Sometimes she asked the bird whether Amazan
had had any other mistresses. It answered, "No,"
and she was at the summit of felicity. Sometimes
she asked how he passed his life ; and she, with transport, learned that it was employed in doing good, in
cultivating arts, in penetrating into the secrets of
nature and improving himself. She at times wanted
to know if the soul of her lover was of the same
nature as that of her bird; how it happened that it
had lived twenty thousand years, when her lover was
not above eighteen or nineteen. She put a hundred
such questions, to which the bird replied with such
discretion as excited her curiosity. At length sleep
closed their eyes, and yielded up Formosanta to the
sweet delusion of dreams sent by the gods, which
sometimes surpass reality itself, and which all the
philosophy of the Chaldseans can scarce explain.
Formosanta did not awaken till very late. The day was far advanced when the king, her father, entered her chamber. The bird received his majesty with respectful politeness, went before him, fluttered his wings, stretched his neck, and then replaced himself upon his orange tree. The king seated himself upon his daughter's bed, whose dreams had made her still more beautiful. His large beard approached her lovely face, and after having embraced her, he spoke to her in these words:
"My dear daughter, you could not yesterday find a husband agreeable to my wishes; you nevertheless must marry; the prosperity of my empire requires
