_Sar._ I saw, that is, I dreamed myself Here--here--even where we are, guests as we were, Myself a host that deemed himself but guest, 80 Willing to equal all in social freedom; But, on my right hand and my left, instead Of thee and Zames, and our customed meeting, Was ranged on my left hand a haughty, dark, And deadly face; I could not recognise it, Yet I had seen it, though I knew not where: The features were a Giant's, and the eye Was still, yet lighted; his long locks curled down On his vast bust, whence a huge quiver rose With shaft-heads feathered from the eagle's wing, 90 That peeped up bristling through his serpent hair.[ae] I invited him to fill the cup which stood Between us, but he answered not; I filled it; He took it not, but stared upon me, till I trembled at the fixed glare of his eye: I frowned upon him as a king should frown; He frowned not in his turn, but looked upon me With the same aspect, which appalled me more, Because it changed not; and I turned for refuge To milder guests, and sought them on the right, 100 Where thou wert wont to be. But---- [_He pauses_. _Myr._ What instead? _Sar._ In thy own chair--thy own place in the banquet-- I sought thy sweet face in the circle--but Instead--a grey-haired, withered, bloody-eyed, And bloody-handed, ghastly, ghostly thing, Female in garb, and crowned upon the brow, Furrowed with years, yet sneering with the passion Of vengeance, leering too with that of lust, Sate:--my veins curdled.[24] _Myr._ Is this all? _Sar._ Upon Her right hand--her lank, bird-like, right hand--stood 110 A goblet, bubbling o'er with blood; and on Her left, another, filled with--what I saw not, But turned from it and her. But all along The table sate a range of crownéd wretches, Of various aspects, but of one expression. _Myr._ And felt you not this a mere vision? _Sar._ No: It was so palpable, I could have touched them. I turned from one face to another, in The hope to find at last one which I knew Ere I saw theirs: but no--all turned upon me, 120 And stared, but neither ate nor drank, but stared, Till I grew stone, as they seemed half to be, Yet breathing stone, for I felt life in them, And life in me: there was a horrid kind Of sympathy between us, as if they Had lost a part of death to come to me, And I the half of life to sit by them. We were in an existence all apart From heaven or earth----And rather let me see Death all than such a being! _Myr._ And the end? 130