“Yes, the ‘Bardd Cwsg.’ You pronounce Welsh very fairly; have you ever been in Wales?”
“Never,” said I.
“Not been in Wales; then, of course, you don’t understand Welsh; but we were talking of the ‘Bardd Cwsg,’—yes, there are fairies in the ‘Bardd Cwsg,’ the author of it, Master Ellis Wyn, was carried away in his sleep by them over mountains and valleys, rivers and great waters, incurring mighty perils at their hands, till he was rescued from them by an angel of the Most High, who subsequently showed him many wonderful things.”
“I beg your pardon,” said I, “but what were those wonderful things?”
“I see, young man,” said Peter, smiling, “that you are not without curiosity; but I can easily pardon any one for being curious about the wonders contained in the book of Master Ellis Wyn. The angel showed him the course of this world, its pomps and vanities, its cruelty and its pride, its crimes and deceits. On another occasion, the angel showed him Death in his nether palace, surrounded by his grisly ministers, and by those who are continually falling victims to his power. And, on a third occasion, the state of the condemned in their place of everlasting torment.”
“But this was all in his sleep,” said I, “was it not?”
“Yes,” said Peter, “in his sleep; and on that account the book is called ‘Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg,’ or, Visions of the Sleeping Bard.”
“I do not care for wonders which occur in sleep,” said I. “I prefer real ones; and perhaps, notwithstanding what he says, the man had no visions at all—they are probably of his own invention.”
“They are substantially true, young man,” said Peter; “like the dreams of Bunyan, they are founded on three tremendous facts, Sin, Death, and Hell; and, like his, they have done incalculable good, at least in my own country, in the language in which they are written. Many a guilty conscience has the ‘Bardd Cwsg’ aroused with its dreadful sights, its strong sighs, its puffs of smoke from the pit, and its showers of sparks from the mouth of the yet lower gulf of—Unknown—were it not for the ‘Bardd Cwsg’ perhaps I might not be here.”
“I would sooner hear your own tale,” said I, “than all the visions of the ‘Bardd Cwsg.’”