shot an arrow into it, in presence of all the company. Instantly the castle divided into two parts, and, with the knight, his wife, and all who were in it, was precipitated to the lowest depth of the infernal regions. The story adds, that on the spot where the castle stood, there is now a spacious lake, on which no substance whatever floats, but is immediately plunged to the botton[1]."
CHAPTER LXXIX.
"The dog and the lamp, in this story, are introduced in chap. i. of the other Gesta, but the tales have nothing else in common[2]."—Douce. But the pure virgin is in Tale XXXV. Vol. II., and the thorn extracted from the lion's foot, in Tale XXIV. Vol. II. The protection afforded by the animal resembles that in Tale XXIX. Vol. II.—The youth's subterranean residence seems copied from the story of the third calendar in the Arabian Nights.
