tellect, and undermines life. But fear not thou to use
its virtues in the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the same
firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent." [Some preparation of
opium seems to be intimated.]

"I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim," said Sir Kenneth, "to
debate thine hest;" and swallowed the narcotic, mingled as it was with
some water from the spring, then wrapped him in the haik, or Arab cloak,
which had been fastened to his saddle-pommel, and, according to the
directions of the physician, stretched himself at ease in the shade to
await the promised repose. Sleep came not at first, but in her stead
a train of pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations. A state
ensued in which, still conscious of his own identity and his own
condition, the knight felt enabled to consider them not only without
alarm and sorrow, but as composedly as he might have viewed the story
of his misfortunes acted upon a stage--or rather as a disembodied spirit
might regard the transactions of its past existence. From this state
of repose, amounting almost to apathy respecting the past, his thoughts
were carried forward to the future, which, in spite of all that existed
to overcloud the prospect, glittered with such hues as, under much
happier auspices, his unstimulated imagination had not been able to
produce, even in its most exalted state. Liberty, fame, successful love,
appeared to be the certain and not very distant prospect of the enslaved
exile, the dishonoured knight, even of the despairing lover who had
placed his hopes of happiness so far beyond the prospect of chance, in
her wildest possibilities, serving to countenance his wishes. Gradually
as the intellectual sight became overclouded, these gay visions became
obscure, like the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost in
total oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim, to
all appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a corpse as
if life had actually departed.

CHAPTER XXIII.

'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand,
To change the face of the mysterious land;
Till the bewildering scenes around us seem
The Vain productions of a feverish dream.
ASTOLPHO, A ROMANCE.

When the Knight of the Leopard awoke from his long and profound repose,
he found himself in circumstances so different from those in which
he had lain down to sleep, that he doubted whet