I but retained so much power over myself as I ought to have had, I should have been this day the happiest of all mankind, whereas now I am the most unfortunate.  They were to return the next day, and the pleasure of seeing them again ought to have restrained my curiosity; but, through my weakness, which I shall ever repent, I yielded to the temptations of the evil spirit, who gave me no rest till I had thrown myself into those misfortunes that I have since undergone.  I opened that fatal door, which I promised not to meddle with, and had not moved my foot to go in, when a smell that was pleasant enough, but contrary to my constitution, made me faint away:  Nevertheless, I came to myself again, and instead of taking this warning to shut the door, and forbear satisfying my curiosity, I went in, after I had stood some time in the air to carry off the scent, which did not incommode me any more.  I found a large place, very well vaulted, the pavement strewed over with saffron; several candlesticks of massy gold, with lighted tapers that smelled of aloes and ambergris, lighted the place; and this light was augmented by lamps of gold and silver, that burned with oil made of several sorts of sweet-scented materials.

Among a great many objects that engaged my attention, I perceived a black horse, of the handsomest and best shape that ever was seen.  I went nearer the better to observe him, and found he had a saddle and a bridle of massy gold, curiously wrought.  The one side of his trough was filled with clean barley and sessems, and the other with rose water; I took him by the bridle, and led him forth to view him by the light; I got on his back, and would have had him move; but he not stirring, I whipped him with a switch I had taken up in his magnificent stable; and he had no sooner felt the stroke, than he began to neigh with a horrible noise, and extending his wings, which I had not seen before, he flew up with me into the air quite out of sight.  I thought on nothing then but to sit fast; and, considering the fear that had seized upon me, I sat very well.  He afterwards flew down again towards the earth, and lighting upon the terrace of a castle, without giving me any time to get off, he shook me out of the saddle with such force, that he made me fall behind him, and with the end of his tail struck out my right eye.  Thus I became blind of one eye, and then I began to remember the predictions of the ten young gentlemen.  The horse flew again out of sight.  I got up very much troubled 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 came down and entered into the hall, which I knew presently by the ten sofas in a circle, and the eleventh in the middle, lower than the rest, to be the same castle from whence I was taken by the roc.  The ten half-blind gentlemen were not in the hall when I came in, but came soon after with the old man; they were not at all surprised