; but her amazement was increased when she saw the head laid at her
feet, and heard a voice utter these words:

"Charming Princess, cease your fear
Of Furibon; whose head see here."

Abricotina, knowing Leander's voice, cried:

"I protest, madam, the invisible person who speaks is the very stranger
that rescued me."

The princess seemed astonished, but yet pleased.

"Oh," said she, "if it be true that the invisible and the stranger
are the same person, I confess I shall be glad to make him my
acknowledgments."

Leander, still invisible, replied, "I will yet do more to deserve them;"
and so saying he returned to Furibon's army, where the report of the
king's death was already spread throughout the camp. As soon as Leander
appeared there in his usual habit, everybody knew him; all the officers
and soldiers surrounded him, uttering the loudest acclamations of joy.
In short, they acknowledged him for their king, and that the crown of
right belonged to him, for which he thanked them, and, as the first
mark of his royal bounty, divided the thirty rooms of gold among the
soldiers. This done he returned to his princess, ordering his army to
march back into his kingdom.

The princess was gone to bed. Leander, therefore, retired into his own
apartment, for he was very sleepy--so sleepy that he forgot to bolt his
door; and so it happened that the princess, rising early to taste the
morning air, chanced to enter into this very chamber, and was astonished
to find a young prince asleep upon the bed. She took a full view of him,
and was convinced that he was the person whose picture she had in
her diamond box. "It is impossible," said she, "that this should be a
spirit; for can spirits sleep? Is this a body composed of air and fire,
without substance, as Abricotina told me?" She softly touched his hair,
and heard him breathe, and looked at him as if she could have looked
forever. While she was thus occupied, her mother, the fairy entered with
such a noise that Leander started out of his sleep. But how deeply
was he afflicted to behold his beloved princess in the most deplorable
condition! Her mother dragged her by the hair and loaded her with a
thousand bitter reproaches. In what grief and consternation were the two
young lovers, who saw themselves now upon the point of being separated
forever! The princess durst not open her lips, but cast her eyes upon
Leander, as if to beg his assistance. He judged rightly that he