But the lady----! Oh heavens! will that spectacle ever depart from my dreams, as she rose and sank upon her seat, sank and rose, threw up her arms wildly to heaven, clutched at some visionary object in the air, fainting, praying, raving, despairing! Figure to yourself, reader, the elements of the case; suffer me to recall before your mind the circumstances of the unparalleled situation. From the silence and deep peace of this saintly summer night,--from the pathetic blending of this sweet moonlight, dawnlight, dreamlight,--from the manly tenderness of this flattering, whispering, murmuring love,--suddenly as from the woods and fields,--suddenly as from the chambers of the air opening in revelation,--suddenly as from the ground yawning at her feet, leaped upon her, with the flashing of cataracts, Death the crownèd phantom, with all the equipage of his terrors, and the tiger roar of his voice. The moments were numbered. In the twinkling of an eye our flying horses had carried us to the termination of the umbrageous aisle; at right-angles we wheeled into our former direction; the turn of the road carried the scene out of my eyes in an instant, and swept it into my dreams for ever. DREAM-FUGUE. ON THE ABOVE THEME OF SUDDEN DEATH. "Whence the sound Of instruments, that made melodious chime, Was heard, of harp and organ; and who mov'd Their stops and chords, was seen; his volant touch Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue." _Par. Lost_, B. xi. _Tumultuosissimamente._ Passion of Sudden Death! that once in youth I read and interpreted by the shadows of thy averted[17] signs;--Rapture of panic taking the shape, which amongst tombs in churches I have seen, of woman bursting her sepulchral bonds--of woman's Ionic form bending forward from the ruins of her grave, with arching foot, with eyes upraised, with clasped adoring hands--waiting, watching, trembling, praying, for the trumpet's call to rise from dust for ever;--Ah, vision too fearful of shuddering humanity on the brink of abysses! vision that didst start back--that didst reel away--like a shrivelling scroll from before the wrath of fire racing on the wings of the wind! Epilepsy so brief of horror--wherefore is it that thou canst not die? Passing so suddenly into darkness, wherefore is it that still thou sheddest thy sad funeral blights upon the gorgeous mosaics of dreams? Fragment of music too stern, heard once and heard no more, what aileth thee that thy deep rolling chords come up at intervals through all the worlds of sleep, and after thirty years have lost no element of horror? [17] "_Averted_ signs."--I read the course and changes of the lady's agony in the succession of her involuntary gestures; but let it be remembered that I read all this from the rear, never once catching the lady's full face, and even her profile imperfectly. 1.