The Night Land

Now I went downward very quiet and slow into that Darkness; and did make

but a cautious way; for now you shall know me truly wrapped about with

such a night as did seem to press upon my very soul, and such as you

shall never have seen nor felt; so that I did seem lost even from my

self, and did appear as that I went presently in unreal fashion, and did

pass onward for ever and for ever through everlasting night; so that odd

whiles I did make to walk with random, as that I stept no more upon this

earth; but did go offwards into the Void.

Yet was this foolishness of

the mind set straight and proper each time that it did come about; for

lo! I did kick against an upjutting rock here, and fall upon a great and

unseen boulder there, and so was shaken very quickly to a sound

knowledge that I trode the hard and actual earth; and had no true

dealings with unreal matters.

And ever I did go downward; and by this only did I have a guide to my

way. Yet, as you shall think, through reason of the utter dark I made

scarce a mile in an hour or even two full hours; and so grew bitter by

reason of mine unableness to go forward with a proper and free stride.

But I did think me presently upon a thing that I should do to light my

path; and to this end, I did make the Diskos to spin, odd whiles, and

did look down the mighty slope, the little way that the strange

glistening of the Diskos did show, and so fixed my path into mine inward

remembering, and would go forward afresh, until that I was shaken once

more by the darkness, and would fain to look once again upon the

blessedness of light, and make me some knowledge of my way.

And, truly, the light from the Diskos did seem astonishing great, and

this to be because there was so monstrous a darkness all about me there

forever. And thereafter would I go onward again, until the pain of my

stumblings did bid me surely to have that sweet shining once more unto

my path.

And so shall you perceive my going; and sore and miserable was it unto

the heart; and like to shake the courage of the spirit; yet, in verity,

I had come through much, and did have intent to give way to no

foolishness of thought.

And you shall well believe that I did make the light not more oft than I

did surely need; for it was no properness of wisdom to use the power of

the Diskos, save for mine extremity.

Now, presently, when I had done thiswise through six long and bitter

hours, and it being now beyond the twentieth hour since I did last

slumber, I sat me down there upon the Mighty Slope, in the everlasting

Dark, and did eat two of the tablets, and made the water, and could but

feel and hearken whether I did this thing right and that.

And when I had eat and drunk, I unfolded my cloak, and wrapt it around

me, and placed the scrip and the pouch under my head; and the Diskos I

took to company me; and so fell swiftly upon sleep; yet did think

earnestly but vaguely upon Naani, as I came unto slumber.

And I slept all but six hours, and did waken very sudden there in the

utter dark; and I got me to mine elbow, and did listen very keen; for I

had waked immediately, as that something had touched me or come nigh

unto me; and I gript the Diskos, and listened; but there did not even a

little sound come to me out of all that night.

And presently I had more assuredness that naught did make harm about me;

and I sat me up in the dark, and reached for my scrip, and did eat and

drink, there in that utter night; and fumbled somewhat, as you shall

think. Yet I was done in a while, and got my gear upon me, and the

Diskos into my hand, and so to my feet and forward.

Now all that day, I did have a strange unease of the spirit, so that I

stopt oft to listen, as that my soul told of something nigh unto me that

did follow very quiet. Yet did mine ears perceive nothing; and so I

alway to go downward again into the night that held the slope.

And here should I tell how that in the early part of the seventh hour,

after I had eat and drunk, and went forward as ever, upon my journey

down the Mighty Slope, I did have a very sore tumble against a sharp

rock; for I put my foot sudden into a small hole, and this did make me

to pitch. And I was utter shaked by the fall and lay very quiet for a

time; for the rock had surely ript my body, but for the armour.

And after that I was something renewed of strength and spirit, I made

that I should go no more upon my feet, but upon my hands and knees; and

thus should I feel the way that I went, and have a less need of the

Diskos, which had not overmuch use to light my way, in that I shone it

not often, and did guess more than I did perceive, as you may think.

And so I crept all that day, which was a bitter way of travel; yet had I

done many a sore mile thus through the Night Land. And when that I had

gone downward for eighteen hours, and eat and drunk thrice, I ceased

from my labour, and did feel about in the darkness, that I come to a

level place for my rest; and so did find presently, a place not so bad,

and did push and cast away such small boulders as had been like to irk

me.

Then did I eat and drink, and afterward composed me to my sleep, and had

many a thought of Naani, as I did drift unto slumber; yet also had I

memories of the strange half-fear that had been with me all that day, as

though something went constantly near me in the Dark. And because of

this, twice did I rise unto mine elbow, and listen; but heard no sound

to trouble me, and afterward did trust that I did but fancy; and so came

at last unto slumber, that yet was not over-restful, for truly I did

listen even as I slept.

And when I had been asleep scarce six hours, I waked again very sudden,

as I had done before, and had belief that something did be anigh unto

me; and I gript the Diskos, and did hearken; yet was there no sound that

mine ears did wot of; neither aught that had power to be surely known of

the spirit.

And all that day was as the day before; save that about the eighth hour

I came near to fall into some monstrous pit in the Great Slope; but did

only fall with my breast upon the edge, and so drew back, and presently

did crawl all around it in the dark, and come safe unto the lower side;

yet shaken and put more in trouble of spirit than before, and fearful

how I should go; for I knew not whether I had come among such things, or

whether I had but few to sorrow me.

And so you shall perceive that I went over-cautious for a great while in

all that utter dark; but did think at last upon a plan to go with more

surety and speed. But to this I did need a cord, and surely I had no

cord upon me; and if a boy be no boy that hath none such about him,

shall not the same be said of any man! And this I did think, as I

searched me; for the sayings of that day had many that were like to

this.

Yet in the end I did compass my plan; for I did buckle the scrip and the

pouch together, and took one of the straps from the pouch; and this

strap was long and thin, and well suited unto my purpose. Then I fixt a

stone into the end of the strap, and buckled it there, and after that, I

cast the stone before me, as I went upon my hands and knees; and I did

hold to the hither end of the strap, and so was abled to have something

of knowledge whether there lay any great deepness immediately before me,

and thiswise to strive that I fall not down some monstrous cliff in the

night.

And so did I go, casting the stone continually to my front, down the

slope; and this you shall think to be a cumbersome fashion of travel;

yet was I in better case than in all the time since I had begun to go

downward of the Mighty Slope in the everlasting darkness.

And at the eighteenth hour I did sleep; and was waked strangely before

the sixth hour, even as I had waked before. And this did put always

upon me a new wonder and unease. Yet did no harm seem to come unto me,

and I did strive that I have no needful trouble of mind. But that

something was always nigh unto me in the dark, I do truly believe; yet

have I no knowing that it was evil; for it harmed not me.

And three days more I journeyed thus, and did never cease to creep

downward weariful upon my hands and knees; and the Diskos I had to my

hip, and so shall you know how I carried it. And by this, as you do

know, I had been on the Great Slope six days of utter Dark; and did have

no wotting but that I went unto some dire and dreadful place; for,

surely, I had gone for ever downward a monstrous way.

And here, before I tell further, I must set down how that the cold was

much gone from out of the air upon the slope; and the air was grown, as

it did seem, very heavy unto my chest. And concerning this matter I

should say something. For, if I do mind me, I have said not overmuch

concerning the air of the Night Land and the Mighty Pyramid; for truly I

have been so set to tell my story of all that I did truly see and

adventure upon. Yet, though I have said but little, you will surely have

perceived that the air of that far and chill time was not as the air of

this; but was thin and keen within the Night Land, and lay not, as I do

think, to a great height above the land, but only nigh to the earth.

And as you do know through my tellings, there was a wondrous difference

between the air within the Mighty Pyramid, and that which lay without

around the base; for upward beyond that, I did understand that there was

no outward air that any should breathe; and so was all the Pyramid

sealed in certain wise in all the upper Cities for ever; and whether it

was sealed utterly from the outward air at the base, I do not surely

remember, if, in truth that I did ever bother my head to such matters.

Yet, if I be set proper in memory and understanding, we did draw air

from the Underground Fields; but whether they gat any change or newness

of air from the Night Land, I have no knowledge; and do lament that I

have no sure knowing. Yet, as you shall believe, I could surely write an

hundred books upon that Wonder of the Future, and be still lacking in

the half of all that there is to be told; and so do I try to have

courage to this my task, and to have no over-trouble, because that I do

tell but a little of a Great Tale.

And here in this place will I set down how that the Peoples of the

Pyramid were greater to the chest, methinks, than we of this age; but

yet do I have no oversurety in the matter; for well it may be that the

Reason of this age doth blind within me somewhat the Knowledge that I

have concerning that; for, in verity, is it not but a natural thing to

believe those Peoples to be great of the chest, so that they should make

a proper dealing with the thin air of that place and that time? And yet,

as I do strive to make plain unto you, because that this thing should

be, by the making of my Reason, I do the more distrust that Reason

shall make foolish my Knowledge; for even a fool should suppose that

which I have told; and the truth may be even otherwise.

Yet that the Peoples of the Upper Cities had great chests, I do well

know; for this was a common knowledge; even as we of this age do

acknowledge the Peoples of Africa to be of blackness, or those of

Patagonia to be of great stature. And by this one thing should any know

a man of the Upper Cities, from a man of the Lower Cities. And because

that there grew this difference among the Peoples, there had been once,

as any could learn from the Histories, a plan whereby the Peoples should

be moved upward and downward through the great height of the Mighty

Pyramid, from this city unto that. Yet had it met with great disfavour;

and was put out of force; and this is easy to be seen as the natural way

of the human heart.

And here it doth occur unto me that it was like enough to be a plan for

health, beside of training of the mind, that each youth and maid was put

to travel through all the cities of the Mighty Pyramid; the which did

take three years and two hundred and twenty-five days, as I have told

before this. For by this plan, were they made to breathe the air of

every height, and this, mayhaps, unto the good of their developing. And

they also to discover that air which was best to their need.

And concerning the air of the Night Land, you shall know that there was

in all that Land no flying thing, because that the air was grown very

thin; yet, as the Records did show, there had once been monstrous

flying-brutes, that went over the Land in mighty bounds; but this was in

a long gone age; and we could but suppose that the Records gave truth.

And here you shall know that, when the Monstruwacans did learn that I

would journey through the Night Land, in search of Naani, there had been

some foolish and well-intended talk among them that I take a small

flying-ship, that was in the Great Museum beside the models of the Great

Ships. For, truly, this machine was yet sound to go; for it was made of

the grey metal of the Mighty Pyramid, that did seem to have no power to

cease. Yet, in verity, I had no skill to manage this, neither had it

flown, through an hundred thousand years; so that none did know the

mastership of that art, which did be learned but by a constant practice,

and oft made uneasy by fallings that did wreck the machine, as I did

know from the Book of Flying. And, moreover, as I have told, the air of

the Night Land was grown over-weak to uphold such a thing; which, I

doubt not, had made the Peoples of the Pyramid to cease from flyings,

quite so much as that they did fear the Forces of Evil in the night.

And if that there had been air and skill sufficient unto this purpose of

flying, yet had I been wicked with foolishness that I should work to be

hung upward in the night, for all the Evil of the Night Land to behold.

And though I had gone up some great way, yet the machine had surely made

a great noise in the quietness of the eternal night, as you shall

suppose.

Now indeed am I gone weary that I should need to tell so much concerning

the air of that Time and Place; for surely I do seem to make this my

story as that I did make a lecturing upon matters of chemistry; and so

do I cast about, that I may not bother to tell more upon this matter.

Yet, in truth, a little more of my thinkings and observings had I better

set down here, and so be done with it. But you shall have patience with

me, and know that had this, my story, been no more than an idle tale, I

had been free to make no labour with such matters.

Now there doth a wonder come to me why that the Road Makers, who were of

that far-off Age which was before the Age of the Mighty Pyramid, did not

fly downward from the upper world into the deep of the monstrous

valley; but did instead build a road.

Yet it may be that the air of the upper world had grown thin a great

age, so that they had truly forgot that once man did have power to fly.

But even if that they did have proper machines to this purpose, surely

it were a wondrous and fearful thing to fly downward an hundred great

miles; for they surely to have a dread that they never to rise again

through so huge a deep.

And, moreover, the downward world that was the bottom of the Great

Valley, was full of monsters, as was told in the little metal book. And

the monsters were very strange and unknown; and foreign to the whole

world, that had never come unto the deep of the Valley. And the Valley

had come, as you shall mind, when the earth did split; and this thing

was, in truth, like to be thought that same Ending of the World, which

all Nations have been taught to believe shall come. For in verity, when

the world did split and burst, and the oceans rushed downward into the

earth, and there was fire, and storms, and a mighty chaos, surely it was

proper to think that the End had come. Yet was it, in truth, but the

beginning of hope of a new Eternity of Life; so that out of the End came

the Beginning, and Life out of Death, and Good out of that which did

seem a dire matter. And so is it always.

Yet doth this go past my first wonder, which did concern the wherefore

that they made not to descend in Things of Flight. Yet, maybe, shall my

reasons stand to show why this was not.

And again, mayhap it did chance that some were wild adventurers, and did

leap over the edge of the upper world, having to ease their flight

certain contrivings, like to parachutes. And these you shall picture, as

that you watched them to leap; and so shall you see them go downward

into the gloom; and you shall see them for maybe ten miles, and maybe

for twenty miles; and afterward shall they be lost utterly in that Great

Deep, and seen no more of any man for ever.

But when the Nations became Road-Makers, and came downward slowly to the

monstrous Deep of the Mighty Valley that did split the World, then were

they come there by millions, and with power sufficient to fight against

the Beasts; and afterward to grow back again to an ancient Civilizing;

and so to the building of the great airships that were yet shown in the

Great Museum of the Pyramid. And here shall I cease from these my

thinkings on this matter; for indeed, who shall say what did be truly a

Reason for those peoples and what was their Need? And so do I come to no

surety by my wonderings.

Yet, as you do know, all things do seem verily to go in a circle; for,

behold, in time, they of the Mighty Pyramid, were likewise held off from

the glory of the airships; and so were gone backward a great way,

according as we do look upon this matter. And so hath this been the way

always, as you shall know who have studied and thought, and seen the

true ways and goings of Life.

And now will I go forward in my telling; and here will set down a sure

thing that I did perceive, both by mine ears and by my fingers; for, as

I did make clear to you but a while gone, there had come a change into

the air as I did go downward of the Mighty Slope; and truly I was come

to a great and new Deepness, even beyond that of the wondrous depth

where did stand the Last Redoubt. So that I was afar down and in a

monstrous night. And the air here was of a great thickness and

abundancy, even as it might be the air of this our Age; or maybe more or

maybe less; for who may compare two matters with a sure guessing, that

do have an eternity to keep them asunder. And because that the air was

grown very strong and apparent, it shall be, mayhaps, that it was by

reason of this thing that the water, when I did make it, did fizz upward

in a moment very loud and plentiful, and did boil overward to the earth

from out of the cup, and wet upon my hand. And surely this thought did

come very keen to my Reason, as I did fumble, each time of mine eating,

there in the everlasting night and lonesomeness of the Great Slope.

And so shall you have knowledge now of this and that thing which did

come upon my thought, and of the little and the big wonders, and all

shall help something to give unto you the ache of newness and

bewilderment that was constant companion unto me.

Now by this time, as I have said, I was gone downward ever for six great

days; and I did seem as that I should presently come to the middle of

the world; for of going downward there was no end.

And then, when it did be that I was near ready to believe this, I

perceived far off in the deep of the night a little shining that was yet

weak and unsure. And I do not know whether I can truly give unto you the

great astonishment and pain of hope that did come upon me; so that I

grew sick in all my being but to behold once again the blessedness of

light, and to have help unto my belief that I went not downward to an

utter desolation.

And I stood upward from my knees, and did look very earnest, and surely

it did seem that a light was there afar downward in the night; and again

it did seem that I must be plagued by my hopes and by my fancy, and that

there was nowhere any light. And then again I did see it very clear, and

not to be mistaken, and I had a shaking to come upon me, and I gat me to

a run, and made a great and mad speed down the dark slope. And lo! I was

not gone any way, but I went headlong, and near brake myself; and could

but hold my teeth together very fierce and quiet until that the pain was

something gone from me.

And afterward, I gat me again to mine hands and knees, and went slowly,

as before; and so for a great hour or more, and did look oft; and alway

the light became more plain to my sight; but ever to come and go,

oddly-wise. Yet did I go six hours, before that I was come anywise near

to it. And by this shall you know how great a space off it had been. And

lo! when that I did seem surely anigh unto it, truly was it still far

away in the night; and I came not indeed near to it until that I was

gone onward again for three hours more. And all that time did I yet go

downward into the night; but the Slope now did not be so utter dark.

Now, presently, I made a pause, and stood upward to my feet, so that I

should the better perceive the light. And lo! as I did look toward it, I

heard a faraway sound in the dark, as that something did set up a

strange and monstrous piping in the night. And immediately, I went to

mine hands and knees among the stones of the Slope, and kept myself low

in the darkness, so that I should be the less plain to be seen, did any

Monster approach.

But there came nothing to trouble me, and I went downward of the Slope

for yet another hour; and all the time that I did go, the sound of the

piping grew more in the great eternity of the night upon the Slope.

And by this time was I come truly near unto the light; but yet did not

behold it plainly; for it did burn beyond certain monstrous rocks that

stood between. And I went to the left for, maybe, the half of a big

mile; and all the while that I did go, the piping made a mightier

whistling in the Night; and it did seem presently as that the earth sent

forth the sound and revelry of wild roarings. And I went the more

silent; and later did kneel among three rocks, and peered forth for a

while upon the place before me.

And now, being come nigh unto the light--though yet it was not unhid

from behind the great barriers of the uprising rocks, I perceived that I

crouched within the mouth of a mighty gorge; and the left side was a

great way off, and I saw it plain at whiles when the light did rise; but

the light was to the right, and it was so wondrous great that it did

make clear to me that a mountain was to that side of the gorge, and

went upward into the everlasting night, as it did seem for ever.

And afar down the gorge, I did see the shinings of strange fires, faint

and a great way off. And so was I come at last to the bottom of the

Mighty Slope. Yet the gorge also to go downward, but not so great.

And presently I did go forward again; and so did open the point of the

rocks, as the sailors do say. And I saw now that there gushed forth a

great blue flame from the earth; and the mighty rocks stood about it, as

that they were olden giants groupt there to some strange service.

And concerning this flame I was not overmuch astonished in my Reason;

for it had seemed to me as I drew anigh, that the fire and the sound

should be made by the roaring and whistling of a burning gas that did

issue forth among the rocks. Yet, truly, though it did be a natural

matter, it was yet a wondrous sight, and set amazement on my senses; for

the flame did dance, and sway whitherward monstrously, and sometimes did

seem that it dropt so low as an hundred feet, and afterward went upward

with a vast roaring unto the utter height, and did stand mighty and

blazing, maybe a full thousand feet, so that the far side of the gorge

was lit, and surely it was seven great miles off or more; but yet did

show plain and wondrous. And the light did show me the flank of the

mountain, that made the right hand side of the Gorge, to go up

measureless into the night.

And so shall you perceive that I stayed awhile among the rocks that were

in the mouth of the gorge, that I should gaze upon this thing; but

afterward I lookt this way and that way, so that I should have a knowing

of the place where I was come.

And it was a wild and stark and empty place, as you must perceive. And

the far side did be great miles off, as I did say; and everywhere there

was abundance of rock and lonesomeness. And before me there went the

great and dim length of the gorge, and there were lights here and lights

there, in a great distance, and oft--as it did seem--the quiet dancing

of lights in diverse places; but yet were these gone on the instant. And

ever there was a strong and vacant silence upon that place.

And presently, after that I had looked once more unto the mighty dancing

flame, and perceived nowhere any life around it, I went onward down the

quiet gorge. And for a great way as I journeyed was my path lit by the

dancing of the blue flame; and oft should I seem to be going but dimly

among the rocks, and my shadow faint and long; and lo! the flame would

leap, and all the gorge come to a wondrous brightness, and my figure to

shorten, and the shadows to be black and strong. And so shall you

perceive how I went.

And oft did I turn me about to behold the dancing of the Great Light;

for it was solemn to my spirit, even amid so much of Greatness and

Eternity, to think upon that Flame, and to conceive that it had an utter

age danced there at the foot of the Mighty Slope, unseen, through

lonesome Eternities. And this I do tell unto you; that thereby may you

have some knowledge of the strangeness and the bitter loneliness of that

place; which, in verity, did seem the expressing of all the lonesomeness

of my wanderings.

And all the time as I did go downward of the great Gorge, there sounded

the blast of the roaring, that was presently afar to my back; and the

mountain sides did catch it here and in that place, and sent it offwards

with strange and improper echoings, as of a chill piping, or oddwise as

hushed whisperings of monstrous creatures; so that I did oft stoop to

hide a little among the boulders; for truly I knew not but that some

unnatural thing called from the darkness of the mountain side.

And for six hours I walked onward thus, and sometimes did hide, having a

sudden fear, as I have told.

And presently, in a great while, the roaring was sunk to a far and

monstrous piping; but in the end to no more than a far and uncertain

whistling, that yet did catch strange echoes in the night. And in the

end there was only a quietness. And yet, as you do perceive, there had

been always a silence in that Gorge, as I have told, and this to the

despite of the whistling. And I do hope that you have understanding with

me in this matter; for it was truly as I have told, and there is no

contrariness of telling in this matter.

Now in all this time that I had walked in the great Gorge, I had past

four of the far lights that I did see from the bottom of the Slope; and

the two first and the fourth were blue, but the third was green; and all

did dance and quake, and sent fitful shinings into the belly of the

Gorge. And there came also from them whistlings, and from the second one

a low and strange moaning noise; and I doubted not the gas did come

oddly and with trouble. And I past these things with no great thought;

for truly they were no matters for notice, after that which I had

beheld.

Now, as you shall mind, it was surely in the early Third of the seventh

day of my journey down the Mighty Slope that I saw the first shining of

the monstrous gas fountain; and from that time until now had there past

maybe sixteen hours. And, as you do wot, I had eat not in all my travel

since that I had seen the light; so that I was gone to a proper lack

inward; and moreover, it was full nineteen hours or more since that I

had slept; and all that while had I laboured.

And I ceased me from wandering, and lookt about that I should come to a

safe and proper place for my slumber; and this I saw very quick; for

there was dry stone and rock everywhere, and no failing of holes and

diverse places to my purpose; so that I was soon in a little cave

between two mighty boulders.

And here I eat four of the tablets; for truly so many were my due, and I

had not been violent had I eat more. And afterward, I made some of the

water, and it did fizz up in a moment; so that I perceived that but a

good pinch made a great cup-full. And this I set to the count of the

strong and heavy air, as I have told, which I did think to have a

greater power of chemistry.

And presently I slept, having my gear about me as ever, and the Diskos

to my breast. And as I went into slumber, I thought sweetly upon Naani,

as I had done, indeed, an hundred times since I was come to the

hopefulness of the lights of the Gorge.

Now, whilst I slept, I dreamed that the Master-Word did presently beat

all about me in the night. Yet, as I do mind, I waked not; and because

that I continued to sleep, I have no sure knowing whether this was truly

a dream, or an Happening. And I minded me upon it, when I waked; but

this was after that I had slept seven hours; and I could have no

sureness anywise of the matter; but only that I was come safe through my

sleep; though heavy within my head and limbs, as that the air did call

me unto a further slumbering, as is like enough.

And after that I had eat and drunk, I put my gear about me, and the

Diskos to my hip, for I needed both my hands to the task of journeying

amid the great boulders. And I set forth again down the half-light of

the mighty Gorge, and through eighteen hours I made a strong going, save

when I did pause at the sixth and the twelfth hours to mine eating.

And by the eighteenth hour was come, I was very ready to my food and

slumber; and presently I was asleep in a place of the rocks. And that

day had I past three and twenty of the dancing gas fires; and five been

like a white fire; but the others blue and green. And all did dance and

made a strange and uncertain light within the great Gorge; yet was it a

peaceful thing unto my spirit that there was truly light, as you shall

understand.

And I slept six hours, and waked, and did want more sleep, as you shall

think. But I eat and drunk and put my gear upon me, and went on downward

of the Gorge.

And at the sixth hour, after that I had eat and drunk, I came to a part

where the big gas fires did cease to dance, and there was a certain

darkness upon that place. Yet was it not a proper dark; for there came

the glimmer of a flame here and the glimmer of a flame there, as that

little flames came upward between the stones, and did vanish, and come

upward in another part. And so did light and die out constant and

forever amid the stones and the boulders of that lonesome Gorge; and

made a low-spread light, so that it did seem unto me that strange

shudders of light beat upward through the dark of that place.

And I went onward, and a heavy fume did seem to hang in the air, and

horrid gases to come upward from the earth in odd puffings; and anon a

light would leap upward beyond the next stone, and afterward vanish, and

there would be an hundred thousand such upon every hand, running to and

fore; and afterward for a moment an utter dark, and again the little

flames everywhere; so that it did seem I went one moment amid the heart

of a strange country of fire, and immediately through a country of utter

night. And this was to me strange and a peculiar matter. Yet, as I do

think, the gases did bother me the more; for they did seem as that they

were like to hurt mine health utterly; for, in verity, oft did I seem as

that I should choke and breathe no more, by reason of the poison that

came upward from among the stones and the boulders.

And all that time, as they came or went, did the little flames make

small phlocks of sound in the Gorge as they did flash or die; and the

sounds did seem, to my likening, as stones cast into an utter silent

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 end of the turning was a red and glowing light that

was very great and wonderful; so that I was utter keen to come to that

place, that I should discover what made the shining. And the place where

I was come then, was very dark, because that I was nigh under the mighty

wall of the mountain of the right side of the Gorge. Yet above, as it

did seem to me, there was a far red upward glowing in the night.

Then did I go forward very fast, and presently, in a good while, I

discovered that I drew near to a second great turning, that went to the

right. And about the seventeenth hour, I came nigh unto the second great

turning. And here did I put caution upon me, and crept for a while among

the dark rocks of that place, that I should come to a sight of that

which made the monstrous red shining.

And presently, I was beyond the corner of the mountain, and did look

downward into a mighty Country of Seas, and the burning of great

volcanoes. And the volcanoes did seem as that they burned in the Seas.

And the country was full of a great ruddy light from the volcanoes. And

so shall you perceive me there among the rocks that did all stand upward

strange and bold and silent in the red and monstrous glare of the light.

And I, as it did seem, the one thing of life in all that desolation and

eternity of rock and stone, there in the end part of the great Gorge.

And I peered forth into the wonder of the light, and was full of

thrillings and fancies that I was surely come to the place where the

Lesser Redoubt had been builded. And immediately I knew that this was

not so, for surer had not Naani told how that they were in a land of

darkness. And if this did be so, truly, how wondrous and dread a way had

I yet to go, if that this Country of Seas and mighty volcanoes stood

between.

Surely, it did seem to me then as that I must wander searching unto the

world's end. And so shall you be company unto me there with my trouble

and my thoughts, and the immediate wonder and strange glory of that

mighty Country.