...and it seemed to me that I awoke, though still I slept, and I awoke to a great tumult and din, and I saw DEATH, who bore a scythe, and went mowing men, and they did flee from him, but escaped not. And I was sore perplexed how I might avoid that fate. And I spied a light afar that shone down from the sky, and at the place whereon it shone there was erected a Sign, like unto a great letter O bisected, and a Voice spake unto me, saying, "Here is the means whereby one may escape the fate that I have shown you, yet few are they who attain it." And the light was extinguished, and the Sign was not to be seen, and I was so plunged into despair that at once I swooned and lay as if dead. And while lying thus, I received a further vision...
...that I was blind, and had to feel my way around a network of tunnels full of wizards and strange beasts. I longed to be able to see them, as I was bewildered by the texture of their scaly, slimy, sticky skin. The beasts' skin was almost as bad. As I passed through a junction between two particularly rough-walled tunnels, I heard a voice behind me, chanting in a language I did not understand. He must have been performing powerful magic, because my energy was drained and I fell against the jagged wall. Despite its uncomfortable nature, I fell into a deep sleep in which...
...I dreanmt that I was a mounted soldier, riding around outside Buckingham Palace. I was concerned with repelling errant pigeons who were flying all over the place, mainly by waving my arms and the sword I was carrying. A senior officer came and congratulated me and said I would be rewarded by having tea with the Queen. Entering the hall of the Palace, I was greeted by a tall butler, who showed me through to a huge room containing merely one small table for two, on one side of which sat Queen Victoria. As I sat she began to talk. Resting my elbows on the table, her words on current politics washing over me, I drifted off... I dreamt...
...I was Prince Albert on my wedding night. Queen Victoria was stood in front of me, clad in only... but I couldn't bear to approach her! The smell! Oh, dear Lord, the rancid, vile stench! I reeled backwards in a swoon. "My dear Albert," she cried, "what is the matter?" But as she walked towards me, I fell backwards again, and again, until I had collapsed on the floor. I tried to stand up, but the smell... the horrific reeking stink, such an odour I have never experienced and hope never to experience again. It permeated my every sense, and my mind, and I lost consciousness, only to dream...