old tutor could
treat him so! He ordered his men to arrest the supposed offender, put
him in chains, as if he were a murderer, and bring him to court.

No sooner was the order given than there was a tremendous roar of
thunder. The ground was still shaking when the Fairy Truth appeared.

"Until now, Prince Darling," the fairy said sternly, "I have been very
gentle with you. You have been very wicked, but I have done no more
than warn you that you were doing wrong and becoming the very sort of
man your father, the good King, wanted you NOT to be. Now I must take
stronger measures, for you have paid no attention to my warnings.

"Really you are more like the wild animals than a man and a prince. You
roar with anger like a lion. You are greedy for fine food and clothes
and a good time, as a wolf is greedy for its prey. You are untrue to
your friends, like a treacherous snake. You even turn upon the kind
tutor who was your father's firmest friend, and who would like to help
you, too, if you would let him. You are as disagreeable as an angry
bull, that keeps everyone out of its neighborhood, because everyone
knows it is not safe to go near."

The Fairy's voice now roared forth in terrible tones, which made Prince
Darling shake from head to heel:

"Therefore, I condemn you to have a hideous body like your ugly
character--part lion, part wolf, part snake, and part bull."

The Prince put his hand to his head, because he felt as if he should
weep at this awful sentence. He found his face covered with a lion's
shaggy beard; a bull's horns had grown out of his skull. He looked at
his feet: they were those of a wolf. His body was the long slimy body
of a snake.

The palace had disappeared, and he stood beside a clear lake in a deep
forest. He shuddered with horror when he saw his reflection in the
lake. His horror turned to rage when he heard the Fairy Truth say:

"Your punishment has just begun. Your pride will be hurt still more
when you fall into the hands of your own subjects. And that is what is
going to happen to you."

Just as the Fairy said the Prince fell into the hands of his subjects,
and in a most humiliating way, for he was caught in a trap which had
been set to catch bears. Thus he was captured alive and led into the
chief city of the kingdom.

There was no mourning in the town because of the Prince's death, by a
thunderbolt, as they supposed. Instead, there was great rejoicing, for
Suliman had been made K