breast sang to him, "Fear not, this is the Chimaera of whom the
Princess spoke. You have passed unhurt the sirens, the ogres,
and the hydra-headed brood of plain and lowland; now meet with
courage this phantom of the heights. Even now thou standest on
the confines of the land beyond the sunset; these are the dwellers
on the border, the spectres who haunt the threshold of the farther
world. They are but shadows of thyself, reflections cast upon the
mists of the abyss, phantoms painted on the veil of the sanctuary.
Out of the void they arise, the offspring of Unreason and of the
Hadean Night."

Then a strong wind came down from the peaks of the mountains like
the breathing of a God; and it rent the clouds asunder, and scattered
the fog wreaths, and blew the phantoms hither and thither like smoke;
and like smoke they were extinguished and spent against the crags
of the pass. And after that the poet cared no more for them, but
went on his way with a bold heart, until he had left behind and
below him the clouds and mists of the ravines among the hills, and
stood on the topmost expanse of dazzling snow, and beheld once more
the golden gate of the Land that lies beyond the Sun.

But of his meeting with the Princess, and of the gladness and splendour
of their espousals, and of all the joy that he had, is not for me to
tell, for these things, which belong to the chronicles of that fairy
country, no mortal hand in words of human speech is in any wise
able to relate. All that I certainly know and can speak of with
plainness is this, that he obtained the fulness of his heart's desire,
and beyond all hope, or knowledge, or understanding of earth, was
blessed for evermore.