HE that has a mind to read of dreams, may peruse Cicero "de
Divinatione", Hier. Cardani "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, and
Moldinarius "de Insomniis", &c. I shall here mention but little out of
them, my purpose being chiefly to set down some remarkable and divine
dreams of some that I have had the honour to be intimately acquainted
with, persons worthy of belief.
Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 1. "Hannibalem, Caslius scribit, cum
Columnam auream, quae esset in fano Junonis Laciniae, auferre vellet,
dubitaretque utrum ea solida esset, an extrinsecus inaurata,
perterebravisse; cumque solidam invenisset, statuissetque tollere:
secundum quietem visam esse ei Junonem praedicere, ne id faceret;
minarique, si id fecisset se curaturam, ut eum quoque oculum, quo bene
videret, amitteret; idque ab homine acuto non esse neglectum; itaque
ex eo auro quod exterebratum esset, buculam curasse faciendum, & eam
in summa columna collocavisse."
i. e.
Coelius writes, that Hannibal, when he had a mighty mind to take away a
gold pillar, that was in the Temple of Juno Lacinia, being in doubt
with himself, whether it was solid massive gold, or only gilt, or
thinly plated over on the out side, bored it through. When he had
found it to be solid, and fully designed to have it carried off; Juno
appeared to him in his sleep, and forewarned him against what he was
about, threatening him withal, that if he persisted and did it, she
would take care that he should lose the eye, that he saw perfectly
well with, as he had done the other.
The great man, it seems, was too wise to slight and neglect this
warning; nay, he even took care to have a ring made of the very gold,
that had been bored out of it, and placed it on the top of the pillar.
"--- Cum duo quidam Arcades familiares iter una, facerent, & Megaram
venissent, alterum ad cauponem divertisse; ad hospitem alterum. Qui,
ut coenati quiescerent, concubia nocte visum esse in somnis ei qui erat
in hospitio, ilium alterum orare ut subveniret, quod sibi a caupone
interitus pararetur; eum primo perterritum somnio surrexisse; deinde
cum se colligisset, idque visum pro nihilo habendum esse duxisset,
recubuisse; tum, ei dormienti eundem ilium visum esse rogare, ut
quoniam sibi vivo non subvenisset, mortem suam ne inultam esse
pateretur; se interfectum in plaustrum a caupone esse conjectum, &
supra stercus injectum; petere, ut mani ad portum adesset, priusquam
plaustrum ex oppido exiret. Hoc vero somnio commotum mano bubulco
presto ad portam fuisse, quaesisse ex eo, quid esset in plaustro;
ilium perterritum fugisse, mortuum erutum esse, cauponem re patefacta
poenas dedisse. Quid hoc somnio dici divinius potest ?" i. e.
As two certain Arcadians, intimate companions, were travelling
together, it so happened, that, when they came to Megara, one of them
went to an inn, and the other to a friend's house. Both had supped at
their respective places, and were gone to bed; when lo! he, that was
at his friend's house, dreamt, that his companion came to him, and
begged of him for Heaven's sake to assist him, for that the inn-keeper
had contrived a way to murder him: frightened at first out of his
sleep, he rose up; but soon afterward coming a little better to
himself, he thought, upon recollection, there was no heed to be given
to the vision, and went very quietly to bed again. But as soon as he
was got into his second sleep, the same vision repeated the visit, but
the form of his petition was quite altered. He beseeched him, that,
since he had not come to his assistance, while he was among the
living, he would not suffer his death, however, to go unrevenged. Told
him that as soon as he was murdered, he was tossed by the inn- keeper
into a waggon, and had a little straw thrown over his corpse. He
entreated him to be ready very early at the door before the waggon was
to go out of town. This dream truly disturbed him it seems very much,
and made him get up very early: he nicked the time, and met with the
waggoner just at the very door, and asked him what he had in his cart.
The fellow run away frightened and confounded. The dead body was
pulled out of it, and the whole matter coming plainly to light, the
inn-keeper suffered for the crime.--What is there that one can call
more divine than a dream like this ?"
"---Somnium de Simonide, qui, cum ignotum quendam projectum mortuum
vidisset, eumque humavisset, haberetque in animo navem conscendere,
moneri visus est, ne id faceret, ab eo, quem sepultum affecerat: si
navigasset, cum naufragio esse perituram: itaque Simonidem rediisse
periisse caeeteros, qui tum navigassent."
---The dream of Simonides. This person, when he saw a certain body
thrown dead upon the shore, though a stranger, caused him to be
buried. Much about that time he had it in his head to go on ship-
board, but dreamt that he had warning given him by the man he had got
to be interred, not to go; that if he went, the ship would
infallibly be cast away. Upon this Simonides returned, and every soul of
them besides that went on board was lost.
Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 2. "Somnium, Alexandri. Qui, cum
Ptolomaeus familiaris ejus, in proelio, telo venenato ictus esset, eoque
vulnere summo cum dolore moreretur, Alexander assidens somno est
consopitus; tum secundum quietem visus ei dicitur draco is, quem
mater Olympias alebat, radiculam ore ferre & simul dicere quo illa
loci nasceretur neque is longe aberat ab eo loco: ejus autem esse vim
tantam, ut Ptolomaeum facile sanaret. Cum Alexander experrectus
narrasset amicis somnium, emisisse qui illam radiculam quaererent. Qua,
inventa, & Ptolomaeus sanatus dicitur, & multi milites, qui erant eodem
genere teli vulnerati."
(i. e.) The dream of Alexander, when his friend Ptolemy was wounded
in battle, by an envenomed dart, and died of the wound, in all the
extremities of pain and anguish; Alexander sitting by him, and
wearied out and quite fatigued, fell into a profound sleep. In this
sleep, that dragon is reported to have appeared to him, which was bred
up by his mother Olympias, carrying a little root in his mouth and to
have told him in what spot of ground it grew, (nor was it far from
that very place) and told him withal it seems, that such was the
force, efficacy, and virtue of it, that it would work an easy cure
upon Ptolomy. When Alexander waked, he told his friends the dream, and
sent some out in quest of this little root. The root (as story says)
was found, and Ptolemy was healed, so were many soldiers likewise,
that had been wounded with the same kind of darts.
Cardanus "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, chap. 2. "Narrat Plinius 35
lib. Nat. Hist, vir ab omnia superstitione alienissimus, Historiam
hujusmodi. 'Nuper cujusdam militantis in Praetorio mater vidit in
quiete, ut radicem sylvestris Rosae (quam Cynorrhodon vocant) blanditam
sibi aspectu pridie in Fruteto, mitteret filio bibendam: In Lusitania
res gerebatur, Hispaniae, proxima parte: casuque accidit, ut milite a
morsu Canis incipiente aquas expavescere superveniret epistola orantis
ut paretet religioni; servatusque est ex insperato, & postea
quisquis auxilium simile tentavit.' "
i. e. In his natural history, Pliny, a man the most averse to
superstition, relates to us the following passage. Lately, the mother
of one of the guards, who attended upon the General, was admonished by
a vision in her sleep, to send her son a draught composed of the
decoction of the root of a wild rose, (which they call Cynorrhodon)
with the agreeable look whereof she had been mightily taken the day
before, as she was passing through a coppice. The seat of the war at
that time lay in Portugal, in that part of it next adjoining to Spain,
that a soldier, beginning to apprehend mighty dangerous consequences
from the bite of a dog, the letter came unexpectedly from her,
entreating him to pay a blind obedience to this superstition. He did
so, and was preserved beyond all expectation; and everybody
afterwards had recourse to the same remedy.
Ibid. Galeni "tria Somnia".--- "Tertium magis dignum miraculo, cum bis
per somnium admonitus, ut arteriam secaret, quae inter pollicem &
indicem est, idque agens liberatus sit a diuturno dolore, quo
infestabatur ea in parte, qua septo transverso jecur jungitur, idque
in libri de sectione venae fine testatus est. Magno certe exemplo, quod
tantus vir in medicina eam adhibuerit somnio fidem, ut in seipso
periculum vitae subierit, in arte propria. Deinde probitatem admiror,
ut quo potuerit solertia ingenii sibi inventum ascribere, Deo cui
debebatur, rediderit. Dignus vel hoc solo vir immortalitate nominis, &
librorum suorum."
Galen's three dreams. The third more worthy of being called a miracle,
was, when being twice admonished in his sleep, to cut the artery that
lies between the fore finger and the thumb, and doing it accordingly,
he was freed from a continual daily pain with which he was afflicted
in that part where the liver is joined to the midriff; and this he has
testified at the end of his book of Venesection. 'Tis certainly a very
great example, when a man so great as he was in the medicinal art, put
so much confidence in a dream as to try experiments upon himself;
where he was to run the risque of his life, in his own very art. I
cannot help but admire his probity in the next place, that where he
might have arrogated the merit of the invention to himself, and placed
it wholly to the account of the subtility and penetration of his own
genius, he attributed it to God, to whom it was due. In this alone did
the man well deserve to purchase an immortality to his name and his
writings.
In his fourth book, chap. 4. "De Exemplis propriis", he owns the
solution of some difficult problems in Algebra to his dreams.
Plinii, Nat. Hist. lib. 22, chap. 17. "Verna carus Pericli
Atheniensium Principi, cum is in arce templum aedificaret,
repsissetque super altitudinem fastigii, & inde cecidisset, hac herba
(Parthenio) dicitur sanatus, monstrata Pericli somnio a Minerva. Quare
Parthenium vocari coepta est, assignaturque ei Deae."
Pliny's Natural History, book 22, chap. 17. "A little Home-bred Slave,
that was a darling favourite to Pericles, Prince of the Athenians, and
who, while a temple was building in the Prince's palace, had climbed
up to the very top of the pinnacle, and tumbled down from that
prodigious height; is said to have been cured of his fall by the herb
Parthenium, or mug-wort, which was shown to Pericles in a dream, by
Minerva. From hence it originally took the name of Parthenium, and is
attributed to that Goddess.
"Augustinus, Cui etiam praeter sanctitatem, plena fides adhiberi
potest, duo narrat inter reliqua somnia admiranda. Primum, quod cum
quidam mortuo nuper patre venaretur tanquam de pecunia quam pater illi
ex chirographo debuisset, dum incastus viveret, hac causa nocte quadam
umbram patris videt, quae illum admonuit de persoluta pecunia & ubi
chirographum esset repositum. Cum surrexisset, invenit chirographum
loco eo quem umbra paterna docuerat, liberatusque est ab injusto
petitore."
Saint Austin, to whom even, besides his sanctity, we owe an entire
credit, tells among others, two very wonderful dreams. The first is,
when a person was arrested by one, as for a certain sum of money,
which his father had owed him by a note under his own hand, while he
led a lewd debauched life, saw the ghost of his father one night, upon
this very account, which told him of the money being paid, and where
the acquittance lay. When he got up in the morning, he went and found
the acquittance in that very place that his father's ghost had
directed him to, and so was freed from the litigious suit of one that
made unjust demands upon him.
"Alterum adhuc magis mirum".
"Praestantius, vir quidam a Philosopho petierat dubitationem quandam
solvi; quod ille pernegavit. Nocte sequente, tametsi vigilaret
Prsestantius, vidit sibi Philosophum assistere, ac dubitationem
solvere, moxque abire. Cum die sequenti obviam Praestantius eundem
habuisset Philosophum, rogat, Cur cum pridie rogatus nolluisset
solvere illam questionem, intempesta nocte, non rogatus, & venisset ad
se & dubitationem aperuisset. Cui Philosophus. Non quidem ego adveni
sed somnians visus sum tibi hoc Officium praestare."
The other is much more wonderful still.
A certain gentleman named Praestantius, had been entreating a
Philosopher to solve him a doubt, which he absolutely refused to do.
The night following, although Praestantius was broad awake, he saw the
Philosopher standing full before him, who just explained his doubts to
him, and went away the moment after he had done. When Praestantius met
the Philosopher the next day, he asks him why, since no entreaties
could prevail with him the day before, to answer his question, he came
to him unasked, and at an unseasonable time of night, and opened every
point to his satisfaction. To whom thus the Philosopher. " Upon my
word it was not me that came to you; but in a dream I thought my own
self that I was doing you such a service."
The plague raging in the army of the Emperor Charles V. he dreamt that
the decoction of the root of the dwarf-thistle (a mountain plant since
called the Caroline thistle) would cure that disease. See Gerrard's
Herbal, who tells us this.
In Queen Mary's time, there was only one congregation of Protestants
in London, to the number of about three- hundred, one was the deacon
to them, and kept the list of their names: one of that congregation
did dream, that a messenger, (Queen's Officer) had seized on this
deacon, and taken his list; the fright of the dream awaked him: he
fell asleep and dreamt the same perfect dream again. In the morning
before he went out of his chamber, the deacon came to him and then he
told him his dream, and said, 'twas a warning from God; the deacon
slighted his advice, as savouring of superstition; but --- was so
urgent with him that he prevailed with him to deposite the list in
some other hand, which he did that day. The next day, the Queen's
officer attacked him, and searched (in vain) for the list, which had
it been found, would have brought them all to the flame.
Foxe's Martyrology.
When Arch Bishop Abbot's mother (a poor clothworker's wife in
Guilford) was with child of him, she did long for a Jack, and she
dreamt that if she should eat a Jack, her son in her belly should be a
great man. She arose early the next morning and went with her pail to
the river-side (which runneth by the house, now an ale-house, the sign
of the three mariners) to take up some water, and in the water in the
pail she found a good jack, which she dressed, and eat it all, or very
near. Several of the best inhabitants of Guilford were invited (or
invited themselves) to the christening of the child; it was bred up a
scholar in the town, and by degrees, came to be Arch Bishop of
Canterbury.
In the life of Monsieur Periesk, writ by Gassendus, it is said, that
Monsieur Periesk, who had never been at London, did dream that he was
there, and as he was walking in a great street there, espied in a
goldsmith's glass desk, an antique coin, he could never meet with. (I
think an Otho.) When he came to London, walking in (I think) Cheap-
side, he saw such a shop, and remembered the countenance of the
goldsmith in his dream, and found the coin desired, in his desk. See
his life.
When Doctor Hamey (one of the physicians college in London) being a
young man, went to travel towards Padoa, he went to Dover (with
several others) and shewed his pass, as the rest did, to the Governor
there. The Governor told him, that he must not go, but must keep him
prisoner. The Doctor desired to know for what reason ? how he had
transgrest ? well it was his will to have it so. The pacquet-boat
hoisted sail in the evening (which was very clear), and the Doctor's
companions in it. There ensued a terrible storm, and the pacquet-boat
and all the passengers were drowned: the next day the sad news was
brought to Dover. The Doctor was unknown to the Governor, both by name
and face; but the night before, the Governor had the perfect vision in
a dream, of Doctor Hamey, who carne to pass over to Calais; and that
he had a warning to stop him. This the Governor told the Doctor the
next day. The Doctor was a pious, good man, and has several times
related this story to some of my acquaintance.
My Lady Seymour dreamt, that she found a nest, with nine finches in
it. And so many children she had by the Earl of Winchelsea, whose name
is Finch.
The Countess of Cork (now Burlington) being at Dublin, dreamt, that
her father, (the Earl of Cumberland) who was then at York, was dead.
He died at that time.
'Tis certain, that several had monitory dreams of the conflagration of
London.
Sir Christopher Wren, being at his father's house, anno 1651, at
Knahill in Wilts (a young Oxford scholar) dreamt, that he saw a fight
in a great market-place, which he knew not; where some were flying,
and others pursuing; and among those that fled, he saw a kinsman of
his, who went into Scotland to the King's army. They heard in the
country, that the King was come into England, but whereabouts he was
they could not tell. The next night his kinsman came to his father at
Knahill, and was the first that brought the news of the fight at
Worcester.
When Sir Christopher Wren was at Paris, about 1671, he was ill and
feverish, made but little water, and had a pain in his reins. He sent
for a physician, who advised him to be let blood, thinking he had a
plurisy: but bleeding much disagreeing with his constitution, he
would defer it a day longer: that night he dreamt, that he was in a
place where palm-trees grew, (suppose AEgypt) and that a woman in a
romantic habit, reached him dates. The next day he sent for dates,
which cured him of the pain of his reins.
Since, I have learned that dates are an admirable medicine for the
stone, from old Captain Tooke of K--. Take six or ten date-stones, dry
them in an oven, pulverize and searce them; take as much as will lie
on a six-pence, in a quarter of a pint of white wine fasting, and at
four in the afternoon: walk or ride an hour after: in a week's time
it will give ease, and in a month cure. If you are at the Bath, the
Bath water is better than white wine to take it in.
Sir John Hoskin's Lady, when she lay in of her eldest son, had a
swelling on one side of her belly, the third day when the milk came,
and obstructions: she dreamt that syrup of elderberries and distilled
water of wormwood would do her good, and it did so; she found ease in
a quarter of an hour after she had taken it. I had this account from
her Ladyship's own mouth.
Captain --- Wingate told me, that Mr. Edmund Gunter, of Gresham
College, did cast his nativity, when about seventeen or eighteen years
old; by which he did prognosticate that he should be in danger to lose
his life for treason. Several years before the civil wars broke out,
he had dreamt that he was to be put to death before a great castle,
which he had never seen; which made a strong impression in his memory.
In anno 1642, he did oppose the church ceremonies, and was chosen a
member of Parliament, then was made a Captain, and was taken prisoner
at Edge Hill, by Prince Rupert, and carried to Kenilworth Castle,
where he was tried by a council of war, and condemned to die: but they
did better consider of it, and spared his life; for that he being so
considerable a person, might make an exchange for some of the King's
party-:* and he was exchanged for the right Honourable Montague, Earl of
Lindsey (heir of the General.) Since the restoration, he was made
one of the commissioners of the excise office in London. He did
protest that Kenilworth castle was the very castle he saw in his
dream.
*Captain Wingate was a prisoner in Oxford, after
Edgehill fight, 1642.
Sir Roger L'Estrange was wont to divertise himself with cocking in his
father's (Sir Hammond L'Estrange's) park; he dreamt that there came to
him in such a place of the park, a servant, who brought him news, that
his father was taken very ill. The next day going to his usual
recreation, he was resolved for his dream sake to avoid that way; but
his game led him to it, and in that very place the servant came and
brought him the ill news according to his dream.
Mr. Edmund Halley, R. S. S. was carried on with a strong impulse to
take a voyage to St. Hellens, to make observations of the southern
constellations, being then about twenty-four years old. Before he
undertook his voyage, he dreamt that he was at sea, sailing towards
that place, and saw the prospect of it from the ship in his dream,
which he declared to the Royal Society, to be the perfect
representation of that island, even as he had it really when he
approached to it.
A Gentlewoman dreamt that a pultess of blew corants would cure her
sore throat; and it did so. She was a pious woman, and affirmed it to
be true.
Anno 1690. One, in Ireland, dreamed of a brother or near relation of
his, (who lived at Amesbury in Wiltshire) that he saw him riding on
the downs, and that two thieves robbed him and murdered him. The dream
awaked him, he fell asleep again and had the like dream. He wrote to
his relation an account of it, and described the thieves complexion,
stature and cloaths; and advised him to take care of himself. Not long
after he had received this monitory letter, he rode towards Salisbury,
and was robbed and murdered; and the murderers were discovered by this
very letter, and were executed. They hang in chains on the road to
London.
'Twas revealed to a King of Scots, that if he drank of the water of
Muswell, he would be cured. After great enquiry they heard of such a
place, not far from Hornsey in Middlesex. See Weever's Funeral
Monuments of the Well. John Norden's Description of Middlesex. Here
was afterwards founded a religious house for Austin Monks: since it
belonged to Sir Thomas Row, and in 1677, was pulled down and the
materials sold. Anciently the Kings of Scotland were feudatory to the
Kings of England, and did their homage every Christmas day. They had
several lodges belonging to them for their reception in their
journey; as at Huntingdon, &c. See Caxton's Chronicle concerning
this.
The water of this spring is drank for some distempers still.
"Somnium ex Eubernea porta."
Mrs. Cl---, of S---, in the county of S---, had a beloved daughter,
who had been a long time ill, and received no benefit from her
physicians. She dreamed that a friend of hers deceased, told her, that
if she gave her daughter a drench of yew pounded, that she would
recover; she gave her the drench, and it killed her. Whereupon she
grew almost distracted: her chamber maid to complement her, and
mitigate her grief, said surely that could not kill her, she would
adventure to take the same herself; she did so, and died also. This
was about the year 1670, or 1671. I knew the family.
A Gentlewoman, of my acquaintance, dreamed, that if she slept again,
the house would be in danger to be robbed. She kept awake, and anon
thieves came to break open the house, but were prevented.
J. H. Esq.* being at West-Lavington with the Earl of Abbingdon,
dreamed, December the 9th, his mother rose up in mourning: and anon
the Queen appeared in mourning. He told his dream the next morning to
my Lord, and his Lordship imparted it to me (then there) Tuesday,
December 11. In the evening came a messenger, post from London, to
acquaint Mr. H. that his mother was dangerously ill: he went to London
the next day; his mother lived but about eight days longer. On
Saturday, December 15, the Queen was taken ill, which turned to the
small pox, of which she died, December 28, about two o'clock in the
morning.
J. H. Against these initials there is a note in the copy of the
first edition already referred to, in these words,-" James Herbert: He
saies he was never there."
Sir Thomas White, Alderman of London, was a very rich man, charitable
and public spirited. He dreamt that he had founded a college at a
place where three elms grow out of one root. He went to Oxford,
probably with that intention, and discovering some such tree near
Gloucester Hall, he began to repair it, with a design to endow it. But
walking afterwards by the Convent where the Bcrnardines formerly
lived, he plainly saw an elm with three large bodies rising out of the
same root: he forthwith purchased the ground, and endowed his college
there, as it is at this day, except the additions which Arch-bishop
Laud made, near the outside of which building in the garden belonging
to the president, the tree is still to be seen. He made this discovery
about the year 1557.
There are millions of such dreams too little taken notice of, but they
have the truest dreams whose IXth house is well dignified, which mine
is not: but must have some monitory dreams. The Germans are great
observers of them. It is said in the life of Vavasor Powell, that he
was a great observer of dreams, (p. 17 and 114, of his life) that he
had many warnings from them, that God had spoken to himself and others
by them; for warning, instruction, or reproof. And it is also there
averred, that Angels had appeared to him. See p. 8, of his life.
In Mr. Walton's life of Sir Hen. Wotton, there is a remarkable story
of the discovery of stolen plate in Oxford, by a dream which his
father had at Bocton-Malherbe, in Kent. See in Ath. & Fasti. Oxon.
vol. 1, p. 351,
William Penn, proprietor of Pensylvania, told me, that he went with
his mother on a visit to Admiral Dean's wife, who lived then in Petty-
France; the Admiral was then at sea. She told them, that, the night
before, she had a perfect dream of her husband, whom she saw walking
on the deck, and giving directions, and that a cannon bullet struck
his arm into his side. This dream did much discompose her, and within
forty-eight hours she received news of the fight at sea, and that her
husband was killed in the very manner aforesaid.
Sir Berkley Lucy sold the fabric of the chapel of Netley Abbey, to one
Taylor, a carpenter of Southampton, who took off the roof, and pulled
down great part of the walls. During the time that this Taylor was in
treaty for the chapel, he was much disturbed in his sleep with
frightful dreams, and as some say, apparitions; and one, night he
dreamt that a large stone, out of one of the windows of the chapel,
fell upon him and killed him. The undertaker, though staggered with
these intimations, finished his agreement, and soon after fell to work
on pulling down the chapel; but he was not far advanced in it, when,
endeavouring with a pickax to get out some stones at the bottom of the
west wall, in which there was a large window, the whole body of the
window fell down suddenly upon him, and crushed him to pieces.
Willis's Mitred Abbeys, vol. 2, p. 205, 6.
Jan. 1774. One Daniel Healy, of Donaghmore, in Ireland, having three
different times dreamed that money lay concealed under a large stone
in a field near where he lived, procured some workmen to assist him in
removing it, and when they had dug as far as the foundation, it fell
suddenly and killed Healy on the spot.
March 25, 1779. This morning A. B. dreamt that he saw his friend 0. D.
throw himself from a bridge into a river, and that he could not be
found. The same evening, reading Dr. Geddes's account of Ignatius
Loyola, p. 105, 5th tract, v. 3, he met with the following particular
of him; as he was going into Bononia, he tumbled off a bridge into a
moat full of mud; this circumstance was quite new. Every tittle of the
above is strictly true, as the writer will answer it to God.-- To what
can be attributed so singular an impression upon the imagination when sleeping ?
**Comical History of three Dreamers.
Three companions, of whom two were Tradesmen and Townsmen, and the
third a Villager, on the score of devotion, went on pilgrimage to a
noted sanctuary; and as they went on their way, their provision began
to fail them, insomuch that they had nothing to eat,, but a little
flour, barely sufficient to make of it a very small loaf of bread. The
tricking townsmen seeing this, said between them-selves, we have but
little bread, and this companion of ours is a great eater -- on which
account it is necessary we should think how we may eat this little
bread without him. When they had made it and set it to bake, the
tradesmen seeing in what manner to cheat the countryman, said: let us
all sleep, and let him that shall have the most marvellous dream
betwixt all three of us, eat the bread. This bargain being agreed
upon, and settled between them, they laid down to sleep. The
countryman, discovering the trick of his companions, drew out the
bread half baked, eat it by himself, and turned again to sleep. In a
while, one of the tradesmen, as frightened by a marvellous dream,
began to get up, and was asked by his companion, why he was so
frightened ? he answered, I am frightened and dreadfully surprized by
a marvellous dream: it seemed to me that two Angels, opening the gates
of Heaven, carried me before the throne of God with great joy: his
companion said: this is a marvellous dream, but I have seen another
more marvellous, for I saw two Angels, who carried me over the earth
to Hell. The countryman hearing this, made as if he slept; but the
townsmen, desirous to finish their trick, awoke him; and the
countryman, artfully as one surprised, answered: Who are these that
call me ? They told him, we are thy companions. He asked them: How
did you return ? They answered: We never went hence; why d'ye talk of
our return ? The countryman replied: It appeared to me that two
Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried one of you before our
Lord God, and dragged the other over the earth to Hell, and I thought
you never would return hither, as I have never heard that any had
returned from Paradise, nor from Hell, and so I arose and eat the
bread by myself.- From an old edition of Lasarillo de Tormes.