Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

"Why," said the lady, with a trembling voice, "didst thou bring a poor

maiden through the rainy streets alone?"

"Because I am dying for love of thee; but I only brought thee from the

mirror there."

"Ah, the mirror!" and she looked up at it, and shuddered. "Alas! I am

but a slave, while that mirror exists. But do not think it was the power

of thy spells that drew me; it was thy longing desire to see me, that

beat at the door of my heart, till I was forced to yield."

"Canst thou love me then?" said Cosmo, in a voice calm as death, but

almost inarticulate with emotion.

"I do not know," she replied sadly; "that I cannot tell, so long as I am

bewildered with enchantments. It were indeed a joy too great, to lay my

head on thy bosom and weep to death; for I think thou lovest me, though

I do not know;--but----"

Cosmo rose from his knees.

"I love thee as--nay, I know not what--for since I have loved thee,

there is nothing else."

He seized her hand: she withdrew it.

"No, better not; I am in thy power, and therefore I may not."

She burst into tears, and kneeling before him in her turn, said-"Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself; break the

mirror."

"And shall I see thyself instead?"

"That I cannot tell, I will not deceive thee; we may never meet again."

A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo's bosom. Now she was in his power. She

did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To

break the mirror would be to destroy his very life to banish out of his

universe the only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but a

prison, if he annihilated the one window that looked into the paradise

of love. Not yet pure in love, he hesitated.

With a wail of sorrow the lady rose to her feet. "Ah! he loves me not;

he loves me not even as I love him; and alas! I care more for his love

than even for the freedom I ask."

"I will not wait to be willing," cried Cosmo; and sprang to the corner

where the great sword stood.

Meantime it had grown very dark; only the embers cast a red glow through

the room. He seized the sword by the steel scabbard, and stood before

the mirror; but as he heaved a great blow at it with the heavy pommel,

the blade slipped half-way out of the scabbard, and the pommel struck

the wall above the mirror. At that moment, a terrible clap of thunder

seemed to burst in the very room beside them; and ere Cosmo could repeat

the blow, he fell senseless on the hearth. When he came to himself, he

found that the lady and the mirror had both disappeared. He was seized

with a brain fever, which kept him to his couch for weeks.