supposing access in front prevented by hostile fleets and armies. A
castle, if built near where he stood, would command the channel; arrows,
indeed, could not be shot across, but vessels under the protection of
the castle could dispute the passage, obstructed as it could be with
floating booms. An invader coming from the north must cross here; for
many years past there had been a general feeling that some day such an
attempt would be made. Fortifications would be of incalculable value in
repelling the hostile hordes and preventing their landing.

Who held this strait would possess the key of the Lake, and would be
master of, or would at least hold the balance between, the kings and
republics dotted along the coasts on either hand. No vessel could pass
without his permission. It was the most patent illustration of the
extremely local horizon, the contracted mental view of the petty kings
and their statesmen, who were so concerned about the frontiers of their
provinces, and frequently interfered and fought for a single palisaded
estate or barony, yet were quite oblivious of the opportunity of empire
open here to any who could seize it.

If the governor of such a castle as he imagined built upon the strait,
had also vessels of war, they could lie in this second channel sheltered
from all winds, and ready to sally forth and take an attacking force
upon the flank. While he pondered upon these advantages he could not
conceal from himself that he had once sat down and dreamed beside this
second inlet, thinking it to be the channel. The doubt arose whether, if
he was so easily misled in such a large, tangible, and purely physical
matter, he might not be deceived also in his ideas; whether, if tested,
they might not fail; whether the world was not right and he wrong.

The very clearness and many-sided character of his mind often hindered