The Blue Fairy Book
following the celebration were a continual feast.
At the end of six months Prince Ahmed, who always loved and honored the
Sultan his father, conceived a great desire to know how he was, and
that desire could not be satisfied without his going to see; he told the
Fairy of it, and desired she would give him leave.
“Prince,” said she, “go when you please. But first, don’t take it amiss
that I give you some advice how you shall behave yourself where you are
going. First, I don’t think it proper for you to tell the Sultan your
father of our marriage, nor of my quality, nor the place where you have
been. Beg of him to be satisfied in knowing you are happy, and desire
no more; and let him know that the sole end of your visit is to make him
easy, and inform him of your fate.”
She appointed twenty gentlemen, well mounted and equipped, to attend
him. When all was ready Prince Ahmed took his leave of the Fairy,
embraced her, and renewed his promise to return soon. Then his horse,
which was most finely caparisoned, and was as beautiful a creature as
any in the Sultan of Indies’ stables, was led to him, and he mounted him
with an extraordinary grace; and, after he had bid her a last adieu, set
forward on his journey.
As it was not a great way to his father’s capital, Prince Ahmed soon
arrived there. The people, glad to see him again, received him with
acclamations of joy, and followed him in crowds to the Sultan’s
apartment. The Sultan received and embraced him with great joy,
complaining at the same time, with a fatherly tenderness, of the
affliction his long absence had been to him, which he said was the more
grievous for that, fortune having decided in favor of Prince Ali his
brother, he was afraid he might have committed some rash action.
The Prince told a story of his adventures without speaking of the Fairy,
whom he said that he must not mention, and ended: “The only favor I
ask of your Majesty is to give me leave to come often and pay you my
respects, and to know how you do.”
“Son,” answered the Sultan of the Indies, “I cannot refuse you the leave
you ask me; but I should much rather you would resolve to stay with me;
at least tell me where I may send to you if you should fail to come, or
when I may think your presence necessary.” “Sir,” replied Prince Ahmed,
“what your Majesty asks of me is part of the mystery I spoke to your
Majesty of. I beg of you to give me leave to remain silent on this head,
for I shall come so frequently that I am afraid that I shall sooner be
thought troublesome than be accused of negligence in my duty.”
The Sultan of the Indies pressed Prince Ahmed no more, but said to him:
“Son, I penetrate no farther into your secrets, but leave you at your
liberty; but can tell you that you could not do me a greater pleasure
than to come, and by your presence restore to me the joy I have not
felt this long time, and that you shall always be welcome when you come,
without interrupting your business or pleasure.”
Prince Ahmed stayed but three days at the Sultan his father’s Court, and
the fourth returned to the Fairy Paribanou, who did not expect him so
soon.
A month after Prince Ahmed’s return from paying a visit to his father,
as the Fairy Paribanou had observed that the Prince, since the time that
he gave her an account of his journey, his discourse with his father,
and the leave he asked to go and see him often, had never talked of the
Sultan, as if there had been no such person in the world, whereas before
he was always speaking of him, she thought he forebore on her account;
therefore she took an opportunity to say to him one day: “Prince, tell
me, have you forgot the Sultan your father? Don’t you remember the
promise you made to go and see him often? For my part I have not forgot
what you told me at your return, and so put you in mind of it, that you
may not be long before you acquit yourself of your promise.”
So Prince Ahmed went the next morning with the same attendance as
before, but much finer, and himself more magnificently mounted,
equipped, and dressed, and was received by the Sultan with the same
joy and satisfaction. For several months he constantly paid his visits,
always in a richer and finer equipage.
At last some viziers, the Sultan’s favorites, who judged of Prince
Ahmed’s grandeur and power by the figure he cut, made the Sultan jealous
of his son, saying it was to be feared he might inveigle himself into
the people’s favor and dethrone him.
The Sultan of the Indies was so far from thinking that Prince Ahmed
could be capable of so pernicious a design as his favorites would make
him believe that he said to them: “You are mistaken; my son loves me,
and I am certain of his tenderness and fidelity, as I have given him no
reason to be disgusted.”
But the favorites went on abusing Prince Ahmed till the Sultan said: “Be
it as it will, I don’t believe my son Ahmed is so wicked as you would
persuade me he is; how ever, I am obliged to you for your good advice,
and don’t dispute but that it proceeds from your good intentions.”
The Sultan of the Indies said this that his favorites might not know the
impressions their discourse had made on his mind; which had so alarmed
him that he resolved to have Prince Ahmed watched unknown to his grand
vizier. So he sent for a female magician, who was introduced by a back
door into his apartment. “Go immediately,” he said, “and follow my son,
and watch him so well as to find out where he retires, and bring me
word.”
The magician left the Sultan, and, knowing the place where Prince Ahmed
found his arrow, went immediately thither, and hid herself near the
rocks, so that nobody could see her.
The next morning Prince Ahmed set out by daybreak, without taking leave
either of the Sultan or any of his Court, according to custom. The
magician, seeing him coming, followed him with her eyes, till on a
sudden she lost sight of him and his attendants.
As the rocks were very steep and craggy, they were an insurmountable
barrier, so that the magician judged that there were but two things
for it: either that the Prince retired into some cavern, or an abode of
genies or fairies. Thereupon she came out of the place where she was hid
and went directly to the hollow way, which she traced till she came
to the farther end, looking carefully about on all sides; but,
notwithstanding all her diligence, could perceive no opening, not so
much as the iron gate which Prince Ahmed discovered, which was to be
seen and opened to none but men, and only to such whose presence was
agreeable to the Fairy Paribanou.
The magician, who saw it was in vain for her to search any farther, was
obliged to be satisfied with the discovery she had made, and returned to
give the Sultan an account.
The Sultan was very well pleased with the magician’s conduct, and said
to her: “Do you as you think fit; I’ll wait patiently the event of your
promises,” and to encourage her made her a present of a diamond of great
value.
As Prince Ahmed had obtained the Fairy Paribanou’s leave to go to the
Sultan of the Indies’ Court once a month, he never failed, and the
magician, knowing the time, went a day or two before to the foot of the
rock where she lost sight of the Prince and his attendants, and waited
there.
The next morning Prince Ahmed went out, as usual, at the iron gate, with
the same attendants as before, and passed by the magician, whom he knew
not to be such, and, seeing her lie with her head against the rock,
and complaining as if she were in great pain, he pitied her, turned his
horse about, went to her, and asked her what was the matter with her,
and what he could do to ease her.
The artful sorceress looked at the Prince in a pitiful manner, without
ever lifting up her head, and answered in broken words and sighs, as
if she could hardly fetch her breath, that she was going to the capital
city, but on the way thither she was taken with so violent a fever that
her strength failed her, and she was forced to lie down where he saw
her, far from any habitation, and without any hopes of assistance.
“Good woman,” replied Prince Ahmed, “you are not so far from help as you
imagine. I am ready to assist you, and convey you where you will meet
with a speedy cure; only get up, and let one of my people take you
behind him.”
At these words the magician, who pretended sickness only to know where
the Prince lived and what he did, refused not the charitable offer he
made her, and that her actions might correspond with her words she made
many pretended vain endeavors to get up. At the same time two of the
Prince’s attendants, alighting off their horses, helped her up, and set
her behind another, and mounted their horses again, and followed the
Prince, who turned back to the iron gate, which was opened by one of his
retinue who rode before. And when he came into the outward court of the
Fairy, without dismounting himself, he sent to tell her he wanted to
speak with her.
The Fairy Paribanou came with all imaginable haste, not knowing what
made Prince Ahmed return so soon, who, not giving her time to ask him
the reason, said: “Princess, I desire you would have compassion on this
good woman,” pointing to the magician, who was held up by two of his
retinue. “I found her in the condition you see her in, and promised her
the assistance she stands in need of, and am persuaded that you, out of
your own goodness, as well as upon my entreaty, will not abandon her.”
The Fairy Paribanou, who had her eyes fixed upon the pretended sick
woman all the time that the Prince was talking to her, ordered two of
her women who followed her to take her from the two men that held her,
and carry her into an apartment of the palace, and take as much care of
her as she would herself.
While the two women executed the Fairy’s commands, she went up to Prince
Ahmed, and, whispering in his ear, said: “Prince, this woman is not so
sick as she pretends to be; and I am very much mistaken if she is not an
impostor, who will be the cause of a great trouble to you. But don’t
be concerned, let what will be devised against you; be persuaded that
I will deliver you out of all the snares that shall be laid for you. Go
and pursue your journey.”
This discourse of the Fairy’s did not in the least frighten Prince
Ahmed. “My Princess,” said he, “as I do not remember I ever did or
designed anybody an injury, I cannot believe anybody can have a thought
of doing me one, but if they have I shall not, nevertheless, forbear
doing good whenever I have an opportunity.” Then he went back to his
father’s palace.
In the meantime the two women carried the magician into a very fine
apartment, richly furnished. First they sat her down upon a sofa, with
her back supported with a cushion of gold brocade, while they made a bed
on the same sofa before her, the quilt of which was finely embroidered
with silk, the sheets of the finest linen, and the coverlet
cloth-of-gold. When they had put her into bed (for the old sorceress
pretended that her fever was so violent she could not help herself in
the least) one of the women went out, and returned soon again with a
china dish in her hand, full of a certain liquor, which she presented to
the magician, while the other helped her to sit up. “Drink this liquor,”
said she; “it is the Water of the Fountain of Lions, and a sovereign
remedy against all fevers whatsoever. You will find the effect of it in
less than an hour’s time.”
The magician, to dissemble the better, took it after a great deal of
entreaty; but at last she took the china dish, and, holding back her
head, swallowed down the liquor. When she was laid down again the two
women covered her up. “Lie quiet,” said she who brought her the china
cup, “and get a little sleep if you can. We’ll leave you, and hope to