While the earth and sky are dancing. Phantasmion escaped from this boon company, and, having entered the castle, espied Glandreth and the queen communing together in a vaulted passage. The chieftain bent his head, and slowly retired to his chamber ; but Maudra beckoned to Phantasmion, and bade him keep watch in the balcony adjoining Glandreth's apartment, that he might render assistance to the wounded warrior in the night if it were needed. The prince obeyed this order with alacrity; he crept to the appointed station, displaced a party of bats, and looked down on his late comrades, most of whom had now fallen asleep among their cups. Glandreth was neither drinking nor sleeping, but drawing a chart of Palmland; with his face bent over the table, he had lifted up his pen to mark the very spot where his invading host was to enter the country, at that same point of time when the young monarch, pressing his drum close to the wall, produced an indescribable and intolerable din, which not only made the apartment of Glandreth rock and resound like a belfry, but circulated around the castle, till every dome, and tower, and vault, rang again, and the whole edifice appeared to be a sounding cymbal in the hand of some mighty musician. Phantasmion crouched down, and, peeping through the rails of the balcony, was amused to see that the whole party of sleepers, lately scattered up and down among the bushes, had started to their feet, and were all standing in one attitude, every head thrown back, every right arm upraised, while rooks, bats, owls, and swallows, day birds and night birds, were flying about in confusion, and the howling of dogs, from various quarters of the island, sounded as if an enemy had entered the precincts. After having observed the effects produced without the castle for a little time, the prince resolved to enter Glandreth's chamber, under pretence of obeying Maudra's command. Accordingly, stealing in from the balcony he found all as still as death. He advanced farther into the apartment, and beheld the strong man lying upon the floor, his eyes fixed, his cheeks livid, and the wound upon his forehead sending forth a fresh stream of blood. Maudra knelt beside him, with a pale, horror-stricken face a lamp, which had fallen from her hand, lay burning on the floor, and cast a lurid gleam on the blotted map just beside it, and on those two ghastly visages, while the moon's milder light admitted through the window, illumined the rose-crowned head of the royal youth, and his light, half-raised wings, from which his upper vest had slipped aside. Maudra was too much absorbed to observe Phantasmion; he glided away, and, passing into another part of the castle, where a lamp shone from the roof, he beheld Albinian standing outside his chamber door, with a wild exultation in his blear eyes. On seeing Phantasmion, he began eagerly to mutter and gesticulate, pointing along the passage, as if to inquire what had become of Maudra, The youth was too wary to throw light upon this subject, but making a low obeisance, hastened on, and entered a gloomy passage into which a feeble light was shining from a window at one end and now he heard soft irregular steps approaching; some one, little and light, ran against him; by an involuntary motion he erected his gauzy wings, which caught the faint rays from the high window, while the rest of his figure was shadowy and obscure. A shrill scream pierced those darksome recesses, then a door opened at a little distance, and, swift as a coney hies to his hole in the rock, young Albinet, with his bare feet and loose vest, hurried into Iarine's unlighted chamber. Phantasmion stood at the door, and between the pauses of the boy's eager story, uttered amidst loud sobs, he heard her soothing tones and mild remonstrances. "Let me stay here," said the child at length. "I am happy even in the dark when close to thee. But O, sister, would that we lived where there is no night for almost half the year! In those lands, when the sun does set, a throng of purple meteors play his part in the sky. The very ground too is luminous, and reflects the moonbeams from its snowy surface." "Those lands have more light than heat," said Iarine; "thou dost not love the cold." "In heaven there will be neither cold nor darkness," he answered, after a pause; but, alas! now I think on it, up in the sky we shall be close to the dreadful thunder, and there it will sound as loud as that terrible din which is bellowing in my ears even yet." "Thunder comes from the clouds;" the maid replied, "our dwelling will be far beyond the clouds that frown upon this earth. There will be no vexing noises, no dull silence, no shade but the shadows of bright blossomed trees with sunshine all round about them. But sleep, now-" "O, sleep is scared away for ever," sighed Albinet; "never, never to come nigh these walls again!" A few moments afterwards Phantasmion heard the soft, regular breathing, which told that his fearful spirit had ceased to strive with itself; then, having laid himself down beside that chamber-door, he too fell asleep, and dreamed right pleasantly. CHAPTER XX. GLANDRETH QUITS THE ISLAND, AND PHANTASMION OBTAINS AN INTERVIEW WITH IARINE. WHEN Phantasmion awoke in the dim passage, he heard the inmates of the chamber greeting the dawn with this song : How high yon lark is heavenward borne ! A waveless flood, supremely bright, In this day's light what flowers will bloom, |