THE ENCHANTED HORSE OF FIROUZ SCHAH 241 



he fear, for no sooner did the princess see him 

 than all her fierceness returned, and had not the 

 physician closed the door very quickly there is no 

 knowing what might have happened. 



" I find," said he to the sultan, " that the lady's 

 madness was caused by having touched something 

 that was enchanted, perhaps at or about the time 

 that she was brought into Kashmir. If that ob- 

 ject can be found, and she can be induced to touch 

 it again, there is no doubt but that she will recover 

 at once. Otherwise, the case appears to me to be 

 a hopeless one." 



" Touched something enchanted ! " said the sul- 

 tan. " What could it have been ? I cannot think 

 of anything." 



Then he called the officers of his household 

 together and made inquiry ^ of them : "Do 

 you know of any enchanted object that could 

 have been in the way of the princess of Bengal 

 on the evening that she was brought into 

 Kashmir?" 



None of them knew of any such thing. But by 

 and by one, who had been with the soldiers when 

 they killed the Hindoo, remembered that there 

 was an old horse brought into town — a curious 

 old wooden horse, covered with a horse's hide, 



