iftutns of lipgtcwe palace. 147 



meet, and the adjacent palace, might teach that human 

 life is even as a vapour. 



Gradually as the mist of ages were dispersed, so gra- 

 dually do they return. They gather over the assembly, 

 and cover, as with a light transparent mantle, the palace 

 with its embattled parapets, and men-at-arms, the moat, 

 and drawbridge. Fainter and fainter grows the scene; 

 the king may yet dimly be discerned, and one among the 

 rest seems speaking with great earnestness; now the 

 strained eye discerns them no longer. All and each are 

 concealed from the view. Where stood the noble oak, 

 and those who were assembled beneath its branches, a 

 solitary spot of ground, with an aged, riven, and time- 

 worn tree, alone appears : in the place of a stately palace, 

 broken ruins meet the eye, and a few straggling sheep 

 graze beside them. 



