Page 90 - Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cherie

arrived in a country where he began to suffer
very much from the heat; but it was not that
the sun was more powerful, and he did not
know to what cause to attribute it, when from
the top of a mountain he perceived the
luminous forest; all the trees were burning
without being consumed, and casting out
flames to such a distance, that the country

around was a dry desert. In this forest was to
be heard the hissing of serpents, and the
roaring of lions, which astonished the Prince
excessively, for it appeared to him impossible
that any animal but a salamander could live in
this sort of furnace.
After contemplating for some time this

terrible scene, he descended, ruminating on
what was to be done, and more than once gave
himself up for lost. As he approached this
great fire he was ready to die with thirst; he
perceived a spring issuing from a mountain,
and falling into a marble basin; he alighted
from his horse, approached it, and stooped to
take up some water in a little golden vase
which he had brought with him, intending to

fill it with some of that which the Princess
wished for, when he perceived a turtle-dove
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