At last the Emperor began to dream. He heard an awful voice, the voice of the Golden Dragon. "Wah-Song! Wah-Song! Awake!"—Page 44.
Peacefully the Emperor slept,—one hour, two hours, three hours,—discoursing eloquently the while in the common language of mankind,—the language of the nose. At last he began to dream,—a dreadful dream. He was in the Golden Temple, praying before the Jewelled Shrine. He heard an awful voice,—the voice of the Golden Dragon. It called his name; it glared upon him with its ruby eyes; it lifted its crowned head, and stretched its long talons toward him. Ah! ah! The Emperor tried to scream, but he could make no sound. Once more the dreadful voice was heard:—
"Wah-Song! Wah-Song! Awake!"
The Emperor sprang up in bed, and looked about him with eyes wild with terror. Ah! what was that?—that glittering form standing at the foot of his bed; that crowned head raised high as if in anger; those glaring red eyes fixed menacingly upon him!
"Ah, horror! ah, destruction! the Golden Dragon is here!"
With one long howl of terror and anguish, His Celestial Majesty Wah-Song rolled off the bed and under it, in one single motion, and lay there flat on his face, with his hands clasped over his head. Quaking in every limb, his teeth chattering, and a cold sweat pouring from him, he listened as the awful voice spoke again.
"Wah-Song!" said the Golden Dragon, "thou hast summoned me, and I am here!"
The wretched Emperor moaned.
"I—I—I sum-summon thee, most Golden and Holy Dragon?" he stammered faintly. "May I be b-b-bastinadoed if I did!"