.V
 
 VJ \j o w 
 
 Y.-z\^oS 
 
 PHANTASTES 
 
 A FAERIE ROMA^X•E 
 I.
 
 
 
 (ttT^^-t^)^^ 
 
 
 ^ / 
 
 
 
 y^«^-V Zi cr^ /JL.^ ^O'^^'t-^^y 
 
 ^Q^^^cZ^
 
 PHANTASl'ES 
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE 
 
 Bv GEORGE MAC DOXALD, ll.d. 
 
 IX TWO VOLS. -I. 
 
 LOXDOX 
 DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO. 
 
 56, LUDGATE Hrr.L 
 
 1874
 
 !i
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 PHANTASTES: A FAERIE ROMANCE. — I. 
 
 to XIII . . I
 
 PHANTASTES : 
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 
 
 Phantasies from * their fount * all shapes deriving, 
 In new habiliments can quickly dight. 
 
 Fletcher's Purple Island.
 
 Es lassen sich Erzahlungen ohne Zusammenhang, jedoch 
 mit Association, wie Traume, denken ; Gedichte, die bloss 
 wohlklingend und voll sch5ner Worte sind, aber auch ohne 
 alien Sinn und Zusammenhang, hochstens einzelne Strophen 
 verstandlich, wie Bruchstiicke aus den verschiedenartigsten 
 Dingen. Diese wahre Poesie kann hochstens einen alle- 
 gorischen Sinn im Grossen, und eine indirecte Wirkung, 
 wie Musik haben. Darum ist die Natur so rein poetisch, 
 wie die Stube eines Zauberers, eines Physikers, eine Kin- 
 derstube, eine Polter-und Vorrathskammer. * * 
 
 Ein Mahrchen ist wie ein Traumbild ohne Zusammen- 
 hang. Ein Ensemble wunderbarer Dinge und Begeben- 
 heiten, z. B. eine Musikalische Phantasie, die harmonischen 
 Folgen einer Aeolsharfe, die Natur selbst. 
 
 In einem echten Rlahrchen muss alles wunderbar, geheim- 
 nissvoll und zusammenhiingend sein ; alles belebt, jeder auf 
 eine andere Art. Die ganze Natur muss wunderlich mit 
 der ganzen Geisterwelt gemischt sein ; hier tritt die Zeit 
 der Anarchic, der Gesetzlosigkeit, Freiheit, der Naturstand 
 der Natur, die Zeit vor der Welt ein. . . . Die Welt des 
 Miihrchens ist die, der Welt der Wahrheit durchaus entge- 
 gengesetzte, und eben darum ihr so durchaus ahnlich, wie 
 das Chaos der vollendeten Schupfung iihnhch ist. 
 
 NOVALIS.
 
 PHANTASTES. 
 
 A spirit * * 
 
 * » » » 
 
 The undulating woods, 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. 
 
 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 dream-
 
 i PHANTASTES: 
 
 less sleep had dissolved, began again to assume 
 crystalline forms, the strange events of the fore- 
 going 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 de- 
 livered 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE, 5 
 
 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 geo- 
 logist, 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
 
 6 PHAXTASTES: 
 
 the upper portion, I opened it with some diffi- 
 culty, 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 com- 
 pared 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 port- 
 cullis of small bars of wood laid close together 
 horizontally. After long search, and trying many
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 7 
 
 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.
 
 8 PHAXTASTES : 
 
 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 degi-ee 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. g 
 
 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 alto- 
 gether 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 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
 
 lo PHA NT A S TES : 
 
 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 drauTi 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 grand- 
 fathers a good deal further back than that ; but
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. ii 
 
 you know veiy little about your great grandmothers 
 on either side. Now, to the point. Your little 
 sister was reading a faiiy-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 un- 
 known 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
 
 12 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 fog 
 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 secre- 
 tary, 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 
 
 IL 
 
 " Wo ist der Strom ? " rief er mit Thranen. " Siehst du 
 nicht seine blauen Wellen iiber uns ? " Er sah hinauf, und 
 der blaue Strom floss leise tiber ihrem Haupte. — Novalis. 
 Heinrich von Ofterdingen. 
 
 "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. 
 
 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 ninning 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 mate- 
 rial in a corner of my room, was overfiovviiig like
 
 14 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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, bordei-ed 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 foiined 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 15 
 
 little cluster of ivy-leaves. The first of these was 
 evidently the work of the carver ; the next looked 
 curious ; the third was unmistakeable 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 de- 
 signed 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.
 
 i6 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 hs^pk. "This," 
 thought I, "must surely be the path into Fairy 
 Land, which the lady of last night premised 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 w^ith a vague feeling that I ought to have 
 followed its course : I took a more southerly 
 direction.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 
 
 III. 
 
 Man doth usurp all space, 
 
 Stares thee, in rock, bush, river, in the face. 
 
 Never yet 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. 
 
 Henkv Su^To^f. 
 
 The trees, which were far apart where I 
 entered, giving free passage to the level rays o{ 
 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 inter- 
 vening twilight, however, before I entered what 
 appeared to be the darkest portion of the forest, 
 I saw a country maiden coming towards nie from 
 
 VOL. V. C
 
 i8 PHANTASTES: 
 
 its very depths. She did not seem to observe me, 
 for she was apparently intent upon a bunch of \\ ild 
 flowers which she carried in her hand. I could 
 hardly see her face ; for, though she came right 
 towards me, she never looked up. But when we 
 met, instead of passing, she turned and walked 
 alongside of me for a {q.\\ 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 ad- 
 dressing 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 n\ ith her web of hair, if you let
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. ig 
 
 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 every- 
 where 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 
 v/as 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
 
 so PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 — Ever^-thing 
 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 amciety as to 
 how I should fare among the elves and other 
 children of tlie night who wake when mortals 
 dream, and find their common life in those won- 
 drous hours that flow noiselessly over the moveless 
 death-like forms of men and women and children, 
 lying stre\\m 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 ebb-tide comes, and the waves sink 
 away, back into the ocean of the dark. But I
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 21 
 
 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 some sort of food.
 
 22 PHA y TASTES : 
 
 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 an>lhing 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 :
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 23 
 
 "You have fairy blood in you," said she, look- 
 ing 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 ? " 
 
 *'0h, 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 heavi- 
 ness 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
 
 24 PHAyTASTES: 
 
 delicately formed, though bro\vn with work anc' 
 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 homeli- 
 ness of the fare, with which, however, I was in no 
 humour to quarrel. I now thought it time to tiy 
 to get some explanation of the strange words both 
 of her daughter and herself. 
 
 ** What did you mean by speaking so about the 
 Ash?"
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 25 
 
 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 com- 
 posure, "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."
 
 26 PHANTASTES : 
 
 "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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 27 
 
 " 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
 
 28 PHANTASTES : 
 
 seem very well inforined 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 aj 
 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 draAving 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 
 countiy. At length I came to this passage :
 
 A FA ERIE ROMANCE. 29 
 
 *'Here it chaunced, 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 j 
 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 tavvny 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
 
 30 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 set- 
 ting 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 31 
 
 the fingei-s, 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
 
 32 PHANTASTES : 
 
 way of doing. Pray, keep out of his way to- 
 night." 
 
 " Shall I be able to see these beings ? " 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 veiy 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 33 
 
 Sometimes Ihey will act a whole play through 
 before my eyes, with perfect composure and assur- 
 ance, 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 patronize them, and treat 
 them as country cousins, who know nothing of life, 
 and very little of manners. Now and then, how- 
 ever, 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 some- 
 thing 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 
 
 VOL. V. u
 
 34 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 
 
 35 
 
 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, v/ould 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 one- 
 ness, between the flower and the fairy, which yoix 
 could not describe, but which described itself to 
 you. Whether all the flowers have fairies, I 
 
 P 2
 
 •36 PHANTASTES'. 
 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 37 
 
 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, half-way 
 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 and thither. From 
 the cups or bells of tall flowers, as from balconies, 
 some looked down on the masses below, now
 
 38 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 pro- 
 perty 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 39 
 
 was ! only too like a drawing-room young lady), 
 knocked him heels-over-head as he ran, and re- 
 covered 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 snow-storm 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."
 
 PHANTASTES : 
 
 " What's a bride ? " 
 
 "What is snow?" 
 " Never tried. " 
 
 ** Do not know." 
 
 " Who told you about her ? " 
 
 " Little Primrose there 
 Carmot 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."
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 41 
 
 " 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
 
 42 PHANTASTES: 
 
 by biting her stalk, upon one of her own great 
 leaves. They bore her solemnly along some dis- 
 tance, and then buried her vmder a tree. Although 
 I say her, I saw nothing but the withered prim- 
 rose-flower on its long stalk. Pocket, who had 
 been expelled from the company by common con- 
 sent, 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 ham- 
 mock, I will bite you, and then you will go 
 away." 
 
 *' Why did you bite poor Primrose ? " 
 *' Because she said we should never see Snow- 
 drop ; as if we were not good enough to look at
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 43 
 
 her, and she was, the proud thing J — 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 com-
 
 44 PHANTASTES : 
 
 fortable with all those sparks in you ; and, indeed, 
 I am charitably disposed to believe " (here he be- 
 came 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 mis- 
 chief. 
 
 But I will not linger to enlarge on the amusing 
 displays of these frolicsome creatures. Their man- 
 ners and habits are now so well known to the 
 world, having been so often described by eye-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 45 
 
 witnesses, 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 in- 
 nocent trust in his look! Even the most mis- 
 chievous of the fairies would not tease him, al- 
 though 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 nightcap 
 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.
 
 PHANTASTES : 
 
 IV, 
 
 When bale is att hyest, boote is nyesL 
 
 Ballad of Sir A Idingar, 
 
 By this time, my hostess Avas quite anxious that 
 I should be gone. So, with warm thanks for their 
 hospitahty, 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 
 shadoAAy 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 ever}- flower was shining with a light 
 of its own. Indeed it was by this light that I saw 
 them, an internal, pecuHar light, proceeding from
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 47 
 
 each, and not reflected from a common source of 
 light as in the day-time. 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 intraders, 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 silly over the edge of the cup, and spouted 
 water at me, slipping suddenly back, like those
 
 48 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 direc- 
 tion, "Look at him! Look at him! He has 
 begun a stoiy without a beginning, and it ^vill 
 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 hya- 
 cinths 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 49 
 
 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 net- 
 work of grass and its shadows, glowed the glow- 
 woims. They were just like the glowworms of ou/ 
 own land, for they are fairies everywhere ; worm^ 
 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 
 undenvood of moss, it pounced upon it, and bore 
 it away, in spite of its feeble resistance. Won- 
 
 VOL. v. E
 
 50 PHANTASTES : 
 
 dering 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 lunaps 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 earthy pellet ; 
 when lo ! it shot up into the air like a sky-rocket, 
 seldom however reaching the height of the liighcst
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 51 
 
 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 intercrossed 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 inter- 
 woven dances in the air of splendidly coloured 
 fire-flies, which sped hither and thither, turned, 
 twisted, crossed, and re-crossed, entwining every 
 complexity of intervolved motion. Here and there, 
 whole mighty trees glowed with an emitted phos- 
 phorescent light. You could trace the very course 
 of the great roots in the earth by the faint light
 
 S» PI/ A y TASTES: ■ 
 
 that came through ; and every twig, and every 
 vein on every leaf was a streak of pale fire. 
 
 All this time, as I went on through the wood, I 
 was haunted with the feeling that other shapes, 
 more like my own in 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 imusually bright, and sight -giving, notwith- 
 standing 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 feel- 
 ing of presence, the woods seemed utterly bare of 
 anything like human companionship, although my
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 53 
 
 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 be- 
 tokened 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
 
 54 PHAXTASTES: 
 
 mine ? " I comforted myself, however, by re- 
 membering 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 occuppng 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 over- 
 whelmed 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 ques- 
 tions had succeeded in drawing a definite answer 
 from the dame in the cottage. How then to defend
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 55 
 
 myself I knew not ; nor even by what sign I might 
 with certainty recognise tlie 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 begim 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 protuber- 
 ances here and there. Especially I remarked, 
 even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points 
 of the fingers. I looked hurriedly all round, but
 
 56 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 \ision, 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 antici- 
 pated prey. There seemed but one mode left of 
 discovering the substance of this shadow. I went 
 forward boldly, though with an inward shudder
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 57 
 
 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 trans- 
 parent, in the central parts, and gradually deepen- 
 ing 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 up- 
 lifted in the attitude of a paw about to strike its 
 prey. But the face, which throbbed with fluc- 
 tuating 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
 
 S8 PHANTASTES : 
 
 horrible, I do not know how to describe it. It 
 
 caused a new sensation. Just as one cannot tran- 
 slate 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 59 
 
 too horrified for that. I noted them afterwards, 
 when the form returned on my hiward 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 de- 
 voured the devourer, seemed to be the indwelling 
 and propelling power of the whole ghastly appari- 
 tion. I lay for a few moments simply imbruted 
 with terror ; when another cloud, obscuring the 
 moon, delivered me from the immediately paralys- 
 ing effects of the presence to the vision of the 
 object of horror, while it added the force of imagi- 
 nation 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 precau- 
 tions : he might be upon me in the darkness any
 
 6o PHANTASTES : 
 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 61 
 
 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 xt- 
 viving 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."
 
 63 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 foimd 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 pro- 
 portioned. I turned my head, but without moving 
 otherwise, for I feared lest the arms should un- 
 twine themselves ; and clear, somewhat mournful 
 eyes met mine. At least that is how they im- 
 pressed me ; but I could see very little of colour
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 63 
 
 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 pos- 
 sible 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
 
 64 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 
 Fair}iand, 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 amis were still round 
 me. She asked me how old I was. 
 
 *' Twenty- one," said I.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 65 
 
 *' Why, you baby I" 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." 
 
 " Hov/ kind of you to save me from him 1 " 
 
 VOL. V. V
 
 66 PHANTASTES : 
 
 "Iwill 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROI\IAi\CE. 67 
 
 As gently as I could, I cut with a knife a long 
 tress of flowing, dark hair, she hanging her beau- 
 tiful 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 arc 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
 
 68 PHANTASTES: 
 
 one time I felt as if I was wandering in childhood 
 through sunny spring forests, over carpets of prim- 
 roses, anemones, and little white starry things — I 
 had almost said, creatures, and finding new won- 
 derful 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 fire-side, 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 moniing, 
 just before sunrise. Around me was a girdle of 
 fresh beech-leaves. Alas 1 I brought nothing
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 69 
 
 with me out of fairy-land, but memories — me- 
 mories. 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 speed- 
 well. 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."
 
 PIIANTASTES: 
 
 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 wj'nterys 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 71 
 
 will perhaps be the richer, for holding now within 
 it the memoiy 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 dis- 
 tinguish 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 veiy 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
 
 72 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 fair)'-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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 73 
 
 more complete relationship with the things around 
 me. Tlie 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
 
 74 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 ^^•ild 
 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 75 
 
 I obsei'ved 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 es- 
 pecially 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, thirst- 
 ing for the shade which it promised. What was
 
 76 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 trans-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 77 
 
 lated into any shape common to my o^vn 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 ot 
 men, to set up his block of marble, and mould 
 into a visible body the thought already clothed
 
 78 PHAyTASTES : 
 
 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 deli- 
 cate 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 ala- 
 baster 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 con- 
 tinued my labour ; and after clearing a space of
 
 A FAERIE ROMAXCE, 79 
 
 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 trans- 
 parency 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 entran- 
 cing 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
 
 So PIIANTASTES: 
 
 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, appa- 
 rently 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 bom 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 indis- 
 tinct, that the more than semi-opacity of the ala- 
 baster seemed insufficient to account for the fact ; 
 and I conjectured that a light robe added its 
 obscurity. Numberless histories passed through
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 8i 
 
 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 En- 
 chanted City, half marble and half a living 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 pre- 
 ceding 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 maybe 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 
 hei ? A kiss awoke the Sleeping Beauty : a kiss 
 cannot reach her through the incrusting alabaster." 
 
 VOL, v. G
 
 82 PHANTASTES: 
 
 I kneeled, ho\ve\'er, and kissed the pale coffin ; 
 but she slept on. I bethought me of Orpheus, 
 and the following stones; — that trees shoidd 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 coidd not satisfy 
 myself. I concluded it was after, however ; and 
 that the increased impulse to sing I now felt, was
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 83 
 
 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 con- 
 nected, 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 pos- 
 sibility 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 sweepmg, 
 All but what with vision teems —
 
 84 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 \'isions, form induing, 
 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 be- 
 lieved 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. 
 Nevertheless 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 85 
 
 "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 roimd 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 ob- 
 served its position accurately. So I sang again ; 
 lor the longing had grown into a passionate need 
 of seeing her alive :
 
 86 PHANTASTES : 
 
 " Or art thou Death, O woman? for since I 
 Have set me singing by thy side, 
 Li fe 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. 
 
 ji " 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 amaze-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 87 
 
 ment 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.
 
 PHANTASTES i 
 
 VI. 
 
 Ach, htite sich doch ein Mensch, wenn seine erfiillten 
 Wiinsche auf ihn herad regnen, und er so liber alle Maasse 
 frohlich ist ! — FouQut : Der Zauberring. 
 
 Ah, let a man beware, when his wishes, fulfilled, r?'i 
 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 place where I was. And riding as it 
 were down this stream towards me, came a horse- 
 man in what appeared red armour. From frontlet 
 to tail, the horse likewise shone red in the sun-set.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 89 
 
 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, how- 
 ever, 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, glittere<l 
 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
 
 go PHAXTASTES : 
 
 as with an inward grief. The horse seemed to 
 share in his master's dejection, and walked spirit- 
 less and slow. I noticed, too, that the white 
 plume on his helmet was discoloured and droop- 
 ing. "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 sud- 
 denly, 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 91 
 
 to tell 5-011 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 shud- 
 dered, 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 tliat 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 eveiy 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.
 
 92 PHANTASTES: 
 
 ' 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 purpose- 
 less, because its objects are unseen. The monoto- 
 nous music of the owl issued from, all unexpected
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 93 
 
 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 land-
 
 94 PHAXTASTES : 
 
 scapes, its own thickets, and paths, and glades, 
 and dwellings ; its own bird-ways and insect-de- 
 lights. 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 
 ecstasy, 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 imbe- 
 held. Then, remembering how my songs seemed 
 to have called her from the marble, piercing 
 tlnough the pearly shroud of alabaster — "Why,''
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 95 
 
 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 !
 
 g6 P/i A y TASTES: 
 
 Through the branches glow. 
 From the roof above. 
 Star and diamond-spark, 
 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 inter- 
 twining thicket of smaller trees and underwood. 
 
 "It is my white lady ! " I said, and flung my- 
 self 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,
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 97 
 
 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 in- 
 ward 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 greet- 
 ing, that she could not trust me to come close to 
 
 VOL. V. H
 
 98 PHANTASTES: 
 
 her. Though her words were those of a lover, 
 she kept herself withdrawn as if a mile of space 
 intei-posed between us. 
 
 "^Yhydid 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 gi'otto. 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. qg 
 
 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 j 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 tlie
 
 loo PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 A\aII 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 
 comer, 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 loveli- 
 ness before me. Almost it seemed as if the light
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. loi 
 
 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 after\vards, 
 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 eveiy 
 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 en-
 
 I02 PHANTASTES : 
 
 tranced. It was a tale which brings back a 
 feeling as of snows and tempests ; torrents and 
 water-sprites ; lovers parted for long, and meet- 
 ing 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 greener)^ 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 hon-or almost 
 obliterated it. I woke as a grey dawn stole into 
 the cave. The damsel had disappeared ; but in 
 the slimbbery 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 foi 
 the head and neck was defined from the shoulder-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 103 
 
 part. In fact it was a rough representation of tlie 
 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 
 hands and 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
 
 I04 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 re- 
 cognised but too well. It was the Ash-tree, My 
 beauty was the INIaid 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 unfa- 
 thomable 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 105 
 
 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 with- 
 out. I lay and wept. The Maid of the Alder- 
 tree had befooled me — nearly slain me — in spite 
 of all the waniings I had received from those who 
 knew my danger.
 
 -io6 PHANTASTES . 
 
 VII. 
 
 Fight on, my men. Sir Andrew sayes, 
 A litde Ime hurt, but yett not slaine ; 
 
 lie but lye downe and bleede awhile. 
 And then He rise and fight againe. 
 
 Ballad o/Sir Andreiu 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 unen- 
 durable. 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 Para- 
 dise. 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 107 
 
 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 per- 
 plexing 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 per- 
 plexity, though not without some gain. Then I 
 began to make surmises as to the mode of my 
 deliverance ; and concluded that some hero, wan- 
 dering in search of adventure, had heerd 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.
 
 loS PHANTASTES: 
 
 * ' 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 dan- 
 gerous 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 him- 
 self, 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 un- 
 speakable 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,
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 109 
 
 matronly woman, still handsome, made her appear- 
 ance ; 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 re- 
 freshment. 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.
 
 no PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 w^ith 
 the report that he saw nothing worse than him- 
 self. 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. iii 
 
 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."
 
 112 PHANTASTES : 
 
 I thanked her very warmly for her solution, 
 though it was but partial ; wondering much that in 
 her, as in the 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 hea\'y step approach 
 and enter the house. A jolly voice, whose slight 
 huskiness appeared to proceed fr.om 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 command- 
 ments. Ha ! ha ! ha ! " The very voice, kind 
 and jovial, seemed to disrobe the room of the 
 strange look which all new places wear — to dis- 
 enchant it out of the realm of the ideal into that of
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 113 
 
 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 bene- 
 volent 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 imagi- 
 nation, 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 comer, with a little book 
 open on her knee, from which she had apparently 
 just looked up to fix great inquiring eyes upon 
 
 VOL. v. I
 
 114 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 Tke History of Graciosa and Per- 
 cinet. 
 
 "Very improving book, sir," remarked the old 
 farmer, with a good-humoured laugh. "We are 
 in the very hottest comer 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 con- 
 vince 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 ? "
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 115 
 
 "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,
 
 ii6 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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-comer, "you know quite well that mother 
 is descended from that very princess who was 
 changed by the wicked faiiy into a white cat. 
 Mother has told me so a many times, and you 
 ought to believe everything she says." 
 
 " I can easily beheve 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 ! "
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 117 
 
 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 our- 
 selves 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 ? "
 
 ii8 PHANTASTES: 
 
 " 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 jour- 
 neys 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 mis- 
 take; 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 119 
 
 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."
 
 120 PHANTASTES : 
 
 I was somewhat sorry not to gather any experi- 
 ence that I might have, of the inhabitants of Fairy 
 Land ; but the effect of the farmer's company, and 
 of my o\vn 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 pro- 
 found 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 win- 
 dow. 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 121 
 
 Fairy Land. I went down, and found the family 
 already at breakfast. But before I entered the 
 room where they sat, the Httle 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 morn-
 
 122 PHANTASTES : 
 
 ing," I said, " I felt almost certain that Fairy 
 Land was all a delusion of my brain ; but when- 
 ever 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 o^^^l 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 to- 
 wards the forest."
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 123 
 
 " Willingly," I said. 
 
 So we went together, the little girl running he- 
 fore 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 irre- 
 sistible 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,
 
 124 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 deli- 
 cate 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 tliink. 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 ha\-ing taken leave of 
 my kind entertainers, went into the wood, accom- 
 panied 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 125 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Ich bin ein Theil des Theils, der anfangs alles war. 
 
 Goethe. — Mephistopheles in Faust. 
 
 I am a part of the part, which at first was the whole. 
 
 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 painful 
 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 mis-
 
 126 PHANTASTES: 
 
 giving 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 comer. 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 127 
 
 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 affirma- 
 tion. 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 dark- 
 ness ; yea, springeth in fountains and wells amidst 
 it, from the secret channels of its mighty sea. 
 Truly, man is but a passing flame, moving un- 
 quietly amid the surrounding rest of night ; with- 
 out 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 forbid- 
 ding. Her forehead was high, and her black eyes
 
 128 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 comer 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 in- 
 tended for herself alone. The prohibition, how- 
 ever, 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 129 
 
 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 comer 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 trae 
 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 
 
 VOL. V. K
 
 130 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 comer 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 ap- 
 proach, 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 131 
 
 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. 
 
 K 2
 
 132 PHANTASTES: 
 
 **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 be- 
 wildered—stunned — both by the event itself and
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 133 
 
 its suddenness, that I could not at all realize to 
 J 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 loath- 
 ing, I took my dreary way through the wood.
 
 PHANTASTES . 
 
 IX. 
 
 O Lady ! we receive but what we give. 
 And in our life alone does nature live : 
 Ours is her wedding garment, 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 vmderstood from a few detached instances. 
 To begin with this \ery day on which he first
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 135 
 
 joined me : after I had walked heartlessly along 
 for two or three hours, I was very weary, and lay 
 down to rest in a raost 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 shud- 
 dered, and hastened away with sad forebodings. 
 
 In a few days, I had reason to dread an exten- 
 sion 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 irre- 
 sistible desire to look on my evil demon (which
 
 1 36 PHA NT A S T£S : 
 
 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 deseit, 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,
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 137 
 
 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 common- pi ace
 
 138 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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, dowTi 
 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 lust, 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 sun- 
 light. His forehead w^as higher than before, for 
 the contracting wrinkles were nearly gone ; and 
 the sadness that remained on his face was the sad-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 139 
 
 ness of a de^\'y summer twilight, not that of a 
 frosty autumn mom. 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 atten- 
 dant gloom, which all this time had remained very 
 obsequiously behind me ; but I offered no expla- 
 nation, 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 nol)le words
 
 I40 PHAXTASTES: 
 
 from my companion roused all my heart ; and 1 
 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 com- 
 fort of sjTnpathy — 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 com- 
 mon crowd. I will not see beauty where there is
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 141 
 
 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 feeling 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 care- 
 less 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
 
 14a PHANTASTES: 
 
 when least occupied about it. Slie stopped by me 
 with a smile, and bade nie 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 dif- 
 ferently. 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 har- 
 mony rolled out of the little globe. She would 
 not let me touch it any more.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 143 
 
 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 in- 
 creased, 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
 
 144 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 tear?. 
 The music went on growing in intensity and com- 
 plication of tones, and the globe \'ibrated 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 pur- 
 sued 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 145 
 
 lost sight of her. It lies heavy on my heart to 
 this hour. At night, ere I fall asleep, often, what- 
 ever 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 pecuHarity 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 own 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 dis- 
 tance, 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 tlie former
 
 146 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 counte- 
 nance 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 147 
 
 jesting and raillery, she, somehow or other, pro- 
 voked 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 1 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 T presume that the alteration was common to
 
 i<8 PHANTASTES: 
 
 the approximating parties. I was likewise unable 
 to determine whether I was a necessary party to 
 the production of this strange transfonnation, or 
 whether it took place as well, under the given 
 circumstances, between the inhabitants them- 
 selves.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 149 
 
 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 ex- 
 pected 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,
 
 I50 PHANTASTES: 
 
 partly of pity, partly of contempt, and looked 
 ashamed, as if he had been caught doing some- 
 thing 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 incli- 
 nation 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 some- 
 what 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 Httle stream arose in my heart. It was 
 bom in a desert ; but it seemed to say to itself, " I 
 will flow, and sing, and lave my banks, till I m.ake 
 my desert a paradise." I thought I could not do 
 better than follow it, and see what it made of it.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 151 
 
 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 ap- 
 peared on its banks, and then, here and there, a 
 stunted bush. Sometimes it disappeared alto- 
 gether 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 overflowed at my eyes. Through my tears,
 
 152 PHANTASTES: 
 
 the whole landscape glimmered in such be\\'itching 
 loveliness, that I felt as if I were entering Fairy 
 Land for the first time, and some lo\'ing hand 
 were waiting to cool my head, and a lo\dng word 
 to warm my heart. Roses, wild roses, every- 
 where ! 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 w^oman 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 153 
 
 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, fathom- 
 less 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
 
 IS4 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 Avhile 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 155 
 
 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
 
 is6 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 fairy- 
 land 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 un-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 157 
 
 defined 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
 
 153 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 ver)' 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 la^ai, which rose from 
 the water's edge with a long gi-een slope to a clear 
 elevation from which the trees receded ou 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 ghtter; only, as I said, 
 a ghostly shimmer. Numberless shadows tem- 
 pered the shine, from column and balcony and 
 tower. For everywhere galleries ran along the
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 159 
 
 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, communi- 
 cating 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
 
 i6o PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 in 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. i6i 
 
 air, threw a dim memory of light (as it were) over 
 the court below. This court was paved in dia- 
 monds 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 direc- 
 tion, 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 
 
 VuL. V. M
 
 i62 PHAXTASTES : 
 
 seeing the fairies of the higher orders had gra- 
 dually 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 hospi- 
 table 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 j 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 163 
 
 I turned ; notwithstanding that, in doing so, I left 
 the light behind. Along this I walked with out- 
 stretched 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 moon- 
 shine, 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, T/ie 
 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
 
 i64 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 my- 
 self to the good things before me with confidence.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 165 
 
 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 any- 
 thing 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 drunk 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
 
 166' PHA y TA S TES : 
 
 wondering how it would all end ; and when at 
 length, wearied with thinking. I betook myself to 
 my own old 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 167 
 
 XL 
 
 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 dream- 
 less, 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.
 
 io» PHANTASTES: 
 
 Agreeably to all authentic accounts of the treat- 
 ment 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 hke 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 
 shnibbery, rocky hill and luxurious vale ; in living 
 creatures wild and tame, in gorgeous birds, scat- 
 tered fountains, little streams, and reedy lakes—
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 169 
 
 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 comfoiting 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 rcpresentest
 
 I70 PHA NT A S TES : 
 
 thyself to me as me ; here I may find a shadow of 
 light which will devour thee, the shadow of dark- 
 ness ! 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. Wander-
 
 A FAERIE ROMAh'CE. 171 
 
 ing along from one to another of these, wherever 
 my heedless steps led me, and wondering evei-y- 
 where at the simple magnificence of the building, 
 I arrived at another hall, the roof of which M^as 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 arrange- 
 ment, you would have supposed, at first sight, 
 that there was no design, for they seemed to lie as
 
 172 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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, with- 
 out 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. This 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,
 
 A FAER!E ROMANCE, tn 
 
 and swam beneath the surface. And here was a 
 new wonder. For the basin, thus beheld, ap- 
 peared 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
 
 ri74 PHANTASTES: . 
 
 blaek 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 the 
 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 some- 
 times saw only the passing wave of a white robe ; 
 or a lovely arm or neck gleamed by in the mooQ-
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 175 
 
 shine ; 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 fount- 
 ains and moonshine, I spent many days; waited 
 upon constantly in my own 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 some- 
 where 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.
 
 176 PHA.VTASTES : 
 
 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 fonned of something like glass, 
 vaulted over in a single piece, and stained through- 
 out with a great mysterious picture in gorgeous 
 colouring. The walls were lined from floor to roof 
 M-ith 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,
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 177 
 
 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 pre- 
 sumptuous 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, 
 wliich lay here and there on the floor, and read, 
 and read, until weary; if tliat can be designated as
 
 lyS PHANTASTES : ' 
 
 weariness, which was rather the faintness of rap^ 
 turous dehght ; 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 179 
 
 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 con- 
 verging lines would unite in one, reveaHng 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
 
 t8o PHANTASTES : 
 
 death-bed, or the end of the volume, I would 
 awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the con- 
 sciousness of my present life, recognising the walls 
 and roof around me, and finding I joyed or sor- 
 rowed 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 rh>i;hm, and a hidden rhyme. 
 
 In one, with a mystical title, which I cannot re- 
 call, 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. 
 \Vhether or not it was all a poem, I cannot tell ; 
 but, from the impulse I felt, when I first contem- 
 plated writing it, to break into rhyme, to which 
 impulse I shall give way if it comes upon me 
 again, I think it must have been, partly at least, in 
 verse.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. x8i 
 
 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. GEM 
 
 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 inteiradiating 
 connexion and dependence of the parts. Else a
 
 ^ PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 revela- 
 tions 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 183 
 
 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, bom 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.
 
 i84 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 grey 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 
 yoitfind itV and such-like questions, abounding. 
 And thereupon she relates the whole story of the 
 discoveiy ; 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 tlie place of shelter
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 185 
 
 wherein it is found, is determined, or at least indi- 
 cated, 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 chil- 
 dren. 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 fi)i- 
 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
 
 i86 PHANTASTES : 
 
 %vho understand the spirit of nature, and her utter- 
 ances 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 
 stonii 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 differ- 
 ence between them, which likewise distinguishes 
 the women from those of the earth. The men 
 alone have arms ; the women have only wings.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 187 
 
 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 in- 
 side. But these colours are modified and altered 
 in all varieties, corresponding to the mood of the
 
 i88 PH AN TASTES : 
 
 day and hour, as well as the season of the year ; 
 and sometimes I foimd 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 grey, 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 189 
 
 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 the 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 eveiything 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
 
 I90 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 ail 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 191 
 
 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
 
 192 PHANTASTES : ^ 
 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 193 
 
 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, bom 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.
 
 PHANTASTES : 
 
 And the giant trees, as bare as Death, 
 
 Slowly bowed to the great Wind's breath ; 
 
 And groaned with trj-ing 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 ;
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 195 
 
 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 adven- 
 tures, many disappointed hopes, and many tears, 
 bitter and fruitless, she found at last, one st< rmy 
 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
 
 196 PHANTASTES : 
 
 almost believe that a child, pale and peaceful as a 
 snowdrop, was bom in the Earth within a fixed 
 season from that stormy afternoon.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 197 
 
 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
 
 1 gS PHA NT A S TES : 
 
 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 storj' 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 199 
 
 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 Uni- 
 versity of Prague. Though of a noble family, he 
 was poor, and prided himself upon the indepen- 
 dence 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 un- 
 known 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 ap-
 
 200 PHANTASTES : 
 
 proved ; 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 chaii-s, 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 comers ; 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 pom- 
 mel 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 201 
 
 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 every- 
 thing 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
 
 ao2 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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, vmtil 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, vmtil 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.
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 203 
 
 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 con- 
 sidered an authority in every matter pertaining to 
 arms, ancient or modem. In the use of weapons, 
 none of the students could come near him ; and 
 his practical acquaintance with some had princi- 
 pally 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 every- 
 thing 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,
 
 204 P// AX TASTES: 
 
 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 
 carv-ing, which he could see but ver}^ indistinctly 
 by the glimmering light which the owner of the 
 shop carried in his hand. It was this carvnng 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 o\^Tier 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.
 
 A FAERtE ROMANCE. 203 
 
 slow restless motion, and looking here and there 
 as if after something that eluded them. Pretend- 
 ing 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 do\vn 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 pre- 
 tended, 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
 
 zo6 PHANTASTES : 
 
 the dust from its face, expecting to see a dull 
 reflection witliin. 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 j " but it is far too much for 
 me to give." 
 
 The old man held up his light towards Cosmo's 
 /ace. " I like your look," said he. 
 
 Cosmo could not return the compliment. In
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 207 
 
 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 comers 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 
 aske4 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 unac- 
 countable degree, since it had seemed beyond his 
 reach.
 
 ao8 PHANTASTES : 
 
 " 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 bar- 
 gain 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 ! "
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 209 
 
 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 sus- 
 picions. 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 wafer of a sunny spring, the mirror 
 shone out from beneath the envious covering. 
 vijL. V. r
 
 2TO PHANTASTES: 
 
 But his interest was chiefly occupied with the 
 curious carving of the frame. This he cleaned as 
 well as he could with a brash ; and then he pro- 
 ceeded 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 dis- 
 appeared. The mirror has lifted it out of the 
 region of fact into the realm of art ; and the very
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 211 
 
 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 represen- 
 tation 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 every-day 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 un- 
 ambitious, 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
 
 2T2 PHANTASTES: 
 
 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 wnth 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 un- 
 announced, 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 face of unutterable
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 213 
 
 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 de-
 
 214 PHANTASTES: 
 
 stroyed 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 evQvy moment that she would open 
 hers, and meet his fixed regard. But he was, ere 
 long, a little relieved ; for, after a while, her eye- 
 lids 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 lan- 
 guidly 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 215 
 
 there, he concluded that if he were to turn to- 
 wards 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 impres- 
 sion 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 dis- 
 compose 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 coun- 
 tenance, leaving only a faint sorrow behind ; the 
 features settled into an unchanging expression of
 
 2i6 PHANTASTES : 
 
 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 em- 
 barrassment. He saw that her figure, dressed 
 in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of her 
 face; and so harmonious, that either the deli- 
 cately-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 mechanicsJly 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 con- 
 tradiction, to its face, of all its experience, and 
 now lay passive, without assertion, or speculation, 
 or even conscious astonishment ; while his imagi- 
 nation sent one wild dream of blessedness after
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 217 
 
 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 tlie 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 pos-
 
 «i8 PHAXTASTES: 
 
 sibly 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 doAvn 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. How- 
 ever, 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. Everj'thing 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 219 
 
 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 
 comer 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 over- 
 take 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
 
 220 PHAXTASTES: 
 
 upon her; and he started as if awaking 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 some- 
 where. 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 221 
 
 preferred living on his slender allowance, to 
 increasing his means by what his pride considered 
 unworthy of his rank. He was the best swords- 
 man 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 neighbour- 
 hood. So that veiy 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 llie
 
 222 PHANTASTES : 
 
 comer where his bed had formerly stood; and, 
 by degrees, every day adding some article of 
 luxur}', 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 acknow- 
 ledgment, 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,
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 223 
 
 and proceeded to examine them carefully, testify- 
 ing 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
 
 224 PHANTASTES : 
 
 honey-founts. Ever and anon, he sang to him- 
 self; 
 
 " I shall die for love of the maiden ;" 
 
 and ever he looked again, and died not, though 
 his heait 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 himseli 
 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
 
 A FAERIE ROMANCE. 225 
 
 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. 
 
 END OF VOL. V,
 
 x-^i-^s
 

 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 B 000 006 450 1 
 
 m^m