Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/111

 be forced to pass the rest of his life with his fairy, excluded from any connection with this world; and then your majesty will have nothing to fear, and cannot be reproached with so detestable an action as the shedding of a son's blood, or confining him in a prison for life.'

When the magician had finished her speech, the sultan asked his favourites if they had anything better to propose; and finding them all silent, determined to follow the magician's advice, as the most reasonable, and the most suited to his mild manner of government.

The next day, when the prince came into his father's presence and had sat down by him, after a conversation on different subjects, the sultan said, 'Son, when you came and dispelled those clouds of melancholy which your long absence had brought upon me, you made the place you had chosen for your retreat a mystery to me. I was satisfied with seeing you again, and knowing that you were content with your condition, without wishing to penetrate into your secret, which I found you did not care I should. I know not what reason you had thus to treat a father. I know your good fortune; I rejoice with you, and very much approve of your conduct in marrying a fairy so worthy of your love, and so rich and powerful, as I am informed. Powerful as I am, it was not possible for me to have procured so great a match for you. Now that you are raised to so high a rank as to be envied by everybody but a father like me, I not only desire you to preserve the good understanding we have lived in hitherto, but to use all your credit with your fairy to obtain for me her assistance when I want it. I therefore will make a trial this day.

'I am persuaded you could easily procure from her a pavilion that might be carried in a man's hand, yet which would extend over my whole army; especially when you let her know it is for me. Though it may be a difficult thing, she will not refuse you. All the world knows that fairies are capable of doing the most extraordinary things.'

Prince Ahmed never expected that the sultan his father would have asked a thing which, at first sight, appeared to him so difficult, not to say impossible. Though he knew not absolutely how great