10
years, and would be wakened by a king's son, for whom she was reserved.
The young prince was all on fire at these words, believeing, without considering the matter, that he could put an end to this rare adventure, and, pushed on by love and honour, resolved that moment to look into it.
Scarce had he advanced towards the wood, when all the great trees, the bushes, and brambles, gave way of their own accord, and let him pass through. He went up to the castle, which he saw at the end of a large avenue, which he went into; and what not a little surprised him was, he saw none of his people could follow him, because the trees closed again as soon as he passed through them.
However, he did not cease from valiantly continuing his way. He came into a spacious outward court, where every thing he saw might have frozen up the most hardy person with horror.—There reigned all over a most frightful silence, the image of death every where shewed itself, and there was nothing to be seen but stretched-out bodies of men and animals, all seeming to be dead.
He, however, very well knew, by the rosy faces and the pimpled noses of the beef-eaters, that they were only asleep; and their goblets,
