"Do they waken folk in your country to know whether they are asleep or
no?" said the boy, in a peevish tone.
"No, my young sir," answered Nigel; "but when they weep in the manner
you do in your sleep, they awaken them to see what ails them."
"It signifies little to any one what ails me," said the boy.
"True," replied Lord Glenvarloch; "but you knew before you went to
sleep how little I could assist you in your difficulties, and you
seemed disposed, notwithstanding, to put some confidence in me."
"If I did, I have changed my mind," said the lad.
"And what may have occasioned this change of mind, I trow?" said Lord
Glenvarloch. "Some men speak through their sleep--perhaps you have the
gift of hearing in it?"
"No, but the Patriarch Joseph never dreamt truer dreams than I do."
"Indeed!" said Lord Glenvarloch. "And, pray, what dream have you had
that has deprived me of your good opinion; for that, I think, seems
the moral of the matter?"
"You shall judge yourself," answered the boy. "I dreamed I was in a
wild forest, where there was a cry of hounds, and winding of horns,
exactly as I heard in Greenwich Park."
"That was because you were in the Park this morning, you simple
child," said Nigel.
"Stay, my lord," said the youth. "I went on in my dream, till, at the
top of a broad green alley, I saw a noble stag which had fallen into
the toils; and methought I knew that he was the very stag which the
whole party were hunting, and that if the chase came up, the dogs
would tear him to pieces, or the hunters would cut his throat; and I
had pity on the gallant stag, and though I was of a different kind
from him, and though I was somewhat afraid of him, I thought I would
venture something to free so stately a creature; and I pulled out my
knife, and just as I was beginning to cut the meshes of the net, the
animal started up in my face in the likeness of a tiger, much larger
and fiercer than any you may have seen in the ward of the wild beasts
yonder, and was just about to tear me limb from limb, when you awaked
me.
Pages:
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577