f the
company provided themselves plentifully with ladders, poles, ropes, and
all sorts of defensive weapons, and thus finally they started for the
neighboring hills. The old man led the way with Henry and the
merchants. The boor had brought that inquisitive son of his, who full
of joy held a torch and pointed out the way to the caves. The evening
was clear and warm. The moon shone mildly over the hills, prompting
strange dreams in all creatures. Itself lay like a dream of the sun,
above the introverted world of visions, and restored nature, now living
in its infinite phases, back to that fabulous olden time, when every
bud yet slumbered by itself, lonely and unquickened, longing in vain to
expand the dark fulness of its immeasurable existence. The evening's
tale mirrored itself in Henry's mind. It seemed as if the world lay
disclosed within him, showing him as a friendly visitor all her hidden
treasures and beauties. So clearly was the great yet simple apparition
revealed to him. Nature seemed incomprehensible, only because the near
and the true loomed around man with such a manifold lavishment of
expression. The words of the old man had opened a secret door. He saw a
little dwelling built close to a lofty minster, from whose stone
pavement arose the solemn foreworld, while the clear, joyous future, in
the form of golden cherubs, floated from the spire towards it with
songs. Loud swelled the notes in their silvery chanting, as all
creatures were entering at the wide gate, each audibly expressing in a
simple prayer and proper tongue their interior nature. How strange it
seemed that this clear view, so necessary to his existence, had been so
long unknown to him. He now reviewed at a glance all his relations to
the wide world around him. He felt what he had become, and was to
become, through its influence, and comprehended all the peculiar
conceptions and presages, which he had already often stumbled upon in
contemplation. The story which the merchants had related of the young
man, who studied nature so assiduously, and who became the son-in-law
of the king, recurred to his mind, with a thousand other recollections
of his past life, weaving themselves involuntarily on his part into a
magic thread. While Henry was thus occupied in his inward musings, the
company had approached the cave. The entrance was low, and the old man
took a torch and first clambered over some fragments of rock. A
perceptible current of air blew towar