II.
THE DREAM.
It seemed to the young man that the figure of Dante turned to him, and said: "From that realm where Love, Wisdom, and the Eternal Will abide, thence have they sent me to show thee the Hell of the present days! Therefore banish all fear, and whither I go, follow me!"
Like a pale column the Figure rose, and took its flight across the night of space, gliding rapidly over nebulous vapor, and through aerial waves. Sometimes a rapid meteor broke flashing under its feet, and here and there gray dawns awoke, floating away to disappear in the distance. But the soul of the Young Man was overwhelmed with sadness, for it knew not whither it was going, and it went into the Infinite:—and it felt it was the Infinite of Evil!
The Figure stopped upon the summit of a mountain, and it appeared to the Young Man that they commenced to descend within its bosom. The darkness yielded by degrees, and where the way could be discerned, it appeared bordered on either side by walls cut in the solid rock; the most terrific passes were scarcely penetrated by the doubtful twilight, and on the right and the left, all along the rocky parapet, were ranged soldiers, all arrayed in the same costume, all of the same height, all alike in the expression of their features, all in perpetual motion, sometimes leaning forward, and sometimes standing erect; all engaged in the same monotonous occupation of sedulously polishing the barrels of the muskets, which all held in their hands. Light as a sigh, the hand of the Shade swept the eyelids of the Young Man as he said: "Look! this is truly the entrance of the Hell of Earth!" And instantly he saw the Souls of the Soldiers, bent half-way out of their bodies, into which they could return no more, and from which they could not tear themselves away. And in their agony they cried: "We can neither live nor die,—we must forever go where they order us,—order us against God, and we go,—
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