hat cheese tinged with blood. Then
he said to his father, "Sir, unless I have a wife as white and red as
this cheese, it is all over with me; so now resolve, if you wish to see
me alive and well, to give me all I require to go through the world in
search of a beauty exactly like this cheese, or else I shall end my
life and die by inches."

When the King heard this mad resolution, he thought the house was
falling about his ears; his colour came and went, but as soon as he
recovered himself and could speak, he said, "My son, the life of my
soul, the core of my heart, the prop of my old age, what mad-brained
fancy has made you take leave of your senses? Have you lost your wits?
You want either all or nothing: first you wish not to marry, on purpose
to deprive me of an heir, and now you are impatient to drive me out of
the world. Whither, O whither would you go wandering about, wasting
your life? And why leave your house, your hearth, your home? You know
not what toils and peril he brings on himself who goes rambling and
roving. Let this whim pass, my son; be sensible, and do not wish to see
my life worn out, this house fall to the ground, my household go to
ruin."

But these and other words went in at one ear and out at the other, and
were all cast upon the sea; and the poor King, seeing that his son was
as immovable as a rook upon a belfry, gave him a handful of dollars and
two or three servants; and bidding him farewell, he felt as if his soul
was torn out of his body. Then weeping bitterly, he went to a balcony,
and followed his son with his eyes until he was lost to sight.

The Prince departed, leaving his unhappy father to his grief, and
hastened on his way through fields and woods, over mountain and valley,
hill and plain, visiting various countries, and mixing with various
peoples, and always with his eyes wide awake to see whether he could
find the object of his desire. At the end of several months he arrived
at the coast of France, where, leaving his servants at a hospital with
sore feet, he embarked alone in a Genoese boat, and set out towards the
Straits of Gibraltar. There he took a larger vessel and sailed for the
Indies, seeking everywhere, from kingdom to kingdom, from province to
province, from country to country, from street to street, from house to
house, in every hole and corner, whether he could find the original
likeness of that beautiful image which he had pictured to his heart.
And he wandered ab