pool; for they but made apparent the everlasting quiet of the Gorge.

And afterward, I came beyond this place, and you shall see me going very
lonesome among the rocks of the Gorge, beyond. And by this, it was come
nigh unto the eighteenth hour; and I did find a place proper to my
slumber, and did eat and drink, and was quickly gone over unto sleep.

And here, I should tell how that I had not an over-fear of Evil Powers
whilst I was in the great Gorge; for truly it did seem as that nothing
that ever did live came anigh to that wild and silent place of stone and
rock; but that I journeyed through it alone, and was surely the first
that did go that way for maybe a million years. And this feeling that
was upon me, I do hope you to perceive and take unto yourselves, and
thus have an understanding of my heart at that time.

And as you shall know, I went always unto slumber with sweet and with
troubled thoughts of the Maid. Yet, for a great while, I had been put so
mightily to the labour of my way that my heart did suffer less at this
time than should be thought; and truly it doth show me how I was drawn
unto that One with all my being, that I did surely think so oft and
sweetly upon her amid so many perils and matters of horror. And this
doth seem something strange to say, when that you do consider that I was
adventured unto these same perils and horrors but only for the sake of
the Maid.

And in six hours did I wake, as I did strive alway to set myself to do;
yet was I very heavy and slow for a little, until that I was more
properly come to wakefulness. And surely, as I did think before, this
was like to be put upon me by the weighty air of the place; but yet it
might be that the gas which did float in the Gorge was upon my lungs.
And also, as you have perceived, if but you have attended my way, the
air was grown warm, and oft were the rocks pleasant to the seat, and all
of these matters did contrive to make me slumbrous.

Now, presently, the gas fires did cease utterly in the Gorge, and I
lookt downward, along that great place, and saw only a greyness, but
above the greyness there was, as it did seem, something of a vague and
ruddy shining in the night. And this did wake me to wonder what new
thing lay before; so that I grew more eager among the boulders.

And, later, when I had eat at the sixth and the twelfth hours, and gone
on awhile, I came to a place where the Gorge made a quick turning unto
my left, and at the