ranite, rising in countless vistas, till lost
in the distant shade. Jewels were scattered round, and brightly played
the fairy torches on the gem, the fountain, and the pale silver, that
gleamed at frequent intervals from the rocks. "Here let us rest," said
the gallant fairy, clapping his hands; "what, ho! music and the feast."

So the feast was spread by the fountain's side; and the courtiers
scattered rose-leaves, which they had brought with them, for the prince
and his visitor; and amidst the dark kingdom of the dwarfs broke
the delicate sound of fairy lutes. "We have not these evil beings in
England," said the queen, as low as she could speak; "they rouse my
fear, but my interest also. Tell me, dear prince, of what nature was the
intercourse of the evil dwarf with man?"

"You know," answered the prince, "that to every species of living thing
there is something in common; the vast chain of sympathy runs through
all creation. By that which they have in common with the beast of the
field or the bird of the air, men govern the inferior tribes; they
appeal to the common passions of fear and emulation when they tame the
wild steed, to the common desire of greed and gain when they snare
the fishes of the stream, or allure the wolves to the pitfall by the
bleating of the lamb. In their turn, in the older ages of the world, it
was by the passions which men had in common with the demon race that the
fiends commanded or allured them. The dwarf whom you saw, being of that
race which is characterized by the ambition of power and the desire
of hoarding, appealed then in his intercourse with men to the same
characteristics in their own bosoms,--to ambition or to avarice. And
thus were his victims made! But, not now, dearest Nymphalin," continued
the prince, with a more lively air,--"not now will we speak of those
gloomy beings. Ho, there! cease the music, and come hither all of ye,
to listen to a faithful and homely history of the Dog, the Cat, the
Griffin, and the Fox."

CHAPTER XII. THE WOOING OF MASTER FOX.*

* In the excursions of the fairies, it is the object of the author
to bring before the reader a rapid phantasmagoria of the various
beings that belong to the German superstitions, so that the work
may thus describe the outer and the inner world of the land of
the Rhine. The tale of the Fox's Wooing has been composed to
give the English reader an idea of a species of novel not
naturalized