s indifferent, if not glad, when my duty was at
an end; but I feel otherwise now"--and she again sighed.

"If it depended upon me, fair princess, and upon my wishes, I am afraid
that you would consider the duration of it to be most tedious. Never
have I beheld any creature so perfect and so beautiful! O that your task
might be continued for the term of my existence!"

"It probably may," answered she, gravely, and then, as if recollecting
herself, she assumed a more cheerful air, and continued: "but we are
losing time, which should be otherwise employed. Come, sir, permit me to
obey my father's commands, and try to beguile the hours by contributing
to your amusement."

Offering me her hand, which I respectfully raised to my lips, she then
conducted me over the palace, directing my attention to every object
that she considered worthy of notice; and we had passed two or three
hours in conversation, and remarks upon the objects before us, when I
expressed my wish to behold the curious fountain from which the island
took its name.

"I shall obey you," replied she: and again her face assumed a mournful
cast. She led the way to a hall of black marble, in the centre of which
the fountain threw up its water to the height of twelve or fourteen
feet, and fell into a spacious basin. The water of it, when in a body,
shone with all the colours of the rainbow, and the sparkling drops which
were thrown out on every side, were brilliant as the purest gold.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed I, after some minutes of silent admiration.
"These, then, are the waters of longevity."

"And also of intoxication," replied the princess. "They will be produced
at the banquet of the king, and, O sir! be temperate, very temperate, in
the use of them."

I promised that I would, and we continued our walk to the porticos of
the palace, where I pointed to the statues of blue chalcedony, and
begged her to inform me by whom they had been executed, and why they
were all in such grotesque and absurd positions.

"That is a question which I cannot answer, further than that they were
made in the island. We must now return, as the king's banquet will be
ready."

We sat down at the table of the king, that is to say, I and my
companions; for no courtiers, male or female, were permitted to have the
same honour. Each lady stood behind the person who had been intrusted to
her charge, and waited upon him. My gallantry, as a Frenchman, was
sorely wounded at the id