for he perceived that
people eyed him with suspicion, and well they might. Having found a
shop, he entered, and desired to be immediately fitted with a prince's
suit. The master tailor, knowing by his proud air that he was a Prince,
and supposing he had been on some youthful adventure, and had thus lost
his clothes, was delighted to serve him, and, running to the shelves and
drawers, pulled out all the princes' suits, and spread them before his
customer. The Prince selected some very handsome clothes, and, having
washed himself, put them on, and found they fitted him exactly. He
declared his satisfaction with them, and putting his hand in his pocket
for his purse, found nothing of the kind there, the tailor not
furnishing his clothes in that way. He now remembered that all his money
was in the clothes he had left behind him in the mountain, and explained
his condition to the tailor. The latter, however, had no wish to deal
with princes who had no money, and ordered him to instantly take off the
suit. The Prince, who was strictly honest, was about obeying, when one
of his feet (which were very tender with his much walking) giving him a
sudden pain, he stooped down to see what was in his shoe, and taking it
off, out rolled a magnificent pearl and two sapphires.

"There," said the Prince, picking them up, and handing them to the
tailor, "if these will be of any use to you, you can have them for the
clothes."

The tailor, filled with admiration at the sight of these jewels, and
with the most profound respect for a prince who carried such wealth in
his shoes, accepted them instantly, and the Prince left the shop. But
the good tailor, gazing joyfully at his new-found treasures, was so
conscientious and grateful, that he ran out after the Prince, and gave
him back one of the sapphires as change.

It may as well be here related that the tailor sold the pearl to a
jeweler, who gave him one third of its value, with which he retired into
the country, bought great possessions, and lived in much dignity for
many years. Some time afterward, the Queen Altabec happening to pass the
jeweler's shop, and seeing the pearl in the window, immediately ordered
the execution of the jeweler and the seizure of the pearl, which she
placed above all the other jewels in the tip-top of her crown, where it
still remains. As for the sapphire, the tailor's wife put that away for
a rainy day; but as the rainy day never came, and she never went to look