added at the annual visit which the Emperor paid his children, when
the iron gate was opened to the sound of music, and during eight
days every one that resided in the valley was required to propose
whatever might contribute to make seclusion pleasant, to fill up
the vacancies of attention, and lessen the tediousness of time.
Every desire was immediately granted. All the artificers of
pleasure were called to gladden the festivity; the musicians
exerted the power of harmony, and the dancers showed their activity
before the princes, in hopes that they should pass their lives in
blissful captivity, to which those only were admitted whose
performance was thought able to add novelty to luxury. Such was
the appearance of security and delight which this retirement
afforded, that they to whom it was new always desired that it might
be perpetual; and as those on whom the iron gate had once closed
were never suffered to return, the effect of longer experience
could not be known. Thus every year produced new scenes of
delight, and new competitors for imprisonment.

The palace stood on an eminence, raised about thirty paces above
the surface of the lake. It was divided into many squares or
courts, built with greater or less magnificence according to the
rank of those for whom they were designed. The roofs were turned
into arches of massive stone, joined by a cement that grew harder
by time, and the building stood from century to century, deriding
the solstitial rains and equinoctial hurricanes, without need of
reparation.

This house, which was so large as to be fully known to none but
some ancient officers, who successively inherited the secrets of
the place, was built as if Suspicion herself had dictated the plan.