nt you that
we are all 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;
and 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 the apprehension of this augments our grief."

We separated with much tenderness; and after I had embraced them all
they departed, and I remained alone in the castle.

I determined not to forget the important 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. I could not imagine anything to surpass it.
The symmetry, the neatness, the admirable order of the trees, the
abundance and diversity of unknown fruits, their freshness and beauty,
delighted me. Nor must I neglect to inform you that this delightful
garden was watered in a most singular manner; small channels, cut out
with great art and regularity, and of different lengths, carried
water in considerable quantities to the roots of such trees as
required much moisture. Others conveyed it in smaller quantities to
those whose fruits were already formed; some carried still less; to
those whose fruits were swelling; and others carried only so much as
was just requisite to water those which had their fruits come to
perfection, and only wanted to be ripened. They far exceeded in size
the ordinary fruits in our gardens. I shut the door, and opened the
next.

Instead of an orchard, I found here a flower garden, which was no less
extraordinary in its kind. The roses, jessamines, violets, daffodils,
hyacinths, anemones, tulips, pinks, lilies, and an infinite number of
flowers, which do not grow in other places except at certain times,
were there flourishing all at once; and nothing could be more
delicious than the fragrant smell which they emitted.

I opened the third door, and found a large aviary, paved with marble
of several fine and uncommon colors. The trellis wo