When he wakes from his trance, he rises from his stony pillow,
and, pacing his apartment, full of dreary reflections, questions his
spirit, whither it has been wandering; whether, indeed, all that has
passed before his dreaming fancy has been conjured up by preceding
circumstances; or whether it is a vision, intended to comfort and
assure him in his despondency. If the latter, he prays that some token
may be sent to confirm the promise of happier days, given him in his
slumbers. Suddenly, a turtle dove, of the purest whiteness, comes
flying in at the window, and alights upon his hand, bearing in her
bill a branch of red gilliflower, on the leaves of which is written,
in letters of gold, the following sentence:
Awake! awake! I bring, lover, I bring
The newis glad that blissful is, and sure
Of thy comfort; now laugh, and play, and sing,
For in the heaven decretit is thy cure.
He receives the branch with mingled hope and dread; reads it with
rapture: and this, he says, was the first token of his succeeding
happiness. Whether this is a mere poetic fiction, or whether the
Lady Jane did actually send him a token of her favor in this
romantic way, remains to be determined according to the faith or fancy
of the reader.
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