oved forward with the lamp, leading the way into the room which
they had left. The Saracen lay on his couch, still fast asleep. The
hermit paused by his side, and looked down on him.

"He sleeps," he said, "in darkness, and must not be awakened."

The attitude of the Emir did indeed convey the idea of profound repose.
One arm, flung across his body, as he lay with his face half turned to
the wall, concealed, with its loose and long sleeve, the greater part
of his face; but the high forehead was yet visible. Its nerves, which
during his waking hours were so uncommonly active, were now motionless,
as if the face had been composed of dark marble, and his long silken
eyelashes closed over his piercing and hawklike eyes. The open and
relaxed hand, and the deep, regular, and soft breathing, all gave tokens
of the most profound repose. The slumberer formed a singular group along
with the tall forms of the hermit in his shaggy dress of goat-skins,
bearing the lamp, and the knight in his close leathern coat--the former
with an austere expression of ascetic gloom, the latter with anxious
curiosity deeply impressed on his manly features.

"He sleeps soundly," said the hermit, in the same low tone as before;
and repeating the words, though he had changed the meaning from that
which is literal to a metaphorical sense--"he sleeps in darkness, but
there shall be for him a dayspring.--O Ilderim, thy waking thoughts
are yet as vain and wild as those which are wheeling their giddy dance
through thy sleeping brain; but the trumpet shall be heard, and the
dream shall be dissolved."

So saying, and making the knight a sign to follow him, the hermit went
towards the altar, and passing behind it, pressed a spring, which,
opening without noise, showed a small iron door wrought in the side
of the cavern, so as to be almost imperceptible, unless upon the most
severe scrutiny. The hermit, ere he ventured fully to open the door,
dropped some oil on the hinges, which the lamp supplied. A small
staircase, hewn in the rock, was discovered, when the iron door was at
length completely opened.

"Take the veil which I hold," said the hermit, in a melancholy tone,
"and blind mine eyes; For I may not look on the treasure which thou art
presently to behold, without sin and presumption."

Without reply, the knight hastily muffled the recluse's head in the
veil, and the latter began to ascend the staircase as one too much
accustomed to the way to requir