Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/107

herself by no means so badly off. When Master Gnome, by that shameful trick of his, had got her away from her screaming attendants, he bore her insensible form swiftly along the recesses of his subterrene domain, and then up to a magnificent palace he had just prepared for her reception, in comparison with which her father’s castle was a barn. When she recovered consciousness, she was reclining on a delightful sofa, attired in the most perfect style of art of that period, in a rich pink satin robe, encircled and compressed by a zone of Heaven’s own blue, that seemed the very cestus of Venus. At her feet knelt a young man, splendidly dressed, of a fine form and most prepossessing countenance, who, in language breathing love’s own eloquence, was offering up his vows of eternal devotion, vows which the fair one received in modest silence, and with downcast looks. The enamoured spirit then, having, however, first explained who he was, what his illustrious origin, and how great the extent of his subterrene monarchy, conducted his mistress through the principal apartments of the palace, each of which seemed still more magnificent than the one preceding it, and then into the noble garden which surrounded the mansion, and which, laid out as it was with exquisite taste, and abounding with magnificent flowers and plants, unknown to the outer world, delighted the Princess more than anything she had seen. At one extremity of the