“‘I will grant you the privilege of one more wish.’
“‘You really will?’ said I.
“‘Yes; but, mind, my only reason for granting it,’ said he, ‘is that you appear to feel that I have taken an advantage of you.’
“‘Well, then,’ said I, ‘I wish you on the back of your fiery dragon; and, then, that the dragon carry you straight to Llynfan, and that you both be drowned in that lake, and never appear to disturb me more.’
“When I had finished my wish there was a terrible clap of thunder, which shook the earth beneath me to its very foundation, and it was followed by a vivid flash of lightning which lit up the whole mountain; and, looking across the valley, I then saw both the dragon and its rider disappear in that fathomless llyn. When I saw this I dropped down upon the cold ground, and then poured forth my heart’s thanksgivings to Him who had wrought me, through you, my dear pastor, so great, so glorious a victory.”
CADWGAN WYNN;
OR THE
LOST INHERITANCE REGAINED.
Fled are the fairy views of hill and dale;
Sublimely throned on the steep mountain brow.
Stern nature frowns: her desolating rage
Driving the whirlwind, or swoln flood, or blast
Of fiery air imprisoned, from their base
Has wildly hurled the uplifted rocks around
The gloomy pass, where Aberglaslyn’s arch
Yawns o’er the torrent. The disjointed crags
O’er the steep precipice in fragments vast
Impending, to the astonished mind recall
The fabled horrors by demoniac force
Of Lapland wizards wrought; who, borne upon
The whirlwind’s wing, what time the vexèd sea
Dashed ’gainst Norwegia’s cliffs, to solid mass
Turned the swoln billows, and the o’erhanging waves
Fixed e’er they fell.
CHAPTER I.
SHADE AND LIGHT—SORROW—BUT HOPE IN SORROW.
In the enchanting vale below Pont Aberglaslyn there stood, many many years ago, a small villa, which at the time of which we write was covered over with ivy. Surrounding this beautiful rural retreat were gardens and pleasure grounds, which were designed and laid out with great artistic taste and skill in the arrangement of walks, shrubs, rose-trees, flowers, and evergreens.