Then said Sir Agloval, his father: "I will tell ye out and out how the
thing stands with me, and tell ye all my counsel. Believe me well, I
will not lie to ye in one word." And Morien hearkened and answered that
he believed him fully.

Thus they abode that day with the hermit, and were better served, in all
that men might prepare for them, than I may well tell ye; and Morien
prayed his father straitly that he would delay not, but would tell him
what was in his thought and in his intent. Thus did he urge his father,
till Sir Agloval told him all his mind.

He said that he beheld a vision in a dream; it seemed to him that he
rode throughout the day in a land where he saw naught but wilderness and
wood, and trees, many and fair. By whiles he rode through hail and snow,
by whiles through noontide heat, so that he was sore vexed. Whiles he
saw the sun shine bright, whiles it was as if the twilight fell. He saw
all kinds of beasts run through the forest, and folk, young and old, go
up and down the woods. All this did he see in his dream, but nowhere in
all this land did he come to where he might find shelter. But as it drew
towards evening, and the light failed, did he think to see a tower, so
strongly builded that none by force might lightly win their way within;
but no doorway might he see, only, as it were, another tower that stood
there. Within this he beheld a stairway, that wound upward to a doorway
at the end. The door seemed to him high as a church, and of wrought
ironwork. Were a man sick he might well be healed by the light that
streamed forth from within, for, as he saw and looked upon it, it seemed
as it might well be Heaven. And every step of the stairway was of good
red gold. And he thought within himself that since those steps were so
fair he might well set foot thereon, and tell the tale of them, how many
they might be, that hereafter he might speak of the great marvel he had