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."