Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/290

 lessly, singing a song with tears in her eyes, deploring her unhappy fate, which deprived her, perhaps for ever, of the prince she loved so tenderly.

The prince was so much affected at the melancholy condition in which he found his dear princess, that he at once comprehended that her illness was feigned. When he came away he told the sultan that he had discovered the nature of the princess's illness, and that she was not incurable, but added that he must speak to her in private, and by himself; and, notwithstanding her violent fits at the sight of physicians, he hoped she would hear and receive him favourably.

The sultan ordered the princess's door to be opened, and Prince Firouz Schah went in. As soon as the princess saw him (taking him by his appearance to be a physician), she rose up in a rage, threatening and giving way to the most abusive language. He made directly towards her, and when he was near enough for her to hear him, for he did not wish to be heard by anyone else, he said to her, in a low voice, and in a most respectful manner, to make her believe him, 'Princess, I am not a physician, but the Prince of Persia, and am come to set you at liberty.'

The princess, who immediately knew the sound of the voice, and the upper features of his face, notwithstanding his beard, grew calm at once, and a secret joy and pleasure overspread her face. Her agreeable surprise deprived her for some time of speech, and gave Prince Firouz Schah time to tell her as briefly as possible how despair seized him when he saw the Indian carry her away; the resolution he took afterwards to leave nothing undone to find out where she was, and never to return home till he had found her, and forced her out of the hands of the perfidious wretch; and by what good fortune at last, after a long and fatiguing journey, he had the satisfaction of finding her in the palace of the Sultan of Cashmire. He then desired the princess to inform him of all that happened to her from the time she was taken away till that moment, telling her that it was of the greatest importance to know this, that he might take the proper measures to deliver her from the tyranny of the Sultan of Cashmire.

The Princess of Bengal told the prince how she was delivered