Speaking of dreams . . .

I never could get a handle on this vivid dream sequence which concludes the May 1852 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border. OK, I admit I can't help thinking of Melville's friendship with Hawthorne and that beautiful poem "Monody" when the narrator describes feeling "tortured by a dear friend, who seemed to know me not, or to be estranged."

And then to be estranged in life,
     And neither in the wrong . . .  --Melville's Monody

Beyond that, I'm mystified. Not that there has to be any Melville connection at all, necessarily. I would love to hear any interpretation or explication of the Captain's strange dream. Of course if you detect any verbal or thematic resonance with writings by Melville somewhere, I'd love to hear about that, too.

C. "As I gaze up from this deep vale—now so dark—on that planet so serenely bright, the little opening between rock and leaves, seems but the gateway to a path of ether, never so short and inviting! Methinks I see a pitying smile which reveals the hollow littleness of all our eager struggles."

There are times when the lethargic soul shrinks even from itself; is numb; nothing can excite it; we forget to hope! And with some such speech, or soliloquy, to which I heard no answer, I must have slumbered, and dreamed; but my acts and troubled thoughts were life-like, and of which the stars were certainly no portion: I would not repeat it, but I was tortured by a dear friend, who seemed to know me not, or to be estranged: and there was a spell—as in a nightmare—which always made me powerless to clear up the cause, or exact nature of the calamity. This heart-pain half aroused me; but I scarce knew where I was; there was a sense of something wrong; but my apathy, or a kind of ennui of sleep, was so profound, that I lay wondering whether or not, I still belonged to the world; and so, must have slept again; for then I surely dreamed: a night alarm led me to the door of an ancient castle [1857: A night alarm in an ancient castle led me to the gate]; and though all were then dumb with fear, I knew a flood was coming down far slopes that threatened with death; but beyond, I looked and saw, on a plain which was a lofty mountain top, a vast multitude; the earth's habitants, mingled, I thought, with celestial visitants; for their faces shone; they sat motionless on horses, and wore helmets and bright mail; but Terror was on the multitude, and a baleful and uncertain light shone from their midst. Then, there was a rush downward of strange animals, like elephants and horses; which, I thought, would trample down all that stood in their way: next, the mailed warriors charged, with lances set, upon flying men on foot, who were like no others I ever saw; of red countenances, and strange garments and mien; they too were armed, and resisted, but many were slain; and, as they drew near, the warriors fought too, with each other; and thus was supernatural war brought with awful reality, to the very door, which I struggled to maintain against them all. Suddenly I was in a hall with several of those who had fled on foot, and asked them in the Spanish tongue, who, and whence they were? and was astonished that they knew such language, when they answered, "from Egypt." 

Next, I was conscious of flickering gleams of light, which seemed reflected from cavernous arches, and of rumbling reverberated sounds. I was half awake with awe, which fancy again was softening, when a glare of light—a crash, as from the crags overhead, and a sudden fall of water, recalled me to life, and my aching limbs to motion; and I stood upon my feet in "Ash Hollow." 

--May 1852 Scenes Beyond the Western Border; and slightly revised in
Scenes and Adventures in the Army