It is a cold, winter’s night and the Bard lies abed meditating upon the
brevity of life, when Sleep and his sister Nightmare pay him a visit, and
after a long parley, constrain him to accompany them to the Court of
their brother Death. Hieing away through forests and dales, and over
rivers and rocks, they alight at one of the rear portals of the City of
Destruction which opens upon a murky region—the chambers of Death. 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.
Another group of seven prisoners have just been brought to the bar, when
a letter comes from Lucifer concerning them; he requests that Death
should let these seven return to the world or else keep them within his
own realm—they were far too dangerous to be allowed to enter Hell. Death
hesitates, but, urged by Fate, he indites his answer, refusing to comply
with Lucifer’s request. The seven are then called and Death bids his
hosts hasten to convey them beyond his limits. The Bard sees them hurled
over the verge beneath the Court of Justice and his spirit so strives
within him at the sight that the bonds of Sleep are sundered and his soul
returns to its wonted functions.