But slumbering
as he was, he had no peace,--for in his sleep he was troubled by a
strange vision.
IV.
As the terrors of imagined suffering are always worse than actual
pain, so dreams are frequently more vivid than the reality of life,-
-that is we are sure that life is indeed reality, and not itself a
dream within a dream. Cardinal Bonpre's sleep was not often
disturbed by affrighting visions,--his methods of daily living were
too healthy and simple, and his conscience too clear;--but on this
particular night he was visited by an impression rather than a
dream,--the impression of a lonely, and terrifying dreariness, as
though the whole world were suddenly emptied of life and left like a
hollow shell on the shores of time. Gradually this first sense of
utter and unspeakable loss changed into a startled consciousness of
fear;--some awful transformation of things familiar was about to be
consummated;--and he felt the distinct approach of some unnameable
Horror which was about to convulse and overwhelm all mankind. Then
in his dream, a great mist rose up before his eyes,--a mingling as
of sea-fog and sun-flame,--and as this in turn slowly cleared,--
dispersing itself in serpentine coils of golden-grey vapour,--he
found himself standing on the edge of a vast sea, glittering in a
light that was neither of earth nor of heaven, but that seemed to be
the inward reflection of millions of flashing sword blades.
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