第13章

'if your eyes are you, ma'am, then I know you,' said Curdie.'But I never saw your face before.'

'Yes, you have seen it, Curdie,' said the voice.And with that the darkness of its complexion melted away, and down from the face dawned out the form that belonged to it, until at last Curdie and his father beheld a lady, beautiful exceedingly, dressed in something pale green, like velvet, over which her hair fell in cataracts of a rich golden colour.it looked as if it were pouring down from her head, and, like the water of the Dustbrook, vanishing in a golden vapour ere it reached the floor.It came flowing from under the edge of a coronet of gold, set with alternated pearls and emeralds.In front of the crown was a great emerald, which looked somehow as if out of it had come the light they had followed.

There was no ornament else about her, except on her slippers, which were one mass of gleaming emeralds, of various shades of green, all mingling lovelily like the waving of grass in the wind and sun.

She looked about five-and-twenty years old.And for all the difference, Curdie knew somehow or other, he could not have told how, that the face before him was that of the old princess, Irene's great-great-grandmother.

By this time all around them had grown light, and now first they could see where they were.They stood in a great splendid cavern, which Curdie recognized as that in which the goblins held their state assemblies.But, strange to tell, the light by which they saw came streaming, sparkling, and shooting from stones of many colours in the sides and roof and floor of the cavern - stones of all the colours of the rainbow, and many more.It was a glorious sight - the whole rugged place flashing with colours - in one spot a great light of deep carbuncular red, in another of sapphirine blue, in another of topaz yellow; while here and there were groups of stones of all hues and sizes, and again nebulous spaces of thousands of tiniest spots of brilliancy of every conceivable shade.Sometimes the colours ran together, and made a little river or lake of lambent, interfusing, and changing tints, which, by their variegation, seemed to imitate the flowing of water, or waves made by the wind.

Curdie would have gazed entranced, but that all the beauty of the cavern, yes, of all he knew of the whole creation, seemed gathered in one centre of harmony and loveliness in the person of theancient lady who stood before him in the very summer of beauty and strength.Turning from the first glance at the circuadjacent splendour, it dwindled into nothing as he looked again at the lady.

Nothing flashed or glowed or shone about her, and yet it was with a prevision of the truth that he said,'I was here once before, ma'am.'

'I know that, Curdie,' she replied.

'The place was full of torches, and the walls gleamed, but nothing as they do now, and there is no light in the place.'

'You want to know where the light comes from?' she said, smiling.

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Then see: I will go out of the cavern.Do not be afraid, but watch.'

She went slowly out.The moment she turned her back to go, the light began to pale and fade; the moment she was out of their sight the place was black as night, save that now the smoky yellow-red of their lamps, which they thought had gone out long ago, cast a dusky glimmer around them.