periander continues his narration, and relates a singular dream.
"slumber had begun to take possession of the senses of my companions, and i began to question the one who was keeping watch with me, upon many matters important to mariners, and needful for them to know, when it suddenly began to rain, not in drops, but as if whole clouds were at once emptying their contents upon our ship, so that it appeared as if the sea had risen into the sky, and from thence was overflowing upon our vessel. all awoke in great perturbation, and looking about on every side, saw a clear unclouded sky, and no signs of storm or tempest, a thing which struck every one with awe and dread: whilst they were gazing around, the man who had been with me, said, 'i have no doubt but that this rain proceeds from the nostrils of those monstrous fishes which are called wreckers, and if it be so, then are we in the greatest peril, and it will be necessary for us to discharge all our guns, for the noise will sometimes terrify them.' as he spoke, we saw the neck and head of a terrible serpent rise[i] and enter the ship: it seized, and instantly swallowed at a mouthful, one of our seamen before our eyes. 'yes, they are 'wreckers',' cried our pilot; 'we must make haste to fire, no matter with or without shot, for it is from the noise alone we can hope for help against these monsters.'
"our men were flying in confusion to hide themselves, none dared stand up, lest they should become the prey of these horrible enemies; but at this some flew to the guns, some shouted aloud, and others turned to the pumps to get rid of the water, which overflowed our deck. we set every sail, and fled as though we were escaping from a whole fleet of enemies; our present extreme danger was the greatest, in that it was one we had never yet seen or even heard of. the next day we found ourselves about dusk on the shore of an island unknown to any of us, and with the intention of watering here, we resolved to stay till the following morning close to the land; we, therefore, took down the sails and anchored, having done which, we resigned our weary bodies to sleep, which we greatly needed: sweet and grateful were our slumbers.
"when we had refreshed ourselves with this welcome rest, we landed and sauntered along the delightful shore, the sands of which (without any exaggeration) were all of grains of gold and minute pearls. we penetrated more inland and saw meadows, the grass of which was not merely green, but of the brightest emerald colour. the brooks and rivulets ran not like simply sparkling streams, but like liquid diamonds; and appeared, as they meandered through the meadows, like crystal serpents. then we came to a wood of various kinds of trees, so beautiful that we stood transfixed with wonder and delight. from the boughs of some, hung bunches of cherries, that looked like rubies; from others, apples, the cheeks of some like roses, of others like topazes. there were pears, of exquisite fragrance and colour, like the setting sun; in fine, there was every species of fruit we know, all here to be found in perfection, without being confined to any particular season. all here was spring, summer, autumn, in one,—heat without being oppressive, agreeable and delightful beyond belief.
"all our senses were gratified, our eyes revelled in the beauty that lay around us, our ears were enchanted by the soft murmuring of the rivulets, and the singing of an infinite variety of small birds, which, hopping from tree to tree, and bough to bough, seemed as if they were detained as captives who wished not to be free; our sense of smell was regaled with the fragrance that exhaled from every herb, flower, and fruit, and our taste with the delicious proof they afforded of their excellence and sweetness; and it was pleasant to the touch to have them in our hands, so that we seemed to possess the pearls of the south, the diamonds of india, and the gold of tebir."[j]
"it is a pity, methinks, that clodio is dead," whispered ladislaus to his father-in-law, "for in truth periander would have given him something to talk about."
"hold your tongue," said transila, "you cannot say that he does not tell his story well."
while these whispers were passing, periander had paused to take breath, but soon he continued his narration thus:—"all this that i have told you," said he, "is nothing to what is to come; i shall require all your courtesy to believe the things i shall narrate; your eyes would open wide, gentlemen, and yours too, fair ladies, if you were to see what we saw proceed from the bosom of a rock, with our own eyes, so that there was no deception. i say that out of the aperture of a rock, there came forth, first, a most melodious noise that arrested our attention, then a sound of divers instruments; then issued forth a car,—i hardly know how to describe its form, but something resembling a ship;—it was drawn by twelve enormous apes, and in the car was a very beautiful lady, arrayed in a gorgeous robe of many colours, crowned with oleanders; she leant upon a black stick, in which was fixed a kind of tablet, or shield, with the word 'sensuality' thereon; behind her followed other beautiful women, each with a musical instrument in her hand, producing a melody now gay, now mournful, altogether singularly pleasing.
"my companions and i were so astonished that we stood as if transformed into stone statues. the beautiful lady came straight to me, and in a voice half sweet, half angry, she said, 'it has cost thee dear, o noble youth, being my enemy,' and so saying, she passed on, and the musical damsels seized, and carried off, as it were, seven or eight of my mariners, and following their mistress, disappeared again through the aperture of the rock. i then turned to my comrades, and was about to ask what they thought of all this that we had seen, when the sound of other voices reached our ears, very different from the first, more agreeable and even more melodious, and then appeared a band of lovely women. they preceded my sister auristella: no words can express her more than mortal beauty;—she was between two damsels, one of whom stept forwards, and spoke to me thus:—'virtue and modesty are inseparable companions, and ever accompany chastity, who is here under the semblance of your beloved sister auristella, nor will they ever leave her until her peregrinations come to a happy termination in the holy city of rome.' then i, enraptured with those happy tidings, and wondering at the lovely sight before me, so new and strange an adventure, would fain have raised my voice, and exclaimed, 'o ye bright comforters of my soul; o rich reward granted for my welfare—sweet and joyful now and ever to me.' so great was the energy with which i strove to utter these words, that i awoke from my dream, and the lovely vision vanished; i found myself in the ship with my companions,—all were there, none of them missing."
"then," exclaimed constance, "my lord periander, you were only dreaming?"
"i was," he answered, "all my happiness has ever been but a dream."
"truly," she rejoined, "i was going to ask the lady auristella where she had concealed herself all the time before she appeared to you."
"my brother," said auristella, "has related his dream in such a manner, that i really felt a doubt whether it was truth or not, that he was telling us."
to which maurice added, "these things are owing to the force of imagination, which represents things sometimes in so varied a way, that they cling to the memory, and remain there till we hardly know whether they are truth or not."
meanwhile arnoldo kept silence; he was considering in his mind the vivacity and warmth of expression that periander had used in relating his story, and could not help indulging some of the doubts and suspicions which had been infused into his mind by the deceased clodio, as to whether periander and auristella were really brother and sister.
however, at length he said, "go on with your story, periander, but leave out your dreams, for weary and overworked minds often engender confused and strange fancies, and here is the peerless sinforosa longing to have you come to the time of your first appearance in the island, when you went away crowned as conqueror in the games which take place on the anniversary of her father's election."
"the pleasure that my dream gave me," replied periander, "made me unaware of the tiresome and fruitless nature of such digressions in a narrative, which should be concise and not amplified."
polycarp, whose eyes were entirely occupied with looking at auristella, and his mind in thinking about her, said nothing. it mattered very little to him whether periander spoke or held his tongue, and he, who began to perceive that some of his hearers were tired of his long story, determined to shorten the rest, and to finish it in as few words as he could, and so he spoke as follows.
