Being wholly destitute
of all other weapons, he stooped down to take up a huge stone in his
hand, but, to his infinite surprise, grasped nothing, and found the
supposed stone to be only the apparition of one. If he was disappointed
on this side, he was as much pleased on the other, when he found the
lion, which had seized on his left shoulder, had no power to hurt him,
and was only the ghost of that ravenous creature which it appeared to be.
He no sooner got rid of his impotent enemy, but he marched up to the
wood, and, after having surveyed it for some time, endeavoured to press
into one part of it that was a little thinner than the rest, when, again
to his great surprise, he found the bushes made no resistance, but that
he walked through briars and brambles with the same ease as through the
open air, and, in short, that the whole wood was nothing else but a wood
of shades. He immediately concluded that this huge thicket of thorns and
brakes was designed as a kind of fence or quickset hedge to the ghosts it
inclosed, and that probably their soft substances might be torn by these
subtile points and prickles, which were too weak to make any impressions
in flesh and blood. With this thought he resolved to travel through this
intricate wood, when by degrees he felt a gale of perfumes breathing upon
him, that grew stronger and sweeter in proportion as he advanced. He had
not proceeded much further, when he observed the thorns and briers to
end, and give place to a thousand beautiful green trees, covered with
blossoms of the finest scents and colours, that formed a wilderness of
sweets, and were a kind of lining to those ragged scenes which he had
before passed through. As he was coming out of this delightful part of
the wood, and entering upon the plains it enclosed, he saw several
horsemen rushing by him, and a little while after heard the cry of a pack
of dogs. He had not listened long before he saw the apparition of a milk-
white steed, with a young man on the back of it, advancing upon full
stretch after the souls of about a hundred beagles, that were hunting
down the ghost of a hare, which ran away before them with an unspeakable
swiftness. As the man on the milk-white steed came by him, he looked
upon him very attentively, and found him to be the young prince
Nicharagua, who died about half a year before, and, by reason of his
great virtues, was at that time lamented over all the western parts of
America.

He h