370 The Adventures of Prince Hassan. [OcT. 



<; Judge of my grief when she pronounced these terrible words ! T did all 



" in my power to prevent it ; but it was of no avail : she even forbad me to 

 mention it to any person but yourself, and that not before your twentieth 

 year; hoping that myself and all my subjects would become victims, 

 and that you would become our executioner. Alas ! I offered her my 

 own life : she was insensible to my tears, and vanished in the midst of 

 a black whirlwind of flame, bitumen, and pitch. You know the cares 

 I have taken in your infancy ; you know the tears you have cost me 

 fatal price of my tenderness ! I shall never see you more ; and already 

 you have made a fatal trial of the ills to which the fairy Noirjabarbe has 

 condemned you! Seek out a desert, my son, where you can spare the 



" lives of mortals, by hiding yourself for ever from their eyes ; and ever 



" remember your unhappy father." 



Hardly Lad the young prince (who was named Prince Hassan) finished 

 reading, when his eyes were full of tears. " Ah, ye gods I" cried he, 

 " how have I merited so cruel a fate ! what place, sufficiently desert, shall 

 I find on the face of the earth to hide me from the eyes of mortal men ! 

 Happy yet in my griefs, that my lot has placed me on this barbarous 

 shore, and that these monsters have been the first victims that I have 

 Immolated." This unfortunate prince now arose, and left the forest. He 

 found himself at one of the gates of the city of these savages, built in a 

 valley surrounded by high mountains covered with wood. A torrent which 

 precipitated itself from the top of the rocks with a horrible noise, separated 

 the city into two parts. The houses were low, all stained with blood, and 

 almost covered with dead bodies and limbs : the air of this island had the 

 property of preserving the bodies, so that they never corrupted. The prince 

 was shocked at so horrible a spectacle. He left the place, and consoled 

 himself under his misfortunes, that he had purged nature of such cruel 

 monsters. He resolved to remain on the island, and to live on the fruits 

 that the earth produced. He chose for his retreat a cave hollowed out of 

 a rock, from whence he could behold the sea. The horror of finding himself 

 quite alone on these unknown shores was a little alleviated by the necessity 

 he was placed in of living away from the human race. The cruel fate 

 which the fairy Noirjabarde had destined him from his birth, had banished 

 him for ever from the commerce of men. He had already made a sorrow- 

 ful experiment ; and his solitude was the less afflicting, when he thought 

 that at least his sight was fatal to no one. 



He was consoled in his griefs by the pleasure of a quiet and tranquil 

 life, if Love had not aided the cruel fairy to distress him but he loved. 

 Devoured in secret by an increasing flame, he sighed night and day ; and, 

 to add to his sorrow, he did not even know the name of the person he 

 loved : he only possessed her portrait. Occupied without ceasing with the 

 pleasure of gazing on it, it augmented every moment his passion and his 

 regret. " I love," said he. " Love has inflicted on me his most violent 

 displeasure. I do not know whom I love ; and I can never hope to see 

 her whom my sight would deprive of life. My sight, so fatal to all mor- 

 tals, would destroy her whom I adore ! Oh, ye gods ! to what a cruel 

 punishment have you condemned me !" Such were the reflections of this 

 unhappy prince. 



Very often he went to walk in an island planted with oranges, which 

 nearly joined the one he inhabited. One day he fell asleep there, and 



