Excerpt from Fairy Realm: A Collection of the Favourite Old Tales, Illustrated by the Pencil of Gustave Dore N that strange region, dim and grey, Which lies so very far away, Whose chronicles in 'prose or rhyme Are dated Once upon a time, There was a land where silence reigned So deep, - the ear it almost pained To hear the gnat's shrill clarion blow, Though he Sleep's herald is we know. Scarce would you deem that calm profound, Unbroken by the ghost of sound, Had, like a sudden curtain, dropt Upon a revel, instant stopt, That laugh and shout and merry rout And hunting song had all died out, Stricken to silence at a touch A single touch! It was not much! I'll tell you how it came about. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.