.

'I know! I know!' she cried. Then she bent down and kissed the Prince's
lips. She felt them tremble against hers, and, though she could not call
him back, she knew that he was not dead. 'Oh! my wicked sister! This is
your work. You have bewitched my love! Never again! This is the end!'

She ran everywhere, in and about the palace, in search of her sister,
her hands clenched, her eyes blazing, her teeth set. But she could not
find her. At last a page, terrified to death at her aspect, confessed
that her sister had fled from the palace alone, mounted on the fleetest
steed of the stables.

The Princess at once resolved to follow her and force her to restore
the Prince to life and health. But, at the very outset, there was a
terrible difficulty to be surmounted. The Princess herself had never
been beyond the walls that encircled the vast grounds of the palace. She
knew that there were twelve gates, and that only one of these was left
unlocked from sunset till sunrise, and that none could tell which one it
might be. Now the law of the palace permitted her to try one gate each
night, and one gate only.

She sat down and thought, and then decided to try the same gate each
night until it happened to be the right one. For twelve nights she
tried, but each time she found the gate locked and barred.

Then she suddenly remembered that, when the Fire Bird had brought the
Prince to her, it had plucked a bright feather from its wing and let it
fall at her feet. She had preserved it in a golden casket. Could it be
that this feather had magic powers? She ran with all haste to her
apartment, and took it from the casket. As she did so, it sparkled and
quivered. As she held it up she was more than ever convinced that it
held magic powers.

She looked at the feather, and she thought of the Fire Bird itself, and
wished that it could only come and advise her what to do.

Scarcely had she conceived the wish, when a faint sound from far away
struck upon her ears. As she listened, it grew louder and louder, and
nearer and nearer, until at last she knew it was the roar of the Fire
Bird's wings. She ran out onto the balcony, and there she saw it, like a
meteor in the sky, every moment growing bigger.

At last, with a glad, shrill cry, it swooped down, and its giant wings
fluttered and vibrated a moment before it alighted on the edge of the
balcony, its fiery golden light sparkling on the crystal pillars and
shimmering in the air all ar