16 & The Story of
pitas Ss

the peg, and presently the horse mounted into the air with him and

the princess.

At the same time the Sultan of Persia, followed by his court,
was on the way from his own palace to the palace where the
Princess of Bengal was left, and the Prince of Persia had ridden
on before to prepare the Princess of Bengal to receive him, when
the Indian, to defy them both and revenge himself for the ill-
treatment he had received, passed over their heads with his prize.

When the Sultan of Persia saw this, he stopped. His surprise
and affliction were the more keen because it was not in his power
to make him repent of so outrageous an affront. He loaded him
with a thousand imprecations, as also did all the courtiers, who were
witnesses of so signal a piece of insolence and unparalleled villainy.

The Indian, little moved by their curses, which just reached
his ears, continued his way, while the sultan, extremely mortified
to find that he could not punish its author, returned to his palace.

But what was Prince Firouz Schah’s grief to see the Indian
carry away the Princess of Bengal, whom he loved so dearly that
he could not live without her! At so unexpected a sight he
was thunderstruck, and before he could make up his mind whether
he should let fly all the reproaches his rage could invent against
the Indian, or bewail the deplorable fate of the princess, or ask
her pardon for not taking better care of her, the horse was out.
of sight. He could not resolve what to do, and so continued his
way to the palace where he had left his princess.

When he came there, the housekeeper, who was by this time
convinced that he had been deceived by the Indian, threw himself
at his feet with tears in his eyes, and accused himself of the crime
which he thought he had committed, and condemned himself
to die.

‘Rise up, said the prince to him, ‘I do not impute the loss
of my princess to thee, but to my own folly. But do not lose