possessed the flowery vale which thou hast lately visited." "What a black cloud," exclaimed the youth, "is resting on the summit of the boundary eminence !' "That cloud," rejoined Laona, "overhangs the dwelling of the enchantress Melledine; she it is who has blasted this region, while Feydeleen vainly endeavours to counterwork her spells. Alas! that outward blasting is but a type of the desolation that she has brought on me and mine. Soon after the Spirit of the Flowers had blest Anthemmina and Penselimer with the hope of their happy union, my daughter met a woman whose face was covered with a shining veil, as she wandered, late in the evening, through an orchard that lies between the palace and the mountain. Come to this clear stream,' said the witch, and thou shalt see a strange. sight.' Anthemmina looked into the water, and fancied that she there beheld the face of Dorimant, her cousin Zalia's suitor, hard by the image of her own. While she was gazing on the shadow in the brook, that wicked enchantress persuaded the maiden to drink out of a cup which she presented to her. No sooner had she tasted its contents than all her affections were transferred from Penselimer to him whose likeness she seemed to behold. Alas no spell but that which beaming eyes contain was needed to turn Dorimant's fickle heart from Zalia to Anthemmina, and none but that of ambition caused him to break his faith with my faithless child, and again offer his hand to the heiress of Gemmaura." Phantasmion looked sorrowful and abashed, but could not feel anger against Laona, for she spoke as one in whom no affections remain, except such as are fit to live for ever. "Dorimant is dead," she added, "and Zalia and Anthemmina are at rest from their troubles. Penselimer yet lives, and-Hark! his lute is sounding from that gloomy cell, in which it is his pleasure to immure himself till the moon rises." Phantasmion listened and heard Penselimer sing thus:— The sun may speed or loiter on his way. I have a region, bathed in joyous beams, Then hail the twilight cave, the silent dell, Where nothing whispers that the past is flown. The eyes of Laona shone in tears for a moment, but no strong emotion disturbed the serene sadness of her brow. "Alas!" she said, "his are but mockeries of woe, that Yet dwell in the wild brain and never touch the heart. hark again!” Penselimer was singing, Grief's heavy hand hath sway'd the lute; "Tis henceforth mute: Though pleasure woo, the strings no more respond Silenced as if by an enchanter's wand. Do thou brace up each slackened chord, Then shall the lute pour grateful melodies Strains that celestial choristers may please. CHAPTER XIV. PHANTASMION VISITS THE DESERTED PALACE. HAVING received the blessing of Laona, Phantasmion departed, and, just as the castle towers were sinking out of sight, remembered that he ought to have inquired for the abode of Sanio. Eager, however, to explore Anthemmina's ancient dwelling-place, he hastened forward, now running, now leaping, yet sometimes forgetting even to move, in his deep thoughts concerning past and future events. The sky was clear in every part, except right before him on the horizon; there the dark mass hung so steadily, that it looked more like a black sea than a cloud. At last he reached a smiling peninsula in the sullen ocean of the waste: Here at least," thought he, "Melledine has not turned the leaves yellow when they ought to be green here the Flower Spirit hath her way." Phantasmion passed the mossy stones which of yore had formed an outer wall, and now inclosed a neighbourhood of snakes and lizards, and proceeded to a wilderness where commonest weeds upreared their heads among rare flowers, and towered, and swelled, and blossomed, and seeded, casting out their branches on every side in unassailed prosperity and tranquil pomp. There the soft hyacinth and rich carnation were overtopped by thistles, the full peony blushed among tall grass half hidden, and a solitary arch, that once had been a gateway, was crested with the prim larkspur and spruce jonquil. Over against a green mound, from which the wild goats bounded at his approach, Phantasmion discerned an imperfect outline of two apartments; the first was tapestried with jessamine, and tenanted by owls, who stared with no hospitable looks upon the stranger as he entered their abode; a shallow pool floored the second, reflecting the ruined walls with its arched windows and carved ornaments, over which the eglantine waved its lithe branches, still perhaps to wave them in the gale, when that phantom edifice should have fallen under its breath. Phantasmion paused not here, but went on to find the brook spoken of by Laona, passing orchards where the unpruned boughs were bending under crowded birds and fruit, till, through the close undergrowth, in parts quite impervious, he perceived a stream which flowed through a vaulted opening at the base of a lofty rock, then wandered away to the right hand. Above that rock was a succession of crags, the highest veiled in darkness; and this was the cloud-capped height which he had seen from the castle. Phantasmion approached the stream close to the archway, and, looking on its waters, discerned his own colourless shadow, and nothing more but, on stooping to bathe his temples in the brook, he perceived beyond the shadow, a picture of himself as vivid and seemingly substantial as that which the finest mirror might have presented. It was not looking as his natural face would have done in a glass at that moment, for his countenance was thoughtful, and bore traces of tears; but the countenance of the picture appeared to be radiant with joy and love. It did not gaze on him that gazed on it, but on another object in the watery depth, the graceful figure of a damsel, holding up a silver pitcher so that it concealed her face, which was bowed down upon her bosom. While the youth still examined the picture, it gradually faded, and he saw only the sparkling sands in the bed of the river; but, ere he turned away his eyes, those very sands had formed themselves into characters, making the names of Dorimant and Anthemmina, Iarine and Phantasmion. Again they were mingled together, and, while he thought to decypher them as before, a tinkling melody rang out from the rocks overhead. It seemed as if they were musical stones touched by some invisible hand with a silver hammer, and soon they seemed to speak thus: Life and light, Anthemna bright, Ere thy knell these rocks shall ring, Is from thee for Palmland springing. "That king of Palmland is Phantasmion!" exclaimed the youth in ecstacy; "and the watery picture is my likeness, only like Dorimant as I resemble my father. Anthemmina's fair child is mine,—but how am I to gain the charmed vessel ?" Full of joyous agitation, he |