CHAPTER VIII.

PHANTASMION IS GUIDED BY THE FISHERMAN TO

POLYANTHIDA.

PHANTASMION was glad when he saw young Albinet lifted into a boat which was sent to take him back to the island; and he loudly hailed the kind old man, who attended to his summons, and was soon standing beside him on the stone peir. "My good host," cried the youth, "canst thou conduct me to the house of Magnart in Almaterra ?" "That I can, right easily," the fisherman replied. "I oft go thither to sell fish; for we have a delicate sort in our lake which is found nowhere else, and the women of these parts have a choice method of preserving them with spices." "It is well," replied the youth; "I feel myself able to pursue my journey this very hour, and am desirous to reach the place I told thee of by the nearest road." "The nearest road," replied the old man, "is a rugged one; it lies among the Black Mountains; but it would bring thee to Almaterra some time before they who are winding through the plain will reach it." The prince was glad to become acquainted with the passes of the country; and still more he exulted in the hope of being speedily brought to the presence of the island princess. Find me a good mule," cried he, " which cares not for rough ways; and as well as he plays his part shall I play mine."

Before the sun began to slant down his westerly path, Phantasmion and his ancient guide, seated on mules as sure-footed as rock-goats, but far more discreet and serious, were ascending a zig-zag road along a ridge of the Black Mountains. Telza had furnished them with provisions; the beasts knew every step of the journey even better than the guide; and thus the travellers wound their way for several days over the sides of hills and through bleak valleys, resting at night under the brow of a rock, or in the scanty shelter of weather-beaten pine trees.

At last they reached a deep gully, where the mountains reared their black fronts on either side, abrupt and steep, as if the double range had formerly been one, and had been split asunder by lightning. The blue sky formed a bright roof to these grim walls, which the sun vainly strove to illumine, and was the only sight that relieved the eye from sameness of gloom, except a rivulet which laboured along the bottom of the glen, moaning audibly in the summer silence, its weak voice intercepted by no sound of beast, or bird, or busy insect. "Yon falcon comes from Palmland," observed the guide. "See where she flies over the crags on the left hand. Doubtless her nest is hid among those airy battlements." "A wise bird!" cried the youth. "She keeps on the borders of a plentiful land, yet rears her young securely in a barren desert. This glen will be an utter solitude when we have left it." His comrade smiled as he answered, "Thinkest thou that we have no living neighbours but the falcon and her brood? Then come this way." Curious to know the meaning of the old man's smile, Phantasmion followed him to the edge of a

pit, the black mouth of which he had taken for the shadow of rocks, and heard a noise as he approached like thunder imprisoned beneath his feet. The calm looks of his guide assured him that no earthquake was coming on; and, lying down, so as to bring his car over the darksome gulf, he began to distinguish loud laments in divers languages, wicked words and piercing outcries, shouts of anger, accents of woe, and, mingled with tyrannical voices, the resonance of blows, the clank of chains, and the crashing of rocks-all these noises reverberated a hundred fold through the windings of the subterranean abode, and composed a whirlwind of sounds which smote the listener's ear with horror as it rolled upwards through the black abyss. "What place of torture is here?" exclaimed the youth, retreating from the chasm. "This is the famous iron mine," his guide

made answer; "the same that caused such feuds between our king and his ancient ally. Glandreth discovered what riches these rocks contained while following his father's stray goats up the glen. Forthwith he stole across the hills into Palmland, and sold his secret to king Dorimant. This, and nought but this, was the foundation of his grandeur. Now he uses the mine both as a place of punishment and of safe custody: hither he sends his captives from foreign lands, all public malefactors, and all of every age and sex and rank who trespass against his lawless will." Phantasmion proceeded somewhat thoughtfully; but ere long he had ceased to think of Glandreth, how he began, or how he maintained his fortunes, and was musing on the bright lady Anthemmina, whom Dorimant had abandoned for the sake of this bleak vale, and whose wrongs

he resented the more from having unconsciously clothed her with the form and countenance of Iarine.

The travellers continued to follow the stony path, and, on emerging at last from the mountain gorge, surveyed a prospect as little like the savage wilderness that had brought them to it, as the young monarch's dream of love and joy resembled the warlike projects by which he hoped to realize that soft and radiant vision. Turning round a broad rock they beheld the vale of Polyanthida, vested in sunny green, luxuriant with orange groves, meadows of golden bloom and sloping gardens, whence the rainbow might have borrowed all its colours. From the high ground where the travellers stood, they looked down upon a bright blue lake, partly girt by hills of soft wavy outline, clad in freshest verdure, to which an amethystine tinge was imparted by blossoms of the fragrant thyme. The skirts of these grassy hills were bathed by the water, while on the opposite side was a thick wood, stretching beyond the rocky shores, which looked as if they had been carved by a graver's chisel, and formed bays and promontories overhung, here and there, with knots of drooping trees. The well attired valley seemed to smile on the lake, which smiled radiantly in return, as a conscious beauty, beaming on her lover, causes his face to brighten with pleasure and hope. The little brook, too, which had murmured so fretfully in the darksome pass, now gushed with a wider stream, arrayed in sparkling white, and bounded to the lake, raising a gladsome cry as if of thankfulness at having escaped from those torturing rocks and that dreary prison. "Where is the mansion of Magnart?" inquired Phantasmion, charmed by the view of this

"And

delicious region. "Beyond that wood it rises," replied the fisherman; "verily, thou wilt find it as rich and noble a tenement as ever a groping miner found his way to. Time was when Magnart and Glandreth dwelt with their father in a lowlier hut than mine." how did they reach the height where we now see them?" asked Phantasmion. "Have I not told thee of the mine?" replied the fisherman. "Had they no natural gifts then?" inquired the youth; "did the mine supply hands as well as materials?" "Gifts!" cried the old man, warmly; "what need they natural gifts who have supernatural helpmates? moreover, they never scrupled to blast anything that stood in their way, and now I believe they would blast each other if the power answered to the will." Discoursing thus, the youthful king and his guide pursued their way down the slanting path into the flowery vestibule of Almaterra, and soon struck into the wood which lay between the lake and the dwelling of Magnart. They had not proceeded far in the woodland path when Phantasmion stopped short, listening to a voice which struck him as having some resemblance to that of Iarine; and looking down the wood he descried a graceful maiden throwing garlands around the neck of a white stag. At this sight the youth leaped from his mule, turned his glowing face to the old man, and hastily thanked him for his services, at the same time that he put into his girdle a handful of gold. "O, thou hast overpaid me!" cried the fisherman; "but shall I not guide thee to the goodly mansion?" No!" said the prince: "only take charge of my mule, and return when thou wilt to the Black Lake, bearing a kind remembrance from me to thy good dame."