and the bright light falls on all these faces; yet not even my Lady
Melancholy stirs a dark lid. And all these dog-days--" He glanced at
his motionless hounds. They raised languidly their narrow heads,
whimpering softly, as if beseeching of their master that long-delayed
supper--haplessly me. "No, no, sirs," said the Prince, as if he had
read their desire as easily as he whom it so much concerned. "Guard,
guard, and hearken. This gentleman is not the Prince we await, Sallow;
not the Prince, Safte! And now, sir,"--he turned again to me--"there
is yet one other sleeper--she who hath brought so much quietude on a
festive house."

We climbed the staircase where dim light lay so invitingly, and came
presently to a little darker chamber. Green, blunt things had pushed
and burst through the casement. The air smelled faintly-sour of brier,
and was as still as boughs of snow. There the not-unhappy Princess
reclined before a looking-glass, whither I suppose she had run to view
her own alarm when the sharp needle pierced her thumb. All alarm was
stilled now on her face. She, one might think, of all that company of
the sleepy, was the only one that dreamed. Her youthful lips lay a
little asunder; the heavy beauty of her hair was parted on her
forehead; her childish hands sidled together like leverets in her lap.
"Why!" I cried aloud, almost involuntarily, "she breathes!"

And at sound of my voice the hounds leapt back; and, on a traveller's
oath, I verily believe, once, and how swiftly, and how fearfully and
brightly, those childish lids unsealed their light as of lilac that
lay behind, glanced briefly, fleetingly, on one who had ventured so
far, and fell again to rest.

"And when," I cried harshly, "when will that laggard burst through