AHMED AND PARI-BANOU. 453

tending to pronounce certain words ; and, at the instant that the
vessels all emitted a thick smoke of a delicious fragrance, and
that the princess was so enveloped in the fumes as with the
horse to be scarcely discernible, Firouz Schah availed himself of
that opportunity, and lightly bounding on it behind the princess,
he bent forward to turn the peg which was to make the horse
depart ; and while ascending with the princess into the air, he
pronounced the following words in a loud voice, and so distinctly
that the sultan himself heard them—“ Sultan of Cashmire, when
you wish to espouse princesses who implore your protection,
learn first to obtain their consent.”

It was by this stratagem that the prince of Persia delivered
the princess of Bengal from her confinement, and conducted her
on the same day, in a very short space of time, to the capital of
Persia; but instead of alighting at the country palace, as he
had previously done, he went into the middle of the palace,
opposite to the king’s apartment, where he dismounted. The

king of Persia did not defer the solemnisation of the nuptials
_ longer than was requisite to make the necessary preparations
{for the ceremony to be performed with the utmost pomp and
magnificence, and thus proved his entire concurrence to the
marriage.

When the number of days allotted for the rejoicing and festi-
vities was elapsed, the king’s first care was to order and despatch
a sumptuous embassy to the king of Bengal, to inform him of
what had taken place, and to request his approbation and rati-
fication of the alliance that he had formed with him by these
nuptials, which the king of Bengal, when informed of all the
circumstances, was proud and happy to agree to.

c-ErDOY I~

THE HISTORY OF PRINCE AHMED AND THE
FAIRY PARI-BANOU.

SULTAN who reigned in peace on the throne of
India during many years, had the satisfaction of
seeing in his old age that the three princes his
sons, the worthy imitators of his virtues, and a prin-

cess, his niece, were the ornaments of his court. The eldest of