THE STORY OF THE ENCHANTED HORSE. 151

 

withstanding her violent agitation at the sight of physicians, he hoped
she would hear and receive him favourably.

The sultan ordered the princess’s chamber door to be opened, and
Feroze-shah went in. As soon as the princess saw him (taking him by
his habit to be a physician), she resorted to her old practice of meeting
her physicians with threats and indications of attacking them. He
made directly towards her, and when he was nigh enough for her to
hear him, and no one else, said to her, in a low voice, ‘ Princess, I am
not a physician, but the Prince of Persia, and am come to procure you
your liberty.’

The princess, who knew the sound of the voice, and recognised his
face, notwithstanding he had let his beard grow so long, grew calm at
once, and felt a secret joy in seeing so unexpectedly the prince she
loved. Feroze-shah told her as briefly as possible his own travels and
adventures, and his determination to find her at all risks. He then
_ desired the princess to inform him of all that happened to her, from the
time she was taken away till that happy moment, telling her that it
was of the greatest importance to know this, that he might take the
most proper measures to deliver her from the tyranny of the Sultan
of Cashmere. The princess informed him of all that had happened,
and that she had feigned to be mad that she might so preserve
herself for a prince to whom she had given her heart and_faith,
and not marry the sultan, whom she neither loved nor could ever
love.

The Prince of Persia then asked her if she knew what became of the
horse, after the death of the Hindu magician. To which she answered
that she knew not what orders the sultan had given; but supposed,
after the account she had given him of it, he would take care of it as a
curiosity. As Feroze-shah never doubted but that the sultan had the
horse, he communicated to the princess his design of making use of it
to convey them both into Persia; and after they had consulted together
on the measures they should take, they agreed that the princess should
next day receive the sultan. The Sultan of Cashmere was overjoyed
when the Prince of Persia stated to him what effect his first visit had
had towards the cure of the princess. On the following day, when the
princess received him in such a manner as persuaded him her cure was
far advanced, he regarded the prince as the greatest physician in the
world, and exhorted the princess carefully to follow the directions of so
skilful a physician, and then retired. The Prince of Persia, who attended
the Sultan of Cashmere on his visit to the princess, inquired of him how
the Princess of Bengal came into the dominions of Cashmere thus alone,
since her own country was far distant.

The sultan at once informed him of what the princess had related,
when he had delivered her from the Hindu magician; adding, that he
had ordered the enchanted horse to be kept safe in his treasury as a
great curiosity, though he knew not the use of it.

‘ Sire,’ replied the pretended physician, ‘the information which your