beamy lustre. The nymphs, whose form and symmetry were beyond whatever poets dream, were dressed in robes of white, their zone(illegible text) were azure, dropt with diamonds, and their light brown hair decked with roses hung in ample ringlets. So quick, so light and airy was their motion, that the turf, the flowers, shrunk not to the gentle pressure, and each smiling on her favourite knight, he slung his brilliant arms aside and mingled in the dauce.
Whilst thus they flew in rapid measures o’er the lawn, Sir Gawen, forgetting his situation, and impatient to salute the assembly, involuntarily stept forward, and instantaneously a shrill and hollow gust of wind murmured through the woods, the moon dipt into a cloud, and the knights, the dames and ærial spirits vanished from the view, leaving the amazed Sir Gawen to repent at leisure of his precipitate intrusion; scarce. however, had he time to determine what he should pursue, when a gleam of light flashed suddenly along the horizon, and the beauteous being, whom he first beheld in the air, stood before him; he waved his snowy wand, and pointing to the wood, which now appeared sparkling with a thousand fires, moved, gently on. Sir Gawen felt an irresistable impulse which compelled him to follow and having penetrated the wood, he perceived many bright rays of light, which, darting like the beams of the sun, through every part of it, most beautifully illuminated the shafts of the
