I had been a wood-cutter for more than a year, when one day I wandered
further into the forest than I had ever done before, and reached a
delicious green glade, where I began to cut wood. I was hacking at the
root of a tree, when I beheld an iron ring fastened to a trapdoor of
the same metal. I soon cleared away the earth, and pulling up the
door, found a staircase, which I hastily made up my mind to go down,
carrying my hatchet with me by way of protection. When I reached the
bottom I discovered that I was in a huge palace, as brilliantly lighted
as any palace above ground that I had ever seen, with a long gallery
supported by pillars of jasper, ornamented with capitals of gold. Down
this gallery a lady came to meet me, of such beauty that I forgot
everything else, and thought only of her.
To save her all the trouble possible, I hastened towards her, and bowed
low.
"Who are you? Who are you?" she said. "A man or a genius?"
"A man, madam," I replied; "I have nothing to do with genii."
"By what accident do you come here?" she asked again with a sigh. "I
have been in this place now for five and twenty years, and you are the
first man who has visited me."
Emboldened by her beauty and gentleness, I ventured to reply, "Before,
madam, I answer your question, allow me to say how grateful I am for
this meeting, which is not only a consolation to me in my own heavy
sorrow, but may perhaps enable me to render your lot happier," and then
I told her who I was, and how I had come there.