Part 102

The princess gave prince Firouz Schah that satisfaction; but by lessening a great many advantages the kingdom of Bengal was well known to have over that of Persia, she let him know the disposition she felt to accompany him, so that he believed she would consent at the first proposition he should make; but he thought it would not be proper to make it till he had showed her so much complaisance as to stay with her long enough to make the blame fall on her, in case she wished to detain him longer from returning to his father, as he was in duty bound to do.

Two whole months the prince Firouz Schah abandoned himself entirely to the will of the princess of Bengal, yielding to all the amusements she contrived for him, for she neglected nothing to divert him, as if she thought he had nothing else to do but to pass his whole life with her in this manner. But after that time, he declared seriously he could not stay any longer, and begged of her to give him leave to return to his father; repeating again the promise he had made her to return soon in a style worthy of her and himself, and to demand her in form in marriage of the king of Bengal.

And princess, replied the prince of Persia, that you may not suspect the truth of what I say; and that by my asking this leave, you may not rank me among those false lovers who forget the objects of their love as soon as they are absent from them; but to show that my passion is real, and not feigned, and that life cannot be pleasant to me when absent from so lovely a princess, whose love to me I cannot doubt is mutual; I would presume, if I was not afraid you would be offended at my request, to ask the favour of taking you along with me.

As the prince Firouz Schah saw that the princess blushed at these last words, and that without any mark of anger she hesitated at the step she should take, he proceeded, and said, Princess, as for the king my father’s consent, and the reception he will give you, I venture to assure you he will receive you with pleasure into his alliance; and as for the king of Bengal, after all the love and tender regard he has always expressed for you, he must be the reverse of what you have described him, an enemy to your repose and happiness, if he should not receive in a friendly manner the embassy which my father will send to him for his approbation of our marriage.

The princess of Bengal returned no answer to this discourse of the prince of Persia; but her silence, and eyes cast down, were sufficient to inform him that she had no reluctance to accompany him into Persia, but consented. The only difficulty she had was, that the prince knew not well enough how to govern the horse, and she was apprehensive of being involved with him in the same difficulty as when he made the experiment. But the prince soon removed her fear by assuring her she might trust herself with him, for that after the experience he had had, he defied the Indian himself to manage him better. She thought therefore only of concerting measures to get off with him so secretly, that nobody belonging to the palace should have the least suspicion of their design.

The next morning, a little before daybreak, when all in the palace were asleep, they went upon the terrace of the palace. The prince turned the horse towards Persia, and placed him where the princess could easily get up behind him; which she had no sooner done, and was well settled with her arms about his waist, for her better security, but he turned the peg, and the horse mounted into the air, and making his usual haste, under the guidance of the prince, in two hours’ time the prince discovered the capital of Persia.

He would not alight at the great square from whence he set out, nor in the sultan’s palace, but directed his course towards a pleasure-house at a little distance from the town. He led the princess into a handsome apartment, where he told her, that to do her all the honour that was due to her, he would go and inform his father of their arrival, and return to her immediately. He ordered the housekeeper of the palace, who was then present, to provide the princess with what ever she had occasion for.

After the prince had taken his leave of the princess, he ordered a horse to be saddled, which he mounted, after sending back the housekeeper to the princess with orders to provide her breakfast immediately, and then set forwards for the palace. As he passed through the streets, he was received with acclamations by the people, who were overjoyed to see him again. The sultan his father was giving audience, when he appeared before him in the midst of his council, who, as well as the sultan and the whole court, had been in mourning ever since he had been absent. The sultan received him, and embracing him with tears of joy and tenderness, asked him, What was become of the Indian’s horse?

This question gave the prince an opportunity to tell him the embarrassment and danger he was in when the horse mounted into the air with him, and how he arrived at last at the princess of Bengal’s palace, with the kind reception he met with there: that the motive which obliged him to stay so long with her, was, the complaisance she had shown not to disoblige him, so that after promising to marry her, he had persuaded her to come with him into Persia. But, sir, added the prince, I have promised that you would not refuse your consent, and have brought her with me on the Indian’s horse, to a palace where your majesty often goes for your pleasure; and have left her there, till I could return and assure her that my promise was not in vain.

After these words, the prince prostrated himself before the sultan to gain his consent, but his father raised him up, embraced him a second time, and said to him, Son, I not only consent to your marriage with the princes of Bengal, but will go and meet her myself, and thank her for the obligation I in particular have to her, and will bring her to my palace, and celebrate your nuptials this day.

Then the sultan gave orders for his court to go out of mourning, and make preparations for the princess’s entry; that the rejoicings should begin with a grand concert of military music, and that the Indian should be fetched out of prison and brought before him. When the Indian was brought before the sultan, he said to him, I secured thy person, that thy life, though not a sufficient victim to my rage and grief, might answer for that of the prince my son, whom, thanks to God! I have found again: go, take your horse, and never let me see your face more.

As the Indian had learned of those who fetched him out of prison, that prince Firouz Schah was returned, and had brought a princess behind him on his horse, and was also informed of the place where he had alighted and left her, and that the sultan was making preparations to go and bring her to his palace; as soon as he got out of the sultan’s presence, he bethought himself of being beforehand with him and the prince; and, without losing any time, went directly to the palace, and addressing himself to the housekeeper, told him, he came from the sultan and prince of Persia, to fetch the princess of Bengal, and to carry her behind him through the air to the sultan, who waited in the great square of his palace to gratify the whole court and city of Schiraz with that wonderful sight.

The housekeeper, who knew the Indian, and that the sultan had imprisoned him, gave the more credit to what he said, because he saw that he was at liberty. He presented him to the princess of Bengal; who no sooner understood that he came from the prince of Persia, than she consented to what that prince, as she thought, desired of her.

The Indian, overjoyed at his success, and the ease with which he had accomplished his villany, mounted his horse, took the princess behind him, with the assistance of the housekeeper, turned 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 road from his own palace to the palace where the princess of Bengal was left, and the prince of Persia was advanced before, to prepare the princess of Bengal to receive him, when the Indian to brave them both, and revenge himself for the ill-treatment he had received, as he pretended, passed over their heads with his prize.

When the sultan of Persia saw the ravisher, he stopped. His surprise and affliction was the more sensible, because it was not in his power to make him repent of so high 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 villany.

The Indian, little moved with their curses, which just reached his ears, continued his way; while the sultan, extremely mortified at so great an injury, and to find he could not punish the author, returned back 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 passionately, that he could not live without her! At the sight of an object so little expected, he was thunderstruck, and before he could deliberate with himself 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 precaution to preserve her, who had trusted herself to his care in a manner sufficiently expressive of her love, the horse was out of sight. He could not resolve what to do, whether he should return to the sultan’s palace, and shut himself up in his apartment to give himself entirely up to his affliction, without attempting to pursue the ravisher, to deliver the princess, and punish him as he deserved. But as his generosity, love, and courage, would not suffer this, he continued on his way to the palace where he had left his princess.

When he came there, the housekeeper, who was by this time convinced of his credulity, and that he was 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 by his hand. Rise up, said the prince to him, I do not impute the loss of my princess to thee, but to my own simplicity. But not to lose time, fetch me a dervise’s habit, and take care you do not give the least hint that it is for me.

Not far from this palace there stood a convent of dervises, the scheik or superior of which was the palace-keeper’s particular friend. He went to this scheik, and telling him that a considerable officer at court, and a man of worth, to whom he had been very much obliged, and wished to favour, by giving him an opportunity to withdraw from the sultan’s rage, he easily got a complete dervise’s habit, and carried it to prince Firouz Schah. The prince immediately pulled off his own clothes, and put it on; and being so disguised, and provided with a box of jewels, which he had brought as a present to the princess, he left the palace in the evening, uncertain which way to go, but resolved not to return till he had found out his princess, and brought her back again.

But to return to the Indian: he governed his enchanted horse so well that day, that he arrived early in a wood, near the capital of the kingdom of Caschmire. Being hungry, and concluding the princess was also, he alighted in that wood, in an open part of it, and left the princess on a grassy spot, by a rivulet of clear fresh water.

During the Indian’s absence, the princess of Bengal, who knew that she was in the power of a base ravisher, whose violence she dreaded, thought of getting from him, and seeking out some sanctuary. But as she had scarce eaten any thing on her arrival at the pleasant palace in the morning, she was so faint, that she could not execute her design, but was forced to abandon it, and to stay where she was, without any other resource than her courage, and a firm resolution rather to suffer death, than be unfaithful to the prince of Persia. When the Indian returned, she did not wait to be asked twice, but ate with him, and recovered herself enough to answer with courage to the insolent language he began to hold to her when they had done. After a great many threats, as she saw that the Indian was preparing to use violence, she rose up to make resistance, and, by her cries and shrieks, drew about them a company of horsemen, which happened to be the sultan of Caschmire and his attendants, who, as they were returning from hunting, happily for the princess of Bengal, passed through that part of the wood, and ran to her assistance, at the noise she made.

The sultan addressed himself to the Indian, and asked him who he was, and what he pretended to do with the lady? The Indian, with great impudence, replied, that she was his wife; and what had any one to do with his quarrel with her?

The princess, who neither knew the rank nor quality of the person who came so seasonably to her relief, told the Indian he was a liar; and said to the sultan, Sir, whoever you are that Heaven has sent to my assistance, have compassion on a princess, and give no credit to that impostor. Heaven forbid that I should be the wife of so vile and despicable an Indian! a wicked magician, that hath taken me away from the prince of Persia, to whom I was going to be married, and hath brought me hither on the enchanted horse that you see.

The princess of Bengal had no occasion to say any more to persuade the sultan of Caschmire that what she told him was truth. Her beauty, majestic air, and tears, spoke sufficiently for her. The sultan of Caschmire, justly enraged at the insolence of the Indian, ordered his guards to surround him, and cut off his head; which sentence was immediately executed, the more easily, as the Indian, just released from prison, was unprovided with any weapon to defend himself.

The princess, thus delivered from the persecution of the Indian, fell into another no less afflicting to her. The sultan, after he had ordered her a horse, carried her with him to his palace, where he lodged her in the most magnificent apartment, next his own, and gave her a great number of women-slaves to attend her, and a guard of eunuchs. He led her himself into the apartment he assigned her; where, without giving her time to thank him for the great obligation she had to him, he said to her, As I am certain, princess, that you must want rest, I will here take my leave of you till to-morrow, when you will be better able to give me all the circumstances of this strange adventure; and then left her.

The princess of Bengal’s joy was inexpressible to find she was so soon freed from the violence of a man she could not look upon without horror. She flattered herself that the sultan of Caschmire would complete his generosity by sending her back to the prince of Persia, when she told him her story, and asked that favour of him; but she was very much deceived in these hopes, for the sultan of Caschmire resolved to marry her the next day; and for that end had ordered rejoicings to be made by daybreak, by beating of drums and sounding of trumpets, and other instruments expressive of joy, which not only echoed through the palace, but throughout the city.

The princess of Bengal was awakened by those tumultuous concerts, but attributed them to a very different cause from the true one. When the sultan of Caschmire, who had given orders that he should be informed when the princess was ready to receive a visit, came to pay her one; and when he had inquired after her health, he acquainted her that all those rejoicings were to render their nuptials more solemn, and, at the same time, desired her to approve of them. This discourse put her into so great consternation that she fainted away.

The women-slaves who were present ran to her assistance; and the sultan did all he could to bring her to herself again, though it was a long time before they could. But when she recovered, rather than break the promise she had made to prince Firouz Schah, by consenting to marry the sultan of Caschmire, who had proclaimed their nuptials before he had asked her consent, she resolved to feign madness. She began to say the most extravagant things before the sultan, and even rose off her seat to fly upon him; insomuch that the sultan was very much surprised and afflicted that he had made such a proposal so unseasonably.

When he found that her frenzy rather increased than abated, he left her with her women, charging them never to leave her alone, but to take great care of her. He sent often that day to know how she did, but received no other answer but that she was rather worse than better. In short, at night she seemed much worse than she had been all day, insomuch that the sultan of Caschmire was disappointed of the happiness he promised himself.

The princess of Bengal continued to talk wildly, and show other marks of a disordered mind, next day and the following ones; so that the sultan was obliged to send for all the physicians belonging to his court, to consult them about her disease, and to ask them if they could cure her.

The physicians all agreed that there were several sorts and degrees of this distemper, some curable and others not; and told the sultan that they could not judge of the princess of Bengal’s, unless they saw her: upon which the sultan ordered the eunuchs to introduce them into the princess’s chamber, one after another, according to their rank.

The princess, who foresaw what would happen, and feared that, if she let the physicians come near her to feel her pulse, the least experienced of them would soon know that she was in a good state of health, and that her madness was only feigned, flew into such a rage and passion, that she was ready to tear out their eyes who came near her; so none of them durst approach her.

Some of them, who pretended to be more skilful than the rest, and boasted of judging of diseases only by sight, ordered her some potions, which she made the less difficulty to take, well knowing she could be sick or well at pleasure, and that they could do her no harm.

When the sultan of Caschmire saw that his court physicians could not cure her, he called in the most noted and experienced of the city, who had all no better success. Afterwards he sent for the most famous in the kingdom, who met with no better reception than the others from the princess, and what they ordered had no better effect. Afterwards he despatched expresses to the courts of neighbouring princes, with the princess’s case, to be distributed among the most famous physicians, with a promise of a handsome reward to any of them who should come and cure the princess of Bengal, besides travelling charges.

A great many physicians came from all parts, and undertook the cure; but none of them could boast of better success than their fellows, or of restoring the princess’s faculties, since it was a case that did not depend on their skill, but on the will of the princess herself.

During this interval, prince Firouz Schah, disguised in the habit of a dervise, had travelled through a great many provinces and towns, full of grief; and having endured a great deal of fatigue, not knowing which way to direct his course, or if he did not take the very opposite road from what he ought, to hear the tidings he sought. He made diligent inquiry after her at every place he came to, till at last, passing through a great town in India, he heard the people talk very much of a princess of Bengal, who ran mad on the day of the celebration of her nuptials with the sultan of Caschmire. At the name of the princess of Bengal, and supposing that there was no other princess of Bengal than her upon whose account he undertook his travels, he set forwards for the kingdom of Caschmire, on this common report; and on his arrival at the capital city, he went and lodged at a khan, where the same day he was told the story of the princess of Bengal, and the unhappy fate of the Indian, which he richly deserved. By all the circumstances, the prince knew he could not be deceived, but that she was the same princess he had sought so long after.

The prince of Persia, being informed of all these particulars, provided himself against the next day with a physician’s habit, and, having let his beard grow during his travels, he passed for a physician; and, through the greatness of his impatience to see the princess, went to the sultan’s palace, where, presenting himself to the chief of the officers, he told him that perhaps it might be looked upon as a very bold undertaking in him to offer himself as a physician to attempt the cure of the princess after so many had failed; but that he hoped some specifics, which he had had great experience of, and success from, would effect the cure. The chief of the officers told him he was very welcome, that the sultan would receive him with pleasure, and that if he should have the good fortune to restore the princess to her former health, he might expect a considerable reward from the sultan his master’s liberality: Stay a moment, added he, I will come to you again presently.

It had been a long time since any physician had offered himself; and the sultan of Caschmire with great grief had begun to lose all hope of ever seeing the princess of Bengal restored to her former health, that he might marry her, and show how much he loved her. He ordered the officer to introduce to him the physician he had announced.

The prince of Persia was presented to the sultan of Caschmire in the habit and disguise of a physician; and the sultan, without wasting time in superfluous discourse, after having told him the princess of Bengal could not bear the sight of a physician without falling into the most violent transports, which increased her distemper, carried him into a closet, from whence, through a window, he might see her without being seen.

There prince Firouz Schah saw his lovely princess sit carelessly singing a song with tears in her eyes, in which she deplored her unhappy fate, which deprived her, perhaps for ever, of the object she loved so tenderly.

The prince was so sensibly affected at the melancholy condition he found his dear princess in, that he wanted no other signs to comprehend that her distemper was feigned, and that it was for love of him that she was under so grievous a constraint. When he came out of the closet, he told the sultan that he had discovered the nature of the princess’s distemper, and that she was not incurable; but added withal, that he must speak with 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 chamber door to be opened, and prince Firouz Schah went in. As soon as the princess saw him, (taking him by his habit to be a physician) she rose up in a rage, threatening him, and giving him the most abusive language. He made directly towards her; and when he was nigh enough for her to hear him, for he did not wish to be heard by any one 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 procure you your liberty.