On
all hands are myriads of doors leading into the Land of Oblivion, each
guarded by the particular death-imp, whose name was inscribed above it.
The Bard passes by the portals of Hunger, where misers, idlers and
gossips enter, of Cold, where scholars and travellers go through, of
Fear, Love, Envy and Ambition.
Suddenly he finds himself transported into a bleak and barren land where
the shades flit to and fro. He is straightway surrounded by them, and,
on giving his name as the "Sleeping Bard," a shadowy claimant to that
name sets upon him and belabours him most unmercifully until Merlin bid
him desist. Taliesin then interviews him, and an ancient manikin,
"Someone" by name, tells him his tale of woe. After that he is taken
into the presence of the King of Terrors himself, who, seated on a throne
with Fate and Time on either hand, deals out their doom to the prisoners
as they come before him. Four fiddlers, a King from the neighbourhood of
Rome with a papal dispensation to pass right through to Paradise, a
drunkard and a harlot, and lastly seven corrupt recorders, are condemned
to the land of Despair.
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