THE RISING OF THE TEMPLE - PART TWO!

The Old Man held the fair Lily fast and said to her: "We are now beneath the River; we shall soon be at the mark."

Ere long they thought the Temple made a halt; but they were in an error; it was mounting upwards.

And now a strange uproar rose above their heads. Planks and beams in disordered combination now came pressing and crashing in at the opening of the dome. Lily and the Woman started to a side; the Man with the Lamp laid hold of the Youth and kept standing still. The little cottage of the Ferryman, - for it was this which the Temple in ascending had severed from the ground and carried up with it, - sank gradually down and covered the old Man and the Youth.

The woman screamed aloud and the Temple shook, like a ship running unexpectedly aground. In sorrowful perplexity, the Princess and her old attendant wandered round the cottage in the dawn; the door was bolted and to their knocking no one answered. They knocked more loudly and were not a little struck, when at length the wood began to ring.

By virtue of the Lamp locked up in it, the hut had been converted from the inside to the outside into solid silver. Ere long too it's form changed; for the noble metal shook aside the accidental shape of planks, posts and beams and stretched itself out into a noble case of beaten ornamented workmanship.

Thus a fair little temple stood erected in the middle of the large one; or if you will, an Altar worthy of the Temple.

By a staircase which ascended from within, the noble Youth now mounted aloft, lighted by the old Man with the Lamp; and as it seemed, supported by another, who advanced in a white robe, with a silver rudder in his hand and was soon recognised as the Ferryman, the former possessor of the cottage.

The fair Lily mounted the others steps, which led from the floor of the Temple to the Altar; but she was still obliged to keep herself apart from her lover.

In this setting the old Man and the Kings will bestow attributes upon the Youth Prince. The nature of these and the necessity for the balanced combination of all three will be given in the next Post.