Curiosities and wonders > Sleeping beauty of the wood

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years, and would be wakened by a king’s son, for
•. bom she was reserved.
The young prince was all on fire at these
words, believeing, without considering the mat¬
ter, that he could put an end to this rare adven¬
ture, and, pushed on by love and honour, resolv-
ed that moment to look into it.
Scarce had he advanced towards the wood,
when all the great trees, the bushes, and bram¬
bles, gave way of their own accord, and let him
pass through. He went up to the castle, which
he saw at the end of a large avenue, which he
went into; and what not a little surprised him
was, he saw none of his people could follow him,
because the trees closed again as soon as he passed
through them.
However, he did not cease from valiantly con¬
tinuing his way. He came into a spacious out¬
ward court, where every thing he saw might have
frozen up the most hardy person with horror
There reigned all over a most frightful silence,
the image of death every where shewed itself,
and there was nothing to be seen but stretched-
out bodies of men and animals, all seeming to
be dead.
He, however, very well knew, by the rosy faces
and the pimpled noses of the beef-eaters, that
they were only asleep ; and their goblets, where-