cquainted with. If your majesty would entertain
yourself, your court, and the people of your capital, with the
most surprising sight that ever was beheld, let the horse be
brought into the great square before the palace, and leave the
rest to me. I promise to show you, and all that assembly, in a
few moments time, the princess of Bengal completely restored in
body and mind. But the better to effect what I propose, it will
be requisite that the princess, should be dressed as
magnificently as possible, and adorned with the most valuable
jewels your majesty may possess." The sultan would have
undertaken much more difficult things to have arrived at the
enjoyment of his desires, which he expected soon to accomplish.

The next day, the enchanted horse was, by his order, taken out of
the treasury, and placed early in the great square before the
palace. A report was spread through the town that there was
something extraordinary to be seen, and crowds of people flocked
thither from all parts, insomuch that the sultan's guards were
placed to prevent disorder, and to keep space enough round the
horse.

The sultan of Cashmeer, surrounded by all his nobles and
ministers of state, was placed on a scaffold erected on purpose.
The princess of Bengal, attended by a number of ladies whom the
sultan had assigned her, went up to the enchanted horse, and the
women helped her to mount. When she was fixed in the saddle, and
had the bridle in her hand, the pretended physician placed round
the horse at a proper distance many vessels full of lighted
charcoal, which he had ordered to be brought, and going round
them with a solemn pace, cast in a strong and grateful perfume;
then collected in himself, with downcast eyes, and his hands upon
his breast, he ran three times about the horse, making as if he
pronounced some mystical words. The moment the pots sent forth a
dark cloud of pleasant smell, which so surrounded the princess,
that neither she nor the horse could be discerned, watching his
opportunity, the prince jumped nimbly up behind her, and reaching
his hand to the peg, turned it; and just as the horse rose with
them into the air, he pronounced these words, which the sultan
heard distinctly, "Sultan of Cashmeer, when you would marry
princesses who implore your protection, learn first to obtain
their consent."

Thus the prince delivered the princess of Bengal, and carried her
the same day to the capital of Persia, where he alighted in