glimpse of Feydeleen, who was just entering a tufted grove with a chalice in her hand. Zelneth followed, and, kneeling on the ground, under the embowered branches, besought her to declare why Phantasmion had left her side, and whither he was gone. A slender voice came from amid the myrtles, and it spoke thus: "Phantasmion left Zelneth to seek Iarine." And shall I never more regain his heart?" the maid exclaimed. Again the soft voice, breathing gales of perfume, gently but clearly answered in these words: Henceforth Phantasmion's heart will never swerve from Iarine." Zelneth continued to listen, while tears chased one another down her upraised face, but the only voice she now heard, was that of a turtle cooing to his mate, with soft notes long dwelt upon, in the depth of the wood. Then she strove to turn her heart against the bright youth of Palmland, and grieved to find how much more love than pride had mastery there. While her mind was full of such thoughts, she heard a slight rustling; something had fallen from the branches beside the place where she sate, and, straight before her, she espied the picture of Penselimer, with its eyes looking at hers, and seeming to convey, in their passionate inelancholy, an expression of reproach. From the hour that it fell from her lap, when she first beheld Phantasmion, Zelneth had scarce bestowed a thought on this idol of her childhood, which Anthemmina, when her heart was estranged from Penselimer, had carelessly hung around her baby neck. Now she took it up by the chain of pearls to which it was fastened, and sighed, as she gazed on the well-known lineaments, for the free heart and enamoured fancy of former times, when she rejected

many an unpleasing suitor, for the sake, as she loved to imagine, of the noble Penselimer. Zelneth raised her eyes, on being accosted in a shrill voice, and shuddered to behold Malderyl approaching her with a cup. Ulander brought me to thy couch," said the ancient queen, "where we found plenty of withered flowers but no entranced maiden; and soon my young kinsman, rushing to the door, beheld thee bound lightly over the lawn. I could have restored thee to health, had thy malady continued, and, even now, I would have thee drink this cup, lest it should return with the evening dews." Zelneth suspected that the liquor presented to her was some of that which had been prepared in the cavern, and that Malderyl's design was to make her return the chieftain's passion; nevertheless she took the cup and slowly drank, with her eyes fixed on the features of Penselimer. Scarce had the magic draught pervaded her frame than the portrait assumed a new aspect it seemed fairer, nobler than Phantasmion himself; love for the king of Palmland seemed absorbed into a larger emotion, as the last wave is swelled by those which have gone before. Her visions of childhood rose again in all their keen aerial colours; the realities she had since experienced melted into indistinctness; their forms were gone, but still their glow remained, and filled the atmosphere of memory with warmth and golden light. Ulander advanced from amid the trees, where he had hitherto been shrouded, and, seeing her face bright with smiles, when she returned his salutation, he inwardly rejoiced, vowing' eternal gratitude to Malderyl, by whose endeavours he fully believed that Zelneth looked upon him thus. Formerly his enamoured looks and words, which the

maid lacked strength to repel, seemed to hasten her spirit's flight; now they fell upon her occupied mind like rain-drops on marble, which glitters amid the shower and remains unsoftened. Both were equally possessed with gladsome fancies, and confident in the success of their hopes, when they rode into the forest, ere noon-day, followed by a train of huntsmen, Zelneth indulging her steed in all his graceful vagaries, and Ulander fondly hoping that for long years to come she would thus disport herself by his side. Kings shall sue for Zelneth, and for her the ardent lover shall forget his first love." Feydeleen breathed this prophecy once more in Zelneth's ear, as she passed under the branches. Now it was no longer unheard or unheeded; the damsel applied it to Penselimer, and joyfully expected that he would soon appear to rescue her from durance.

CHAPTER XXXII.

PHANTASMION ENTERS THE SUNLESS VALLEY.

A NIGHT and a day had elapsed since Phantasmion left the domain of Ulander, when, roused from his trance, he found himself descending through the sky. Then he sate upright, and saw right before him, fanning the twilight air, the gauzy wings of dragon-flies, while those of Potentilla, who stood upright on the seat of the car, were playing above his head. The moon had not yet risen, but, when he came to the ground, and leaped upon the turf, he perceived a shining circlet in the sky, and had no sooner looked upon it, than it began to descend, widening, swelling, and brightening as it sank. The tract where Phantasmion stood first glimmered, then gleamed, and lastly shone with more than noon-day splendour in many-coloured light, while gradually the features of the scene stole upon his eye, and soon he recognised the skeleton palace, where owls peeped forth from bowers of ivy, the ruined hall with its watery floor and rose-crowned window, and the wild pleasure ground in all its flush of blossoms. The Deserted Palace, and the space in front of it, were encircled by a vast hoop of cold flame, produced by innumerable fire flies. Phantasmion turned to Potentilla, who was leaning back in the car, over which her wings reclined, and smiling at his looks of wonder. "Wilt thou go with me," she

said, "to rescue a lost maiden from the sunless valley?" "Instantly," cried Phantasmion. "Wherefore do we tarry?" "Recruit thy strength," replied the Fairy, "with what is provided in the car, then drink from this vial which Feydeleen gave me for thy use. It will ward off the drowsy influences of Melledine's abode. Phantasmion obeyed, and, while his eyes were brightening with the effect of the Flower Fairy's gift, Potentilla, from the seat of the car, touched his head and shoulders with her wand, then waved him after her as she soared aloft. The next moment he was flying through the air, his head surrounded with a halo of intense light, his dragon-fly wings and whole body beaming with a keen lustre, which varied from chrysolite to vivid green, passing off into the deepest azure, and thence into amethystine purple. Potentilla flew on before, with the wings and radient head of a lantern-fly, and the clouds of luminous insects followed. As the whole mass went undulating along, they looked like a fiery river, flowing athwart the sky, and so proceeded, till just as the moon rose, they overpassed the wall of rock which bounded Melledine's domain. "This region," said Potentilla, "by the spells of the enchantress, who dwells here, is perpetually hidden from the sun's light : the whole valley is girt on every side by rugged mountains, and, during the day, it is shrouded by an opaque fog." Phantasmion followed his guide above the black vapours, to a point over the centre of the valley, while the fire-flies, high over head, appeared once more like a circular constellation. Thence he saw the pitchy cloud splitting in the middle, and shrinking more and more, on every side, till at last it was heaped in huge scrolls