t she was under so grievous an affliction. When he came
out of the closet, he told the sultan that he had discovered the
nature of the princess's complaint, and that she was not
incurable; but added withal, that he must speak with her in
private, and alone, as, notwithstanding 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
Firoze Shaw 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, 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 the upper
features of his face, notwithstanding he had let his beard grow
so long, grew calm at once, and a secret joy and pleasure
overspread her face, the effect of seeing the person so much
desired so unexpectedly. Her agreeable surprise deprived her for
some time of the use of speech, and gave Firoze Shaw time to tell
her as briefly as possible, how despair had seized him when he
saw the Hindoo carry her away; the resolution he afterwards had
taken to leave every thing to find her out, and never to return
home till he had regained her out of the hands of the perfidious
wretch; and by what good fortune, at last, after a long and
fatiguing journey, he had the satisfaction to find her in the
palace of the sultan of Cashmeer. He then desired the princess to
inform him of all that happened to her, from the time she was
taken away, till that moment when he had the happiness to
converse with her, 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
Cashmeer.

The princess informed him how she was delivered from the Hindoo's
violence by the sultan, as he was returning from hunting; how she
was alarmed the next day, by a declaration he had made of his
precipitate design to marry her, without even the ceremony of
asking her consent; that this violent and tyrannical conduct put
her into a swoon; after which she thought she had no other way
than what she had taken, to preserve herself for a prince to