Thus it was I became blind of one eye. I then recollected the
predictions of the ten young gentlemen. The horse again took wing, and
soon disappeared. I got up, much vexed at the misfortune I had brought
upon myself. I walked upon the terrace, covering my eye with one of my
hands, for it pained me exceedingly, and then descended, and entered
into a hall. I soon discovered, by the ten sofas in a circle and the
eleventh in the middle, lower than the rest, that I was in the castle
whence I had been carried by the roc.
The ten young men seemed not at all surprised to see me, nor at the
loss of my eye; but said, "We are sorry that we cannot congratulate
you on your return, as we could wish; but we are not the cause of your
misfortune."
"I should do you wrong," I replied, "to lay it to your charge; I have
only myself to accuse."
"If," said they, "it be a subject of consolation to the afflicted to
know that others share their sufferings, you have in us this
alleviation of your misfortune. All that has happened to you we also
have endured; we each of us tasted the same pleasures during a year;
and we had still continued to enjoy them had we not opened the golden
door when the princesses were absent. You have been no wiser than we,
and have incurred the same punishment. We would gladly receive you
into our company, to join with us in the penance to which we are
bound, the duration of which we know not.
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