Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/44

in spite of her being now so unrecognizable, went in and told the prince that there was a most lovely maiden in the garden. The prince bade him call her in, but the princess said she would not go in, because she was waiting that the voice should come for her as it always did. The prince again said, "Go and call her, for she will recognise me!" The princess then remembered a lover she had had, and she said, "Perhaps it is he;" and, rising quickly, she entered the palace. When the prince saw her he said to her, "Do you not recollect how one day you said to me, 'May you vanish like the wind.' It is that you might know what troubles I went through that you have now passed through the same, but I was fortunate because I became enchanted. It was not I in person, but it was my voice that spoke to you in the garden." The princess replied, "It is true that I often wondered to hear a voice without seeing any one, but 1 soon found out that it was enchantment." The prince then asked her, "Now, tell me, do you wish to return to your father's house?" The princess replied, "No, now I shall remain in your company." "But listen," said the prince, "I shall not marry you before twenty years' time, because if I marry before then I shall dispel my enchantment." "I shall wait for you even if it should be thirty years," said the princess; and she asked him what he did all the time, and he answered that he eat, and walked, and sauntered about. The prince then said, "It is now three years since you left your father's house. The day after to-morrow we must go there, for he and your family are badly off. Here you have this pin; do not lose it or give it to any one, for you would break my enchantment." The day arrived when they were to take their departure, and they proceeded through the air to their destination. The prince went and placed her in the very same spot from whence he had sought and carried her away, and said to her, "Now bear in mind that you are only to stay here two days." When the princess was about to ascend