THE ENCHANTED HORSE OF FIROUZ SCHAH 237 



He would have his revenge. He accordingly 

 alighted at the king's country house, where he an- 

 nounced himself as a messenger who had been 

 sent by Firouz Schah to carry the princess into 

 the city. He had no difficulty in persuading the 

 young lady to mount behind on the steed which 

 had already borne her safely from the distant 

 country of Bengal. Then they rose high in the 

 air and hovered for a while above the very road 

 along which the prince and his retinue were pass- 

 ing. Imagine, if you can, the rage and despair 

 of Firouz Schah as, glancing upward, he saw his 

 betrothed carried away, he knew not whither, by 

 the revengeful Hindoo. But he was well aware 

 that neither rage nor despair would rescue her 

 from the villain. He therefore returned with all 

 speed into the city, and, having disguised himself 

 as a dervish, set off on a long and well-nigh hope- 

 less pilgrimage in search of some trace of the lost 

 princess. 



For weeks and months the faithful Firouz 

 Schah wandered hither and thither, but he heard 

 not a word of the enchanted horse and his riders. 

 He visited every city of Persia; he wandered 

 through the deserts of Bokhara ; he traveled east- 

 ward into the mountainland of Tibet— eagerly 



