Hitherto she had remained quite quiet with her mandolin; but, when her mistresses had ceased, they commanded her to perform some pleasant little piece.  Scarcely had she jingled off some dance-tune, in a most exciting manner, than she sprang up:  I did the same.  She played and danced; I was hurried on to accompany her steps; and we executed a kind of little ballet, with which the ladies seemed satisfied; for, as soon as we had done, they commanded the little girl to refresh me with something nice till supper should come in.  I had indeed forgotten that there was any thing in the world beyond this paradise.  Alerte led me back immediately into the passage by which I had entered.  On one side of it she had two well-arranged rooms.  In that in which she lived she set before me oranges, figs, peaches, and grapes; and I enjoyed with great gusto both the fruits of foreign lands and those of our own not yet in season.  Confectionery there was in profusion:  she filled, too, a goblet of polished crystal with foaming wine; but I had no need to drink, as I had refreshed myself with the fruits.  “Now we will play,” said she, and led me into the other room.  Here all looked like a Christmas fair, but such costly and exquisite things were never seen in a Christmas booth.  There were all kinds of dolls, dolls’ clothes, and dolls’ furniture; kitchens, parlors, and shops, and single toys innumerable.  She led me round to all the glass cases in which these ingenious works were preserved.

But she soon closed again the first cases, and said, “That is nothing for you, I know well enough.  Here,” she said, “we could find building-materials, walls and towers, houses, palaces, churches, to put together a great city.  But this does not entertain me.  We will take something else, which will be amusing to both of us.”  Then she brought out some boxes, in which I saw an army of little soldiers piled one upon the other, of which I must needs confess that I had never seen any thing so beautiful.  She did not leave me time to examine them in detail, but took one box under her arm, while I seized the other.  “We will go,” she said, “to the golden bridge.  There one plays best with soldiers:  the lances give at once the direction in which the armies are to be opposed to each other.”  We had now reached the golden, trembling floor; and below me I could hear the waters gurgle and the fishes splash, while I knelt down to range my columns.  All, as I now saw, were cavalry.  She boasted that she had the queen of the Amazons as leader of her female host.  I, on the contrary, found Achilles and a very stately Grecian cavalry.  The armies stood facing each other, and nothing could have been seen more beautiful.  They were not flat, leaden horsemen like ours; but man and horse were round and solid, and most finely wrought:  nor could one conceive how they kept their balance; for they stood of themselves, without a support for their feet.