"You see the advantage of lightness, my dear," cried she. "I pass easily over the top of this sand, while you—O, how you do wallow! Ha, ha, ha! I never saw anything like it."
With such remarks, she beguiled his way, until relenting, she at last waved her staff again above her head, and the Prince found himself by her side, on solid ground.
She complimented him on his remarkable agility and strength, but he made her no answer, and, wiping his face with his handkerchief, walked on without a word. At length they reached the end of the avenue, and, passing through a circular aperture with which it terminated, the Prince found himself in the cavity of an immense hollow mountain, the floor of which was a great plain, and into which the light of day was admitted through an opening in the top, more than two miles above him.
Scattered about over the blackish sward were many groups of ghouls and variously colored demons, some playing pitch-penny with ancient coins, and others lying asleep on the ground. At a distance, grazing on the exuberant and oily foliage, were herds of the prong-horned Yabouks,—those sanguinary monsters which impale their victims on the great horn upon their noses, holding back their heads and opening their mouths to let the blood slowly trickle down their throats.
Many other dreadful cattle were scattered about the plain, drinking at the greenish streams which meandered about in various directions, or standing ruminating, knee-deep in the oily water. But these things claimed not the attention of the Prince.
In the centre of this great plain stood a tower.
"Behold!" cried Mahbracca, springing in front of him, and waving her arms—"behold the dwelling of your Princess! Come! let us run, let us bound!"
Seizing him by the hand with a strength that was not to be resisted, she led him, at great speed, to the foot of the tower. Then at the top of her voice she called out,—
"Princess! appear at your window quickly! Your love has come from afar unto you. Show yourself to him!"
At these words, the Princess put her head out of the highest window, and when the Prince saw her lovely face, he fell down on his knees, trembling with happiness, and protesting in broken sentences his love for her; while she, bending out over the window-sill, wept silently tears of joy, which came down pitter, patter, on the Prince's head.