Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/300

274 about sixteen. So beautiful a creature as this young daughter of Prospero had rarely been seen. Bred among the enchantments of this island, her own rich loveliness was nourished by wonders, till she seemed more like a spirit than a mortal. Her father, too, had taught her much strange and curious learning, so that she was wise in things foreign to her sex and years. She had seen no faces which resembled the human, except those of her father, and his servants Ariel and Caliban. Unaware of her rank as princess, or of the loss of worldly power which her father had suffered in her infancy, she was quite happy in his little kingdom, and regarded him as the most potent of earthly princes.

While things were in this condition on the island, a large fleet appeared with spread sails, which looked in the far distance like a flock of tiny white birds spreading their wings against the blue sky. This fleet belonged to Alonzo, King of Naples, who had just married his only daughter to an African prince, and having escorted her to the abode of her husband in Tunis, was now returning home after the marriage festivities. The duchy of Milan was tributary or subject to the kingdom of Naples, and all the principal lords of that kingdom were on board the fleet, Antonio, Prospero’s bad brother, among the rest, King Alonzo had also with him his son