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.
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