others danced before me, two and two, with admirable grace. In short, honored madam, I must tell you that I passed a whole year of happy life with these forty damsels. At the end of that time, I was greatly surprised to see these damsels show sorrow and to hear them say, “Adieu, dear prince, adieu! for we must leave you. We are princesses, daughters of kings. We live here together in the manner you have seen; but at the end of every year we are obliged to be absent forty days, for reasons we are not permitted to reveal; afterward we return again to this palace. Before we depart we will leave you the keys of everything, especially those of the hundred doors, where you will find enough to satisfy your curiosity, and to relieve your solitude during our absence. But we entreat you to forbear opening the golden door; for if you do, we shall never see you again; and this is the cause of our grief.” We separated and I remained alone in the castle.
I determined not to forget the advice they had given me not to open the golden door; but as I was permitted to satisfy my curiosity in everything else, I took the first of the keys of the other doors, which were hung in regular order.
I opened the first door, and entered an orchard, which I believe the universe could not equal. The admirable order of the trees, the abundance and diversity of unknown fruits, their freshness and beauty, delighted me. Small channels carried water to the roots of the trees whose fruit far exceeded in
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