air: above
you, the pendant stalactites, huge and fantastical, reversed
pyramids and pinnacles: below you a sand of gold mingled with
marine vegetation; and around the margin of cave, where it is
bathed by the water, the coral shooting out its capricious and
glittering branches. That narrow entrance which, from the sea,
showed like a dark spot, now shone at one end a luminous point,
the solitary star which gave its subdued light to this fairy
palace; whilst at the opposite extremity a sort of alcove led
on the imagination to expect new wonders, or perhaps the
apparition of the nymph or goddess of the place.

"In all probability the azure grotto was unknown to the
ancients. No poet speaks of it; and surely with their
marvellous imagination the Greeks could not have failed to make
it the palace of some marine goddess, and to have transmitted
to us her history. The sea, perhaps, was higher than it is now,
and the secrets of this cave were known only to Amphitrite and
her court of sirens, naiads, and tritons.

"Even now at times the sea rises and closes the orifice, so
that those who have entered cannot escape. In which case they
must wait till the wind, which had suddenly shifted to the east
or west, returns to the north or south; and it has happened
that visitors who came to spend twenty minutes in the azure
grotto, have remained there two, three, and even four days. To
provide against such an emergency, the boatmen always bring
with them a certain quantity of biscuit to feed the prisoners,
and as the rock affords fresh water in several places, there is
no fear of thirst. It was not till we had been in the grotto
some time that our boatmen communicated this piece of
information; we were disposed to reproach them for this delay,
but they answered with the utmost simplicity, that if they told
this at first to travellers, half of them would decline coming,
and this would injure the boatmen.

"I confess that this little piece of information raised a
certain disquietude, and I found the azure grotto infinitely
less agreeable to the imagination.... We again laid ourselves
down at the bottom of our respective canoes, and issued forth
with the same precautions, and the same good fortune, with
which we had entered. But we were some minutes before we could
open our eyes; t