le to give an opinion on the case without seeing
the princess, so the Sultan gave orders that they were to be introduced
into her chamber, one by one, every man according to his rank.

This decision had been foreseen by the princess, who knew quite well
that if once she allowed the physicians to feel her pulse, the most
ignorant of them would discover that she was in perfectly good health,
and that her madness was feigned, so as each man approached, she broke
out into such violent paroxysms, that not one dared to lay a finger on
her. A few, who pretended to be cleverer than the rest, declared that
they could diagnose sick people only from sight, ordered her certain
potions, which she made no difficulty about taking, as she was
persuaded they were all harmless.

When the Sultan of Cashmere saw that the court doctors could do nothing
towards curing the princess, he called in those of the city, who fared
no better. Then he had recourse to the most celebrated physicians in
the other large towns, but finding that the task was beyond their
science, he finally sent messengers into the other neighbouring states,
with a memorandum containing full particulars of the princess's
madness, offering at the same time to pay the expenses of any physician
who would come and see for himself, and a handsome reward to the one
who should cure her. In answer to this proclamation many foreign
professors flocked into Cashmere, but they naturally were not more
successful than the rest had been, as the cure depended neither on them
nor their skill, but only on the princess herself.

It was during this time that Prince Firouz Schah, wandering sadly and
hopelessly from place to place, arrived in a large city of India, where
he heard a great deal of talk about the Princess of Bengal who had gone
out of her senses, on the very day that she was to have been married to
the Sultan of Cashmere. This was quite enough to induce him to take
the road to Cashmere, and to inquire at the first inn at which he
lodged in the capital the full particulars of the story. When he knew
that he had at last found the princess whom he had so long lost, he set
about devising a plan for her rescue.

The first thing he did was to procure a doctor's robe, so that his
dress, added to the long beard he had allowed to grow on his travels,
might unmistakably proclaim his profession. He then lost no time in
going to the palace, where he obtained an audience of the chief u