Phantasmion

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DUKE

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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Chapter I. The Fairy Potentilla Appears To The Young Prince Phantasmion

A YOUNG boy hid himself from his nurse in sport, and strayed all alone in the garden of his father, a rich and mighty prince ; he followed the bees from jflower to flower, and wandered farther than he had ever gone before, till he came to the hollow tree where they hived, and watched them entering their storehouse laden with the treasures they had collected : he lay upon the turf, laughing and talking to himself, and, after a while, he plucked a long stiff blade of grass, and was about to thrust it in at the entrance of the hive, when a voice, just audible above the murmur of the bees, cried, " Phantasmion !" Now the child thought that his nurse was calling him in strange tones, and he started, saying, " Ah !

^ PHANTASMION.

Leeliba !" and looked round ; but casting up his eyes he saw that there stood before him an ancient woman, slenderer in figure than his nurse, yet more firm and upright, and with a countenance which made him afraid. " What dost thou here, Phantasmion ?" said the stranger to the little boy, and he made no answer : then she looked sweetly upon the child, for he was most beautiful, and she said to him, " Whom dost thou take me for?" and he replied, '' At first I took thee for my nurse, but now I see plainly that thou art not like her." " And how am I different from thy nurse?" said the strange woman. The boy was about to answer, but he stopped short and blushed ; then after a pause he said, " One thing is, that thou hast wings upon thy shoulders, and she has none." " Phantasmion !" she replied, <' I am not like thy nurse : I can do that which is beyond her skill, great as thou thinkest it." At this the boy laughed, and said with a lively countenance, pointing to the hollow tree, " Couldst thou make the bees that have gone in there fly out of their hive all in one swarm ?" The fairy staid not to answer, but touched the decayed trunk with her wand, and the bees poured out of their receptacle by thousands and thousands, and hung in a huge cluster from the branch of a sycamore ; and, as the child looked upon the swarm, it seemed to be composed of living diamonds, and glanced so brilliantly in the sunshine that it dazzled the sight. And the beautiful

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boy laughed aloud, and leaped into the air, and clapped his hands for joy. Then the fairy placed her wand within his little palm, saying, '* Strike the tree, and say, ' Go in !' and they shall all enter the hive again." The cheeks of the young boy blushed brighter than ever, and his eyes sparkled, as he struck the hollow trunk with all his might, and cried, " Go in ! go in I" No sooner had he done this than the whole multitude quitted the branch of the sycamore, and disappeared within the body of the tree.

Then the ancient woman said to the little prince, " Wilt thou give me that pomegranate ?" and she pointed to the only ripe one which grew on a tree hard by. One member of the trunk of this pomegranate tree leaned forward, and invited the adventurous child to mount ; he quickly crept along it, and having plucked the fruit which the fairy had pointed out, he turned round and tried to descend ; but finding that he should slip if he attempted to return by the way he came, having measured the height from the ground with his eye, he boldly sprang at once from the bough to the turf below, and presented his prize to the stranger. With that she took it from his hand, and, looking kindly upon him, she said, " My little Phantasmion, thou needest no fairy now to work wonders for thee, being j^et so young that all thoubeholdest io new and marvellous in thine eyes. But the day must come when this happiness will fade away ;

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when the stream, less clear than at its outset, will no longer return such bright reflections : then, if thou wilt repair to this pomegranate tree, and call upon the name of Potentilla, I will appear before thee, and exert all my power to renew the delights and wonders of thy childhood."

After speaking these words Potentilla vanished ; the child opened his eyes wide, and, now feeling afraid to be alone, he ran homeward as fast as possible, and in a little time heard the voice of his mother calling to him in quick tones ; for she had outrun his nurse, who was also hastening in search of him. The child bounded up to her, and with breathless eagerness sought to describe the strange things which he had seen. " All the bees came out in a cluster," cried he ; *' and they were drest in diamonds ! thousands and millions of them hung together upon a branch ! and I my own self made every one of the bees go back again into their hive, with the shining stick which the old woman lent me." " What old woman ?" replied Queen Zalia to her little son ; '* was it one of the gardeners' wives ?" " O no!" said he; "an old woman with wings on her shoulders, and she flew up and vanished away, like the bubbles which I blow through my pipe." " Thou hast been dreaming, my sweet boy," said his mother; " thou hast fallen asleep in the sunshine, and hast dreamt all this." " No, no ! my mother," the child replied; *' indeed, indeed

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it was quite unlike those dreams which I have at night. I wish the bees could speak that they might tell thee all about it, for they saw the winged woman as well as I.'

Chapter II. Potentilla Fulfils Her Promise To Phantasmion

SOON afterwards Phantasmion's fair mother, Zalia, fell sick and died. Her young son was kept from the chamber of death, and, roaming about the palace in search of her, he found a little child sitting on the floor of a lonely chamber, afraid to stir because he was by himself. *' The people are all gone away," cried Phantasmion; " Come, I will take thee abroad to see the pretty flowers, now the sun shines so bright." The child was glad to have fresh air and company, and, holding fast by the older boy's hand, he sped along with short quick steps further than his tiny feet had ever carried him before, lisping about the bees and hornets, which, in his ignorance he would fain have caught, as they buzzed past him, and laughing merrily when his frolicsome guide led him right through a bed of feathered columbines, for the sake of seeing the

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urchin's rosy cheek brushed by soft blossoms and powdered with flower dust. At last they entered the queen's pleasure ground, where only one gardener remained, and he was sitting on the path, gathering berries in a basket. " Where is my mother ? " cried the prince, leaping suddenly behind him; "hast thou hidden her away, old man?" "Thy mother is dead!" answered he, looking up in the boy's face ; and it was the glance of his eye, more than the words he spoke, which made Phantasmion shudder. The menial smoothed his brow, and with humble courtesy offered a branch of crimson fruit to the young prince, who flung it on the ground, crying in a haughty tone, " How darest thou say that my mother is dead ?" " Go to her chamber, and see ;" replied the man sternly. " And how can I see her if she is dead ?" rejoined the boy, with a tremulous laugh; '' can I see the cloud of yesterday in yon clear sky? like clouds the dead vanish away, and we see them no more." Just then he spied the young child lying down, with the fruit-branch dropping out of his fingers, and his face buried in a flowery tuft. " What ! hiding among the heartsease ?" cried he ; " ah ! let me hide too." Then, putting his face close to that of his charge, " How cold the little cheek is !" he cried ; " come, raise it up to the warm sun." Hearing these words the gardener turned the child's face upwards, and behold he was dead ; his lips smeared with berry juice, and his pale swollen cheeks covered with purple spots ! Then he held out the body to the startled boy, and showing the slack limbs and glazed eye, while his own shot fire like that of a panther: — '' So look the dead," cried he, " ere they vanish away: just so Queen Zalia is looking!" Phantasmion shrieked, and hastening home, he met his mother's funeral procession going forth from the palace. The body was wrapped in a shroud, and black plumes nodded over the face ; but he saw the dead hands, and the limbs stiffly stretched upon the bier. From that time forth he never spoke of Queen Zalia, but he often beheld her in dreams, and often he dreamed of the old man who told him she was dead, and who disappeared, on the same day, from the royal household.

Phantasmion grieved but little when his father died a year afterwards ; for he scarcely knew King Dorimant's face, that warlike prince having been wholly engaged, since the birth of his child, in a fruitless search after mines of iron. It was commonly believed that ill success in this matter hastened his end ; but the people about the palace well knew that he died of eating poisoned honey.

Thus Phantasmion was yet too young, when he inherited the throne of Palmland, to be a king in reality ; and those who governed the land sought to keep him a child as long as possible. They prevented him from learning how to reign, but could not succeed in making him content with mere pomp and luxury ; for his pleasures were so closely set that they hindered one another's growth, and, by the time that he attained to his full stature, nothing gratified him, except the society of a noble youth who came to visit his court from a foreign country, and who interested his mind by curious histories and glowing descriptions. Dariel of Tigridia was well skilled in the management of fruit trees and flowers ; he had brought seeds of many fine sorts from distant lands, and, at the desire of Phantasmion, he sowed them in the royal garden. One morning he came to the prince, saying, "The rare plant has put forth leaves: come and look at it !" " Earlier even than we expected 1" cried the prince, rising joyfully from his seat. " I will not only see, but taste and try." The two youths took their way through a flowery labyrinth, talking much of the wondrous plant and the virtues of its leaves ; but just as they were drawing nigh to the nook where it grew, several scorpions fastened all at once on Dariel's sandaled foot, and stung it with such violence that, quitting his comrade's arm, he sprang into the air, and then fell prostrate under the towering lilies. Phantasmion carried him to the palace, and placed him tenderly on a couch. After a time, seeing that he continued in a languishing state, he made an infusion of the leaves which his friend had so highly extolled, and silently gave it to Dariel instead of the drink which the physician had ordered ; but.

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just as he expected to see the poor youth revived by this kind act, his head sank on the piUow, a blue tinge stole over his cheek, and, when the prince had gazed upon his altered face for a few minutes, he plainly saw that it told no longer of sickness, but of death. Not, however, till decay had wrought a still more ghastly change in Dariel's comely countenance, Phantasmion quitted the side of his couch ; then, overpowered with sorrow, he roamed abroad, and sought the forest of lilies which his comrade's hand had reared : the sun was bright, the air fresh, but all that flowery multitude was drooping and ready to perish ; cankerworms had gnawed their roots, and the wondrous plant itself had been attacked by such numbers-^f insects that scarce a trace of it remained.

This circumstance deepened the melancholy which had seized on the spirit of Phantasmion. He began to think that all persons and things connected with himself were doomed to misfortune ; and when this channel of thought was once opened, a hundred rills poured into it at once, and filled it to the brim.

He reflected on the early deaths of his father and mother, as he had never reflected on them before : the black plumes and solemn tapers of the chamber where King Dorimant lay in state rose up before him, while Zalia stretched on her bier, and the strange man holding out his little comrade's body, visited him again as in the dreams of

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his childhood. These and other remembrances, grouped together under one aspect of gloom, all wore the same visionary twilight hue, and inspired the same sadness. He turned away from cheerful faces, and was constantly expecting to see the ghost of Dariel, a shadowy image of his swollen corse.

Phantasmion had spent many days in this state of dejection, when he wandered forth after a sleepless night one clear morning, and, refreshed by the breath of early dawn, began to slumber under the boughs of a pomegranate tree. No sooner had he closed his eyes than the fairy, whom he had formerly seen on that very spot, seemed to stand there again. In his dream she touched him with her wand, and forthwith leafy branches, like those which drooped over him, sprouted from his shoulders ; imperceptibly those branches changed into green wings and up he soared, feeling as if his whole body were inflated with air. As he floated along in the sky a group of angel faces shone before him : he surveyed them, and all were lovely, but one was far lovelier than the rest, and, while he gazed upon that countenance, it grew more and more exquisite, the others becoming indistinct and fading gradually away. Suddenly, like a balloon exhausted of air, down he dropped to the earth, and was snatched away from the vision. " Potentilla!" he cried aloud; starting up in the intensity of feehng, and stretching out both his hands, '' Potentilla ! help ! help !" No sooner had he uttered that long- forgotten name, than he opened his eyes, and saw the little old fairy smiling in his face. " Phantasmion," she said, " what shall I do for thee ? I am queen of the insect realm, and powers like those which insects have, are mine to bestow." " Give me wings !" he cried ; for still he had a vague hope that he might once more behold that heavenly face if he could but soar aloft.

Potentilla waved her wand, and soon the air was filled with butterflies, those angel insects pouring from every region of the heavens. Here came a long train arrayed in scarlet, waving up and down altogether like a flag of triumph ; there floated a band clad in deep azure, and flanked on either side by troops in golden panoply. Some were like flights of green leaves, others twinkled in robes of softest blue besprent with silver, like young princesses at a festival ; and, in front of the whole multitude, a gorgeous crowd, adorned with peacock eyes, flew round and round in a thousand starry wheels, while here and there one butterfly would flit aloof for a few moments, then sink into the circle and revolve indistinguishably with the rest : now the entire wheel flew off into splinters, now reconstructed itself at once, as if but a single life informed its several parts.

Again Potentilla waved her wand, and the bloomy throng descended on trees and shrubs, attiring every bough in fresh blossoms, which quivered without a breeze. Phantasmion saw that he was to choose from this profusion of specimens the wing's that pleased him best, and he fixed on a set like those which he wore in his dream. The moment that Potentilla touched him with her wand a sensation of lightness ran throughout his body, and instantly afterwards he perceived that wings played on his shoulders, wings of golden green adorned with black embroidery : beneath an emerald coronet his radiant locks clustered in large soft rings, and wreathed themselves around his snowy forehead ; robes of white silk floated over his buoyant limbs, and his full eyes, lately closed in languor, beamed with joyful expectation, while more than childlike bloom rose mantling to his cheek. Potentilla had seen an eagle teaching her young ones to fly, gradually widening her airy circles, and mounting in a spiral line that swelled as it rose, while the sun burnished her golden plumes; just so she flew before the winged youth, who timidly followed where she led the way, trembling in his first career when he saw the earth beneath him. But, gaining confidence, all at once he shot away from his guide, like a spark from a sky-rocket ; he soared and gyred and darted on high, describing as many different figures as a skater on the ice, while from the groves and flowery meads below this choral strain resounded : —

See the bright stranger !

On wings of enchantment.

See how he soars !

Eagles ! that high on the crest of the mountain, Beyond where the cataracts gush from their fountain, Look out o'er the sea and her glistering shores, Cast your sun-gazing eyes on his pinions of hght ! Behold how he glitters Transcendantly bright !

Whither, ah whither, To what lofty region

His course will he bend ?

See him! 0, see him! the clouds overtaking. As tho' the green earth he were blithely forsaking • Ah now, in swift circles behold him descend ! Now again like a meteor he shoots through the sky,

Or a star glancing upward,

To sparkle on high !

Chapter III. Phantasmion Sees And Hears Strange Things By The Sea Shore

PHANTASMION left the shadows of earth behind him, while he soared so high that green fields, and blue waters, gardens and groves all melted into one, and even that heavenly sight which had first made him pray for wings was itself forgotten in the pleasure of flying. He thought it a delightful novelty to rush down upon the heron like the trained hawk, or aim a javelin at some bird of prey as she stooped upon her quarry; to whirl upward with the glede, drop down like a shot side by side with the jer-falcon, disperse the swallows in the midst of their aerial dances, or sweep the cope of heaven in pursuit of the swift : then hovering aloft in perfect stillness, with green pinions and floating robes, he attracted crowds of gazers, who marvelled how a bird of paradise could look so large at such a wondrous height. One fine clear day he flew southward to the ocean, and pursued a sea eagle to the highest ether. At first setting off he was rudely brushed by vultures, hurrying down to feast upon a carcase which lay rocking on the waves : he thrust among them with his drawn sword, and pushed onward, leaving a cloud of his delicate plumelets fluttering in the air. Having arrived at last where the atmosphere was too thin for any thing but a bird to breathe, he hastily began to descend ; but, faint and weary, scarce saw his way before him, and dropped full on the back of the eagle's mate, jerking out of her clutches a load of fish just caught for her young. Enraged at this loss, she pursued Phantasmion, and with her strong beak shattered one of his pinions ere he had time to gain a cliff toward which he was steering ; so that, being no longer able to direct his course aright, he fell with violence, and lay stunned upon the rugged shore.

While he leaned upon his arm, just recovering from the shock, and surveyed the ocean with dazzled eyes, he perceived a strang-e woman's form rising out of the waves, and gliding toward the beach : a wreath of living moving flowers, like sea-anemones, clung round her head, from which the slimy locks of whitish blue hung down till they met the waters ; her skin was thick and glistering ; there was a glaze upon it which made Phantasmion shiver; and, trailing her sinuous body beside the place where the youth lay, she cast a glance towards him, with her moony eyes of yellow green, at which his blood ran cold : but on she wen-t, and turned round a crag which jutted into the sea beyond the fallen prince. Still scarce recovered, Phantasmion arose and leaned against the lower end of this rock, which, like a buttress, projected from the main body of the cliif ; the shattered pinion drooped to the ground, while the wings on the left side were half expanded, and lay languidly against the white stone, like a green branch amid unseasonable snow. And now other sounds caught his ear beside the roar and hiss of advancing and retiring waves ; he stood on tiptoe, and looking down into a recess on the other side of the rock, beheld the shape that had lately passed him, reclining on the shore, and staring up in the face of a lofty dame who talked aloud with passionate tones and gestures. She whose voice Phantasmion heard stood wnth her back towards him ; he saw not her face, but he observed that she wore

PPIANTASMION, purple robes and a jewelled crown. " Ah ! me !" she cried, " the beautiful larine ! Glandreth has called her *the beautiful larine:' teach me how to countervail the charms of this fair girl, and to secure the heart of Glandreth." To this the fishy woman made no reply, save a murmuring sound of laughter ; whereat the crowned lady exclaimed in a shrill voice, " Remember thy vow to the king, my father, when he caught thee in his toils upon the shore." Then the woman-fish replied; " Have I not redeemed that vow? Did I not lend thee spells to bewitch the heart of Albinian, and is it not through me that thou art queen of this Land of Rocks ? Without guerdon I will serve thee no longer." The crowned lady put her hands before her face, and groaned deeply: at length she made answer, '' Be satisfied, Seshelma ! the babe shall be thine. Help me to remove larine from the sight of Glandreth; help me to destroy the hostile house of Magnart, and thou shalt have thy desire." Then the crowned woman sate down below the rock, and listened to the words of her whom she called Seshelma, and the two seemed to be contriving some plot. Phantasmion could not understand all that was said, for Seshelma discoursed in a low gurgling murmur ; but he heard her speak of poisonous fish, and of a charmed vessel, and of a damsel named larine. In the end she drew from an oyster- shell a glittering net, and offered it to her companion ; who took it from her flabby hand, then rose and, lifting up her embroidered train, went her way leisurely, as if absorbed in thought. But Seshelma returned into the sea, and, again rowing past Phantasmion, she looked up in his face with the same hideous leer which had chilled his blood before ; then diving into the deeper water, she quickly disappeared.

Phantasmion stood for some time gazing on the flood, almost expecting that some new shape would rise out of it. He mused on what had passed, and could not help in some sort connecting it with his heavenly dream. A lady, young and beautiful, was hated and persecuted : powers of earth and sea were leagued against her ; he pictured this fair larine with the countenance which he had beholden in the vision, and longed to find her and rescue her from peril.

The prince now bethought him that he was a long way from his royal palace, having fallen on the borders of Rockland, a country adjoining his own dominions ; he therefore hastened from the coast, holding up the disabled wing with his hand, and journeyed homeward on foot. After a night's sleep he repaired to the pomegranate tree, but felt unable to express the imaginations that haunted his mind while Potentilla stood before him. He told the fairy, when she begged to know his pleasure, that he was tired of his butterfly pinions, and wished to try new experiments. " Make my feet," said he, " like those of flies, which climb up the niirrors or walk over the roof of my marble hall : c enable me to follow wherever one of those insects cansteal along." He had no sooner spoken thus than Potentilla removed the wings she had given him, and fitted to his feet the suckers of flies. This gift pleased Phantasmion well, and he spent the remainder of that day in gliding along the walls and over the vaulted ceilings of his palace, or scaling the pillar-like stems of the loftiest palm trees. Those who witnessed his feats were amazed ; but it had been commonly believed that the race of the Palmland kings was under the protection of some mysterious being, and this tale, which had of late years been forgotten, was now recalled to mind with fresh awe and wonder.

Chapter IV. Phantasmion Ascends The Mount Of Eagles

EARLY the next morning, Phantasmion rode out to the Black Mountains, which divided his territories from Rockland, the realm of a neighbouring monarch ; and, having arrived at the bottom of a steep hill, he alighted in order to climb the side of it. This was a precipice of solid rock, many hundred feet deep, which looked like a dark curtain let down from the sky, and till that hour had never been trodden by the foot of man. Strange was it to see him as he paused iu the midst of the ascent, plucking a wild flower from a crevice ; not sustained in the manner of a bird, with spread tail and half expanded pinions, but seemingly upborne by his own lightness, like a vapoury phantom. When the prince was a child, his mother had told him that a wreath of precious stones was hidden somewhere betwixt the top of this huge crag, and the summit of the hill beyond ; she had hung it round the neck of her pet lamb in play, and, while she was plucking dainty herbs to regale her favourite, an eagle had carried away the Iamb and its costly necklace to her young ones among the highest rocks. Phantasmion remembered this, and, in some faint hope of discovering the relic, wandered on, after he had gained the summit of the crag, till he came to a small round lake, which lay buried in shadow below a semicircle of rocks. Taking rest here for a few moments, he spied an eagle with something white in her talons, and soon he saw her fly across the pool and enter a recess amid the crags above. *' This is one of those eyries," thought he, " where the eagles breed from age to age ; 1 will invade their ancient house, and perhaps I may win back the prize which was plundered from mine."

While he was beginning to ascend, the mother eagle flew forth again, so that Phantasmion was able to mark well the situation of the nest. With steady foot he climbed the crags above the tarn, till he arrived at the bottom of that loftier cliff, in the centre of which the eyry was embosomed ; just as he reached this point, unexpected sounds met his ear : " The eaglets' cry is strangely like the wailing of a child," thought he ; and, full of wonder, he glided up the front of the rock to the hollow where the nest was lodged, and there beheld an infant lying on its back unhurt, but screaming piteously, while two half-fledged eaglets were shrinking to the further part of the cavity, frightened by the clamours of their intended victim. Startled by this sight, the prince thought no more about the jewels, but took up the babe, which was clad in the fairest raiment, and now, having something beside himself to carry, was bent on returning by the easiest path. Accordingly, after having descended to the tarn again, he tracked the course of a rivulet which flowed from that darksome receptacle till it wandered away out of sight amid shaggy rocks ; then, pausing to consider how he should proceed, again he heard a sound of lamentation, but it was softer and deeper than that which had proceeded from the eagle's nest. He listened, but the dashing of some hidden waterfall overpowered the voice, and for a moment he thought that fancy had deGeive4 him ; till once more it rose louder than those watery sounds, and then sank into silence.

Phantasmion wrapped the infant, now fast asleep, in his upper vest, and laid it on dry moss, under a jutting stone ; he then followed the streamlet among the crags, and thus found his way to a nook, where it formed a series of cascades. Beside the lowest of these, a damsel sate weeping. She was so fair and exquisitely formed that, leaning against the black rock, she looked like those white figures that are cut in relief on the dark ground of an onyx. She was a prisoner amid the labyrinth of rocks, unable either to repass the precipitous road whereby she had incautiously ascended, or to climb the wall of rock which rose above her head, and over which the prince was airily advancing. A yew tree grew out of a cleft in the beetling crag, and from its twisted trunk Phantasmion looked ' down upon the damsel, and saw her cheeks wet with tears, and her luxuriant tresses curhng amid the spray of the torrent ; it seemed as if the waterfall mocked her distress, babbling while she wept bitterly, and crying, "Fair one, follow me ! see how I leap down the precipice."