as in our earth,
+the seasons are divided over the globe.  It begins something like
+this:
+
+            She watched them dying for many a day,
+            Dropping from off the old trees away,
+            One by one; or else in a shower
+            Crowding over the withered flower
+            For as if they had done some grievous wrong,
+            The sun, that had nursed them and loved them so long,
+            Grew weary of loving, and, turning back,
+            Hastened away on his southern track;
+            And helplessly hung each shrivelled leaf,
+            Faded away with an idle grief.
+            And the gusts of wind, sad Autumn's sighs,
+            Mournfully swept through their families;
+            Casting away with a helpless moan
+            All that he yet might call his own,
+            As the child, when his bird is gone for ever,
+            Flingeth the cage on the wandering river.
+            And the giant trees, as bare as Death,
+            Slowly bowed to the great Wind's breath;
+            And groaned with trying to keep from groaning
+            Amidst the young trees bending and moaning.
+            And the ancient planet's mighty sea
+            Was heaving and falling most restlessly,
+            And the tops of the waves were broken and white,
+            Tossing about to ease their might;
+            And the river was striving to reach the main,
+            And the ripple was hurrying back again.
+            Nature lived in sadness now;
+            Sadness lived on the maiden's brow,
+            As she watched, with a fixed, half-conscious eye,
+            One lonely leaf that trembled on high,
+            Till it dropped at last from the desolate bough--
+            Sorrow, oh, sorrow! 'tis winter now.
+            And her tears gushed forth, though it was but a leaf,
+            For little will loose the swollen fountain of grief:
+            When up to the lip the water goes,
+            It needs but a drop, and it overflows.
+
+            Oh! many and many a dreary year
+            Must pass away ere the buds appear:
+            Many a night of darksome sorrow
+            Yield to the light of a joyless morrow,
+            Ere birds again, on the clothed trees,
+            Shall fill the branches with melodies.
+            She will dream of meadows with wakeful streams;
+            Of wavy grass in the sunny beams;
+            Of hidden wells that soundless spring,
+            Hoarding their joy as a holy thing;
+            Of founts that tell it all day long
+            To the listening woods, with exultant song;
+            She will dream of evenings that die into nights,
+            Where each sense is filled with its own delights,
+            And the soul is still as the vaulted sky,
+            Lulled with an inner harmony;
+
+            And the flowers give out to the dewy night,
+            Changed into perfume, the gathered light;
+            And the darkness sinks upon all their host,
+            Till the sun sail up on the eastern coast--
+            She will wake and see the branches bare,
+            Weaving a net in the frozen air.  
+
+
+
+The story goes on to tell how, at last, weary with wintriness,
+she travelled towards the southern regions of her globe, to meet
+the spring on its slow way northwards; and how, after many sad
+adventures, many disappointed hopes, and many tears, bitter and
+fruitless, she found at last, one stormy afternoon, in a leafless
+forest, a single snowdrop growing betwixt the borders of the
+winter and spring.  She lay down beside it and died.  I almost
+believe that a child, pale and peaceful as a snowdrop, was born
+in the Earth within a fixed season from that stormy afternoon.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII
+             "I saw a ship sailing upon the sea
+              Deeply laden as ship could be;
+              But not so deep as in love I am
+              For I care not whether I sink or swim." 
+                                    Old Ballad.
+
+            "But Love is such a Mystery
+                 I cannot find it out:
+              For when I think I'm best resols'd,
+                 I then am in most doubt."                       
+                               SIR JOHN SUCKLING.
+
+One story I will try to reproduce.  But, alas! it is like trying
+to reconstruct a forest out of broken branches and withered
+leaves.  In the fairy book, everything was just as it should be,
+though whether in words or something else, I cannot tell.  It
+glowed and flashed the thoughts upon the soul, with such a power
+that the medium disappeared from the consciousness, and it was
+occupied only with the things themselves.  My representation of
+it must resemble a translation from a rich and powerful language,
+capable of embodying the thoughts of a splendidly developed
+people, into the meagre and half-articulate speech of a savage
+tribe.  Of course, while I read it, I was Cosmo, and his history
+was mine.  Yet, all the time, I seemed to have a kind of double
+consciousness, and the story a double meaning.  Sometimes it
+seemed only to represent a simple story of ordinary life, perhaps
+almost of universal life; wherein two souls, loving each other
+and longing to come nearer, do, after all, but behold each other
+as in a glass darkly.
+
+As through the hard rock go the branching silver veins; as into
+the solid land run the creeks and gulfs from the unresting sea;
+as the lights and influences of the upper worlds sink silently
+through the earth's atmosphere; so doth Faerie invade the world
+of men, and sometimes startle the common eye with an association
+as of cause and effect, when between the two no connecting links
+can be traced.
+
+Cosmo von Wehrstahl was a student at the University of Prague. 
+Though of a noble family, he was poor, and prided himself upon
+the independence that poverty gives; for what will not a man
+pride himself upon, when he cannot get rid of it?  A favourite
+with his fellow students, he yet had no companions; and none of
+them had ever crossed the threshold of his lodging in the top of
+one of the highest houses in the old town.  Indeed, the secret of
+much of that complaisance which recommended him to his fellows,
+was the thought of his unknown retreat, whither in the evening he
+could betake himself and indulge undisturbed in his own studies
+and reveries.  These studies, besides those subjects necessary to
+his course at the University, embraced some less commonly known
+and approved; for in a secret drawer lay the works of Albertus
+Magnus and Cornelius Agrippa, along with others less read and
+more abstruse.  As yet, however, he had followed these researches
+only from curiosity, and had turned them to no practical purpose.
+
+His lodging consisted of one large low-ceiled room, singularly
+bare of furniture; for besides a couple of wooden chairs, a couch
+which served for dreaming on both by day and night, and a great
+press of black oak, there was very little in the room that could
+be called furniture.
+
+But curious instruments were heaped in the corners; and in one
+stood a skeleton, half-leaning against the wall, half-supported
+by a string about its neck.  One of its hands, all of fingers,
+rested on the heavy pommel of a great sword that stood beside it.
+
+Various weapons were scattered about over the floor.  The walls
+were utterly bare of adornment; for the few strange things, such
+as a large dried bat with wings dispread, the skin of a
+porcupine, and a stuffed sea-mouse, could hardly be reckoned as
+such.  But although his fancy delighted in vagaries like these,
+he indulged his imagination with far different fare.  His mind
+had never yet been filled with an absorbing passion; but it lay
+like a still twilight open to any wind, whether the low breath
+that wafts but odours, or the storm that bows the great trees
+till they strain and creak.  He saw everything as through a
+rose-coloured glass.  When he looked from his window on the
+street below, not a maiden passed but she moved as in a story,
+and drew his thoughts after her till she disappeared in the
+vista.  When he walked in the streets, he always felt as if
+reading a tale, into which he sought to weave every face of
+interest that went by; and every sweet voice swept his soul as
+with the wing of a passing angel.  He was in fact a poet without
+words; the more absorbed and endangered, that the
+springing-waters were dammed back into his soul, where, finding
+no utterance, they grew, and swelled, and undermined.  He used to
+lie on his hard couch, and read a tale or a poem, till the book
+dropped from his hand; but he dreamed on, he knew not whether
+awake or asleep, until the opposite roof grew upon his sense, and
+turned golden in the sunrise.  Then he arose too; and the
+impulses of vigorous youth kept him ever active, either in study
+or in sport, until again the close of the day left him free; and
+the world of night, which had lain drowned in the cataract of the
+day, rose up in his soul, with all its stars, and dim-seen
+phantom shapes.  But this could hardly last long.  Some one form
+must sooner or later step within the charmed circle, enter the
+house of life, and compel the bewildered magician to kneel and
+worship.
+
+One afternoon, towards dusk, he was wandering dreamily in one of
+the principal streets, when a fellow student roused him by a slap
+on the shoulder, and asked him to accompany him into a little
+back alley to look at some old armour which he had taken a fancy
+to possess.  Cosmo was considered an authority in every matter
+pertaining to arms, ancient or modern.  In the use of weapons,
+none of the students could come near him; and his practical
+acquaintance with some had principally contributed to establish
+his authority in reference to all.  He accompanied him willingly.
+
+They entered a narrow alley, and thence a dirty little court,
+where a low arched door admitted them into a heterogeneous
+assemblage of everything musty, and dusty, and old, that could
+well be imagined.  His verdict on the armour was satisfactory,
+and his companion at once concluded the purchase.  As they were
+leaving the place, Cosmo's eye was attracted by an old mirror of
+an elliptical shape, which leaned against the wall, covered with
+dust.  Around it was some curious carving, which he could see but
+very indistinctly by the glimmering light which the owner of the
+shop carried in his hand.  It was this carving that attracted his
+attention; at least so it appeared to him.  He left the place,
+however, with his friend, taking no further notice of it.  They
+walked together to the main street, where they parted and took
+opposite directions.
+
+No sooner was Cosmo left alone, than the thought of the curious
+old mirror returned to him.  A strong desire to see it more
+plainly arose within him, and he directed his steps once more
+towards the shop.The owner opened the door when he knocked, as if
+he had expected him.He was a little, old, withered man, with a
+hooked nose, and burning eyes constantly in a slow restless
+motion, and looking here and there as if after something that
+eluded them. Pretending to examine several other articles, Cosmo
+at last approached the mirror, and requested to have it taken
+down.
+
+"Take it down yourself, master; I cannot reach it," said the old
+man.
+
+Cosmo took it down carefully, when he saw that the carving was
+indeed delicate and costly, being both of admirable design and
+execution; containing withal many devices which seemed to embody
+some meaning to which he had no clue.  This, naturally, in one of
+his tastes and temperament, increased the interest he felt in the
+old mirror; so much, indeed, that he now longed to possess it, in
+order to study its frame at his leisure.  He pretended, however,
+to want it only for use; and saying he feared the plate could be
+of little service, as it was rather old, he brushed away a little
+of the dust from its face, expecting to see a dull reflection
+within.  His surprise was great when he found the reflection
+brilliant, revealing a glass not only uninjured by age, but
+wondrously clear and perfect (should the whole correspond to this
+part) even for one newly from the hands of the maker.  He asked
+carelessly what the owner wanted for the thing.  The old man
+replied by mentioning a sum of money far beyond the reach of poor
+Cosmo, who proceeded to replace the mirror where it had stood
+before.
+
+"You think the price too high?" said the old man.
+
+"I do not know that it is too much for you to ask," replied
+Cosmo; "but it is far too much for me to give."
+
+The old man held up his light towards Cosmo's face.  "I like your
+look," said he.
+
+Cosmo could not return the compliment.  In fact, now he looked
+closely at him for the first time, he felt a kind of repugnance
+to him, mingled with a strange feeling of doubt whether a man or
+a woman stood before him.
+
+"What is your name?" he continued.
+
+"Cosmo von Wehrstahl."
+
+"Ah, ah!  I thought as much.  I see your father in you.  I knew
+your father very well, young sir.  I dare say in some odd corners
+of my house, you might find some old things with his crest and
+cipher upon them still.  Well, I like you: you shall have the
+mirror at the fourth part of what I asked for it; but upon one
+condition."
+
+"What is that?" said Cosmo; for, although the price was still a
+great deal for him to give, he could just manage it; and the
+desire to possess the mirror had increased to an altogether
+unaccountable degree, since it had seemed beyond his reach.
+
+"That if you should ever want to get rid of it again, you will
+let me have the first offer."
+
+"Certainly," replied Cosmo, with a smile; adding, "a moderate
+condition indeed."
+
+"On your honour?" insisted the seller.
+
+"On my honour," said the buyer; and the bargain was concluded.
+
+"I will carry it home for you," said the old man, as Cosmo took
+it in his hands.
+
+"No, no; I will carry it myself," said he; for he had a peculiar
+dislike to revealing his residence to any one, and more
+especially to this person, to whom he felt every moment a greater
+antipathy.
+"Just as you please," said the old creature, and muttered to
+himself as he held his light at the door to show him out of the
+court:  "Sold for the sixth time!  I wonder what will be the
+upshot of it this time.  I should think my lady had enough of it
+by now!"
+
+Cosmo carried his prize carefully home.  But all the way he had
+an uncomfortable feeling that he was watched and dogged. 
+Repeatedly he looked about, but saw nothing to justify his
+suspicions.  Indeed, the streets were too crowded and too ill
+lighted to expose very readily a careful spy, if such there
+should be at his heels.  He reached his lodging in safety, and
+leaned his purchase against the wall, rather relieved, strong as
+he was, to be rid of its weight; then, lighting his pipe, threw
+himself on the couch, and was soon lapt in the folds of one of
+his haunting dreams.
+
+He returned home earlier than usual the next day, and fixed the
+mirror to the wall, over the hearth, at one end of his long room.
+
+He then carefully wiped away the dust from its face, and, clear
+as the water of a sunny spring, the mirror shone out from beneath
+the envious covering.  But his interest was chiefly occupied with
+the curious carving of the frame.  This he cleaned as well as he
+could with a brush; and then he proceeded to a minute examination
+of its various parts, in the hope of discovering some index to
+the intention of the carver.  In this, however, he was
+unsuccessful; and, at length, pausing with some weariness and
+disappointment, he gazed vacantly for a few moments into the
+depth of the reflected room.  But ere long he said, half aloud: 
+"What a strange thing a mirror is! and what a wondrous affinity
+exists between it and a man's imagination! For this room of mine,
+as I behold it in the glass, is the same, and yet not the same. 
+It is not the mere representation of the room I live in, but it
+looks just as if I were reading about it in a story I like.  All
+its commonness has disappeared.  The mirror has lifted it out of
+the region of fact into the realm of art; and the very
+representing of it to me has clothed with interest that which was
+otherwise hard and bare; just as one sees with delight upon the
+stage the representation of a character from which one would
+escape in life as from something unendurably wearisome.  But is
+it not rather that art rescues nature from the weary and sated
+regards of our senses, and the degrading injustice of our anxious
+everyday life, and, appealing to the imagination, which dwells
+apart, reveals Nature in some degree as she really is, and as she
+represents herself to the eye of the child, whose every-day life,
+fearless and unambitious, meets the true import of the
+wonder-teeming world around him, and rejoices therein without
+questioning?  That skeleton, now--I almost fear it, standing
+there so still, with eyes only for the unseen, like a watch-tower
+looking across all the waste of this busy world into the quiet
+regions of rest beyond.  And yet I know every bone and every
+joint in it as well as my own fist.  And that old battle-axe
+looks as if any moment it might be caught up by a mailed hand,
+and, borne forth by the mighty arm, go crashing through casque,
+and skull, and brain, invading the Unknown with yet another
+bewildered ghost.  I should like to live in THAT room if I could
+only get into it."
+
+Scarcely had the half-moulded words floated from him, as he stood
+gazing into the mirror, when, striking him as with a flash of
+amazement that fixed him in his posture, noiseless and
+unannounced, glided suddenly through the door into the reflected
+room, with stately motion, yet reluctant and faltering step, the
+graceful form of a woman, clothed all in white.  Her back only
+was visible as she walked slowly up to the couch in the further
+end of the room, on which she laid herself wearily, turning
+towards him a face of unutterable loveliness, in which suffering,
+and dislike, and a sense of compulsion, strangely mingled with
+the beauty.  He stood without the power of motion for some
+moments, with his eyes irrecoverably fixed upon her; and even
+after he was conscious of the ability to move, he could not
+summon up courage to turn and look on her, face to face, in the
+veritable chamber in which he stood.  At length, with a sudden
+effort, in which the exercise of the will was so pure, that it
+seemed involuntary, he turned his face to the couch.  It was
+vacant.  In bewilderment, mingled with terror, he turned again to
+the mirror: there, on the reflected couch, lay the exquisite
+lady-form.  She lay with closed eyes, whence two large tears were
+just welling from beneath the veiling lids; still as death, save
+for the convulsive motion of her bosom.
+
+Cosmo himself could not have described what he felt.  His
+emotions were of a kind that destroyed consciousness, and could
+never be clearly recalled.  He could not help standing yet by the
+mirror, and keeping his eyes fixed on the lady, though he was
+painfully aware of his rudeness, and feared every moment that she
+would open hers, and meet his fixed regard.  But he was, ere
+long, a little relieved; for, after a while, her eyelids slowly
+rose, and her eyes remained uncovered, but unemployed for a time;
+and when, at length, they began to wander about the room, as if
+languidly seeking to make some acquaintance with her environment,
+they were never directed towards him: it seemed nothing but what
+was in the mirror could affect her vision; and, therefore, if she
+saw him at all, it could only be his back, which, of necessity,
+was turned towards her in the glass.  The two figures in the
+mirror could not meet face to face, except he turned and looked
+at her, present in his room; and, as she was not there, he
+concluded that if he were to turn towards the part in his room
+corresponding to that in which she lay, his reflection would
+either be invisible to her altogether, or at least it must appear
+to her to gaze vacantly towards her, and no meeting of the eyes
+would produce the impression of spiritual proximity.  By-and-by
+her eyes fell upon the skeleton, and he saw her shudder and close
+them.  She did not open them again, but signs of repugnance
+continued evident on her countenance.  Cosmo would have removed
+the obnoxious thing at once, but he feared to discompose her yet
+more by the assertion of his presence which the act would
+involve.  So he stood and watched her.  The eyelids yet shrouded
+the eyes, as a costly case the jewels within; the troubled
+expression gradually faded from the countenance, leaving only a
+faint sorrow behind; the features settled into an unchanging
+expression of rest; and by these signs, and the slow regular
+motion of her breathing, Cosmo knew that she slept.  He could now
+gaze on her without embarrassment.  He saw that her figure,
+dressed in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of her face;
+and so harmonious, that either the delicately moulded foot, or
+any finger of the equally delicate hand, was an index to the
+whole.  As she lay, her whole form manifested the relaxation of
+perfect repose.  He gazed till he was weary, and at last seated
+himself near the new-found shrine, and mechanically took up a
+book, like one who watches by a sick-bed.  But his eyes gathered
+no thoughts from the page before him.  His intellect had been
+stunned by the bold contradiction, to its face, of all its
+experience, and now lay passive, without assertion, or
+speculation, or even conscious astonishment; while his
+imagination sent one wild dream of blessedness after another
+coursing through his soul.  How long he sat he knew not; but at
+length he roused himself, rose, and, trembling in every portion
+of his frame, looked again into the mirror.  She was gone.  The
+mirror reflected faithfully what his room presented, and nothing
+more.  It stood there like a golden setting whence the central
+jewel has been stolen away--like a night- sky without the glory
+of its stars.  She had carried with her all the strangeness of
+the reflected room.  It had sunk to the level of the one without.
+
+But when the first pangs of his disappointment had passed, Cosmo
+began to comfort himself with the hope that she might return,
+perhaps the next evening, at the same hour.  Resolving that if
+she did, she should not at least be scared by the hateful
+skeleton, he removed that and several other articles of
+questionable appearance into a recess by the side of the hearth,
+whence they could not possibly cast any reflection into the
+mirror; and having made his poor room as tidy as he could, sought
+the solace of the open sky and of a night wind that had begun to
+blow, for he could not rest where he was.  When he returned,
+somewhat composed, he could hardly prevail with himself to lie
+down on his bed; for he could not help feeling as if she had lain
+upon it; and for him to lie there now would be something like
+sacrilege.  However, weariness prevailed; and laying himself on
+the couch, dressed as he was, he slept till day.
+
+With a beating heart, beating till he could hardly breathe, he
+stood in dumb hope before the mirror, on the following evening. 
+Again the reflected room shone as through a purple vapour in the
+gathering twilight.  Everything seemed waiting like himself for a
+coming splendour to glorify its poor earthliness with the
+presence of a heavenly joy.  And just as the room vibrated with
+the strokes of the neighbouring church bell, announcing the hour
+of six, in glided the pale beauty, and again laid herself on the
+couch.  Poor Cosmo nearly lost his senses with delight.  She was
+there once more!  Her eyes sought the corner where the skeleton
+had stood, and a faint gleam of satisfaction crossed her face,
+apparently at seeing it empty.  She looked suffering still, but
+there was less of discomfort expressed in her countenance than
+there had been the night before.  She took more notice of the
+things about her, and seemed to gaze with some curiosity on the
+strange apparatus standing here and there in her room.  At
+length, however, drowsiness seemed to overtake her, and again she
+fell asleep.  Resolved not to lose sight of her this time, Cosmo
+watched the sleeping form.  Her slumber was so deep and absorbing
+that a fascinating repose seemed to pass contagiously from her to
+him as he gazed upon her; and he started as if from a dream, when
+the lady moved, and, without opening her eyes, rose, and passed
+from the room with the gait of a somnambulist.
+
+Cosmo was now in a state of extravagant delight.  Most men have a
+secret treasure somewhere.  The miser has his golden hoard; the
+virtuoso his pet ring; the student his rare book; the poet his
+favourite haunt; the lover his secret drawer; but Cosmo had a
+mirror with a lovely lady in it.  And now that he knew by the
+skeleton, that she was affected by the things around her, he had
+a new object in life: he would turn the bare chamber in the
+mirror into a room such as no lady need disdain to call her own. 
+This he could effect only by furnishing and adorning his.  And
+Cosmo was poor.  Yet he possessed accomplishments that could be
+turned to account; although, hitherto, he had preferred living on
+his slender allowance, to increasing his means by what his pride
+considered unworthy of his rank.  He was the best swordsman in
+the University; and now he offered to give lessons in fencing and
+similar exercises, to such as chose to pay him well for the
+trouble.  His proposal was heard with surprise by the students;
+but it was eagerly accepted by many; and soon his instructions
+were not confined to the richer students, but were anxiously
+sought by many of the young nobility of Prague and its
+neighbourhood.  So that very soon he had a good deal of money at
+his command.  The first thing he did was to remove his apparatus
+and oddities into a closet in the room.  Then he placed his bed
+and a few other necessaries on each side of the hearth, and
+parted them from the rest of the room by two screens of Indian
+fabric.  Then he put an elegant couch for the lady to lie upon,
+in the corner where his bed had formerly stood; and, by degrees,
+every day adding some article of luxury, converted it, at length,
+into a rich boudoir. 
+
+Every night, about the same time, the lady entered.  The first
+time she saw the new couch, she started with a half-smile; then
+her face grew very sad, the tears came to her eyes, and she laid
+herself upon the couch, and pressed her face into the silken
+cushions, as if to hide from everything.  She took notice of each
+addition and each change as the work proceeded; and a look of
+acknowledgment, as if she knew that some one was ministering to
+her, and was grateful for it, mingled with the constant look of
+suffering.  At length, after she had lain down as usual one
+evening, her eyes fell upon some paintings with which Cosmo had
+just finished adorning the walls.  She rose, and to his great
+delight, walked across the room, and proceeded to examine them
+carefully, testifying much pleasure in her looks as she did so. 
+But again the sorrowful, tearful expression returned, and again
+she buried her face in the pillows of her couch.  Gradually,
+however, her countenance had grown more composed; much of the
+suffering manifest on her first appearance had vanished, and a
+kind of quiet, hopeful expression had taken its place; which,
+however, frequently gave way to an anxious, troubled look,
+mingled with something of sympathetic pity.
+
+Meantime, how fared Cosmo?  As might be expected in one of his
+temperament, his interest had blossomed into love, and his
+love--shall I call it RIPENED, or--WITHERED into passion.  But,
+alas! he loved a shadow.  He could not come near her, could not
+speak to her, could not hear a sound from those sweet lips, to
+which his longing eyes would cling like bees to their
+honey-founts.  Ever and anon he sang to himself:
+
+            "I shall die for love of the maiden;"
+
+and ever he looked again, and died not, though his heart seemed
+ready to break with intensity of life and longing.  And the more
+he did for her, the more he loved her; and he hoped that,
+although she never appeared to see him, yet she was pleased to
+think that one unknown would give his life to her.  He tried to
+comfort himself over his separation from her, by thinking that
+perhaps some day she would see him and make signs to him, and
+that would satisfy him; "for," thought he, "is not this all that
+a loving soul can do to enter into communion with another?  Nay,
+how many who love never come nearer than to behold each other as
+in a mirror; seem to know and yet never know the inward life;
+never enter the other soul; and part at last, with but the
+vaguest notion of the universe on the borders of which they have
+been hovering for years?  If I could but speak to her, and knew
+that she heard me, I should be satisfied."  Once he contemplated
+painting a picture on the wall, which should, of necessity,
+convey to the lady a thought of himself; but, though he had some
+skill with the pencil, he found his hand tremble so much when he
+began the attempt, that he was forced to give it up.         .  
+.   .   .   .
+
+        "Who lives, he dies; who dies, he is alive."
+
+ One evening, as he stood gazing on his treasure, he thought he
+saw a faint expression of self-consciousness on her countenance,
+as if she surmised that passionate eyes were fixed upon her. 
+This grew; till at last the red blood rose over her neck, and
+cheek, and brow.  Cosmo's longing to approach her became almost
+delirious.  This night she was dressed in an evening costume,
+resplendent with diamonds.  This could add nothing to her beauty,
+but it presented it in a new aspect; enabled her loveliness to
+make a new manifestation of itself in a new embodiment.  For
+essential beauty is infinite; and, as the soul of Nature needs an
+endless succession of varied forms to embody her loveliness,
+countless faces of beauty springing forth, not any two the same,
+at any one of her heart-throbs; so the individual form needs an
+infinite change of its environments, to enable it to uncover all
+the phases of its loveliness.  Diamonds glittered from amidst her
+hair, half hidden in its luxuriance, like stars through dark
+rain-clouds; and the bracelets on her white arms flashed all the
+colours of a rainbow of lightnings, as she lifted her snowy hands
+to cover her burning face.  But her beauty shone down all its
+adornment.  "If I might have but one of her feet to kiss,"
+thought Cosmo, "I should be content."  Alas! he deceived himself,
+for passion is never content.  Nor did he know that there are TWO
+ways out of her enchanted house.  But, suddenly, as if the pang
+had been driven into his heart from without, revealing itself
+first in pain, and afterwards in definite form, the thought
+darted into his mind, "She has a lover somewhere.  Remembered
+words of his bring the colour on her face now.  I am nowhere to
+her.  She lives in another world all day, and all night, after
+she leaves me.  Why does she come and make me love her, till I, a
+strong man, am too faint to look upon her more?"  He looked
+again, and her face was pale as a lily.  A sorrowful compassion
+seemed to rebuke the glitter of the restless jewels, and the slow
+tears rose in her eyes.  She left her room sooner this evening
+than was her wont.  Cosmo remained alone, with a feeling as if
+his bosom had been suddenly left empty and hollow, and the weight
+of the whole world was crushing in its walls.  The next evening,
+for the first time since she began to come, she came not.
+
+And now Cosmo was in wretched plight.  Since the thought of a
+rival had occurred to him, he could not rest for a moment.  More
+than ever he longed to see the lady face to face.  He persuaded
+himself that if he but knew the worst he would be satisfied; for
+then he could abandon Prague, and find that relief in constant
+motion, which is the hope of all active minds when invaded by
+distress.  Meantime he waited with unspeakable anxiety for the
+next night, hoping she would return: but she did not appear.  And
+now he fell really ill.  Rallied by his fellow students on his
+wretched looks, he ceased to attend the lectures.  His
+engagements were neglected.  He cared for nothing, The sky, with
+the great sun in it, was to him a heartless, burning desert.  The
+men and women in the streets were mere puppets, without motives
+in themselves, or interest to him.  He saw them all as on the
+ever- changing field of a camera obscura.  She--she alone and
+altogether--was his universe, his well of life, his incarnate
+good.  For six evenings she came not.  Let his absorbing passion,
+and the slow fever that was consuming his brain, be his excuse
+for the resolution which he had taken and begun to execute,
+before that time had expired.
+
+Reasoning with himself, that it must be by some enchantment
+connected with the mirror, that the form of the lady was to be
+seen in it, he determined to attempt to turn to account what he
+had hitherto studied principally from curiosity.  "For," said he
+to himself, "if a spell can force her presence in that glass (and
+she came unwillingly at first), may not a stronger spell, such as
+I know, especially with the aid of her half-presence in the
+mirror, if ever she appears again, compel her living form to come
+to me here?  If I do her wrong, let love be my excuse.  I want
+only to know my doom from her own lips."  He never doubted, all
+the time, that she was a real earthly woman; or, rather, that
+there was a woman, who, somehow or other, threw this reflection
+of her form into the magic mirror.
+
+He opened his secret drawer, took out his books of magic, lighted
+his lamp, and read and made notes from midnight till three in the
+morning, for three successive nights.  Then he replaced his
+books; and the next night went out in quest of the materials
+necessary for the conjuration.  These were not easy to find; for,
+in love-charms and all incantations of this nature, ingredients
+are employed scarcely fit to be mentioned, and for the thought
+even of which, in connexion with her, he could only excuse
+himself on the score of his bitter need.  At length he succeeded
+in procuring all he required; and on the seventh evening from
+that on which she had last appeared, he found himself prepared
+for the exercise of unlawful and tyrannical power.
+
+He cleared the centre of the room; stooped and drew a circle of
+red on the floor, around the spot where he stood; wrote in the
+four quarters mystical signs, and numbers which were all powers
+of seven or nine; examined the whole ring carefully, to see that
+no smallest break had occurred in the circumference; and then
+rose from his bending posture.  As he rose, the church clock
+struck seven; and, just as she had appeared the first time,
+reluctant, slow, and stately, glided in the lady.  Cosmo
+trembled; and when, turning, she revealed a countenance worn and
+wan, as with sickness or inward trouble, he grew faint, and felt
+as if he dared not proceed.  But as he gazed on the face and
+form, which now possessed his whole soul, to the exclusion of all
+other joys and griefs, the longing to speak to her, to know that
+she heard him, to hear from her one word in return, became so
+unendurable, that he suddenly and hastily resumed his
+preparations.  Stepping carefully from the circle, he put a small
+brazier into its centre.  He then set fire to its contents of
+charcoal, and while it burned up, opened his window and seated
+himself, waiting, beside it.
+
+It was a sultry evening.  The air was full of thunder.  A sense
+of luxurious depression filled the brain.  The sky seemed to have
+grown heavy, and to compress the air beneath it.  A kind of
+purplish tinge pervaded the atmosphere, and through the open
+window came the scents of the distant fields, which all the
+vapours of the city could not quench.  Soon the charcoal glowed. 
+Cosmo sprinkled upon it the incense and other substances which he
+had compounded, and, stepping within the circle, turned his face
+from the brazier and towards the mirror.  Then, fixing his eyes
+upon the face of the lady, he began with a trembling voice to
+repeat a powerful incantation.  He had not gone far, before the
+lady grew pale; and then, like a returning wave, the blood washed
+all its banks with its crimson tide, and she hid her face in her
+hands.  Then he passed to a conjuration stronger yet.
+
+The lady rose and walked uneasily to and fro in her room. 
+Another spell; and she seemed seeking with her eyes for some
+object on which they wished to rest.  At length it seemed as if
+she suddenly espied him; for her eyes fixed themselves full and
+wide upon his, and she drew gradually, and somewhat unwillingly,
+close to her side of the mirror, just as if his eyes had
+fascinated her.  Cosmo had never seen her so near before.  Now at
+least, eyes met eyes; but he could not quite understand the
+expression of hers.  They were full of tender entreaty, but there
+was something more that he could not interpret.  Though his heart
+seemed to labour in his throat, he would allow no delight or
+agitation to turn him from his task.  Looking still in her face,
+he passed on to the mightiest charm he knew.  Suddenly the lady
+turned and walked out of the door of her reflected chamber.  A
+moment after she entered his room with veritable presence; and,
+forgetting all his precautions, he sprang from the charmed
+circle, and knelt before her.  There she stood, the living lady
+of his passionate visions, alone beside him, in a thundery
+twilight, and the glow of a magic fire.
+
+"Why," said the lady, with a trembling voice, "didst thou bring a
+poor maiden through the rainy streets alone?"
+
+"Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee
+from the mirror there."
+
+"Ah, the mirror!" and she looked up at it, and shuddered.  "Alas!
+I am but a slave, while that mirror exists.  But do not think it
+was the power of thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing
+desire to see me, that beat at the door of my heart, till I was
+forced to yield."
+
+"Canst thou love me then?" said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death,
+but almost inarticulate with emotion.
+
+"I do not know," she replied sadly; "that I cannot tell, so long
+as I am bewildered with enchantments.  It were indeed a joy too
+great, to lay my head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think
+thou lovest me, though I do not know;--but----"
+
+Cosmo rose from his knees.
+
+"I love thee as--nay, I know not what--for since I have loved
+thee, there is nothing else."
+
+He seized her hand: she withdrew it.
+
+"No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not."
+
+She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said--
+
+"Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break
+the mirror."
+
+"And shall I see thyself instead?"
+
+"That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet
+again."
+
+A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo's bosom.  Now she was in his
+power.  She did not dislike him at least; and he could see her
+when he would.  To break the mirror would be to destroy his very
+life to banish out of his universe the only glory it possessed. 
+The whole world would be but a prison, if he annihilated the one
+window that looked into the paradise of love.  Not yet pure in
+love, he hesitated.
+
+With a wail of sorrow the lady rose to her feet.  "Ah! he loves
+me not; he loves me not even as I love him; and alas!  I care
+more for his love than even for the freedom I ask."
+
+"I will not wait to be willing," cried Cosmo; and sprang to the
+corner where the great sword stood.
+
+Meantime it had grown very dark; only the embers cast a red glow
+through the room.  He seized the sword by the steel scabbard, and
+stood before the mirror; but as he heaved a great blow at it with
+the heavy pommel, the blade slipped half-way out of the scabbard,
+and the pommel struck the wall above the mirror.  At that moment,
+a terrible clap of thunder seemed to burst in the very room
+beside them; and ere Cosmo could repeat the blow, he fell
+senseless on the hearth.  When he came to himself, he found that
+the lady and the mirror had both disappeared.  He was seized with
+a brain fever, which kept him to his couch for weeks.
+
+When he recovered his reason, he began to think what could have
+become of the mirror.  For the lady, he hoped she had found her
+way back as she came; but as the mirror involved her fate with
+its own, he was more immediately anxious about that.  He could
+not think she had carried it away.  It was much too heavy, even
+if it had not been too firmly fixed in the wall, for her to
+remove it.  Then again, he remembered the thunder; which made him
+believe that it was not the lightning, but some other blow that
+had struck him down.  He concluded that, either by supernatural
+agency, he having exposed himself to the vengeance of the demons
+in leaving the circle of safety, or in some other mode, the
+mirror had probably found its way back to its former owner; and,
+horrible to think of, might have been by this time once more
+disposed of, delivering up the lady into the power of another
+man; who, if he used his power no worse than he himself had done,
+might yet give Cosmo abundant cause to curse the selfish
+indecision which prevented him from shattering the mirror at
+once.  Indeed, to think that she whom he loved, and who had
+prayed to him for freedom, should be still at the mercy, in some
+degree, of the possessor of the mirror, and was at least exposed
+to his constant observation, was in itself enough to madden a
+chary lover.
+
+Anxiety to be well retarded his recovery; but at length he was
+able to creep abroad.  He first made his way to the old broker's,
+pretending to be in search of something else.  A laughing sneer
+on the creature's face convinced him that he knew all about it;
+but he could not see it amongst his furniture, or get any
+information out of him as to what had become of it.  He expressed
+the utmost surprise at hearing it had been stolen, a surprise
+which Cosmo saw at once to be counterfeited; while, at the same
+time, he fancied that the old wretch was not at all anxious to
+have it mistaken for genuine.  Full of distress, which he
+concealed as well as he could, he made many searches, but with no
+avail.  Of course he could ask no questions; but he kept his ears
+awake for any remotest hint that might set him in a direction of
+search.  He never went out without a short heavy hammer of steel
+about him, that he might shatter the mirror the moment he was
+made happy by the sight of his lost treasure, if ever that
+blessed moment should arrive.  Whether he should see the lady
+again, was now a thought altogether secondary, and postponed to
+the achievement of her freedom.  He wandered here and there, like
+an anxious ghost, pale and haggard; gnawed ever at the heart, by
+the thought of what she might be suffering--all from his fault.
+
+One night, he mingled with a crowd that filled the rooms of one
+of the most distinguished mansions in the city; for he accepted
+every invitation, that he might lose no chance, however poor, of
+obtaining some information that might expedite his discovery. 
+Here he wandered about, listening to every stray word that he
+could catch, in the hope of a revelation.  As he approached some
+ladies who were talking quietly in a corner, one said to another:
+
+"Have you heard of the strange illness of the Princess von
+Hohenweiss?"
+
+"Yes; she has been ill for more than a year now.  It is very sad
+for so fine a creature to have such a terrible malady.  She was
+better for some weeks lately, but within the last few days the
+same attacks have returned, apparently accompanied with more
+suffering than ever.  It is altogether an inexplicable story."
+
+"Is there a story connected with her illness?"
+
+"I have only heard imperfect reports of it; but it is said that
+she gave offence some eighteen months ago to an old woman who had
+held an office of trust in the family, and who, after some
+incoherent threats, disappeared.  This peculiar affection
+followed soon after.  But the strangest part of the story is its
+association with the loss of an antique mirror, which stood in
+her dressing-room, and of which she constantly made use."
+
+Here the speaker's voice sank to a whisper; and Cosmo, although
+his very soul sat listening in his ears, could hear no more.  He
+trembled too much to dare to address the ladies, even if it had
+been advisable to expose himself to their curiosity.  The name of
+the Princess was well known to him, but he had never seen her;
+except indeed it was she, which now he hardly doubted, who had
+knelt before him on that dreadful night.  Fearful of attracting
+attention, for, from the weak state of his health, he could not
+recover an appearance of calmness, he made his way to the open
+air, and reached his lodgings; glad in this, that he at least
+knew where she lived, although he never dreamed of approaching
+her openly, even if he should be happy enough to free her from
+her hateful bondage.  He hoped, too, that as he had unexpectedly
+learned so much, the other and far more important part might be
+revealed to him ere long.
+         .   .   .   .   .
+
+
+"Have you seen Steinwald lately?"
+
+"No, I have not seen him for some time.  He is almost a match for
+me at the rapier, and I suppose he thinks he needs no more
+lessons."
+
+"I wonder what has become of him.  I want to see him very much. 
+Let me see; the last time I saw him he was coming out of that old
+broker's den, to which, if you remember, you accompanied me once,
+to look at some armour.  That is fully three weeks ago."
+
+This hint was enough for Cosmo.  Von Steinwald was a man of
+influence in the court, well known for his reckless habits and
+fierce passions.  The very possibility that the mirror should be
+in his possession was hell itself to Cosmo.  But violent or hasty
+measures of any sort were most unlikely to succeed.  All that he
+wanted was an opportunity of breaking the fatal glass; and to
+obtain this he must bide his time.  He revolved many plans in his
+mind, but without being able to fix upon any.
+
+At length, one evening, as he was passing the house of Von
+Steinwald, he saw the windows more than usually brilliant.  He
+watched for a while, and seeing that company began to arrive,
+hastened home, and dressed as richly as he could, in the hope of
+mingling with the guests unquestioned: in effecting which, there
+could be no difficulty for a man of his carriage.
+         .   .   .   .   .
+
+
+In a lofty, silent chamber, in another part of the city, lay a
+form more like marble than a living woman.  The loveliness of
+death seemed frozen upon her face, for her lips were rigid, and
+her eyelids closed.  Her long white hands were crossed over her
+breast, and no breathing disturbed their repose.  Beside the
+dead, men speak in whispers, as if the deepest rest of all could
+be broken by the sound of a living voice.  Just so, though the
+soul was evidently beyond the reach of all intimations from the
+senses, the two ladies, who sat beside her, spoke in the gentlest
+tones of subdued sorrow.
+"She has lain so for an hour."
+
+"This cannot last long, I fear."
+
+"How much thinner she has grown within the last few weeks!  If
+she would only speak, and explain what she suffers, it would be
+better for her.  I think she has visions in her trances, but
+nothing can induce her to refer to them when she is awake."
+
+"Does she ever speak in these trances?"
+
+"I have never heard her; but they say she walks sometimes, and
+once put the whole household in a terrible fright by disappearing
+for a whole hour, and returning drenched with rain, and almost
+dead with exhaustion and fright.  But even then she would give no
+account of what had happened."
+
+A scarce audible murmur from the yet motionless lips of the lady
+here startled her attendants.  After several ineffectual attempts
+at articulation, the word "COSMO!" burst from her.  Then she lay
+still as before; but only for a moment.  With a wild cry, she
+sprang from the couch erect on the floor, flung her arms above
+her head, with clasped and straining hands, and, her wide eyes
+flashing with light, called aloud, with a voice exultant as that
+of a spirit bursting from a sepulchre, "I am free!  I am free!  I
+thank thee!"  Then she flung herself on the couch, and sobbed;
+then rose, and paced wildly up and down the room, with gestures
+of mingled delight and anxiety.  Then turning to her motionless
+attendants--"Quick, Lisa, my cloak and hood!"  Then lower--"I
+must go to him.  Make haste, Lisa!  You may come with me, if you
+will."
+
+In another moment they were in the street, hurrying along towards
+one of the bridges over the Moldau.  The moon was near the
+zenith, and the streets were almost empty.  The Princess soon
+outstripped her attendant, and was half-way over the bridge,
+before the other reached it.
+
+"Are you free, lady?  The mirror is broken: are you free?"
+
+The words were spoken close beside her, as she hurried on.  She
+turned; and there, leaning on the parapet in a recess of the
+bridge, stood Cosmo, in a splendid dress, but with a white and
+quivering face.
+
+"Cosmo!--I am free--and thy servant for ever.  I was coming to
+you now."
+
+"And I to you, for Death made me bold; but I could get no
+further.  Have I atoned at all?  Do I love you a little--truly?"
+
+"Ah, I know now that you love me, my Cosmo; but what do you say
+about death?"
+
+He did not reply.  His hand was pressed against his side.  She
+looked more closely: the blood was welling from between the
+fingers.  She flung her arms around him with a faint bitter wail.
+
+When Lisa came up, she found her mistress kneeling above a wan
+dead face, which smiled on in the spectral moonbeams.
+
+ And now I will say no more about these wondrous volumes; though
+I could tell many a tale out of them, and could, perhaps, vaguely
+represent some entrancing thoughts of a deeper kind which I found
+within them.  From many a sultry noon till twilight, did I sit in
+that grand hall, buried and risen again in these old books.  And
+I trust I have carried away in my soul some of the exhalations of
+their undying leaves.  In after hours of deserved or needful
+sorrow, portions of what I read there have often come to me
+again, with an unexpected comforting; which was not fruitless,
+even though the comfort might seem in itself groundless and vain.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV
+
+                                         "Your gallery
+             Ha we pass'd through, not without much content
+             In many singularities; but we saw not
+             That which my daughter came to look upon,
+             The state of her mother."
+                                     Winter's Tale.
+
+It seemed to me strange, that all this time I had heard no music
+in the fairy palace.  I was convinced there must be music in it,
+but that my sense was as yet too gross to receive the influence
+of those mysterious motions that beget sound.  Sometimes I felt
+sure, from the way the few figures of which I got such transitory
+glimpses passed me, or glided into vacancy before me, that they
+were moving to the law of music; and, in fact, several times I
+fancied for a moment that I heard a few wondrous tones coming I
+knew not whence.  But they did not last long enough to convince
+me that I had heard them with the bodily sense.  Such as they
+were, however, they took strange liberties with me, causing me to
+burst suddenly into tears, of which there was no presence to make
+me ashamed, or casting me into a kind of trance of speechless
+delight, which, passing as suddenly, left me faint and longing
+for more.
+
+Now, on an evening, before I had been a week in the palace, I was
+wandering through one lighted arcade and corridor after another. 
+At length I arrived, through a door that closed behind me, in
+another vast hall of the palace.  It was filled with a subdued
+crimson light; by which I saw that slender pillars of black,
+built close to walls of white marble, rose to a great height, and
+then, dividing into innumerable divergent arches, supported a
+roof, like the walls, of white marble, upon which the arches
+intersected intricately, forming a fretting of black upon the
+white, like the network of a skeleton-leaf.  The floor was black.
+
+Between several pairs of the pillars upon every side, the place
+of the wall behind was occupied by a crimson curtain of thick
+silk, hanging in heavy and rich folds.  Behind each of these
+curtains burned a powerful light, and these were the sources of
+the glow that filled the hall.  A peculiar delicious odour
+pervaded the place.  As soon as I entered, the old inspiration
+seemed to return to me, for I felt a strong impulse to sing; or
+rather, it seemed as if some one else was singing a song in my
+soul, which wanted to come forth at my lips, imbodied in my
+breath.  But I kept silence; and feeling somewhat overcome by the
+red light and the perfume, as well as by the emotion within me,
+and seeing at one end of the hall a great crimson chair, more
+like a throne than a chair, beside a table of white marble, I
+went to it, and, throwing myself in it, gave myself up to a
+succession of images of bewildering beauty, which passed before
+my inward eye, in a long and occasionally crowded train.  Here I
+sat for hours, I suppose; till, returning somewhat to myself, I
+saw that the red light had paled away, and felt a cool gentle
+breath gliding over my forehead.  I rose and left the hall with
+unsteady steps, finding my way with some difficulty to my own
+chamber, and faintly remembering, as I went, that only in the
+marble cave, before I found the sleeping statue, had I ever had a
+similar experience.
+
+After this, I repaired every morning to the same hall; where I
+sometimes sat in the chair and dreamed deliciously, and sometimes
+walked up and down over the black floor.  Sometimes I acted
+within myself a whole drama, during one of these perambulations;
+sometimes walked deliberately through the whole epic of a tale;
+sometimes ventured to sing a song, though with a shrinking fear
+of I knew not what.  I was astonished at the beauty of my own
+voice as it rang through the place, or rather crept undulating,
+like a serpent of sound, along the walls and roof of this superb
+music-hall.  Entrancing verses arose within me as of their own
+accord, chanting themselves to their own melodies, and requiring
+no addition of music to satisfy the inward sense.  But, ever in
+the pauses of these, when the singing mood was upon me, I seemed
+to hear something like the distant sound of multitudes of
+dancers, and felt as if it was the unheard music, moving their
+rhythmic motion, that within me blossomed in verse and song.  I
+felt, too, that could I but see the dance, I should, from the
+harmony of complicated movements, not of the dancers in relation
+to each other merely, but of each dancer individually in the
+manifested plastic power that moved the consenting harmonious
+form, understand the whole of the music on the billows of which
+they floated and swung.
+
+At length, one night, suddenly, when this feeling of dancing came
+upon me, I bethought me of lifting one of the crimson curtains,
+and looking if, perchance, behind it there might not be hid some
+other mystery, which might at least remove a step further the
+bewilderment of the present one.  Nor was I altogether
+disappointed.  I walked to one of the magnificent draperies,
+lifted a corner, and peeped in.  There, burned a great, crimson,
+globe-shaped light, high in the cubical centre of another hall,
+which might be larger or less than that in which I stood, for its
+dimensions were not easily perceived, seeing that floor and roof
+and walls were entirely of black marble.
+
+The roof was supported by the same arrangement of pillars
+radiating in arches, as that of the first hall; only, here, the
+pillars and arches were of dark red.  But what absorbed my
+delighted gaze, was an innumerable assembly of white marble
+statues, of every form, and in multitudinous posture, filling the
+hall throughout.  These stood, in the ruddy glow of the great
+lamp, upon pedestals of jet black.  Around the lamp shone in
+golden letters, plainly legible from where I stood, the two
+words--
+
+                     TOUCH NOT!
+
+There was in all this, however, no solution to the sound of
+dancing; and now I was aware that the influence on my mind had
+ceased.  I did not go in that evening, for I was weary and faint,
+but I hoarded up the expectation of entering, as of a great
+coming joy.
+
+Next night I walked, as on the preceding, through the hall.  My
+mind was filled with pictures and songs, and therewith so much
+absorbed, that I did not for some time think of looking within
+the curtain I had last night lifted.  When the thought of doing
+so occurred to me first, I happened to be within a few yards of
+it.  I became conscious, at the same moment, that the sound of
+dancing had been for some time in my ears.  I approached the
+curtain quickly, and, lifting it, entered the black hall. 
+Everything was still as death.  I should have concluded that the
+sound must have proceeded from some other more distant quarter,
+which conclusion its faintness would, in ordinary circumstances,
+have necessitated from the first; but there was a something about
+the statues that caused me still to remain in doubt.  As I said,
+each stood perfectly still upon its black pedestal: but there was
+about every one a certain air, not of motion, but as if it had
+just ceased from movement; as if the rest were not altogether of
+the marbly stillness of thousands of years.  It was as if the
+peculiar atmosphere of each had yet a kind of invisible
+tremulousness; as if its agitated wavelets had not yet subsided
+into a perfect calm.  I had the suspicion that they had
+anticipated my appearance, and had sprung, each, from the living
+joy of the dance, to the death-silence and blackness of its
+isolated pedestal, just before I entered.  I walked across the
+central hall to the curtain opposite the one I had lifted, and,
+entering there, found all the appearances similar; only that the
+statues were different, and differently grouped.  Neither did
+they produce on my mind that impression--of motion just expired,
+which I had experienced from the others.  I found that behind
+every one of the crimson curtains was a similar hall, similarly
+lighted, and similarly occupied.
+
+The next night, I did not allow my thoughts to be absorbed as
+before with inward images, but crept stealthily along to the
+furthest curtain in the hall, from behind which, likewise, I had
+formerly seemed to hear the sound of dancing.  I drew aside its
+edge as suddenly as I could, and, looking in, saw that the utmost
+stillness pervaded the vast place.  I walked in, and passed
+through it to the other end.
+
+There I found that it communicated with a circular corridor,
+divided from it only by two rows of red columns.  This corridor,
+which was black, with red niches holding statues, ran entirely
+about the statue- halls, forming a communication between the
+further ends of them all; further, that is, as regards the
+central hall of white whence they all diverged like radii,
+finding their circumference in the corridor.
+
+Round this corridor I now went, entering all the halls, of which
+there were twelve, and finding them all similarly constructed,
+but filled with quite various statues, of what seemed both
+ancient and modern sculpture.  After I had simply walked through
+them, I found myself sufficiently tired to long for rest, and
+went to my own room.
+
+In the night I dreamed that, walking close by one of the
+curtains, I was suddenly seized with the desire to enter, and
+darted in.  This time I was too quick for them.  All the statues
+were in motion, statues no longer, but men and women--all shapes
+of beauty that ever sprang from the brain of the sculptor,
+mingled in the convolutions of a complicated dance.  Passing
+through them to the further end, I almost started from my sleep
+on beholding, not taking part in the dance with the others, nor
+seemingly endued with life like them, but standing in marble
+coldness and rigidity upon a black pedestal in the extreme left
+corner--my lady of the cave; the marble beauty who sprang from
+her tomb or her cradle at the call of my songs.  While I gazed in
+speechless astonishment and admiration, a dark shadow, descending
+from above like the curtain of a stage, gradually hid her
+entirely from my view.  I felt with a shudder that this shadow
+was perchance my missing demon, whom I had not seen for days.  I
+awoke with a stifled cry.
+
+Of course, the next evening I began my journey through the halls
+(for I knew not to which my dream had carried me), in the hope of
+proving the dream to be a true one, by discovering my marble
+beauty upon her black pedestal.  At length, on reaching the tenth
+hall, I thought I recognised some of the forms I had seen dancing
+in my dream; and to my bewilderment, when I arrived at the
+extreme corner on the left, there stood, the only one I had yet
+seen, a vacant pedestal.  It was exactly in the position
+occupied, in my dream, by the pedestal on which the white lady
+stood.  Hope beat violently in my heart.
+
+"Now," said I to myself, "if yet another part of the dream would
+but come true, and I should succeed in surprising these forms in
+their nightly dance; it might be the rest would follow, and I
+should see on the pedestal my marble queen.  Then surely if my
+songs sufficed to give her life before, when she lay in the bonds
+of alabaster, much more would they be sufficient then to give her
+volition and motion, when she alone of assembled crowds of marble
+forms, would be standing rigid and cold."
+
+But the difficulty was, to surprise the dancers.  I had found
+that a premeditated attempt at surprise, though executed with the
+utmost care and rapidity, was of no avail.  And, in my dream, it
+was effected by a sudden thought suddenly executed.  I saw,
+therefore, that there was no plan of operation offering any
+probability of success, but this: to allow my mind to be occupied
+with other thoughts, as I wandered around the great centre-hall;
+and so wait till the impulse to enter one of the others should
+happen to arise in me just at the moment when I was close to one
+of the crimson curtains.  For I hoped that if I entered any one
+of the twelve halls at the right moment, that would as it were
+give me the right of entrance to all the others, seeing they all
+had communication behind.  I would not diminish the hope of the
+right chance, by supposing it necessary that a desire to enter
+should awake within me, precisely when I was close to the
+curtains of the tenth hall.
+
+At first the impulses to see recurred so continually, in spite of
+the crowded imagery that kept passing through my mind, that they
+formed too nearly a continuous chain, for the hope that any one
+of them would succeed as a surprise.  But as I persisted in
+banishing them, they recurred less and less often; and after two
+or three, at considerable intervals, had come when the spot where
+I happened to be was unsuitable, the hope strengthened, that soon
+one might arise just at the right moment; namely, when, in
+walking round the hall, I should be close to one of the curtains.
+
+At length the right moment and the impulse coincided.  I darted
+into the ninth hall.  It was full of the most exquisite moving
+forms.  The whole space wavered and swam with the involutions of
+an intricate dance.  It seemed to break suddenly as I entered,
+and all made one or two bounds towards their pedestals; but,
+apparently on finding that they were thoroughly overtaken, they
+returned to their employment (for it seemed with them earnest
+enough to be called such) without further heeding me.  Somewhat
+impeded by the floating crowd, I made what haste I could towards
+the bottom of the hall; whence, entering the corridor, I turned
+towards the tenth.  I soon arrived at the corner I wanted to
+reach, for the corridor was comparatively empty; but, although
+the dancers here, after a little confusion, altogether
+disregarded my presence, I was dismayed at beholding, even yet, a
+vacant pedestal.  But I had a conviction that she was near me. 
+And as I looked at the pedestal, I thought I saw upon it, vaguely
+revealed as if through overlapping folds of drapery, the
+indistinct outlines of white feet.  Yet there was no sign of
+drapery or concealing shadow whatever.  But I remembered the
+descending shadow in my dream.  And I hoped still in the power of
+my songs; thinking that what could dispel alabaster, might
+likewise be capable of dispelling what concealed my beauty now,
+even if it were the demon whose darkness had overshadowed all my
+life.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV
+
+              "Alexander. 'When will you finish Campaspe?'        
+               Apelles.  'Never finish: for always in absolute
+               beauty there is somewhat above art.'"              
+                                          LYLY'S Campaspe.
+
+And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she
+was present unseen?  I hurried away to the white hall of
+Phantasy, heedless of the innumerable forms of beauty that
+crowded my way: these might cross my eyes, but the unseen filled
+my brain.  I wandered long, up and down the silent space: no
+songs came.  My soul was not still enough for songs.  Only in the
+silence and darkness of the soul's night, do those stars of the
+inward firmament sink to its lower surface from the singing
+realms beyond, and shine upon the conscious spirit.  Here all
+effort was unavailing.  If they came not, they could not be
+found.
+
+Next night, it was just the same.  I walked through the red
+glimmer of the silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as
+lonely trod my soul up and down the halls of the brain.  At last
+I entered one of the statue-halls.  The dance had just commenced,
+and I was delighted to find that I was free of their assembly.  I
+walked on till I came to the sacred corner.  There I found the
+pedestal just as I had left it, with the faint glimmer as of
+white feet still resting on the dead black.  As soon as I saw it,
+I seemed to feel a presence which longed to become visible; and,
+as it were, called to me to gift it with self- manifestation,
+that it might shine on me.  The power of song came to me.  But
+the moment my voice, though I sang low and soft, stirred the air
+of the hall, the dancers started; the quick interweaving crowd
+shook, lost its form, divided; each figure sprang to its
+pedestal, and stood, a self-evolving life no more, but a rigid,
+life-like, marble shape, with the whole form composed into the
+expression of a single state or act.  Silence rolled like a
+spiritual thunder through the grand space.  My song had ceased,
+scared at its own influences.  But I saw in the hand of one of
+the statues close by me, a harp whose chords yet quivered.  I
+remembered that as she bounded past me, her harp had brushed
+against my arm; so the spell of the marble had not infolded it. 
+I sprang to her, and with a gesture of entreaty, laid my hand on
+the harp.  The marble hand, probably from its contact with the
+uncharmed harp, had strength enough to relax its hold, and yield
+the harp to me.  No other motion indicated life. Instinctively I
+struck the chords and sang.  And not to break upon the record of
+my song, I mention here, that as I sang the first four lines, the
+loveliest feet became clear upon the  black pedestal; and ever as
+I sang, it was as if a veil were being lifted up from before the
+form, but an invisible veil, so that the statue appeared to grow
+before me, not so much by evolution, as by infinitesimal degrees
+of added height.  And, while I sang, I did not feel that I stood
+by a statue, as indeed it appeared to be, but that a real
+woman-soul was revealing itself by successive stages of
+imbodiment, and consequent manifestatlon and expression.
+
+        Feet of beauty, firmly planting
+             Arches white on rosy heel!
+         Whence the life-spring, throbbing, panting,
+             Pulses upward to reveal!
+         Fairest things know least despising;
+             Foot and earth meet tenderly:
+         'Tis the woman, resting, rising
+             Upward to sublimity,
+         Rise the limbs, sedately sloping,
+             Strong and gentle, full and free;
+         Soft and slow, like certain hoping,
+             Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.
+         Up to speech!  As up to roses
+             Pants the life from leaf to flower,
+         So each blending change discloses,
+             Nearer still, expression's power.
+
+         Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining
+             Up and outward fearlessly!
+         Temple columns, close combining,
+             Lift a holy mystery.
+         Heart of mine! what strange surprises
+             Mount aloft on such a stair!
+         Some great vision upward rises,
+             Curving, bending, floating fair.
+
+         Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow
+             Lead my fascinated eye;
+         Some apocalypse will follow,
+             Some new world of deity.
+         Zoned unseen, and outward swelling,
+             With new thoughts and wonders rife,
+         Queenly majesty foretelling,
+             See the expanding house of life!
+
+         Sudden heaving, unforbidden
+             Sighs eternal, still the same--
+         Mounts of snow have summits hidden
+             In the mists of uttered flame.
+         But the spirit, dawning nearly
+             Finds no speech for earnest pain;
+         Finds a soundless sighing merely--
+             Builds its stairs, and mounts again.
+
+         Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,
+             Sendeth out her waiting pair;
+         Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,
+             Half inclasping visions rare;
+         And the great arms, heartways bending;
+             Might of Beauty, drawing home
+         There returning, and re-blending,
+             Where from roots of love they roam.
+
+         Build thy slopes of radiance beamy
+             Spirit, fair with womanhood!
+         Tower thy precipice, white-gleamy,
+             Climb unto the hour of good.
+         Dumb space will be rent asunder,
+             Now the shining column stands
+         Ready to be crowned with wonder
+             By the builder's joyous hands.
+
+         All the lines abroad are spreading,
+             Like a fountain's falling race. 
+         Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,
+             Airy foot to rest the face!
+         Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,
+             Sweet approach of lip and breath!
+         Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,
+             Waits to die ecstatic death.
+
+         Span across in treble curving,
+             Bow of promise, upper lip!
+         Set them free, with gracious swerving;
+             Let the wing-words float and dip.
+         DUMB ART THOU?  O Love immortal,
+             More than words thy speech must be;
+         Childless yet the tender portal
+             Of the home of melody.
+
+         Now the nostrils open fearless,
+             Proud in calm unconsciousness,
+         Sure it must be something peerless
+             That the great Pan would express!
+         Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,
+             In the pure, dear lady-face.
+         Lo, a blinding burst of splendour!--
+             'Tis the free soul's issuing grace.
+
+         Two calm lakes of molten glory
+             Circling round unfathomed deeps!
+         Lightning-flashes, transitory,
+             Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.
+         This the gate, at last, of gladness,
+             To the outward striving me:
+         In a rain of light and sadness,
+             Out its loves and longings flee!
+
+         With a presence I am smitten
+             Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;
+         Presence greater yet than written
+             Even in the glorious eyes.
+         Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,
+             I may look till I am lost;
+         Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,
+             In a sea without a coast.
+
+         Windows open to the glorious!
+             Time and space, oh, far beyond!
+         Woman, ah! thou art victorious,
+             And I perish, overfond.
+         Springs aloft the yet Unspoken
+             In the forehead's endless grace,
+         Full of silences unbroken;
+             Infinite, unfeatured face.
+
+         Domes above, the mount of wonder;
+             Height and hollow wrapt in night;
+         Hiding in its caverns under
+             Woman-nations in their might.
+         Passing forms, the highest Human
+             Faints away to the Divine
+         Features none, of man or woman,
+             Can unveil the holiest shine.
+
+         Sideways, grooved porches only
+             Visible to passing eye,
+         Stand the silent, doorless, lonely
+             Entrance-gates of melody.
+         But all sounds fly in as boldly,
+             Groan and song, and kiss and cry
+         At their galleries, lifted coldly,
+             Darkly, 'twixt the earth and sky.
+
+         Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest
+             So, in faint, half-glad despair,
+         From the summit thou o'erflowest
+             In a fall of torrent hair;
+         Hiding what thou hast created
+             In a half-transparent shroud:
+         Thus, with glory soft-abated,
+             Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI               
+
+        "Ev'n the Styx, which ninefold her infoldeth
+             Hems not Ceres' daughter in its flow;
+         But she grasps the apple--ever holdeth
+             Her, sad Orcus, down below."
+                      SCHILLER, Das Ideal und das Leben.
+
+Ever as I sang, the veil was uplifted; ever as I sang, the signs
+of life grew; till, when the eyes dawned upon me, it was with
+that sunrise of splendour which my feeble song attempted to
+re-imbody.
+
+The wonder is, that I was not altogether overcome, but was able
+to complete my song as the unseen veil continued to rise.  This
+ability came solely from the state of mental elevation in which I
+found myself.  Only because uplifted in song, was I able to
+endure the blaze of the dawn.  But I cannot tell whether she
+looked more of statue or more of woman; she seemed removed into
+that region of phantasy where all is intensely vivid, but nothing
+clearly defined.  At last, as I sang of her descending hair, the
+glow of soul faded away, like a dying sunset.  A lamp within had
+been extinguished, and the house of life shone blank in a winter
+morn.  She was a statue once more--but visible, and that was much
+gained.  Yet the revulsion from hope and fruition was such, that,
+unable to restrain myself, I sprang to her, and, in defiance of
+the law of the place, flung my arms around her, as if I would
+tear her from the grasp of a visible Death, and lifted her from
+the pedestal down to my heart.  But no sooner had her feet ceased
+to be in contact with the black pedestal, than she shuddered and
+trembled all over; then, writhing from my arms, before I could
+tighten their hold, she sprang into the corridor, with the
+reproachful cry, "You should not have touched me!" darted behind
+one of the exterior pillars of the circle, and disappeared.  I
+followed almost as fast; but ere I could reach the pillar, the
+sound of a closing door, the saddest of all sounds sometimes,
+fell on my ear; and, arriving at the spot where she had vanished,
+I saw, lighted by a pale yellow lamp which hung above it, a
+heavy, rough door, altogether unlike any others I had seen in the
+palace; for they were all of ebony, or ivory, or covered with
+silver-plates, or of some odorous wood, and very ornate; whereas
+this seemed of old oak, with heavy nails and iron studs. 
+Notwithstanding the precipitation of my pursuit, I could not help
+reading, in silver letters beneath the lamp:  "NO ONE ENTERS HERE
+WITHOUT THE LEAVE OF THE QUEEN."  But what was the Queen to me,
+when I followed my white lady?  I dashed the door to the wall and
+sprang through.  Lo! I stood on a waste windy hill.  Great stones
+like tombstones stood all about me.  No door, no palace was to be
+seen.  A white figure gleamed past me, wringing her hands, and
+crying, "Ah! you should have sung to me; you should have sung to
+me!" and disappeared behind one of the stones.  I followed.  A
+cold gust of wind met me from behind the stone; and when I
+looked, I saw nothing but a great hole in the earth, into which I
+could find no way of entering.  Had she fallen in?  I could not
+tell.  I must wait for the daylight.  I sat down and wept, for
+there was no help.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVII       
+         
+         "First, I thought, almost despairing,
+             This must crush my spirit now;
+          Yet I bore it, and am bearing--
+             Only do not ask me how."
+                             HEINE.
+
+When the daylight came, it brought the possibility of action, but
+with it little of consolation.  With the first visible increase
+of light, I gazed into the chasm, but could not, for more than an
+hour, see sufficiently well to discover its nature.  At last I
+saw it was almost a perpendicular opening, like a roughly
+excavated well, only very large.  I could perceive no bottom; and
+it was not till the sun actually rose, that I discovered a sort
+of natural staircase, in many parts little more than suggested,
+which led round and round the gulf, descending spirally into its
+abyss.  I saw at once that this was my path; and without a
+moment's hesitation, glad to quit the sunlight, which stared at
+me most heartlessly, I commenced my tortuous descent.  It was
+very difficult.  In some parts I had to cling to the rocks like a
+bat.  In one place, I dropped from the track down upon the next
+returning spire of the stair; which being broad in this
+particular portion, and standing out from the wall at right
+angles, received me upon my feet safe, though somewhat stupefied
+by the shock.  After descending a great way, I found the stair
+ended at a narrow opening which entered the rock horizontally. 
+Into this I crept, and, having entered, had just room to turn
+round.  I put my head out into the shaft by which I had come
+down, and surveyed the course of my descent.  Looking up, I saw
+the stars; although the sun must by this time have been high in
+the heavens.  Looking below, I saw that the sides of the shaft
+went sheer down, smooth as glass; and far beneath me, I saw the
+reflection of the same stars I had seen in the heavens when I
+looked up.  I turned again, and crept inwards some distance, when
+the passage widened, and I was at length able to stand and walk
+upright.  Wider and loftier grew the way; new paths branched off
+on every side; great open halls appeared; till at last I found
+myself wandering on through an underground country, in which the
+sky was of rock, and instead of trees and flowers, there were
+only fantastic rocks and stones.  And ever as I went, darker grew
+my thoughts, till at last I had no hope whatever of finding the
+white lady: I no longer called her to myself MY white lady. 
+Whenever a choice was necessary, I always chose the path which
+seemed to lead downwards.
+
+At length I began to find that these regions were inhabited. 
+From behind a rock a peal of harsh grating laughter, full of evil
+humour, rang through my ears, and, looking round, I saw a queer,
+goblin creature, with a great head and ridiculous features, just
+such as those described, in German histories and travels, as
+Kobolds.  "What do you want with me?" I said.  He pointed at me
+with a long forefinger, very thick at the root, and sharpened to
+a point, and answered, "He! he! he! what do YOU want here?" 
+Then, changing his tone, he continued, with mock
+humility--"Honoured sir, vouchsafe to withdraw from thy slaves
+the lustre of thy august presence, for thy slaves cannot support
+its brightness."  A second appeared, and struck in:  "You are so
+big, you keep the sun from us.  We can't see for you, and we're
+so cold."  Thereupon arose, on all sides, the most terrific
+uproar of laughter, from voices like those of children in volume,
+but scrannel and harsh as those of decrepit age, though,
+unfortunately, without its weakness.  The whole pandemonium of
+fairy devils, of all varieties of fantastic ugliness, both in
+form and feature, and of all sizes from one to four feet, seemed
+to have suddenly assembled about me.  At length, after a great
+babble of talk among themselves, in a language unknown to me, and
+after seemingly endless gesticulation, consultation,
+elbow-nudging, and unmitigated peals of laughter, they formed
+into a circle about one of their number, who scrambled upon a
+stone, and, much to my surprise, and somewhat to my dismay, began
+to sing, in a voice corresponding in its nature to his talking
+one, from beginning to end, the song with which I had brought the
+light into the eyes of the white lady.  He sang the same air too;
+and, all the time, maintained a face of mock entreaty and
+worship; accompanying the song with the travestied gestures of
+one playing on the lute.  The whole assembly kept silence, except
+at the close of every verse, when they roared, and danced, and
+shouted with laughter, and flung themselves on the ground, in
+real or pretended convulsions of delight.  When he had finished,
+the singer threw himself from the top of the stone, turning heels
+over head several times in his descent; and when he did alight,
+it was on the top of his head, on which he hopped about, making
+the most grotesque gesticulations with his legs in the air. 
+Inexpressible laughter followed, which broke up in a shower of
+tiny stones from innumerable hands.  They could not materially
+injure me, although they cut me on the head and face.  I
+attempted to run away, but they all rushed upon me, and, laying
+hold of every part that afforded a grasp, held me tight. 
+Crowding about me like bees, they shouted an insect-swarm of
+exasperating speeches up into my face, among which the most
+frequently recurring were--"You shan't have her; you shan't have
+her; he! he! he!  She's for a better man; how he'll kiss her! how
+he'll kiss her!"
+
+The galvanic torrent of this battery of malevolence stung to life
+within me a spark of nobleness, and I said aloud, "Well, if he is
+a better man, let him have her."
+
+They instantly let go their hold of me, and fell back a step or
+two, with a whole broadside of grunts and humphs, as of
+unexpected and disappointed approbation.  I made a step or two
+forward, and a lane was instantly opened for me through the midst
+of the grinning little antics, who bowed most politely to me on
+every side as I passed.  After I had gone a few yards, I looked
+back, and saw them all standing quite still, looking after me,
+like a great school of boys; till suddenly one turned round, and
+with a loud whoop, rushed into the midst of the others.  In an
+instant, the whole was one writhing and tumbling heap of
+contortion, reminding me of the live pyramids of intertwined
+snakes of which travellers make report.  As soon as one was
+worked out of the mass, he bounded off a few paces, and then,
+with a somersault and a run, threw himself gyrating into the air,
+and descended with all his weight on the summit of the heaving
+and struggling chaos of fantastic figures.  I left them still
+busy at this fierce and apparently aimless amusement.  And as I
+went, I sang--
+
+        If a nobler waits for thee,
+             I will weep aside;
+         It is well that thou should'st be,
+             Of the nobler, bride.
+
+        For if love builds up the home,
+             Where the heart is free,
+         Homeless yet the heart must roam,
+             That has not found thee.
+
+        One must suffer: I, for her
+             Yield in her my part
+         Take her, thou art worthier--
+             Still I be still, my heart!
+
+         Gift ungotten! largess high
+             Of a frustrate will!
+          But to yield it lovingly
+             Is a something still.
+
+Then a little song arose of itself in my soul; and I felt for the
+moment, while it sank sadly within me, as if I was once more
+walking up and down the white hall of Phantasy in the Fairy
+Palace.  But this lasted no longer than the song; as will be
+seen.
+
+        Do not vex thy violet
+             Perfume to afford:
+         Else no odour thou wilt get
+             From its little hoard.
+
+        In thy lady's gracious eyes
+             Look not thou too long;
+         Else from them the glory flies,
+             And thou dost her wrong.
+
+        Come not thou too near the maid,
+             Clasp her not too wild;
+         Else the splendour is allayed,
+             And thy heart beguiled.
+
+A crash of laughter, more discordant and deriding than any I had
+yet heard, invaded my ears.  Looking on in the direction of the
+sound, I saw a little elderly woman, much taller, however, than
+the goblins I had just left, seated upon a stone by the side of
+the path.  She rose, as I drew near, and came forward to meet me.
+
+She was very plain and commonplace in appearance, without being
+hideously ugly.  Looking up in my face with a stupid sneer, she
+said:  "Isn't it a pity you haven't a pretty girl to walk all
+alone with you through  this sweet country?  How different
+everything would look? wouldn't it?
+
+Strange that one can never have what one would like best!  How
+the roses would bloom and all that, even in this infernal hole!
+wouldn't they, Anodos?  Her eyes would light up the old cave,
+wouldn't they?"
+
+"That depends on who the pretty girl should be," replied I.
+
+"Not so very much matter that," she answered; "look here."
+
+I had turned to go away as I gave my reply, but now I stopped and
+looked at her.  As a rough unsightly bud might suddenly blossom
+into the most lovely flower; or rather, as a sunbeam bursts
+through a shapeless cloud, and transfigures the earth; so burst a
+face of resplendent beauty, as it were THROUGH the unsightly
+visage of the woman, destroying it with light as it dawned
+through it.  A summer sky rose above me, gray with heat; across a
+shining slumberous landscape, looked from afar the peaks of
+snow-capped mountains; and down from a great rock beside me fell
+a sheet of water mad with its own delight.
+
+"Stay with me," she said, lifting up her exquisite face, and
+looking full in mine.
+
+I drew back.  Again the infernal laugh grated upon my ears; again
+the rocks closed in around me, and the ugly woman looked at me
+with wicked, mocking hazel eyes.
+
+"You shall have your reward," said she.  "You shall see your
+white lady again."
+
+"That lies not with you," I replied, and turned and left her.
+
+She followed me with shriek upon shriek of laughter, as I went on
+my way.
+
+I may mention here, that although there was always light enough
+to see my path and a few yards on every side of me, I never could
+find out the source of this sad sepulchral illumination.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII
+
+        "In the wind's uproar, the sea's raging grim,
+          And the sighs that are born in him."
+                                     HEINE.
+
+                            
+        "From dreams of bliss shall men awake
+          One day, but not to weep:
+          The dreams remain; they only break
+          The mirror of the sleep."
+                                    JEAN PAUL, Hesperus.
+
+How I got through this dreary part of my travels, I do not know. 
+I do not think I was upheld by the hope that any moment the light
+might break in upon me; for I scarcely thought about that.  I
+went on with a dull endurance, varied by moments of
+uncontrollable sadness; for more and more the conviction grew
+upon me that I should never see the white lady again.  It may
+seem strange that one with whom I had held so little communion
+should have so engrossed my thoughts; but benefits conferred
+awaken love in some minds, as surely as benefits received in
+others.  Besides being delighted and proud that my songs had
+called the beautiful creature to life, the same fact caused me to
+feel a tenderness unspeakable for her, accompanied with a kind of
+feeling of property in her; for so the goblin Selfishness would
+reward the angel Love.  When to all this is added, an
+overpowering sense of her beauty, and an unquestioning conviction
+that this was a true index to inward loveliness, it may be
+understood how it came to pass that my imagination filled my
+whole soul with the play of its own multitudinous colours and
+harmonies around the form which yet stood, a gracious marble
+radiance, in the midst of ITS white hall of phantasy.  The time
+passed by unheeded; for my thoughts were busy.  Perhaps this was
+also in part the cause of my needing no food, and never thinking
+how I should find any, during this subterraneous part of my
+travels.  How long they endured I could not tell, for I had no
+means of measuring time; and when I looked back, there was such a
+discrepancy between the decisions of my imagination and my
+judgment, as to the length of time that had passed, that I was
+bewildered, and gave up all attempts to arrive at any conclusion
+on the point.
+
+A gray mist continually gathered behind me.  When I looked back
+towards the past, this mist was the medium through which my eyes
+had to strain for a vision of what had gone by; and the form of
+the white lady had receded into an unknown region.  At length the
+country of rock began to close again around me, gradually and
+slowly narrowing, till I found myself walking in a gallery of
+rock once more, both sides of which I could touch with my
+outstretched hands.  It narrowed yet, until I was forced to move
+carefully, in order to avoid striking against the projecting
+pieces of rock.  The roof sank lower and lower, until I was
+compelled, first to stoop, and then to creep on my hands and
+knees.  It recalled terrible dreams of childhood; but I was not
+much afraid, because I felt sure that this was my path, and my
+only hope of leaving Fairy Land, of which I was now almost weary.
+
+At length, on getting past an abrupt turn in the passage, through
+which I had to force myself, I saw, a few yards ahead of me, the
+long- forgotten daylight shining through a small opening, to
+which the path, if path it could now be called, led me.  With
+great difficulty I accomplished these last few yards, and came
+forth to the day.  I stood on the shore of a wintry sea, with a
+wintry sun just a few feet above its horizon-edge.  It was bare,
+and waste, and gray.  Hundreds of hopeless waves rushed
+constantly shorewards, falling exhausted upon a beach of great
+loose stones, that seemed to stretch miles and miles in both
+directions.  There was nothing for the eye but mingling shades of
+gray; nothing for the ear but the rush of the coming, the roar of
+the breaking, and the moan of the retreating wave.  No rock
+lifted up a sheltering severity above the dreariness around; even
+that from which I had myself emerged rose scarcely a foot above
+the opening by which I had reached the dismal day, more dismal
+even than the tomb I had left.  A cold, death-like wind swept
+across the shore, seeming to issue from a pale mouth of cloud
+upon the horizon.  Sign of life was nowhere visible.  I wandered
+over the stones, up and down the beach, a human imbodiment of the
+nature around me.  The wind increased; its keen waves flowed
+through my soul; the foam rushed higher up the stones; a few dead
+stars began to gleam in the east; the sound of the waves grew
+louder and yet more despairing.  A dark curtain of cloud was
+lifted up, and a pale blue rent shone between its foot and the
+edge of the sea, out from which rushed an icy storm of frozen
+wind, that tore the waters into spray as it passed, and flung the
+billows in raving heaps upon the desolate shore.  I could bear it
+no longer.
+
+"I will not be tortured to death," I cried; "I will meet it
+half-way.  The life within me is yet enough to bear me up to the
+face of Death, and then I die unconquered."
+
+Before it had grown so dark, I had observed, though without any
+particular interest, that on one part of the shore a low platform
+of rock seemed to run out far into the midst of the breaking
+waters.
+
+Towards this I now went, scrambling over smooth stones, to which
+scarce even a particle of sea-weed clung; and having found it, I
+got on it, and followed its direction, as near as I could guess,
+out into the tumbling chaos.  I could hardly keep my feet against
+the wind and sea.  The waves repeatedly all but swept me off my
+path; but I kept on my way, till I reached the end of the low
+promontory, which, in the fall of the waves, rose a good many
+feet above the surface, and, in their rise, was covered with
+their waters.  I stood one moment and gazed into the heaving
+abyss beneath me; then plunged headlong into the mounting wave
+below.  A blessing, like the kiss of a mother, seemed to alight
+on my soul; a calm, deeper than that which accompanies a hope
+deferred, bathed my spirit.  I sank far into the waters, and
+sought not to return.  I felt as if once more the great arms of
+the beech-tree were around me, soothing me after the miseries I
+had passed through, and telling me, like a little sick child,
+that I should be better to-morrow.  The waters of themselves
+lifted me, as with loving arms, to the surface.  I breathed
+again, but did not unclose my eyes.  I would not look on the
+wintry sea, and the pitiless gray sky.  Thus I floated, till
+something gently touched me.  It was a little boat floating
+beside me.  How it came there I could not tell; but it rose and
+sank on the waters, and kept touching me in its fall, as if with
+a human will to let me know that help was by me.  It was a little
+gay-coloured boat, seemingly covered with glistering scales like
+those of a fish, all of brilliant rainbow hues.  I scrambled into
+it, and lay down in the bottom, with a sense of exquisite repose.
+
+Then I drew over me a rich, heavy, purple cloth that was beside
+me; and, lying still, knew, by the sound of the waters, that my
+little bark was fleeting rapidly onwards.  Finding, however, none
+of that stormy motion which the sea had manifested when I beheld
+it from the shore, I opened my eyes; and, looking first up, saw
+above me the deep violet sky of a warm southern night; and then,
+lifting my head, saw that I was sailing fast upon a summer sea,
+in the last border of a southern twilight.  The aureole of the
+sun yet shot the extreme faint tips of its longest rays above the
+horizon- waves, and withdrew them not.  It was a perpetual
+twilight.  The stars, great and earnest, like children's eyes,
+bent down lovingly towards the waters; and the reflected stars
+within seemed to float up, as if longing to meet their embraces. 
+But when I looked down, a new wonder met my view.  For, vaguely
+revealed beneath the wave, I floated above my whole Past.  The
+fields of my childhood flitted by; the halls of my youthful
+labours; the streets of great cities where I had dwelt; and the
+assemblies of men and women wherein I had wearied myself seeking
+for rest.  But so indistinct were the visions, that sometimes I
+thought I was sailing on a shallow sea, and that strange rocks
+and forests of sea-plants beguiled my eye, sufficiently to be
+transformed, by the magic of the phantasy, into well-known
+objects and regions.  Yet, at times, a beloved form seemed to lie
+close beneath me in sleep; and the eyelids would tremble as if
+about to forsake the conscious eye; and the arms would heave
+upwards, as if in dreams they sought for a satisfying presence. 
+But these motions might come only from the heaving of the waters
+between those forms and me.  Soon I fell asleep, overcome with
+fatigue and delight.  In dreams of unspeakable joy--of restored
+friendships; of revived embraces; of love which said it had never
+died; of faces that had vanished long ago, yet said with smiling
+lips that they knew nothing of the grave; of pardons implored,
+and granted with such bursting floods of love, that I was almost
+glad I had sinned--thus I passed through this wondrous twilight. 
+I awoke with the feeling that I had been kissed and loved to my
+heart's content; and found that my boat was floating motionless
+by the grassy shore of a little island.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIX
+
+ "In still rest, in changeless simplicity, I bear, uninterrupted,
+the consciousness of the whole of Humanity within me."
+                      SCHLEIERMACHERS, Monologen.
+
+            ". . . such a sweetness, such a grace,
+                 In all thy speech appear,
+              That what to th'eye a beauteous face,
+                 That thy tongue is to the ear."                 
+                                          COWLEY.
+
+The water was deep to the very edge; and I sprang from the little
+boat upon a soft grassy turf.  The island seemed rich with a
+profusion of all grasses and low flowers.  All delicate lowly
+things were most plentiful; but no trees rose skywards, not even
+a bush overtopped the tall grasses, except in one place near the
+cottage I am about to describe, where a few plants of the
+gum-cistus, which drops every night all the blossoms that the day
+brings forth, formed a kind of natural arbour.  The whole island
+lay open to the sky and sea.  It rose nowhere more than a few
+feet above the level of the waters, which flowed deep all around
+its border.  Here there seemed to be neither tide nor storm.  A
+sense of persistent calm and fulness arose in the mind at the
+sight of the slow, pulse-like rise and fall of the deep, clear,
+unrippled waters against the bank of the island, for shore it
+could hardly be called, being so much more like the edge of a
+full, solemn river.  As I walked over the grass towards the
+cottage, which stood at a little distance from the bank, all the
+flowers of childhood looked at me with perfect child-eyes out of
+the grass.  My heart, softened by the dreams through which it had
+passed, overflowed in a sad, tender love towards them.  They
+looked to me like children impregnably fortified in a helpless
+confidence.  The sun stood half- way down the western sky,
+shining very soft and golden; and there grew a second world of
+shadows amidst the world of grasses and wild flowers.
+
+The cottage was square, with low walls, and a high pyramidal roof
+thatched with long reeds, of which the withered blossoms hung
+over all the eaves.  It is noticeable that most of the buildings
+I saw in Fairy Land were cottages.  There was no path to a door,
+nor, indeed, was there any track worn by footsteps in the island.
+
+The cottage rose right out of the smooth turf.  It had no windows
+that I could see; but there was a door in the centre of the side
+facing me, up to which I went.  I knocked, and the sweetest voice
+I had ever heard said, "Come in."  I entered.  A bright fire was
+burning on a hearth in the centre of the earthern floor, and the
+smoke found its way out at an opening in the centre of the
+pyramidal roof.  Over the fire hung a little pot, and over the
+pot bent a woman-face, the most wonderful, I thought, that I had
+ever beheld.  For it was older than any countenance I had ever
+looked upon.  There was not a spot in which a wrinkle could lie,
+where a wrinkle lay not.  And the skin was ancient and brown,
+like old parchment.  The woman's form was tall and spare: and
+when she stood up to welcome me, I saw that she was straight as
+an arrow.  Could that voice of sweetness have issued from those
+lips of age?  Mild as they were, could they be the portals whence
+flowed such melody?  But the moment I saw her eyes, I no longer
+wondered at her voice: they were absolutely young--those of a
+woman of five-and- twenty, large, and of a clear gray.  Wrinkles
+had beset them all about; the eyelids themselves were old, and
+heavy, and worn; but the eyes were very incarnations of soft
+light.  She held out her hand to me, and the voice of sweetness
+again greeted me, with the single word, "Welcome."  She set an
+old wooden chair for me, near the fire, and went on with her
+cooking.  A wondrous sense of refuge and repose came upon me.  I
+felt like a boy who has got home from school, miles across the
+hills, through a heavy storm of wind and snow.  Almost, as I
+gazed on her, I sprang from my seat to kiss those old lips.  And
+when, having finished her cooking, she brought some of the dish
+she had prepared, and set it on a little table by me, covered
+with a snow- white cloth, I could not help laying my head on her
+bosom, and bursting into happy tears.  She put her arms round me,
+saying, "Poor child; poor child!"
+
+As I continued to weep, she gently disengaged herself, and,
+taking a spoon, put some of the food (I did not know what it was)
+to my lips, entreating me most endearingly to swallow it.  To
+please her, I made an effort, and succeeded.  She went on feeding
+me like a baby, with one arm round me, till I looked up in her
+face and smiled: then she gave me the spoon and told me to eat,
+for it would do me good.  I obeyed her, and found myself
+wonderfully refreshed.  Then she drew near the fire an
+old-fashioned couch that was in the cottage, and making me lie
+down upon it, sat at my feet, and began to sing.  Amazing store
+of old ballads rippled from her lips, over the pebbles of ancient
+tunes; and the voice that sang was sweet as the voice of a
+tuneful maiden that singeth ever from very fulness of song.  The
+songs were almost all sad, but with a sound of comfort.  One I
+can faintly recall.  It was something like this:
+
+            Sir Aglovaile through the churchyard rode;
+                 SING, ALL ALONE I LIE:
+             Little recked he where'er he yode,
+                 ALL ALONE, UP IN THE SKY.
+
+             Swerved his courser, and plunged with fear
+                 ALL ALONE I LIE:
+             His cry might have wakened the dead men near,
+                 ALL ALONE, UP IN THE SKY.
+
+            The very dead that lay at his feet,
+             Lapt in the mouldy winding-sheet.
+           
+            But he curbed him and spurred him, until he stood
+             Still in his place, like a horse of wood,
+
+            With nostrils uplift, and eyes wide and wan;
+             But the sweat in streams from his fetlocks ran.
+
+            A ghost grew out of the shadowy air,
+             And sat in the midst of her moony hair.
+
+            In her gleamy hair she sat and wept;
+             In the dreamful moon they lay and slept;
+
+            The shadows above, and the bodies below,
+             Lay and slept in the moonbeams slow.
+
+            And she sang, like the moan of an autumn wind
+             Over the stubble left behind:
+
+                Alas, how easily things go wrong
+!                 A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+                 And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+                 And life is never the same again.
+
+                Alas, how hardly things go right!
+                 'Tis hard to watch on a summer night,
+                 For the sigh will come and the kiss will stay,
+                 And the summer night is a winter day.
+
+            "Oh, lovely ghosts my heart is woes
+             To see thee weeping and wailing so.
+
+            Oh, lovely ghost," said the fearless knight,
+             "Can the sword of a warrior set it right?
+
+            Or prayer of bedesman, praying mild,
+             As a cup of water a feverish child,
+
+            Sooth thee at last, in dreamless mood
+             To sleep the sleep a dead lady should?
+
+            Thine eyes they fill me with longing sore,
+             As if I had known thee for evermore.
+
+            Oh, lovely ghost, I could leave the day
+             To sit with thee in the moon away
+
+            If thou wouldst trust me, and lay thy head
+             To rest on a bosom that is not dead."
+             The lady sprang up with a strange ghost-cry,
+             And she flung her white ghost-arms on high:
+
+            And she laughed a laugh that was not gay,
+             And it lengthened out till it died away;
+
+            And the dead beneath turned and moaned,
+             And the yew-trees above they shuddered and groaned.
+
+            "Will he love me twice with a love that is vain?
+             Will he kill the poor ghost yet again?
+
+            I thought thou wert good; but I said, and wept:
+             `Can I have dreamed who have not slept?'
+
+            And I knew, alas! or ever I would,
+             Whether I dreamed, or thou wert good.
+
+            When my baby died, my brain grew wild.
+             I awoke, and found I was with my child."
+
+            "If thou art the ghost of my Adelaide,
+             How is it?  Thou wert but a village maid,
+
+            And thou seemest an angel lady white,
+             Though thin, and wan, and past delight."
+
+            The lady smiled a flickering smile,
+             And she pressed her temples hard the while.
+
+            "Thou seest that Death for a woman can
+             Do more than knighthood for a man."
+
+            "But show me the child thou callest mine,
+             Is she out to-night in the ghost's sunshine?"
+
+            "In St. Peter's Church she is playing on,
+             At hide-and-seek, with Apostle John.
+
+            When the moonbeams right through the window go,
+             Where the twelve are standing in glorious show,
+
+            She says the rest of them do not stir,
+             But one comes down to play with her.
+
+            Then I can go where I list, and weep,
+             For good St. John my child will keep."
+
+            "Thy beauty filleth the very air,
+              Never saw I a woman so fair."
+
+            "Come, if thou darest, and sit by my side;
+              But do not touch me, or woe will betide.
+
+            Alas, I am weak: I might well know
+             This gladness betokens some further woe.  
+
+             Yet come.  It will come.  I will bear it.  I can.
+              For thou lovest me yet--though but as a man."
+
+            The knight dismounted in earnest speed;
+              Away through the tombstones thundered the steed,
+
+            And fell by the outer wall, and died.
+             But the knight he kneeled by the lady's side;
+
+            Kneeled beside her in wondrous bliss,
+             Rapt in an everlasting kiss:
+
+            Though never his lips come the lady nigh,
+             And his eyes alone on her beauty lie.
+
+            All the night long, till the cock crew loud,
+             He kneeled by the lady, lapt in her shroud.
+
+            And what they said, I may not say:
+             Dead night was sweeter than living day.
+
+            How she made him so blissful glad
+             Who made her and found her so ghostly sad,
+
+            I may not tell; but it needs no touch
+             To make them blessed who love so much.
+
+            "Come every night, my ghost, to me;
+             And one night I will come to thee.
+
+            'Tis good to have a ghostly wife:
+             She will not tremble at clang of strife;
+
+            She will only hearken, amid the din,
+             Behind the door, if he cometh in."
+
+            And this is how Sir Aglovaile 
+            Often walked in the moonlight pale.
+
+            And oft when the crescent but thinned the gloom,
+             Full orbed moonlight filled his room;
+
+            And through beneath his chamber door,
+             Fell a ghostly gleam on the outer floor;
+
+            And they that passed, in fear averred 
+             That murmured words they often heard.
+
+            'Twas then that the eastern crescent shone
+              Through the chancel window, and good St. John
+
+            Played with the ghost-child all the night,
+             And the mother was free till the morning light,
+
+            And sped through the dawning night, to stay
+             With Aglovaile till the break of day.
+
+            And their love was a rapture, lone and high,
+             And dumb as the moon in the topmost sky.
+
+            One night Sir Aglovaile, weary, slept
+             And dreamed a dream wherein he wept.
+
+            A warrior he was, not often wept he,
+             But this night he wept full bitterly.
+
+            He woke--beside him the ghost-girl shone
+             Out of the dark: 'twas the eve of St. John.
+
+            He had dreamed a dream of a still, dark wood,
+             Where the maiden of old beside him stood;
+
+            But a mist came down, and caught her away,
+             And he sought her in vain through the pathless day,
+
+            Till he wept with the grief that can do no more,
+             And thought he had dreamt the dream before.
+
+            From bursting heart the weeping flowed on;
+             And lo! beside him the ghost-girl shone;
+
+            Shone like the light on a harbour's breast,
+             Over the sea of his dream's unrest;
+
+            Shone like the wondrous, nameless boon,
+             That the heart seeks ever, night or noon:
+
+            Warnings forgotten, when needed most,
+             He clasped to his bosom the radiant ghost.
+
+            She wailed aloud, and faded, and sank.
+             With upturn'd white face, cold and blank,
+
+            In his arms lay the corpse of the maiden pale,
+             And she came no more to Sir Aglovaile.
+
+            Only a voice, when winds were wild,
+             Sobbed and wailed like a chidden child.
+
+            Alas, how easily things go wrong!
+             A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
+             And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
+             And life is never the same again.
+
+This was one of the simplest of her songs, which, perhaps, is
+the cause of my being able to remember it better than most of the
+others. While she sung, I was in Elysium, with the sense of a
+rich soul upholding, embracing, and overhanging mine, full of all
+plenty and bounty.  I felt as if she could give me everything I
+wanted; as if I should never wish to leave her, but would be
+content to be sung to and fed by her, day after day, as years
+rolled by.  At last I fell asleep while she sang.
+
+When I awoke, I knew not whether it was night or day.  The fire
+had sunk to a few red embers, which just gave light enough to
+show me the woman standing a few feet from me, with her back
+towards me, facing the door by which I had entered.  She was
+weeping, but very gently and plentifully.  The tears seemed to
+come freely from her heart.  Thus she stood for a few minutes;
+then, slowly turning at right angles to her former position, she
+faced another of the four sides of the cottage.  I now observed,
+for the first time, that here was a door likewise; and that,
+indeed, there was one in the centre of every side of the cottage.
+
+When she looked towards the second door, her tears ceased to
+flow, but sighs took their place.  She often closed her eyes as
+she stood; and every time she closed her eyes, a gentle sigh
+seemed to be born in her heart, and to escape at her lips.  But
+when her eyes were open, her sighs were deep and very sad, and
+shook her whole frame.  Then she turned towards the third door,
+and a cry as of fear or suppressed pain broke from her; but she
+seemed to hearten herself against the dismay, and to front it
+steadily; for, although I often heard a slight cry, and sometimes
+a moan, yet she never moved or bent her head, and I felt sure
+that her eyes never closed.  Then she turned to the fourth door,
+and I saw her shudder, and then stand still as a statue; till at
+last she turned towards me and approached the fire.  I saw that
+her face was white as death.  But she gave one look upwards, and
+smiled the sweetest, most child-innocent smile; then heaped fresh
+wood on the fire, and, sitting down by the blaze, drew her wheel
+near her, and began to spin.  While she spun, she murmured a low
+strange song, to which the hum of the wheel made a kind of
+infinite symphony.  At length she paused in her spinning and
+singing, and glanced towards me, like a mother who looks whether
+or not her child gives signs of waking.  She smiled when she saw
+that my eyes were open.  I asked her whether it was day yet.  She
+answered, "It is always day here, so long as I keep my fire
+burning."
+
+I felt wonderfully refreshed; and a great desire to see more of
+the island awoke within me.  I rose, and saying that I wished to
+look about me, went towards the door by which I had entered.
+
+"Stay a moment," said my hostess, with some trepidation in her
+voice.  "Listen to me.  You will not see what you expect when you
+go out of that door.  Only remember this: whenever you wish to
+come back to me, enter wherever you see this mark."
+
+She held up her left hand between me and the fire.  Upon the
+palm, which appeared almost transparent, I saw, in dark red, a
+mark like this --> which I took care to fix in my mind.  
+
+She then kissed me, and bade me good-bye with a solemnity that
+awed me; and bewildered me too, seeing I was only going out for a
+little ramble in an island, which I did not believe larger than
+could easily be compassed in a few hours' walk at most.  As I
+went she resumed her spinning.
+
+I opened the door, and stepped out.  The moment my foot touched
+the smooth sward, I seemed to issue from the door of an old barn
+on my father's estate, where, in the hot afternoons, I used to go
+and lie amongst the straw, and read.  It seemed to me now that I
+had been asleep there.  At a little distance in the field, I saw
+two of my brothers at play.  The moment they caught sight of me,
+they called out to me to come and join them, which I did; and we
+played together as we had done years ago, till the red sun went
+down in the west, and the gray fog began to rise from the river. 
+Then we went home together with a strange happiness.  As we went,
+we heard the continually renewed larum of a landrail in the long
+grass.  One of my brothers and I separated to a little distance,
+and each commenced running towards the part whence the sound
+appeared to come, in the hope of approaching the spot where the
+bird was, and so getting at least a sight of it, if we should not
+be able to capture the little creature.  My father's voice
+recalled us from trampling down the rich long grass, soon to be
+cut down and laid aside for the winter.  I had quite forgotten
+all about Fairy Land, and the wonderful old woman, and the
+curious red mark.
+
+My favourite brother and I shared the same bed.  Some childish
+dispute arose between us; and our last words, ere we fell asleep,
+were not of kindness, notwithstanding the pleasures of the day. 
+When I woke in the morning, I missed him.  He had risen early,
+and had gone to bathe in the river.  In another hour, he was
+brought home drowned.  Alas! alas! if we had only gone to sleep
+as usual, the one with his arm about the other!  Amidst the
+horror of the moment, a strange conviction flashed across my
+mind, that I had gone through the very same once before.
+
+I rushed out of the house, I knew not why, sobbing and crying
+bitterly.  I ran through the fields in aimless distress, till,
+passing the old barn, I caught sight of a red mark on the door. 
+The merest trifles sometimes rivet the attention in the deepest
+misery; the intellect has so little to do with grief.  I went up
+to look at this mark, which I did not remember ever to have seen
+before.  As I looked at it, I thought I would go in and lie down
+amongst the straw, for I was very weary with running about and
+weeping.  I opened the door; and there in the cottage sat the old
+woman as I had left her, at her spinning-wheel.
+
+"I did not expect you quite so soon," she said, as I shut the
+door behind me.  I went up to the couch, and threw myself on it
+with that fatigue wherewith one awakes from a feverish dream of
+hopeless grief.
+
+The old woman sang:
+
+        The great sun, benighted,
+             May faint from the sky;
+         But love, once uplighted,
+             Will never more die.
+
+        Form, with its brightness,
+             From eyes will depart:
+         It walketh, in whiteness,
+             The halls of the heart.
+
+Ere she had ceased singing, my courage had returned.  I started
+from the couch, and, without taking leave of the old woman,
+opened the door of Sighs, and sprang into what should appear.
+
+I stood in a lordly hall, where, by a blazing fire on the hearth,
+sat a lady, waiting, I knew, for some one long desired.  A mirror
+was near me, but I saw that my form had no place within its
+depths, so I feared not that I should be seen.  The lady
+wonderfully resembled my marble lady, but was altogether of the
+daughters of men, and I could not tell whether or not it was she.
+
+It was not for me she waited.  The tramp of a great horse rang
+through the court without.  It ceased, and the clang of armour
+told that his rider alighted, and the sound of his ringing heels
+approached the hall.  The door opened; but the lady waited, for
+she would meet her lord alone.  He strode in: she flew like a
+home-bound dove into his arms, and nestled on the hard steel.  It
+was the knight of the soiled armour.  But now the armour shone
+like polished glass; and strange to tell, though the mirror
+reflected not my form, I saw a dim shadow of myself in the
+shining steel.
+
+"O my beloved, thou art come, and I am blessed."
+
+Her soft fingers speedily overcame the hard clasp of his helmet;
+one by one she undid the buckles of his armour; and she toiled
+under the weight of the mail, as she WOULD carry it aside.  Then
+she unclasped his greaves, and unbuckled his spurs; and once more
+she sprang into his arms, and laid her head where she could now
+feel the beating of his heart.  Then she disengaged herself from
+his embrace, and, moving back a step or two, gazed at him.  He
+stood there a mighty form, crowned with a noble head, where all
+sadness had disappeared, or had been absorbed in solemn purpose. 
+Yet I suppose that he looked more thoughtful than the lady had
+expected to see him, for she did not renew her caresses, although
+his face glowed with love, and the few words he spoke were as
+mighty deeds for strength; but she led him towards the hearth,
+and seated him in an ancient chair, and set wine before him, and
+sat at his feet.
+
+"I am sad," he said, "when I think of the youth whom I met twice
+in the forests of Fairy Land; and who, you say, twice, with his
+songs, roused you from the death-sleep of an evil enchantment. 
+There was something noble in him, but it was a nobleness of
+thought, and not of deed.  He may yet perish of vile fear."
+
+"Ah!" returned the lady, "you saved him once, and for that I
+thank you; for may I not say that I somewhat loved him?  But tell
+me how you fared, when you struck your battle-axe into the
+ash-tree, and he came and found you; for so much of the story you
+had told me, when the beggar-child came and took you away."
+
+"As soon as I saw him," rejoined the knight, "I knew that earthly
+arms availed not against such as he; and that my soul must meet
+him in its naked strength.  So I unclasped my helm, and flung it
+on the ground; and, holding my good axe yet in my hand, gazed at
+him with steady eyes.  On he came, a horror indeed, but I did not
+flinch.  Endurance must conquer, where force could not reach.  He
+came nearer and nearer, till the ghastly face was close to mine. 
+A shudder as of death ran through me; but I think I did not move,
+for he seemed to quail, and retreated.  As soon as he gave back,
+I struck one more sturdy blow on the stem of his tree, that the
+forest rang; and then looked at him again.  He writhed and
+grinned with rage and apparent pain, and again approached me, but
+retreated sooner than before.  I heeded him no more, but hewed
+with a will at the tree, till the trunk creaked, and the head
+bowed, and with a crash it fell to the earth.  Then I looked up
+from my labour, and lo! the spectre had vanished, and I saw him
+no more; nor ever in my wanderings have I heard of him again."
+
+"Well struck! well withstood! my hero," said the lady.
+
+"But," said the knight, somewhat troubled, "dost thou love the
+youth still?"
+
+"Ah!" she replied, "how can I help it?  He woke me from worse
+than death; he loved me.  I had never been for thee, if he had
+not sought me first.  But I love him not as I love thee.  He was
+but the moon of my night; thou art the sun of my clay, O
+beloved."
+
+"Thou art right," returned the noble man.  "It were hard, indeed,
+not to have some love in return for such a gift as he hath given
+thee.  I, too, owe him more than words can speak."
+
+Humbled before them, with an aching and desolate heart, I yet
+could not restrain my words:
+
+"Let me, then, be the moon of thy night still, O woman!  And when
+thy day is beclouded, as the fairest days will be, let some song
+of mine comfort thee, as an old, withered, half-forgotten thing,
+that belongs to an ancient mournful hour of uncompleted birth,
+which yet was beautiful in its time."
+
+They sat silent, and I almost thought they were listening.  The
+colour of the lady's eyes grew deeper and deeper; the slow tears
+grew, and filled them, and overflowed.  They rose, and passed,
+hand in hand, close to where I stood; and each looked towards me
+in passing.  Then they disappeared through a door which closed
+behind them; but, ere it closed, I saw that the room into which
+it opened was a rich chamber, hung with gorgeous arras.  I stood
+with an ocean of sighs frozen in my bosom.  I could remain no
+longer.  She was near me, and I could not see her; near me in the
+arms of one loved better than I, and I would not see her, and I
+would not be by her.  But how to escape from the nearness of the
+best beloved?  I had not this time forgotten the mark; for the
+fact that I could not enter the sphere of these living beings
+kept me aware that, for me, I moved in a vision, while they moved
+in life.  I looked all about for the mark, but could see it
+nowhere; for I avoided looking just where it was.  There the dull
+red cipher glowed, on the very door of their secret chamber. 
+Struck with agony, I dashed it open, and fell at the feet of the
+ancient woman, who still spun on, the whole dissolved ocean of my
+sighs bursting from me in a storm of tearless sobs.  Whether I
+fainted or slept, I do not know; but, as I returned to
+consciousness, before I seemed to have power to move, I heard the
+woman singing, and could distinguish the words:
+
+        O light of dead and of dying days!
+             O Love! in thy glory go,
+         In a rosy mist and a moony maze,
+             O'er the pathless peaks of snow.
+
+        But what is left for the cold gray soul,
+             That moans like a wounded dove?
+         One wine is left in the broken bowl!--
+             'Tis-- TO LOVE, AND LOVE AND LOVE.
+
+ Now I could weep.  When she saw me weeping, she sang:
+
+        Better to sit at the waters' birth,
+             Than a sea of waves to win;
+         To live in the love that floweth forth,
+             Than the love that cometh in.
+
+        Be thy heart a well of love, my child,
+             Flowing, and free, and sure;
+         For a cistern of love, though undefiled,
+             Keeps not the spirit pure.
+
+I rose from the earth, loving the white lady as I had never loved
+her before.  
+
+Then I walked up to the door of Dismay, and opened it, and went
+out.  And lo! I came forth upon a crowded street, where men and
+women went to and fro in multitudes.  I knew it well; and,
+turning to one hand, walked sadly along the pavement.  Suddenly I
+saw approaching me, a little way off, a form well known to me
+(WELL-KNOWN!--alas, how weak the word!) in the years when I
+thought my boyhood was left behind, and shortly before I entered
+the realm of Fairy Land.  Wrong and Sorrow had gone together,
+hand-in-hand as it is well they do.
+
+Unchangeably dear was that face.  It lay in my heart as a child
+lies in its own white bed; but I could not meet her.
+
+"Anything but that," I said, and, turning aside, sprang up the
+steps to a door, on which I fancied I saw the mystic sign.  I
+entered--not the mysterious cottage, but her home.  I rushed
+wildly on, and stood by the door of her room.
+
+"She is out," I said, "I will see the old room once more."
+
+I opened the door gently, and stood in a great solemn church.  A
+deep- toned bell, whose sounds throbbed and echoed and swam
+through the empty building, struck the hour of midnight.  The
+moon shone through the windows of the clerestory, and enough of
+the ghostly radiance was diffused through the church to let me
+see, walking with a stately, yet somewhat trailing and stumbling
+step, down the opposite aisle, for I stood in one of the
+transepts, a figure dressed in a white robe, whether for the
+night, or for that longer night which lies too deep for the day,
+I could not tell.  Was it she? and was this her chamber?  I
+crossed the church, and followed.  The figure stopped, seemed to
+ascend as it were a high bed, and lay down.  I reached the place
+where it lay, glimmering white.  The bed was a tomb.  The light
+was too ghostly to see clearly, but I passed my hand over the
+face and the hands and the feet, which were all bare.  They were
+cold--they were marble, but I knew them.  It grew dark.  I turned
+to retrace my steps, but found, ere long, that I had wandered
+into what seemed a little chapel.  I groped about, seeking the
+door.  Everything I touched belonged to the dead.  My hands fell
+on the cold effigy of a knight who lay with his legs crossed and
+his sword broken beside him.  He lay in his noble rest, and I
+lived on in ignoble strife.  I felt for the left hand and a
+certain finger; I found there the ring I knew: he was one of my
+own ancestors.  I was in the chapel over the burial-vault of my
+race.  I called aloud:  "If any of the dead are moving here, let
+them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am still alive; and let some
+dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in the land of the
+dead, and see no light."  A warm kiss alighted on my lips through
+the dark.  And I said, "The dead kiss well; I will not be
+afraid."  And a great hand was reached out of the dark, and
+grasped mine for a moment, mightily and tenderly.  I said to
+myself:  "The veil between, though very dark, is very thin."
+
+Groping my way further, I stumbled over the heavy stone that
+covered the entrance of the vault: and, in stumbling, descried
+upon the stone the mark, glowing in red fire.  I caught the great
+ring.  All my effort could not have moved the huge slab; but it
+opened the door of the cottage, and I threw myself once more,
+pale and speechless, on the couch beside the ancient dame.  She
+sang once more:
+
+        Thou dreamest: on a rock thou art,
+             High o'er the broken wave;
+         Thou fallest with a fearful start
+             But not into thy grave;
+         For, waking in the morning's light,
+         Thou smilest at the vanished night
+
+        So wilt thou sink, all pale and dumb,
+             Into the fainting gloom;
+         But ere the coming terrors come,
+             Thou wak'st--where is the tomb?
+         Thou wak'st--the dead ones smile above,
+         With hovering arms of sleepless love.
+
+ She paused; then sang again:
+
+        We weep for gladness, weep for grief;
+             The tears they are the same;
+         We sigh for longing, and relief;
+             The sighs have but one name,
+
+        And mingled in the dying strife,
+             Are moans that are not sad
+          The pangs of death are throbs of life,
+             Its sighs are sometimes glad.  
+
+         The face is very strange and white:
+             It is Earth's only spot
+         That feebly flickers back the light
+             The living seeth not.
+
+ I fell asleep, and slept a dreamless sleep, for I know not how
+long.  When I awoke, I found that my hostess had moved from where
+she had been sitting, and now sat between me and the fourth door.
+
+I guessed that her design was to prevent my entering there.  I
+sprang from the couch, and darted past her to the door.  I opened
+it at once and went out.  All I remember is a cry of distress
+from the woman:  "Don't go there, my child!  Don't go there!" 
+But I was gone.
+
+I knew nothing more; or, if I did, I had forgot it all when I
+awoke to consciousness, lying on the floor of the cottage, with
+my head in the lap of the woman, who was weeping over me, and
+stroking my hair with both hands, talking to me as a mother might
+talk to a sick and sleeping, or a dead child.  As soon as I
+looked up and saw her, she smiled through her tears; smiled with
+withered face and young eyes, till her countenance was irradiated
+with the light of the smile.  Then she bathed my head and face
+and hands in an icy cold, colourless liquid, which smelt a little
+of damp earth.  Immediately I was able to sit up.  She rose and
+put some food before me.  When I had eaten, she said: 
+"Listen to me, my child.  You must leave me directly!"
+
+"Leave you!" I said.  "I am so happy with you.  I never was so
+happy in my life."
+
+"But you must go," she rejoined sadly.  "Listen!  What do you
+hear?"
+
+"I hear the sound as of a great throbbing of water."
+
+"Ah! you do hear it?  Well, I had to go through that door--the
+door of the Timeless" (and she shuddered as she pointed to the
+fourth door)-- "to find you; for if I had not gone, you would
+never have entered again; and because I went, the waters around
+my cottage will rise and rise, and flow and come, till they build
+a great firmament of waters over my dwelling.  But as long as I
+keep my fire burning, they cannot enter.  I have fuel enough for
+years; and after one year they will sink away again, and be just
+as they were before you came.  I have not been buried for a
+hundred years now."  And she smiled and wept.
+
+"Alas! alas!" I cried.  "I have brought this evil on the best and
+kindest of friends, who has filled my heart with great gifts."
+
+"Do not think of that," she rejoined.  "I can bear it very well. 
+You will come back to me some day, I know.  But I beg you, for my
+sake, my dear child, to do one thing.  In whatever sorrow you may
+be, however inconsolable and irremediable it may appear, believe
+me that the old woman in the cottage, with the young eyes" (and
+she smiled), "knows something, though she must not always tell
+it, that would quite satisfy you about it, even in the worst
+moments of your distress.
+
+Now you must go."
+
+"But how can I go, if the waters are all about, and if the doors
+all lead into other regions and other worlds?"
+
+"This is not an island," she replied; "but is joined to the land
+by a narrow neck; and for the door, I will lead you myself
+through the right one."
+
+She took my hand, and led me through the third door; whereupon I
+found myself standing in the deep grassy turf on which I had
+landed from the little boat, but upon the opposite side of the
+cottage.  She pointed out the direction I must take, to find the
+isthmus and escape the rising waters.
+
+Then putting her arms around me, she held me to her bosom; and as
+I kissed her, I felt as if I were leaving my mother for the first
+time, and could not help weeping bitterly.  At length she gently
+pushed me away, and with the words, "Go, my son, and do something
+worth doing," turned back, and, entering the cottage, closed the
+door behind her.
+I felt very desolate as I went.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XX
+
+            "Thou hadst no fame; that which thou didst like good
+         Was but thy appetite that swayed thy blood
+         For that time to the best; for as a blast
+         That through a house comes, usually doth cast
+         Things out of order, yet by chance may come
+         And blow some one thing to his proper room,
+         So did thy appetite, and not thy zeal,
+         Sway thee by chance to do some one thing well."         
+                              FLETCHER'S Faithful Shepherdess.
+
+            "The noble hart that harbours vertuous thought
+         And is with childe of glorious great intent,
+         Can never rest, until it forth have brought
+         Th' eternall brood of glorie excellent."                
+                              SPENSER, The Faerie Queene.
+
+I had not gone very far before I felt that the turf beneath my
+feet was soaked with the rising waters.  But I reached the
+isthmus in safety.  It was rocky, and so much higher than the
+level of the peninsula, that I had plenty of time to cross.  I
+saw on each side of me the water rising rapidly, altogether
+without wind, or violent motion, or broken waves, but as if a
+slow strong fire were glowing beneath it.  Ascending a steep
+acclivity, I found myself at last in an open, rocky country. 
+After travelling for some hours, as nearly in a straight line as
+I could, I arrived at a lonely tower, built on the top of a
+little hill, which overlooked the whole neighbouring country.  As
+I approached, I heard the clang of an anvil; and so rapid were
+the blows, that I despaired of making myself heard till a pause
+in the work should ensue.  It was some minutes before a cessation
+took place; but when it did, I knocked loudly, and had not long
+to wait; for, a moment after, the door was partly opened by a
+noble-looking youth, half-undressed, glowing with heat, and
+begrimed with the blackness of the forge.  In one hand he held a
+sword, so lately from the furnace that it yet shone with a dull
+fire.  As soon as he saw me, he threw the door wide open, and
+standing aside, invited me very cordially to enter.  I did so;
+when he shut and bolted the door most carefully, and then led the
+way inwards.  He brought me into a rude hall, which seemed to
+occupy almost the whole of the ground floor of the little tower,
+and which I saw was now being used as a workshop.  A huge fire
+roared on the hearth, beside which was an anvil.  By the anvil
+stood, in similar undress, and in a waiting attitude, hammer in
+hand, a second youth, tall as the former, but far more slightly
+built.  Reversing the usual course of perception in such
+meetings, I thought them, at first sight, very unlike; and at the
+second glance, knew that they were brothers.  The former, and
+apparently the elder, was muscular and dark, with curling hair,
+and large hazel eyes, which sometimes grew wondrously soft.  The
+second was slender and fair, yet with a countenance like an
+eagle, and an eye which, though pale blue, shone with an almost
+fierce expression.  He stood erect, as if looking from a lofty
+mountain crag, over a vast plain outstretched below.  As soon as
+we entered the hall, the elder turned to me, and I saw that a
+glow of satisfaction shone on both their faces.  To my surprise
+and great pleasure, he addressed me thus:
+
+"Brother, will you sit by the fire and rest, till we finish this
+part of our work?"
+
+I signified my assent; and, resolved to await any disclosure they
+might be inclined to make, seated myself in silence near the
+hearth.
+
+The elder brother then laid the sword in the fire, covered it
+well over, and when it had attained a sufficient degree of heat,
+drew it out and laid it on the anvil, moving it carefully about,
+while the younger, with a succession of quick smart blows,
+appeared either to be welding it, or hammering one part of it to
+a consenting shape with the rest.  Having finished, they laid it
+carefully in the fire; and, when it was very hot indeed, plunged
+it into a vessel full of some liquid, whence a blue flame sprang
+upwards, as the glowing steel entered.
+
+There they left it; and drawing two stools to the fire, sat down,
+one on each side of me.
+
+"We are very glad to see you, brother.  We have been expecting
+you for some days," said the dark-haired youth.
+
+"I am proud to be called your brother," I rejoined; "and you will
+not think I refuse the name, if I desire to know why you honour
+me with it?"
+
+"Ah! then he does not know about it," said the younger.  "We
+thought you had known of the bond betwixt us, and the work we
+have to do together.  You must tell him, brother, from the
+first."
+
+So the elder began:
+
+"Our father is king of this country.  Before we were born, three
+giant brothers had appeared in the land.  No one knew exactly
+when, and no one had the least idea whence they came.  They took
+possession of a ruined castle that had stood unchanged and
+unoccupied within the memory of any of the country people.  The
+vaults of this castle had remained uninjured by time, and these,
+I presume, they made use of at first.  They were rarely seen, and
+never offered the least injury to any one; so that they were
+regarded in the neighbourhood as at least perfectly harmless, if
+not rather benevolent beings.  But it began to be observed, that
+the old castle had assumed somehow or other, no one knew when or
+how, a somewhat different look from what it used to have.  Not
+only were several breaches in the lower part of the walls built
+up, but actually some of the battlements which yet stood, had
+been repaired, apparently to prevent them from falling into worse
+decay, while the more important parts were being restored.  Of
+course, every one supposed the giants must have a hand in the
+work, but no one ever saw them engaged in it.  The peasants
+became yet more uneasy, after one, who had concealed himself, and
+watched all night, in the neighbourhood of the castle, reported
+that he had seen, in full moonlight, the three huge giants
+working with might and main, all night long, restoring to their
+former position some massive stones, formerly steps of a grand
+turnpike stair, a great portion of which had long since fallen,
+along with part of the wall of the round tower in which it had
+been built.  This wall they were completing, foot by foot, along
+with the stair.  But the people said they had no just pretext for
+interfering: although the real reason for letting the giants
+alone was, that everybody was far too much afraid of them to
+interrupt them.
+
+"At length, with the help of a neighbouring quarry, the whole of
+the external wall of the castle was finished.  And now the
+country folks were in greater fear than before.  But for several
+years the giants remained very peaceful.  The reason of this was
+afterwards supposed to be the fact, that they were distantly
+related to several good people in the country; for, as long as
+these lived, they remained quiet; but as soon as they were all
+dead the real nature of the giants broke out.  Having completed
+the outside of their castle, they proceeded, by spoiling the
+country houses around them, to make a quiet luxurious provision
+for their comfort within.  Affairs reached such a pass, that the
+news of their robberies came to my father's ears; but he, alas!
+was so crippled in his resources, by a war he was carrying on
+with a neighbouring prince, that he could only spare a very few
+men, to attempt the capture of their stronghold.  Upon these the
+giants issued in the night, and slew every man of them.  And now,
+grown bolder by success and impunity, they no longer confined
+their depredations to property, but began to seize the persons of
+their distinguished neighbours, knights and ladies, and hold them
+in durance, the misery of which was heightened by all manner of
+indignity, until they were redeemed by their friends, at an
+exorbitant ransom.  Many knights have adventured their overthrow,
+but to their own instead; for they have all been slain, or
+captured, or forced to make a hasty retreat.  To crown their
+enormities, if any man now attempts their destruction, they,
+immediately upon his defeat, put one or more of their captives to
+a shameful death, on a turret in sight of all passers-by; so that
+they have been much less molested of late; and we, although we
+have burned, for years, to attack these demons and destroy them,
+dared not, for the sake of their captives, risk the adventure,
+before we should have reached at least our earliest manhood. 
+Now, however, we are preparing for the attempt; and the grounds
+of this preparation are these.  Having only the resolution, and
+not the experience necessary for the undertaking, we went and
+consulted a lonely woman of wisdom, who lives not very far from
+here, in the direction of the quarter from which you have come. 
+She received us most kindly, and gave us what seems to us the
+best of advice.  She first inquired what experience we had had in
+arms.  We told her we had been well exercised from our boyhood,
+and for some years had kept ourselves in constant practice, with
+a view to this necessity.
+
+"`But you have not actually fought for life and death?' said she.
+
+"We were forced to confess we had not.
+
+"`So much the better in some respects,' she replied.  `Now listen
+to me.  Go first and work with an armourer, for as long time as
+you find needful to obtain a knowledge of his craft; which will
+not be long, seeing your hearts will be all in the work.  Then go
+to some lonely tower, you two alone.  Receive no visits from man
+or woman.  There forge for yourselves every piece of armour that
+you wish to wear, or to use, in your coming encounter.  And keep
+up your exercises.
+
+As, however, two of you can be no match for the three giants, I
+will find you, if I can, a third brother, who will take on
+himself the third share of the fight, and the preparation. 
+Indeed, I have already seen one who will, I think, be the very
+man for your fellowship, but it will be some time before he comes
+to me.  He is wandering now without an aim.  I will show him to
+you in a glass, and, when he comes, you will know him at once. 
+If he will share your endeavours, you must teach him all you
+know, and he will repay you well, in present song, and in future
+deeds.'
+
+"She opened the door of a curious old cabinet that stood in the
+room.  On the inside of this door was an oval convex mirror. 
+Looking in it for some time, we at length saw reflected the place
+where we stood, and the old dame seated in her chair.  Our forms
+were not reflected.  But at the feet of the dame lay a young man,
+yourself, weeping.
+
+"`Surely this youth will not serve our ends,' said I, `for he
+weeps.'
+
+"The old woman smiled.  `Past tears are present strength,' said
+she.
+
+"`Oh!' said my brother, `I saw you weep once over an eagle you
+shot.'
+
+"`That was because it was so like you, brother,' I replied; `but
+indeed, this youth may have better cause for tears than that--I
+was wrong.' 
+
+"`Wait a while,' said the woman; `if I mistake not, he will make
+you weep till your tears are dry for ever.  Tears are the only
+cure for weeping.  And you may have need of the cure, before you
+go forth to fight the giants.  You must wait for him, in your
+tower, till he comes.'
+
+"Now if you will join us, we will soon teach you to make your
+armour; and we will fight together, and work together, and love
+each other as never three loved before.  And you will sing to us,
+will you not?"
+
+"That I will, when I can," I answered; "but it is only at times
+that the power of song comes upon me.  For that I must wait; but
+I have a feeling that if I work well, song will not be far off to
+enliven the labour."
+
+This was all the compact made: the brothers required nothing
+more, and I did not think of giving anything more.  I rose, and
+threw off my upper garments.
+
+"I know the uses of the sword," I said.  "I am ashamed of my
+white hands beside yours so nobly soiled and hard; but that shame
+will soon be wiped away."
+
+"No, no; we will not work to-day.  Rest is as needful as toil. 
+Bring the wine, brother; it is your turn to serve to-day."
+
+The younger brother soon covered a table with rough viands, but
+good wine; and we ate and drank heartily, beside our work. 
+Before the meal was over, I had learned all their story.  Each
+had something in his heart which made the conviction, that he
+would victoriously perish in the coming conflict, a real sorrow
+to him.  Otherwise they thought they would have lived enough. 
+The causes of their trouble were respectively these:
+
+While they wrought with an armourer, in a city famed for
+workmanship in steel and silver, the elder had fallen in love
+with a lady as far beneath him in real rank, as she was above the
+station he had as apprentice to an armourer.  Nor did he seek to
+further his suit by discovering himself; but there was simply so
+much manhood about him, that no one ever thought of rank when in
+his company.  This is what his brother said about it.  The lady
+could not help loving him in return.  He told her when he left
+her, that he had a perilous adventure before him, and that when
+it was achieved, she would either see him return to claim her, or
+hear that he had died with honour.  The younger brother's grief
+arose from the fact, that, if they were both slain, his old
+father, the king, would be childless.  His love for his father
+was so exceeding, that to one unable to sympathise with it, it
+would have appeared extravagant.  Both loved him equally at
+heart; but the love of the younger had been more developed,
+because his thoughts and anxieties had not been otherwise
+occupied.  When at home, he had been his constant companion; and,
+of late, had ministered to the infirmities of his growing age. 
+The youth was never weary of listening to the tales of his sire's
+youthful adventures; and had not yet in the smallest degree lost
+the conviction, that his father was the greatest man in the
+world.  The grandest triumph possible to his conception was, to
+return to his father, laden with the spoils of one of the hated
+giants.  But they both were in some dread, lest the thought of
+the loneliness of these two might occur to them, in the moment
+when decision was most necessary, and disturb, in some degree,
+the self-possession requisite for the success of their attempt. 
+For, as I have said, they were yet untried in actual conflict. 
+"Now," thought I, "I see to what the powers of my gift must
+minister."  For my own part, I did not dread death, for I had
+nothing to care to live for; but I dreaded the encounter because
+of the responsibility connected with it.  I resolved however to
+work hard, and thus grow cool, and quick, and forceful.
+
+The time passed away in work and song, in talk and ramble, in
+friendly fight and brotherly aid.  I would not forge for myself
+armour of heavy mail like theirs, for I was not so powerful as
+they, and depended more for any success I might secure, upon
+nimbleness of motion, certainty of eye, and ready response of
+hand.  Therefore I began to make for myself a shirt of steel
+plates and rings; which work, while more troublesome, was better
+suited to me than the heavier labour.  Much assistance did the
+brothers give me, even after, by their instructions, I was able
+to make some progress alone.  Their work was in a moment
+abandoned, to render any required aid to mine.  As the old woman
+had promised, I tried to repay them with song; and many were the
+tears they both shed over my ballads and dirges.  The songs they
+liked best to hear were two which I made for them.  They were not
+half so good as many others I knew, especially some I had learned
+from the wise woman in the cottage; but what comes nearest to our
+needs we like the best.
+
+I         The king sat on his throne
+             Glowing in gold and red;
+         The crown in his right hand shone,
+             And the gray hairs crowned his head.
+
+        His only son walks in, 
+            And in walls of steel he stands:
+         Make me, O father, strong to win,
+             With the blessing of holy hands."
+
+        He knelt before his sire,
+             Who blessed him with feeble smile
+          His eyes shone out with a kingly fire,
+             But his old lips quivered the while.
+
+        "Go to the fight, my son,
+             Bring back the giant's head;
+         And the crown with which my brows have done,
+             Shall glitter on thine instead."
+
+        "My father, I seek no crowns,
+             But unspoken praise from thee;
+         For thy people's good, and thy renown,
+             I will die to set them free."  
+
+        The king sat down and waited there,
+             And rose not, night nor day;
+         Till a sound of shouting filled the air,
+             And cries of a sore dismay.
+
+        Then like a king he sat once more,
+             With the crown upon his head;
+         And up to the throne the people bore
+             A mighty giant dead.
+
+        And up to the throne the people bore
+             A pale and lifeless boy.
+         The king rose up like a prophet of yore,
+             In a lofty, deathlike joy.
+
+        He put the crown on the chilly brow:
+             "Thou should'st have reigned with me
+         But Death is the king of both, and now
+             I go to obey with thee.
+
+        "Surely some good in me there lay,
+             To beget the noble one."
+         The old man smiled like a winter day,
+             And fell beside his son.
+
+II         "O lady, thy lover is dead," they cried;
+             "He is dead, but hath slain the foe;
+         He hath left his name to be magnified
+             In a song of wonder and woe."
+
+        "Alas! I am well repaid," said she,
+             "With a pain that stings like joy:
+         For I feared, from his tenderness to me,
+             That he was but a feeble boy.
+
+        "Now I shall hold my head on high,
+             The queen among my kind;
+         If ye hear a sound, 'tis only a sigh
+             For a glory left behind."
+
+The first three times I sang these songs they both wept
+passionately.  But after the third time, they wept no more. 
+Their eyes shone, and their faces grew pale, but they never wept
+at any of my songs again.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXI
+
+        "I put my life in my hands."--The Book of Judges.
+
+At length, with much toil and equal delight, our armour was
+finished.  We armed each other, and tested the strength of the
+defence, with many blows of loving force.  I was inferior in
+strength to both my brothers, but a little more agile than
+either; and upon this agility, joined to precision in hitting
+with the point of my weapon, I grounded my hopes of success in
+the ensuing combat.  I likewise laboured to develop yet more the
+keenness of sight with which I was naturally gifted; and, from
+the remarks of my companions, I soon learned that my endeavours
+were not in vain.
+
+The morning arrived on which we had determined to make the
+attempt, and succeed or perish--perhaps both.  We had resolved to
+fight on foot; knowing that the mishap of many of the knights who
+had made the attempt, had resulted from the fright of their
+horses at the appearance of the giants; and believing with Sir
+Gawain, that, though mare's sons might be false to us, the earth
+would never prove a traitor.  But most of our preparations were,
+in their immediate aim at least, frustrated.
+
+We rose, that fatal morning, by daybreak.  We had rested from all
+labour the day before, and now were fresh as the lark.  We bathed
+in cold spring water, and dressed ourselves in clean garments,
+with a sense of preparation, as for a solemn festivity.  When we
+had broken our fast, I took an old lyre, which I had found in the
+tower and had myself repaired, and sung for the last time the two
+ballads of which I have said so much already.  I followed them
+with this, for a closing song:
+
+        Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+             With the blow that ends the strife
+         And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+             Around the pain of life!
+
+        We are dead, my brothers!  Our bodies clasp,
+             As an armour, our souls about;
+         This hand is the battle-axe I grasp,
+             And this my hammer stout.
+
+        Fear not, my brothers, for we are dead;
+             No noise can break our rest;
+         The calm of the grave is about the head,
+             And the heart heaves not the breast.
+
+         And our life we throw to our people back,
+             To live with, a further store;
+         We leave it them, that there be no lack
+             In the land where we live no more.
+
+         Oh, well for him who breaks his dream
+             With the blow that ends the strife
+          And, waking, knows the peace that flows
+             Around the noise of life!
+
+ As the last few tones of the instrument were following, like a
+dirge, the death of the song, we all sprang to our feet.  For,
+through one of the little windows of the tower, towards which I
+had looked as I sang, I saw, suddenly rising over the edge of the
+slope on which our tower stood, three enormous heads.  The
+brothers knew at once, by my looks, what caused my sudden
+movement.  We were utterly unarmed, and there was no time to arm.
+
+But we seemed to adopt the same resolution simultaneously; for
+each caught up his favourite weapon, and, leaving his defence
+behind, sprang to the door.  I snatched up a long rapier,
+abruptly, but very finely pointed, in my sword-hand, and in the
+other a sabre; the elder brother seized his heavy battle-axe; and
+the younger, a great, two-handed sword, which he wielded in one
+hand like a feather.  We had just time to get clear of the tower,
+embrace and say good-bye, and part to some little distance, that
+we might not encumber each other's motions, ere the triple
+giant-brotherhood drew near to attack us.  They were about twice
+our height, and armed to the teeth.  Through the visors of their
+helmets their monstrous eyes shone with a horrible ferocity.  I
+was in the middle position, and the middle giant approached me. 
+My eyes were busy with his armour, and I was not a moment in
+settling my mode of attack.  I saw that his body- armour was
+somewhat clumsily made, and that the overlappings in the lower
+part had more play than necessary; and I hoped that, in a
+fortunate moment, some joint would open a little, in a visible
+and accessible part.  I stood till he came near enough to aim a
+blow at me with the mace, which has been, in all ages, the
+favourite weapon of giants, when, of course, I leaped aside, and
+let the blow fall upon the spot where I had been standing.  I
+expected this would strain the joints of his armour yet more. 
+Full of fury, he made at me again; but I kept him busy,
+constantly eluding his blows, and hoping thus to fatigue him.  He
+did not seem to fear any assault from me, and I attempted none as
+yet; but while I watched his motions in order to avoid his blows,
+I, at the same time, kept equal watch upon those joints of his
+armour, through some one of which I hoped to reach his life.  At
+length, as if somewhat fatigued, he paused a moment, and drew
+himself slightly up; I bounded forward, foot and hand, ran my
+rapier right through to the armour of his back, let go the hilt,
+and passing under his right arm, turned as he fell, and flew at
+him with my sabre.  At one happy blow I divided the band of his
+helmet, which fell off, and allowed me, with a second cut across
+the eyes, to blind him quite; after which I clove his head, and
+turned, uninjured, to see how my brothers had fared.  Both the
+giants were down, but so were my brothers.  I flew first to the
+one and then to the other couple.  Both pairs of combatants were
+dead, and yet locked together, as in the death-struggle.  The
+elder had buried his battle-axe in the body of his foe, and had
+fallen beneath him as he fell.  The giant had strangled him in
+his own death-agonies.  The younger had nearly hewn off the left
+leg of his enemy; and, grappled with in the act, had, while they
+rolled together on the earth, found for his dagger a passage
+betwixt the gorget and cuirass of the giant, and stabbed him
+mortally in the throat.  The blood from the giant's throat was
+yet pouring over the hand of his foe, which still grasped the
+hilt of the dagger sheathed in the wound.  They lay silent.  I,
+the least worthy, remained the sole survivor in the lists.
+
+As I stood exhausted amidst the dead, after the first worthy deed
+of my life, I suddenly looked behind me, and there lay the
+Shadow, black in the sunshine.  I went into the lonely tower, and
+there lay the useless armour of the noble youths--supine as they.
+
+Ah, how sad it looked!  It was a glorious death, but it was
+death.  My songs could not comfort me now.  I was almost ashamed
+that I was alive, when they, the true-hearted, were no more.  And
+yet I breathed freer to think that I had gone through the trial,
+and had not failed.  And perhaps I may be forgiven, if some
+feelings of pride arose in my bosom, when I looked down on the
+mighty form that lay dead by my hand.
+
+"After all, however," I said to myself, and my heart sank, "it
+was only skill.  Your giant was but a blunderer."
+
+I left the bodies of friends and foes, peaceful enough when the
+death- fight was over, and, hastening to the country below,
+roused the peasants.  They came with shouting and gladness,
+bringing waggons to carry the bodies.  I resolved to take the
+princes home to their father, each as he lay, in the arms of his
+country's foe.  But first I searched the giants, and found the
+keys of their castle, to which I repaired, followed by a great
+company of the people.  It was a place of wonderful strength.  I
+released the prisoners, knights and ladies, all in a sad
+condition, from the cruelties and neglects of the giants.  It
+humbled me to see them crowding round me with thanks, when in
+truth the glorious brothers, lying dead by their lonely tower,
+were those to whom the thanks belonged.  I had but aided in
+carrying out the thought born in their brain, and uttered in
+visible form before ever I laid hold thereupon.  Yet I did count
+myself happy to have been chosen for their brother in this great
+dead. 
+
+After a few hours spent in refreshing and clothing the prisoners,
+we all commenced our journey towards the capital.  This was slow
+at first; but, as the strength and spirits of the prisoners
+returned, it became more rapid; and in three days we reached the
+palace of the king.  As we entered the city gates, with the huge
+bulks lying each on a waggon drawn by horses, and two of them
+inextricably intertwined with the dead bodies of their princes,
+the people raised a shout and then a cry, and followed in
+multitudes the solemn procession.
+
+I will not attempt to describe the behaviour of the grand old
+king.  Joy and pride in his sons overcame his sorrow at their
+loss.  On me he heaped every kindness that heart could devise or
+hand execute.  He used to sit and question me, night after night,
+about everything that was in any way connected with them and
+their preparations.  Our mode of life, and relation to each
+other, during the time we spent together, was a constant theme. 
+He entered into the minutest details of the construction of the
+armour, even to a peculiar mode of riveting some of the plates,
+with unwearying interest.  This armour I had intended to beg of
+the king, as my sole memorials of the contest; but, when I saw
+the delight he took in contemplating it, and the consolation it
+appeared to afford him in his sorrow, I could not ask for it;
+but, at his request, left my own, weapons and all, to be joined
+with theirs in a trophy, erected in the grand square of the
+palace.  The king, with gorgeous ceremony, dubbed me knight with
+his own old hand, in which trembled the sword of his youth.
+
+During the short time I remained, my company was, naturally, much
+courted by the young nobles.  I was in a constant round of gaiety
+and diversion, notwithstanding that the court was in mourning. 
+For the country was so rejoiced at the death of the giants, and
+so many of their lost friends had been restored to the nobility
+and men of wealth, that the gladness surpassed the grief.  "Ye
+have indeed left your lives to your people, my great brothers!" I
+said.
+
+But I was ever and ever haunted by the old shadow, which I had
+not seen all the time that I was at work in the tower.  Even in
+the society of the ladies of the court, who seemed to think it
+only their duty to make my stay there as pleasant to me as
+possible, I could not help being conscious of its presence,
+although it might not be annoying me at the time.  At length,
+somewhat weary of uninterrupted pleasure, and nowise strengthened
+thereby, either in body or mind, I put on a splendid suit of
+armour of steel inlaid with silver, which the old king had given
+me, and, mounting the horse on which it had been brought to me,
+took my leave of the palace, to visit the distant city in which
+the lady dwelt, whom the elder prince had loved.  I anticipated a
+sore task, in conveying to her the news of his glorious fate: but
+this trial was spared me, in a manner as strange as anything that
+had happened to me in Fairy Land.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXII
+       
+        "No one has my form but the I."
+          Schoppe, in JEAN PAUL'S Titan.
+
+                    "Joy's a subtil elf.
+         I think man's happiest when he forgets himself."        
+                       CYRIL TOURNEUR, The Revenger's Tragedy.
+On the third day of my journey, I was riding gently along a road,
+apparently little frequented, to judge from the grass that grew
+upon it.  I was approaching a forest.  Everywhere in Fairy Land
+forests are the places where one may most certainly expect
+adventures.  As I drew near, a youth, unarmed, gentle, and
+beautiful, who had just cut a branch from a yew growing on the
+skirts of the wood, evidently to make himself a bow, met me, and
+thus accosted me:
+
+"Sir knight, be careful as thou ridest through this forest; for
+it is said to be strangely enchanted, in a sort which even those
+who have been witnesses of its enchantment can hardly describe."
+
+I thanked him for his advice, which I promised to follow, and
+rode on.  But the moment I entered the wood, it seemed to me
+that, if enchantment there was, it must be of a good kind; for
+the Shadow, which had been more than usually dark and
+distressing, since I had set out on this journey, suddenly
+disappeared.  I felt a wonderful elevation of spirits, and began
+to reflect on my past life, and especially on my combat with the
+giants, with such satisfaction, that I had actually to remind
+myself, that I had only killed one of them; and that, but for the
+brothers, I should never have had the idea of attacking them, not
+to mention the smallest power of standing to it.  Still I
+rejoiced, and counted myself amongst the glorious knights of old;
+having even the unspeakable presumption--my shame and self-
+condemnation at the memory of it are such, that I write it as the
+only and sorest penance I can perform--to think of myself (will
+the world believe it?) as side by side with Sir Galahad! 
+Scarcely had the thought been born in my mind, when, approaching
+me from the left, through the trees, I espied a resplendent
+knight, of mighty size, whose armour seemed to shine of itself,
+without the sun.  When he drew near, I was astonished to see that
+this armour was like my own; nay, I could trace, line for line,
+the correspondence of the inlaid silver to the device on my own. 
+His horse, too, was like mine in colour, form, and motion; save
+that, like his rider, he was greater and fiercer than his
+counterpart.  The knight rode with beaver up.  As he halted right
+opposite to me in the narrow path, barring my way, I saw the
+reflection of my countenance in the centre plate of shining steel
+on his breastplate.  Above it rose the same face--his face--only,
+as I have said, larger and fiercer.  I was bewildered.  I could
+not help feeling some admiration of him, but it was mingled with
+a dim conviction that he was evil, and that I ought to fight with
+him.
+
+"Let me pass," I said.
+
+"When I will," he replied.
+
+Something within me said:  "Spear in rest, and ride at him! else
+thou art for ever a slave."
+
+I tried, but my arm trembled so much, that I could not couch my
+lance.  To tell the truth, I, who had overcome the giant, shook
+like a coward before this knight.  He gave a scornful laugh, that
+echoed through the wood, turned his horse, and said, without
+looking round, "Follow me."
+
+I obeyed, abashed and stupefied.  How long he led, and how long I
+followed, I cannot tell.  "I never knew misery before," I said to
+myself.  "Would that I had at least struck him, and had had my
+death- blow in return!  Why, then, do I not call to him to wheel
+and defend himself?  Alas!  I know not why, but I cannot.  One
+look from him would cow me like a beaten hound."  I followed, and
+was silent.
+
+At length we came to a dreary square tower, in the middle of a
+dense forest.  It looked as if scarce a tree had been cut down to
+make room for it.  Across the very door, diagonally, grew the
+stem of a tree, so large that there was just room to squeeze past
+it in order to enter.  One miserable square hole in the roof was
+the only visible suggestion of a window.  Turret or battlement,
+or projecting masonry of any kind, it had none.  Clear and smooth
+and massy, it rose from its base, and ended with a line straight
+and unbroken.  The roof, carried to a centre from each of the
+four walls, rose slightly to the point where the rafters met. 
+Round the base lay several little heaps of either bits of broken
+branches, withered and peeled, or half- whitened bones; I could
+not distinguish which.  As I approached, the ground sounded
+hollow beneath my horse's hoofs.  The knight took a great key
+from his pocket, and reaching past the stem of the tree, with
+some difficulty opened the door.  "Dismount," he commanded.  I
+obeyed.  He turned my horse's head away from the tower, gave him
+a terrible blow with the flat side of his sword, and sent him
+madly tearing through the forest.
+
+"Now," said he, "enter, and take your companion with you."
+
+I looked round: knight and horse had vanished, and behind me lay
+the horrible shadow.  I entered, for I could not help myself; and
+the shadow followed me.  I had a terrible conviction that the
+knight and he were one.  The door closed behind me.
+
+Now I was indeed in pitiful plight.  There was literally nothing
+in the tower but my shadow and me.  The walls rose right up to
+the roof; in which, as I had seen from without, there was one
+little square opening.  This I now knew to be the only window the
+tower possessed.  I sat down on the floor, in listless
+wretchedness.  I think I must have fallen asleep, and have slept
+for hours; for I suddenly became aware of existence, in observing
+that the moon was shining through the hole in the roof.  As she
+rose higher and higher, her light crept down the wall over me,
+till at last it shone right upon my head.  Instantaneously the
+walls of the tower seemed to vanish away like a mist.  I sat
+beneath a beech, on the edge of a forest, and the open country
+lay, in the moonlight, for miles and miles around me, spotted
+with glimmering houses and spires and towers.  I thought with
+myself, "Oh, joy! it was only a dream; the horrible narrow waste
+is gone, and I wake beneath a beech-tree, perhaps one that loves
+me, and I can go where I will."  I rose, as I thought, and walked
+about, and did what I would, but ever kept near the tree; for
+always, and, of course, since my meeting with the woman of the
+beech-tree far more than ever, I loved that tree.  So the night
+wore on.  I waited for the sun to rise, before I could venture to
+renew my journey.  But as soon as the first faint light of the
+dawn appeared, instead of shining upon me from the eye of the
+morning, it stole like a fainting ghost through the little square
+hole above my head; and the walls came out as the light grew, and
+the glorious night was swallowed up of the hateful day.  The long
+dreary day passed.  My shadow lay black on the floor.  I felt no
+hunger, no need of food.  The night came.  The moon shone.  I
+watched her light slowly descending the wall, as I might have
+watched, adown the sky, the long, swift approach of a helping
+angel.  Her rays touched me, and I was free.  Thus night after
+night passed away.  I should have died but for this.  Every night
+the conviction returned, that I was free.  Every morning I sat
+wretchedly disconsolate.  At length, when the course of the moon
+no longer permitted her beams to touch me, the night was dreary
+as the day.
+
+When I slept, I was somewhat consoled by my dreams; but all the
+time I dreamed, I knew that I was only dreaming.  But one night,
+at length, the moon, a mere shred of pallor, scattered a few thin
+ghostly rays upon me; and I think I fell asleep and dreamed.  I
+sat in an autumn night before the vintage, on a hill overlooking
+my own castle.  My heart sprang with joy.  Oh, to be a child
+again, innocent, fearless, without shame or desire!  I walked
+down to the castle.  All were in consternation at my absence.  My
+sisters were weeping for my loss.  They sprang up and clung to
+me, with incoherent cries, as I entered.  My old friends came
+flocking round me.  A gray light shone on the roof of the hall. 
+It was the light of the dawn shining through the square window of
+my tower.  More earnestly than ever, I longed for freedom after
+this dream; more drearily than ever, crept on the next wretched
+day.  I measured by the sunbeams, caught through the little
+window in the trap of my tower, how it went by, waiting only for
+the dreams of the night.
+
+About noon, I started as if something foreign to all my senses
+and all my experience, had suddenly invaded me; yet it was only
+the voice of a woman singing.  My whole frame quivered with joy,
+surprise, and the sensation of the unforeseen.  Like a living
+soul, like an incarnation of Nature, the song entered my
+prison-house.  Each tone folded its wings, and laid itself, like
+a caressing bird, upon my heart.  It bathed me like a sea;
+inwrapt me like an odorous vapour; entered my soul like a long
+draught of clear spring-water; shone upon me like essential
+sunlight; soothed me like a mother's voice and hand.  Yet, as the
+clearest forest-well tastes sometimes of the bitterness of
+decayed leaves, so to my weary, prisoned heart, its cheerfulness
+had a sting of cold, and its tenderness unmanned me with the
+faintness of long-departed joys.  I wept half-bitterly,
+half-luxuriously; but not long.  I dashed away the tears, ashamed
+of a weakness which I thought I had abandoned.  Ere I knew, I had
+walked to the door, and seated myself with my ears against it, in
+order to catch every syllable of the revelation from the unseen
+outer world.  And now I heard each word distinctly.  The singer
+seemed to be standing or sitting near the tower, for the sounds
+indicated no change of place.  The song was something like this:
+
+         The sun, like a golden knot on high,
+         Gathers the glories of the sky,
+         And binds them into a shining tent,
+         Roofing the world with the firmament.
+         And through the pavilion the rich winds blow,
+         And through the pavilion the waters go.
+         And the birds for joy, and the trees for prayer,
+         Bowing their heads in the sunny air,
+         And for thoughts, the gently talking springs,
+         That come from the centre with secret things--
+         All make a music, gentle and strong,
+         Bound by the heart into one sweet song.
+         And amidst them all, the mother Earth
+         Sits with the children of her birth;
+         She tendeth them all, as a mother hen
+         Her little ones round her, twelve or ten:
+         Oft she sitteth, with hands on knee,
+         Idle with love for her family.
+         Go forth to her from the dark and the dust,
+         And weep beside her, if weep thou must;
+         If she may not hold thee to her breast,
+         Like a weary infant, that cries for rest
+         At least she will press thee to her knee,
+         And tell a low, sweet tale to thee,
+         Till the hue to thy cheeky and the light to thine eye,
+         Strength to thy limbs, and courage high
+         To thy fainting heart, return amain,
+         And away to work thou goest again.
+         From the narrow desert, O man of pride,
+         Come into the house, so high and wide.
+
+
+Hardly knowing what I did, I opened the door.  Why had I not done
+so before?  I do not know.
+
+At first I could see no one; but when I had forced myself past
+the tree which grew across the entrance, I saw, seated on the
+ground, and leaning against the tree, with her back to my prison,
+a beautiful woman.  Her countenance seemed known to me, and yet
+unknown.  She looked at me and smiled, when I made my appearance.
+
+"Ah! were you the prisoner there?  I am very glad I have wiled
+you out."
+
+"Do you know me then?"
+"Do you not know me?  But you hurt me, and that, I suppose, makes
+it easy for a man to forget.  You broke my globe.  Yet I thank
+you.  Perhaps I owe you many thanks for breaking it.  I took the
+pieces, all black, and wet with crying over them, to the Fairy
+Queen.  There was no music and no light in them now.  But she
+took them from me, and laid them aside; and made me go to sleep
+in a great hall of white, with black pillars, and many red
+curtains.  When I woke in the morning, I went to her, hoping to
+have my globe again, whole and sound; but she sent me away
+without it, and I have not seen it since.  Nor do I care for it
+now.  I have something so much better.  I do not need the globe
+to play to me; for I can sing.  I could not sing at all before. 
+Now I go about everywhere through Fairy Land, singing till my
+heart is like to break, just like my globe, for very joy at my
+own songs.  And wherever I go, my songs do good, and deliver
+people.  And now I have delivered you, and I am so happy."
+
+She ceased, and the tears came into her eyes.
+
+All this time, I had been gazing at her; and now fully recognised
+the face of the child, glorified in the countenance of the woman.
+
+I was ashamed and humbled before her; but a great weight was
+lifted from my thoughts.  I knelt before her, and thanked her,
+and begged her to forgive me.
+
+"Rise, rise," she said; "I have nothing to forgive; I thank you. 
+But now I must be gone, for I do not know how many may be waiting
+for me, here and there, through the dark forests; and they cannot
+come out till I come."
+
+She rose, and with a smile and a farewell, turned and left me.  I
+dared not ask her to stay; in fact, I could hardly speak to her. 
+Between her and me, there was a great gulf.  She was uplifted, by
+sorrow and well-doing, into a region I could hardly hope ever to
+enter.  I watched her departure, as one watches a sunset.  She
+went like a radiance through the dark wood, which was henceforth
+bright to me, from simply knowing that such a creature was in it.
+
+She was bearing the sun to the unsunned spots.  The light and the
+music of her broken globe were now in her heart and her brain. 
+As she went, she sang; and I caught these few words of her song;
+and the tones seemed to linger and wind about the trees after she
+had disappeared:
+
+             Thou goest thine, and I go mine--
+             Many ways we wend;
+             Many days, and many ways,
+             Ending in one end.  
+
+             Many a wrong, and its curing song;
+             Many a road, and many an inn;
+             Room to roam, but only one home
+             For all the world to win.
+ And so she vanished.  With a sad heart, soothed by humility, and
+the knowledge of her peace and gladness, I bethought me what now
+I should do.  First, I must leave the tower far behind me, lest,
+in some evil moment, I might be once more caged within its
+horrible walls.  But it was ill walking in my heavy armour; and
+besides I had now no right to the golden spurs and the
+resplendent mail, fitly dulled with long neglect.  I might do for
+a squire; but I honoured knighthood too highly, to call myself
+any longer one of the noble brotherhood.  I stripped off all my
+armour, piled it under the tree, just where the lady had been
+seated, and took my unknown way, eastward through the woods.  Of
+all my weapons, I carried only a short axe in my hand.
+
+Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to
+myself, "I am what I am, nothing more."  "I have failed," I said,
+"I have lost myself--would it had been my shadow."  I looked
+round: the shadow was nowhere to be seen.  Ere long, I learned
+that it was not myself, but only my shadow, that I had lost.  I
+learned that it is better, a thousand-fold, for a proud man to
+fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and
+fancied innocence.  I learned that he that will be a hero, will
+barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his
+work, is sure of his manhood.  In nothing was my ideal lowered,
+or dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly, to
+set myself for a moment beside it.  Indeed, my ideal soon became
+my life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain
+attempt to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in
+my ideal.  Now, however, I took, at first, what perhaps was a
+mistaken pleasure, in despising and degrading myself.  Another
+self seemed to arise, like a white spirit from a dead man, from
+the dumb and trampled self of the past.  Doubtless, this self
+must again die and be buried, and again, from its tomb, spring a
+winged child; but of this my history as yet bears not the record.
+
+Self will come to life even in the slaying of self; but there is
+ever something deeper and stronger than it, which will emerge at
+last from the unknown abysses of the soul: will it be as a solemn
+gloom, burning with eyes? or a clear morning after the rain? or a
+smiling child, that finds itself nowhere, and everywhere?
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII
+
+        "High erected thought, seated in a heart of courtesy."   
+                                SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
+
+            "A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
+                 A full assurance given by lookes,
+              Continuall comfort in a face,
+                 The lineaments of Gospel bookes."               
+                           MATTHEW ROYDON, on Sir Philip Sidney.
+I had not gone far, for I had but just lost sight of the hated
+tower, when a voice of another sort, sounding near or far, as the
+trees permitted or intercepted its passage, reached me.  It was a
+full, deep, manly voice, but withal clear and melodious.  Now it
+burst on the ear with a sudden swell, and anon, dying away as
+suddenly, seemed to come to me across a great space. 
+Nevertheless, it drew nearer; till, at last, I could distinguish
+the words of the song, and get transient glimpses of the singer,
+between the columns of the trees.  He came nearer, dawning upon
+me like a growing thought.  He was a knight, armed from head to
+heel, mounted upon a strange-looking beast, whose form I could
+not understand.  The words which I heard him sing were like
+these:
+
+          Heart be stout,
+           And eye be true;     
+          Good blade out!         
+           And ill shall rue.
+     
+          Courage, horse!         
+           Thou lackst no skill;     
+          Well thy force         
+           Hath matched my will.
+
+          For the foe
+           With fiery breath,     
+          At a blow,         
+           It still in death.
+
+          Gently, horse!
+           Tread fearlessly;
+         'Tis his corse
+           That burdens thee.
+
+          The sun's eye
+           Is fierce at noon;
+          Thou and I
+           Will rest full soon.
+
+          And new strength
+           New work will meet;
+          Till, at length,
+           Long rest is sweet.
+
+And now horse and rider had arrived near enough for me to see,
+fastened by the long neck to the hinder part of the saddle, and
+trailing its hideous length on the ground behind, the body of a
+great dragon.  It was no wonder that, with such a drag at his
+heels, the horse could make but slow progress, notwithstanding
+his evident dismay.  The horrid, serpent-like head, with its
+black tongue, forked with red, hanging out of its jaws, dangled
+against the horse's side.  Its neck was covered with long blue
+hair, its sides with scales of green and gold.  Its back was of
+corrugated skin, of a purple hue.  Its belly was similar in
+nature, but its colour was leaden, dashed with blotches of livid
+blue.  Its skinny, bat-like wings and its tail were of a dull
+gray.  It was strange to see how so many gorgeous colours, so
+many curving lines, and such beautiful things as wings and hair
+and scales, combined to form the horrible creature, intense in
+ugliness.
+
+The knight was passing me with a salutation; but, as I walked
+towards him, he reined up, and I stood by his stirrup.  When I
+came near him, I saw to my surprise and pleasure likewise,
+although a sudden pain, like a birth of fire, sprang up in my
+heart, that it was the knight of the soiled armour, whom I knew
+before, and whom I had seen in the vision, with the lady of the
+marble.  But I could have thrown my arms around him, because she
+loved him.  This discovery only strengthened the resolution I had
+formed, before I recognised him, of offering myself to the
+knight, to wait upon him as a squire, for he seemed to be
+unattended.  I made my request in as few words as possible.  He
+hesitated for a moment, and looked at me thoughtfully.  I saw
+that he suspected who I was, but that he continued uncertain of
+his suspicion.  No doubt he was soon convinced of its truth; but
+all the time I was with him, not a word crossed his lips with
+reference to what he evidently concluded I wished to leave
+unnoticed, if not to keep concealed.
+
+"Squire and knight should be friends,"said he: "can you take me
+by the hand?"  And he held out the great gauntleted right hand. 
+I grasped it willingly and strongly.  Not a word more was said. 
+The knight gave the sign to his horse, which again began his slow
+march, and I walked beside and a little behind.
+
+We had not gone very far before we arrived at a little cottage;
+from which, as we drew near, a woman rushed out with the cry:
+
+"My child! my child! have you found my child?"
+
+"I have found her," replied the knight, "but she is sorely hurt. 
+I was forced to leave her with the hermit, as I returned.  You
+will find her there, and I think she will get better.  You see I
+have brought you a present.  This wretch will not hurt you
+again."  And he undid the creature's neck, and flung the
+frightful burden down by the cottage door.
+
+The woman was now almost out of sight in the wood; but the
+husband stood at the door, with speechless thanks in his face.
+
+"You must bury the monster," said the knight.  "If I had arrived
+a moment later, I should have been too late.  But now you need
+not fear, for such a creature as this very rarely appears, in the
+same part, twice during a lifetime."
+
+"Will you not dismount and rest you, Sir Knight?" said the
+peasant, who had, by this time, recovered himself a little. 
+
+"That I will, thankfully," said he; and, dismounting, he gave the
+reins to me, and told me to unbridle the horse, and lead him into
+the shade.  "You need not tie him up," he added; "he will not run
+away."
+
+When I returned, after obeying his orders, and entered the
+cottage, I saw the knight seated, without his helmet, and talking
+most familiarly with the simple host.  I stood at the open door
+for a moment, and, gazing at him, inwardly justified the white
+lady in preferring him to me.  A nobler countenance I never saw. 
+Loving-kindness beamed from every line of his face.  It seemed as
+if he would repay himself for the late arduous combat, by
+indulging in all the gentleness of a womanly heart.  But when the
+talk ceased for a moment, he seemed to fall into a reverie.  Then
+the exquisite curves of the upper lip vanished.  The lip was
+lengthened and compressed at the same moment.  You could have
+told that, within the lips, the teeth were firmly closed.  The
+whole face grew stern and determined, all but fierce; only the
+eyes burned on like a holy sacrifice, uplift on a granite rock.
+
+The woman entered, with her mangled child in her arms.  She was
+pale as her little burden.  She gazed, with a wild love and
+despairing tenderness, on the still, all but dead face, white and
+clear from loss of blood and terror.
+
+The knight rose.  The light that had been confined to his eyes,
+now shone from his whole countenance.  He took the little thing
+in his arms, and, with the mother's help, undressed her, and
+looked to her wounds.  The tears flowed down his face as he did
+so.  With tender hands he bound them up, kissed the pale cheek,
+and gave her back to her mother.  When he went home, all his tale
+would be of the grief and joy of the parents; while to me, who
+had looked on, the gracious countenance of the armed man, beaming
+from the panoply of steel, over the seemingly dead child, while
+the powerful hands turned it and shifted it, and bound it, if
+possible even more gently than the mother's, formed the centre of
+the story.
+
+After we had partaken of the best they could give us, the knight
+took his leave, with a few parting instructions to the mother as
+to how she should treat the child.
+
+I brought the knight his steed, held the stirrup while he
+mounted, and then followed him through the wood.  The horse,
+delighted to be free of his hideous load, bounded beneath the
+weight of man and armour, and could hardly be restrained from
+galloping on.  But the knight made him time his powers to mine,
+and so we went on for an hour or two.  Then the knight
+dismounted, and compelled me to get into the saddle, saying: 
+"Knight and squire must share the labour."
+
+Holding by the stirrup, he walked along by my side, heavily clad
+as he was, with apparent ease.  As we went, he led a
+conversation, in which I took what humble part my sense of my
+condition would permit me.
+
+"Somehow or other," said he, "notwithstanding the beauty of this
+country of Faerie, in which we are, there is much that is wrong
+in it.  If there are great splendours, there are corresponding
+horrors; heights and depths; beautiful women and awful fiends;
+noble men and weaklings.  All a man has to do, is to better what
+he can.  And if he will settle it with himself, that even renown
+and success are in themselves of no great value, and be content
+to be defeated, if so be that the fault is not his; and so go to
+his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he will get it
+done; and fare none the worse in the end, that he was not
+burdened with provision and precaution."
+
+"But he will not always come off well," I ventured to say.
+
+"Perhaps not," rejoined the knight, "in the individual act; but
+the result of his lifetime will content him."
+
+"So it will fare with you, doubtless," thought I; "but for
+me---"
+
+Venturing to resume the conversation after a pause, I said,
+hesitatingly:
+
+"May I ask for what the little beggar-girl wanted your aid, when
+she came to your castle to find you?"  
+
+He looked at me for a moment in silence, and then said--
+
+"I cannot help wondering how you know of that; but there is
+something about you quite strange enough to entitle you to the
+privilege of the country; namely, to go unquestioned.  I,
+however, being only a man, such as you see me, am ready to tell
+you anything you like to ask me, as far as I can.  The little
+beggar-girl came into the hall where I was sitting, and told me a
+very curious story, which I can only recollect very vaguely, it
+was so peculiar.  What I can recall is, that she was sent to
+gather wings.  As soon as she had gathered a pair of wings for
+herself, she was to fly away, she said, to the country she came
+from; but where that was, she could give no information.
+
+She said she had to beg her wings from the butterflies and moths;
+and wherever she begged, no one refused her.  But she needed a
+great many of the wings of butterflies and moths to make a pair
+for her; and so she had to wander about day after day, looking
+for butterflies, and night after night, looking for moths; and
+then she begged for their wings.  But the day before, she had
+come into a part of the forest, she said, where there were
+multitudes of splendid butterflies flitting about, with wings
+which were just fit to make the eyes in the shoulders of hers;
+and she knew she could have as many of them as she liked for the
+asking; but as soon as she began to beg, there came a great
+creature right up to her, and threw her down, and walked over
+her.  When she got up, she saw the wood was full of these beings
+stalking about, and seeming to have nothing to do with each
+other.  As soon as ever she began to beg, one of them walked over
+her; till at last in dismay, and in growing horror of the
+senseless creatures, she had run away to look for somebody to
+help her.  I asked her what they were like.  She said, like great
+men, made of wood, without knee- or elbow-joints, and without any
+noses or mouths or eyes in their faces.  I laughed at the little
+maiden, thinking she was making child's game of me; but, although
+she burst out laughing too, she persisted in asserting the truth
+of her story.
+
+"`Only come, knight, come and see; I will lead you.'
+
+"So I armed myself, to be ready for anything that might happen,
+and followed the child; for, though I could make nothing of her
+story, I could see she was a little human being in need of some
+help or other.  As she walked before me, I looked attentively at
+her.  Whether or not it was from being so often knocked down and
+walked over, I could not tell, but her clothes were very much
+torn, and in several places her white skin was peeping through. 
+I thought she was hump-backed; but on looking more closely, I
+saw, through the tatters of her frock--do not laugh at me--a
+bunch on each shoulder, of the most gorgeous colours.  Looking
+yet more closely, I saw that they were of the shape of folded
+wings, and were made of all kinds of butterfly-wings and
+moth-wings, crowded together like the feathers on the individual
+butterfly pinion; but, like them, most beautifully arranged, and
+producing a perfect harmony of colour and shade.  I could now
+more easily believe the rest of her story; especially as I saw,
+every now and then, a certain heaving motion in the wings, as if
+they longed to be uplifted and outspread.  But beneath her scanty
+garments complete wings could not be concealed, and indeed, from
+her own story, they were yet unfinished.
+
+"After walking for two or three hours (how the little girl found
+her way, I could not imagine), we came to a part of the forest,
+the very air of which was quivering with the motions of
+multitudes of resplendent butterflies; as gorgeous in colour, as
+if the eyes of peacocks' feathers had taken to flight, but of
+infinite variety of hue and form, only that the appearance of
+some kind of eye on each wing predominated.  `There they are,
+there they are!' cried the child, in a tone of victory mingled
+with terror.  Except for this tone, I should have thought she
+referred to the butterflies, for I could see nothing else.  But
+at that moment an enormous butterfly, whose wings had great eyes
+of blue surrounded by confused cloudy heaps of more dingy
+colouring, just like a break in the clouds on a stormy day
+towards evening, settled near us.  The child instantly began
+murmuring:  `Butterfly, butterfly, give me your wings'; when, the
+moment after, she fell to the ground, and began crying as if
+hurt.  I drew my sword and heaved a great blow in the direction
+in which the child had fallen.  It struck something, and
+instantly the most grotesque imitation of a man became visible. 
+You see this Fairy Land is full of oddities and all sorts of
+incredibly ridiculous things, which a man is compelled to meet
+and treat as real existences, although all the time he feels
+foolish for doing so.  This being, if being it could be called,
+was like a block of wood roughly hewn into the mere outlines of a
+man; and hardly so, for it had but head, body, legs, and arms--
+the head without a face, and the limbs utterly formless.  I had
+hewn off one of its legs, but the two portions moved on as best
+they could, quite independent of each other; so that I had done
+no good.  I ran after it, and clove it in twain from the head
+downwards; but it could not be convinced that its vocation was
+not to walk over people; for, as soon as the little girl began
+her begging again, all three parts came bustling up; and if I had
+not interposed my weight between her and them, she would have
+been trampled again under them.  I saw that something else must
+be done.  If the wood was full of the creatures, it would be an
+endless work to chop them so small that they could do no injury;
+and then, besides, the parts would be so numerous, that the
+butterflies would be in danger from the drift of flying chips.  I
+served this one so, however; and then told the girl to beg again,
+and point out the direction in which one was coming.  I was glad
+to find, however, that I could now see him myself, and wondered
+how they could have been invisible before.  I would not allow him
+to walk over the child; but while I kept him off, and she began
+begging again, another appeared; and it was all I could do, from
+the weight of my armour, to protect her from the stupid,
+persevering efforts of the two.  But suddenly the right plan
+occurred to me.  I tripped one of them up, and, taking him by the
+legs, set him up on his head, with his heels against a tree.  I
+was delighted to find he could not move.
+
+Meantime the poor child was walked over by the other, but it was
+for the last time.  Whenever one appeared, I followed the same
+plan-- tripped him up and set him on his head; and so the little
+beggar was able to gather her wings without any trouble, which
+occupation she continued for several hours in my company."
+
+"What became of her?" I asked.
+
+"I took her home with me to my castle, and she told me all her
+story; but it seemed to me, all the time, as if I were hearing a
+child talk in its sleep.  I could not arrange her story in my
+mind at all, although it seemed to leave hers in some certain
+order of its own.  My wife---"
+
+Here the knight checked himself, and said no more.  Neither did I
+urge the conversation farther.
+
+Thus we journeyed for several days, resting at night in such
+shelter as we could get; and when no better was to be had, lying
+in the forest under some tree, on a couch of old leaves.
+
+I loved the knight more and more.  I believe never squire served
+his master with more care and joyfulness than I.  I tended his
+horse; I cleaned his armour; my skill in the craft enabled me to
+repair it when necessary; I watched his needs; and was well
+repaid for all by the love itself which I bore him.
+
+"This," I said to myself, "is a true man.  I will serve him, and
+give him all worship, seeing in him the imbodiment of what I
+would fain become.  If I cannot be noble myself, I will yet be
+servant to his nobleness."  He, in return, soon showed me such
+signs of friendship and respect, as made my heart glad; and I
+felt that, after all, mine would be no lost life, if I might wait
+on him to the world's end, although no smile but his should greet
+me, and no one but him should say, "Well done! he was a good
+servant!" at last.  But I burned to do something more for him
+than the ordinary routine of a squire's duty permitted.
+
+One afternoon, we began to observe an appearance of roads in the
+wood.  Branches had been cut down, and openings made, where
+footsteps had worn no path below.  These indications increased as
+we passed on, till, at length, we came into a long, narrow
+avenue, formed by felling the trees in its line, as the remaining
+roots evidenced.  At some little distance, on both hands, we
+observed signs of similar avenues, which appeared to converge
+with ours, towards one spot.  Along these we indistinctly saw
+several forms moving, which seemed, with ourselves, to approach
+the common centre.  Our path brought us, at last, up to a wall of
+yew-trees, growing close together, and intertwining their
+branches so, that nothing could be seen beyond it.  An opening
+was cut in it like a door, and all the wall was trimmed smooth
+and perpendicular.  The knight dismounted, and waited till I had
+provided for his horse's comfort; upon which we entered the place
+together.
+
+It was a great space, bare of trees, and enclosed by four walls
+of yew, similar to that through which we had entered.  These
+trees grew to a very great height, and did not divide from each
+other till close to the top, where their summits formed a row of
+conical battlements all around the walls.  The space contained
+was a parallelogram of great length.  Along each of the two
+longer sides of the interior, were ranged three ranks of men, in
+white robes, standing silent and solemn, each with a sword by his
+side, although the rest of his costume and bearing was more
+priestly than soldierly.  For some distance inwards, the space
+between these opposite rows was filled with a company of men and
+women and children, in holiday attire.  The looks of all were
+directed inwards, towards the further end.  Far beyond the crowd,
+in a long avenue, seeming to narrow in the distance, went the
+long rows of the white-robed men.  On what the attention of the
+multitude was fixed, we could not tell, for the sun had set
+before we arrived, and it was growing dark within.  It grew
+darker and darker.  The multitude waited in silence.  The stars
+began to shine down into the enclosure, and they grew brighter
+and larger every moment.  A wind arose, and swayed the pinnacles
+of the tree-tops; and made a strange sound, half like music, half
+like moaning, through the close branches and leaves of the
+tree-walls.  A young girl who stood beside me, clothed in the
+same dress as the priests, bowed her head, and grew pale with
+awe.
+
+The knight whispered to me, "How solemn it is!  Surely they wait
+to hear the voice of a prophet.  There is something good near!"
+
+But I, though somewhat shaken by the feeling expressed by my
+master, yet had an unaccountable conviction that here was
+something bad.  So I resolved to be keenly on the watch for what
+should follow.
+
+Suddenly a great star, like a sun, appeared high in the air over
+the temple, illuminating it throughout; and a great song arose
+from the men in white, which went rolling round and round the
+building, now receding to the end, and now approaching, down the
+other side, the place where we stood.  For some of the singers
+were regularly ceasing, and the next to them as regularly taking
+up the song, so that it crept onwards with gradations produced by
+changes which could not themselves be detected, for only a few of
+those who were singing ceased at the same moment.  The song
+paused; and I saw a company of six of the white-robed men walk up
+the centre of the human avenue, surrounding a youth gorgeously
+attired beneath his robe of white, and wearing a chaplet of
+flowers on his head.  I followed them closely, with my keenest
+observation; and, by accompanying their slow progress with my
+eyes, I was able to perceive more clearly what took place when
+they arrived at the other end.  I knew that my sight was so much
+more keen than that of most people, that I had good reason to
+suppose I should see more than the rest could, at such a
+distance.  At the farther end a throne stood upon a platform,
+high above the heads of the surrounding priests.  To this
+platform I saw the company begin to ascend, apparently by an
+inclined plane or gentle slope.  The throne itself was elevated
+again, on a kind of square pedestal, to the top of which led a
+flight of steps.  On the throne sat a majestic- looking figure,
+whose posture seemed to indicate a mixture of pride and
+benignity, as he looked down on the multitude below.  The company
+ascended to the foot of the throne, where they all kneeled for
+some minutes; then they rose and passed round to the side of the
+pedestal upon which the throne stood.  Here they crowded close
+behind the youth, putting him in the foremost place, and one of
+them opened a door in the pedestal, for the youth to enter.  I
+was sure I saw him shrink back, and those crowding behind pushed
+him in.  Then, again, arose a burst of song from the multitude in
+white, which lasted some time.  When it ceased, a new company of
+seven commenced its march up the centre.  As they advanced, I
+looked up at my master: his noble countenance was full of
+reverence and awe.  Incapable of evil himself, he could scarcely
+suspect it in another, much less in a multitude such as this, and
+surrounded with such appearances of solemnity.  I was certain it
+was the really grand accompaniments that overcame him; that the
+stars overhead, the dark towering tops of the yew-trees, and the
+wind that, like an unseen spirit, sighed through their branches,
+bowed his spirit to the belief, that in all these ceremonies lay
+some great mystical meaning which, his humility told him, his
+ignorance prevented him from understanding.
+
+More convinced than before, that there was evil here, I could not
+endure that my master should be deceived; that one like him, so
+pure and noble, should respect what, if my suspicions were true,
+was worse than the ordinary deceptions of priestcraft.  I could
+not tell how far he might be led to countenance, and otherwise
+support their doings, before he should find cause to repent
+bitterly of his error.  I watched the new procession yet more
+keenly, if possible, than the former.  This time, the central
+figure was a girl; and, at the close, I observed, yet more
+indubitably, the shrinking back, and the crowding push.  What
+happened to the victims, I never learned; but I had learned
+enough, and I could bear it no longer.  I stooped, and whispered
+to the young girl who stood by me, to lend me her white garment. 
+I wanted it, that I might not be entirely out of keeping with the
+solemnity, but might have at least this help to passing
+unquestioned.  She looked up, half-amused and half-bewildered, as
+if doubting whether I was in earnest or not.  But in her
+perplexity, she permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it down
+from her shoulders.
+
+I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in
+the crowd, I rose apparently in the habit of one of the
+worshippers. 
+
+Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the
+return of her stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed,
+and, if it was a man that sat upon the throne, to attack him with
+hands bare, as I supposed his must be, I made my way through the
+crowd to the front, while the singing yet continued, desirous of
+reaching the platform while it was unoccupied by any of the
+priests.  I was permitted to walk up the long avenue of white
+robes unmolested, though I saw questioning looks in many of the
+faces as I passed.  I presume my coolness aided my passage; for I
+felt quite indifferent as to my own fate; not feeling, after the
+late events of my history, that I was at all worth taking care
+of; and enjoying, perhaps, something of an evil satisfaction, in
+the revenge I was thus taking upon the self which had fooled me
+so long.  When I arrived on the platform, the song had just
+ceased, and I felt as if all were looking towards me.  But
+instead of kneeling at its foot, I walked right up the stairs to
+the throne, laid hold of a great wooden image that seemed to sit
+upon it, and tried to hurl it from its seat.  In this I failed at
+first, for I found it firmly fixed.  But in dread lest, the first
+shock of amazement passing away, the guards would rush upon me
+before I had effected my purpose, I strained with all my might;
+and, with a noise as of the cracking, and breaking, and tearing
+of rotten wood, something gave way, and I hurled the image down
+the steps.  Its displacement revealed a great hole in the throne,
+like the hollow of a decayed tree, going down apparently a great
+way.  But I had no time to examine it, for, as I looked into it,
+up out of it rushed a great brute, like a wolf, but twice the
+size, and tumbled me headlong with itself, down the steps of the
+throne.  As we fell, however, I caught it by the throat, and the
+moment we reached the platform, a struggle commenced, in which I
+soon got uppermost, with my hand upon its throat, and knee upon
+its heart.  But now arose a wild cry of wrath and revenge and
+rescue.  A universal hiss of steel, as every sword was swept from
+its scabbard, seemed to tear the very air in shreds.  I heard the
+rush of hundreds towards the platform on which I knelt.  I only
+tightened my grasp of the brute's throat.  His eyes were already
+starting from his head, and his tongue was hanging out.  My
+anxious hope was, that, even after they had killed me, they would
+be unable to undo my gripe of his throat, before the monster was
+past breathing.  I therefore threw all my will, and force, and
+purpose, into the grasping hand.  I remember no blow.  A
+faintness came over me, and my consciousness departed.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXIV
+
+        "We are ne'er like angels till our passions die."        
+                                       DEKKER.
+
+        "This wretched INN, where we scarce stay to bait,        
+                 We call our DWELLING-PLACE:
+                 We call one STEP A RACE:
+         But angels in their full enlightened state,
+         Angels, who LIVE, and know what 'tis to BE,
+         Who all the nonsense of our language see,
+         Who speak THINGS, and our WORDS,their ill-drawn          
+              PICTURES, scorn,
+            When we, by a foolish figure, say,
+            BEHOLD AN OLD MAN DEAD! then they
+         Speak properly, and cry, BEHOLD A MAN-CHILD BORN!"      
+                                             COWLEY.
+
+I was dead, and right content.  I lay in my coffin, with my
+hands folded in peace.  The knight, and the lady I loved, wept
+over me.
+
+Her tears fell on my face.
+
+"Ah!" said the knight, "I rushed amongst them like a madman.  I
+hewed them down like brushwood.  Their swords battered on me like
+hail, but hurt me not.  I cut a lane through to my friend.  He
+was dead.  But he had throttled the monster, and I had to cut the
+handful out of its throat, before I could disengage and carry off
+his body.  They dared not molest me as I brought him back."
+
+"He has died well," said the lady.
+
+My spirit rejoiced.  They left me to my repose.  I felt as if a
+cool hand had been laid upon my heart, and had stilled it.  My
+soul was like a summer evening, after a heavy fall of rain, when
+the drops are yet glistening on the trees in the last rays of the
+down-going sun, and the wind of the twilight has begun to blow. 
+The hot fever of life had gone by, and I breathed the clear
+mountain-air of the land of Death.  I had never dreamed of such
+blessedness.  It was not that I had in any way ceased to be what
+I had been.  The very fact that anything can die, implies the
+existence of something that cannot die; which must either take to
+itself another form, as when the seed that is sown dies, and
+arises again; or, in conscious existence, may, perhaps, continue
+to lead a purely spiritual life.  If my passions were dead, the
+souls of the passions, those essential mysteries of the spirit
+which had imbodied themselves in the passions, and had given to
+them all their glory and wonderment, yet lived, yet glowed, with
+a pure, undying fire.  They rose above their vanishing earthly
+garments, and disclosed themselves angels of light.  But oh, how
+beautiful beyond the old form!  I lay thus for a time, and lived
+as it were an unradiating existence; my soul a motionless lake,
+that received all things and gave nothing back; satisfied in
+still contemplation, and spiritual consciousness.
+
+Ere long, they bore me to my grave.  Never tired child lay down
+in his white bed, and heard the sound of his playthings being
+laid aside for the night, with a more luxurious satisfaction of
+repose than I knew, when I felt the coffin settle on the firm
+earth, and heard the sound of the falling mould upon its lid.  It
+has not the same hollow rattle within the coffin, that it sends
+up to the edge of the grave.  They buried me in no graveyard. 
+They loved me too much for that, I thank them; but they laid me
+in the grounds of their own castle, amid many trees; where, as it
+was spring-time, were growing primroses, and blue-bells, and all
+the families of the woods
+
+Now that I lay in her bosom, the whole earth, and each of her
+many births, was as a body to me, at my will.  I seemed to feel
+the great heart of the mother beating into mine, and feeding me
+with her own life, her own essential being and nature.  I heard
+the footsteps of my friends above, and they sent a thrill through
+my heart.  I knew that the helpers had gone, and that the knight
+and the lady remained, and spoke low, gentle, tearful words of
+him who lay beneath the yet wounded sod.  I rose into a single
+large primrose that grew by the edge of the grave, and from the
+window of its humble, trusting face, looked full in the
+countenance of the lady.  I felt that I could manifest myself in
+the primrose; that it said a part of what I wanted to say; just
+as in the old time, I had used to betake myself to a song for the
+same end.  The flower caught her eye.  She stooped and plucked
+it, saying, "Oh, you beautiful creature!" and, lightly kissing
+it, put it in her bosom.  It was the first kiss she had ever
+given me.  But the flower soon began to wither, and I forsook it.
+
+It was evening.  The sun was below the horizon; but his rosy
+beams yet illuminated a feathery cloud, that floated high above
+the world.  I arose, I reached the cloud; and, throwing myself
+upon it, floated with it in sight of the sinking sun.  He sank,
+and the cloud grew gray; but the grayness touched not my heart. 
+It carried its rose-hue within; for now I could love without
+needing to be loved again.  The moon came gliding up with all the
+past in her wan face.  She changed my couch into a ghostly
+pallor, and threw all the earth below as to the bottom of a pale
+sea of dreams.  But she could not make me sad.  I knew now, that
+it is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come
+nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the
+loving of each other, and not the being loved by each other, that
+originates and perfects and assures their blessedness.  I knew
+that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul beloved,
+even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to
+that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in
+proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the
+power which springs therefrom dies.  Yet all love will, one day,
+meet with its return.  All true love will, one day, behold its
+own image in the eyes of the beloved, and be humbly glad.  This
+is possible in the realms of lofty Death.  "Ah! my friends,"
+thought I, "how I will tend you, and wait upon you, and haunt you
+with my love."
+
+My floating chariot bore me over a great city.  Its faint dull
+sound steamed up into the air--a sound--how composed?"  How many
+hopeless cries," thought I, "and how many mad shouts go to make
+up the tumult, here so faint where I float in eternal peace,
+knowing that they will one day be stilled in the surrounding
+calm, and that despair dies into infinite hope, and the seeming
+impossible there, is the law here!
+
+But, O pale-faced women, and gloomy-browed men, and forgotten
+children, how I will wait on you, and minister to you, and,
+putting my arms about you in the dark, think hope into your
+hearts, when you fancy no one is near!  Soon as my senses have
+all come back, and have grown accustomed to this new blessed
+life, I will be among you with the love that healeth."
+
+With this, a pang and a terrible shudder went through me; a
+writhing as of death convulsed me; and I became once again
+conscious of a more limited, even a bodily and earthly life.
+
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXV
+
+        "Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one,
+          and perhaps will."--NOVALIS.
+
+            "And on the ground, which is my modres gate,    
+            I knocke with my staf; erlich and late,              
+            And say to hire, Leve mother, let me in."            
+                       CHAUCER, The Pardoneres Tale.
+
+Sinking from such a state of ideal bliss, into the world of
+shadows which again closed around and infolded me, my first dread
+was, not unnaturally, that my own shadow had found me again, and
+that my torture had commenced anew.  It was a sad revulsion of
+feeling.  This, indeed, seemed to correspond to what we think
+death is, before we die.  Yet I felt within me a power of calm
+endurance to which I had hitherto been a stranger.  For, in
+truth, that I should be able if only to think such things as I
+had been thinking, was an unspeakable delight.  An hour of such
+peace made the turmoil of a lifetime worth striving through.
+
+I found myself lying in the open air, in the early morning,
+before sunrise.  Over me rose the summer heaven, expectant of the
+sun.  The clouds already saw him, coming from afar; and soon
+every dewdrop would rejoice in his individual presence within it.
+
+I lay motionless for a few minutes; and then slowly rose and
+looked about me.  I was on the summit of a little hill; a valley
+lay beneath, and a range of mountains closed up the view upon
+that side.  But, to my horror, across the valley, and up the
+height of the opposing mountains, stretched, from my very feet, a
+hugely expanding shade.  There it lay, long and large, dark and
+mighty.  I turned away with a sick despair; when lo!  I beheld
+the sun just lifting his head above the eastern hill, and the
+shadow that fell from me, lay only where his beams fell not.  I
+danced for joy.  It was only the natural shadow, that goes with
+every man who walks in the sun.  As he arose, higher and higher,
+the shadow-head sank down the side of the opposite hill, and
+crept in across the valley towards my feet.
+
+Now that I was so joyously delivered from this fear, I saw and
+recognised the country around me.  In the valley below, lay my
+own castle, and the haunts of my childhood were all about me
+hastened home.  My sisters received me with unspeakable joy; but
+I suppose they observed some change in me, for a kind of respect,
+with a slight touch of awe in it, mingled with their joy, and
+made me ashamed.  They had been in great distress about me.  On
+the morning of my disappearance, they had found the floor of my
+room flooded; and, all that day, a wondrous and nearly impervious
+mist had hung about the castle and grounds.  I had been gone,
+they told me, twenty- one days.  To me it seemed twenty-one
+years.  Nor could I yet feel quite secure in my new experiences. 
+When, at night, I lay down once more in my own bed, I did not
+feel at all sure that when I awoke, I should not find myself in
+some mysterious region of Fairy Land.  My dreams were incessant
+and perturbed; but when I did awake, I saw clearly that I was in
+my own home.
+
+My mind soon grew calm; and I began the duties of my new
+position, somewhat instructed, I hoped, by the adventures that
+had befallen me in Fairy Land.  Could I translate the experience
+of my travels there, into common life?  This was the question. 
+Or must I live it all over again, and learn it all over again, in
+the other forms that belong to the world of men, whose experience
+yet runs parallel to that of Fairy Land?  These questions I
+cannot answer yet.  But I fear.
+
+Even yet, I find myself looking round sometimes with anxiety, to
+see whether my shadow falls right away from the sun or no.  I
+have never yet discovered any inclination to either side.  And if
+I am not unfrequently sad, I yet cast no more of a shade on the
+earth, than most men who have lived in it as long as I.  I have a
+strange feeling sometimes, that I am a ghost, sent into the world
+to minister to my fellow men, or, rather, to repair the wrongs I
+have already done.
+
+May the world be brighter for me, at least in those portions of
+it, where my darkness falls not.
+
+Thus I, who set out to find my Ideal, came back rejoicing that I
+had lost my Shadow.
+
+When the thought of the blessedness I experienced, after my death
+in Fairy Land, is too high for me to lay hold upon it and hope in
+it, I often think of the wise woman in the cottage, and of her
+solemn assurance that she knew something too good to be told. 
+When I am oppressed by any sorrow or real perplexity, I often
+feel as if I had only left her cottage for a time, and would soon
+return out of the vision, into it again.  Sometimes, on such
+occasions, I find myself, unconsciously almost, looking about for
+the mystic mark of red, with the vague hope of entering her door,
+and being comforted by her wise tenderness.  I then console
+myself by saying:  "I have come through the door of Dismay; and
+the way back from the world into which that has led me, is
+through my tomb.  Upon that the red sign lies, and I shall find
+it one day, and be glad."
+
+I will end my story with the relation of an incident which befell
+me a few days ago.  I had been with my reapers, and, when they
+ceased their work at noon, I had lain down under the shadow of a
+great, ancient beech-tree, that stood on the edge of the field. 
+As I lay, with my eyes closed, I began to listen to the sound of
+the leaves overhead.  At first, they made sweet inarticulate
+music alone; but, by-and-by, the sound seemed to begin to take
+shape, and to be gradually moulding itself into words; till, at
+last, I seemed able to distinguish these, half-dissolved in a
+little ocean of circumfluent tones:  "A great good is coming--is
+coming--is coming to thee, Anodos"; and so over and over again. 
+I fancied that the sound reminded me of the voice of the ancient
+woman, in the cottage that was four-square.  I opened my eyes,
+and, for a moment, almost believed that I saw her face, with its
+many wrinkles and its young eyes, looking at me from between two
+hoary branches of the beech overhead.  But when I looked more
+keenly, I saw only twigs and leaves, and the infinite sky, in
+tiny spots, gazing through between.  Yet I know that good is
+coming to me--that good is always coming; though few have at all
+times the simplicity and the courage to believe it.  What we call
+evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person and his
+condition at the time, could be assumed by the best good.  And
+so, FAREWELL.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Phantastes, George MacDonald
+
+
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