artificial I cannot say. What matter is it, so long as they
appeared to the eye like diamond, and nothing could be more gay
and splendid.

On the threshold, and between the columns, was seen a bevy of
charming young women, who played and frolicked together. They all
ran to receive Rogero, and conducted him into the palace, which
appeared like a paradise.

We might well call by that name this abode, where the hours flew
by, without account, in ever-new delights. The bare idea of
satiety, want, and, above all, of age, never entered the minds of
the inhabitants. They experienced no sensations except those of
luxury and gayety; the cup of happiness seemed for them ever-
flowing and exhaustless. The two young damsels to whom Rogero owed
his deliverance from the hobgoblins conducted him to the apartment
of their mistress. The beautiful Alcina advanced, and greeted him
with an air at once dignified and courteous. All her court
surrounded the paladin, and rendered him the most flattering
attentions. The castle was less admirable for its magnificence
than for the charms of those who inhabited it. They were of either
sex, well matched in beauty, youth, and grace; but among this
charming group the brilliant Alcina shone, as the sun outshines
the stars. The young warrior was fascinated. All that he had heard
from the myrtle-tree appeared to him but a vile calumny. How could
he suspect that falsehood and treason veiled themselves under
smiles and the ingenuous air of truth? He doubted not that
Astolpho had deserved his fate, and perhaps a punishment more
severe; he regarded all his stories as dictated by a disappointed
spirit, and a thirst for revenge. But we must not condemn Rogero