and diamonds. Showers so rare, as well as so useful, would no doubt have attracted very excellent company if the great Ram had been more inclined to mix with society in general; but all the chronicles in which he is mentioned concur in assuring us that he was as reserved as a Roman senator.
As it was in the finest time of the year that Merveilleuse had arrived in these beautiful regions, she saw no other palace than what was formed by long lines of orange-trees, jasmins, honeysuckles, and little musk-roses, whose interlaced branches formed cabinets, halls, and chambers, all hung with gold and silver gauze, and furnished with large mirrors, lustres, and admirable paintings.
The Master-Ram told the Princess to consider herself the sovereign of these regions; that for some years past he had had much cause for sorrow and tears; but that it only depended on her to make him forget all his misfortunes. "There is something so generous in your behaviour, charming Ram," said she to him, "and everything I see here appears to me so extraordinary, that I know not what to make of it."
She had scarcely uttered these words when there appeared before her a troop of nymphs of the most admirable beauty. They presented her with fruit in baskets of amber, but when she advanced towards them they insensibly receded; she extended her hands to touch them, but felt nothing, and ascertained that they were only phantoms. "Oh! what means this?" she exclaimed. "Who are these around me?" She began to weep, and King Ram, (for so they called him,) who had left her for a few minutes, returning and finding her in tears, was in such despair that he felt he should die at her feet.
"What is the matter, lovely Princess?" he inquired. "Has any one in these dominions been wanting in the respect due to you?" "No," answered she; "I do not complain of any one; I only confess to you that I am unaccustomed to live among the dead, and with sheep that talk. Everything here frightens me, and greatly obliged as I am to you for bringing me hither, I shall be more so if you will take me back into the world."
"Do not be alarmed," replied the Ram; "deign to listen to me calmly, and you shall hear my sad history.
"I was born to a throne. A long line of kings, my
