My Dream 



had expected. At our first entry, about seven in the 

 morning, the glen had been nearly a monopoly, but now the 

 grassy banks of the Huecar were occupied by a promiscuous 

 array of washerwomen, kneading, and dipping, and clapping 

 a great variety of tawdry rags. 



I saw nothing for it but to climb the precipice to secure 

 some inaccessible place of refuge ; and about 200 feet above 

 the level of the stream, I lighted on a little grassy ledge, 

 before the mouth of a small cave. Here, by disposing my 

 head towards the cave, and my feet to the precipice, I could — 



" Sans souci du reveil, 

 Dormir, la tete a I'ombre et les pieds au soleil." 



I lit a cigartUo with my burning-glass, and shortly went 

 to sleep, while the distant music of the cathedral still 

 murmured its plaintive lullaby. 



Shall I tell you my dream ? Methought (what would a 

 dream be worth, if it did not begin with methought ?) as I 

 lay in the mouth of the cavern, a distant trumpet's silver 

 tones called to me from within. I rose and entered, leaving 

 the light of day. Spell-bound, without the power to stop 

 and hesitate whether I should proceed or return, I went 

 down the steep declivity. The slope of the cavern's floor 

 was rough and rocky, but my feet seemed lightened and 

 guided by some onward destiny. 



A strange, dim twilight grew upon the dark — a deep 

 purple light, which as it increased, the mysterious impulse 

 urging me forward seemed to strengthen, and I found myself 

 plunging down from crag to crag at a desperate speed, leaping 

 over great yawning gaps of apparently impossible width. 



And yet I felt no fear — only a sort of dumb and dreamy 

 wonder. I could see, as I flew across them, that beneath 

 these abysses there flowed a dark torrent, breaking in foam 



