above, holding the Sword of Justice in the left hand, and the Sword of
the Spirit in the right. Suddenly there is a call to arms, the sky
darkens, and Belial himself advances against the Church, with his earthly
princes and their armies. The Pope and Lewis of France, the Turks and
Muscovites fall upon England and her German allies, but, the angels
assisting, they are vanquished; the infernal hosts, too, give way and are
hurled headlong from the sky; whereupon the Bard awakes.


II. THE VISION OF DEATH.


It is a cold, winter's night and the Bard lies abed meditating upon the
brevity of life, when Sleep and his sister Nightmare pay him a visit, and
after a long parley, constrain him to accompany them to the Court of
their brother Death. Hieing away through forests and dales, and over
rivers and rocks, they alight at one of the rear portals of the City of
Destruction which opens upon a murky region--the chambers of Death. On
all hands are myriads of doors leading into the Land of Oblivion, each
guarded by the particular death-imp, whose name was inscribed above it.
The Bard passes by the portals of Hunger, where misers, idlers and
gossips enter, of Cold, where scholars and travellers go through, of
Fear, Love, Envy and Ambition.

Suddenly he finds himself transported into a bleak and barren land where
the shades flit to and fro. He is straightway surrounded by them, and,
on giving his name as the "Sleeping Bard," a shadowy claimant to that
name sets upon him and belabours him most unmercifully until Merlin bid
him desist. Taliesin then interviews him, and an ancient manikin,
"Someone" by name, tells him his tale of woe. After that he is taken