peaceful citizens, resumed the insignia of their dignities, their mild and inoffensive demeanour, and all the airs of honest people incapable of committing the smallest peccadillo.
Ailla was living happily in this way, and all her people with her, when, one fine night, she took it upon herself to dream of a blue cat with topaz-coloured eyes, having upon its neck a collar of diamonds, the most sparkling in the world. Could a poor princess, who has nothing to desire, dream of anything else? So there would have been no great harm done, but for the intervention of an enchanter one hundred and twelve years old, who, twice before, had explained to the Princess dreams which had troubled her sleep.
This magician lived not far from the royal palace, in an old ruined tower haunted by spirits, a place thoroughly fitted, if there ever was one, for carrying on of mysterious operations.
Ailla went there, the very morning after she had had that dream, attended by one slave only; for neither for evil spirits nor women would the magician put himself in the least out of the way. At the first sound of approaching footsteps, the owls, the daws, and the ravens, who inhabited the sinister old tower, took wing with a frightful clatter, and from under the shuddering grass vipers and serpents glided, hissing now softly, now angrily.
At the entrance to a large room, draped with enormous spiders' webs, a great toad croaked three times. Though the sun had been for some time risen, a dim light, like that of the moon, alone entered this awe-inspiring dwelling, which was almost filled with darkness.
The Magician
In the obscurest corner of the room sat the magician, or, rather, he lay half buried in an immense wheeled arm-chair, in which he ceaselessly, and with prodigious activity, moved about. He was, besides, so well wrapped up in a red and black robe garnished with bells, and his hat, three feet high, and tipped with the eye of a lynx, was pressed down so tightly on his head, that it was with difficulty that his face, angular and polished as ivory, could be distinguished. Not content with being legless, he was one-eyed, his unique eye, deep-set, glittering like a firefly in a glass case. His beard, white and abundant, descended to the ground, forming on his black robe a snowy cascade.
On every side lay, heaped in strange disorder, objects of odd form: living animals motionless, others, that were stuffed, writhing; on overthrown trunks were seen open books, written in undecipherable characters; in another place, a vessel filled with bloodstained water, in which floated, like streaming weeds in a dark pool, great locks of human hair decked with tinsel spangles; and when a gust of wind passed through the wide openings from without, the rattling of skeletons hanging from the roof was heard.
On perceiving Ailla, the magician made her a sort of bow; but scarcely had she told him, in trembling tones, what had brought her to his abode, than he uttered a frightful imprecation. After which, having made with his chair three rapid circles about the Princess, he stopped short, and, in a piercing voice, announced to her that, if she wished to avoid terrible misfortunes, she must instantly have search made
