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 a hall, which I knew immediately by the ten sofas in a circle, and the eleventh in the middle, lower than the rest, to be in the same castle from whence I had been taken away 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 to see me again, nor at the loss of my eye; but said, 'We are sorry that we cannot congratulate you upon your return, as we could have desired: but we are not the cause of your misfortune.' 'I should be in the wrong to accuse you,' said I; 'for I have brought it upon myself, and I can charge the fault upon no other person.' 'If it is any consolation to the unfortunate,' said they, 'to have companions, this example may afford us a subject of rejoicing. All that has happened to you, we have also undergone; we tasted all sorts of pleasure, during a whole year; and we should have continued to enjoy the same happiness had we not opened the golden door when the princesses were absent. You have been no wiser than we were, and have likewise had the same punishment. We would gladly receive you among us, to perform such penance as we do, though we know not how long it may continue: but we have already declared the reasons that hinder us; therefore depart from hence and begone.'
They told me the way I was to travel, and I left them, and returned to my kingdom, where I became a hermit.
