Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault, and Other Popular Writers
General
Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault, and Other Popular Writers
Fairy tales
Fairer than a Fairy would have desired far more ample instructions;
but seeing there was no remedy, she placed the wand before her, which
showed her the way. She followed it nearly two hours, very much vexed
at doing nothing else. It stopped at last, and there, truly enough, she
perceived a large heap of dried leaves, to which she did not fail to
set fire. The light was soon so great that she could see a very high
mountain, in which she observed an opening half hid by brambles. She
separated them with her wand, and entered a dark hole; but soon after
she found herself in a vast saloon, of admirable architecture, and
lighted with numberless lamps. But what struck her with the greatest
astonishment was the sight of the skins of several wild and terrible
beasts, hung on golden hooks, which at first she mistook for the
beasts themselves. She turned away her eyes with horror, and they
were arrested in the centre of the saloon by the sight of a beautiful
palm-tree, upon one of the branches of which was suspended the skin
of the Hind with the silver feet. Fairer than a Fairy was enchanted
at seeing it, and taking it down with the aid of her wand, she
carried it quickly to the fire which she had lighted at the entrance
of the cavern. It was consumed in a moment, and re-entering joyfully
the saloon, she penetrated into several magnificent apartments. She
stopped in one, where she saw several small couches placed upon Persian
carpets, and one more beautiful than the rest under a canopy of
cloth-of-gold. But she had not much time to contemplate arrangements
which appeared to her singular, for she heard hearty peals of laughter
and several persons in loud conversation. Fairer than a Fairy turned
her steps in the direction from which the sounds proceeded, and entered
a wonderful place, where she found fifteen young ladies of celestial
beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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