Such was the sorrow, and such were the consolations of Edwin. But far
different was the situation, and far other scenes were prepared for his
faithful shepherdess. For some time after she had been seized by
Roderic, she had remained unconscious and supine. The terrors that had
preceded the fatal capture, had overpowered her delicate frame, and sunk
her into an alarming and obstinate fit of insensibility. They had now
almost reached the palace of the magician, when she discovered the first
symptoms of returning life. The colour gradually remounted into her
bloodless cheeks; her hands were raised with a feeble and involuntary
motion, and at length she lifted up her head, and opened her languid,
unobserving eyes. "Edwin," she cried, "my friend, my companion, where
art thou? Where have we been? Oh, it is a long and tedious evening!"
Saying this, she looked upon the objects around her. The sky was now
become clear and smiling; the lowring clouds were dissipated, and the
blue expanse was stretched without limits over their head. The sources
of her former terror were indeed removed, but the objects that presented
themselves were equally alarming. All was unexpected and all was
unaccountable. Imogen had remained without consciousness from the very
beginning of the storm, and it was during her insensibility that the
goblin had been visible, and the magician descended to the plains. She
found herself mounted upon a car, and hurried along by rapid steeds. She
saw beside her a man whose face, whose garb, and whose whole appearance
were perfectly unknown to her.

"Ah," exclaimed the maiden, in a voice of amazement apprehension, "where
am I? What is become of my Edwin? And what art thou? What means all
this? These are not the well-known fields; this is not the brook of
Towey, nor these hills of Clwyd. Oh, whither, whither do we fly? This
track leads not to the cottage of my parents, and the groves of