ld the helm
of this life." After these and a hundred other ceremonies and
discourses they arose. And so it went on for several days.

But as spoil-sport, marriage-parting Fate is always a hindrance to the
steps of Love, it fell out that the Prince was summoned to hunt a great
wild boar which was ravaging the country. So he was forced to leave his
wife. But as he loved her more than his life, and saw that she was
beautiful beyond all beautiful things, from this love and beauty there
sprang up the feeling of jealousy, which is a tempest in the sea of
love, a piece of soot that falls into the pottage of the bliss of
lovers--which is a serpent that bites, a worm that gnaws, a gall that
poisons, a frost that kills, making life always restless, the mind
unstable, the heart ever suspicious. So, calling the fairy, he said to
her, "I am obliged, my heart, to be away from home for two or three
days; Heaven knows with how much grief I tear myself from you, who are
my soul; and Heaven knows too whether, ere I set out, my life may not
end; but as I cannot help going, to please my father, I must leave you.
I, therefore, pray you, by all the love you bear me, to go back into
the flower-pot, and not to come out of it till I return, which will be
as soon as possible."

"I will do so," said the fairy, "for I cannot and will not refuse what
pleases you. Go, therefore, and may the mother of good luck go with
you, for I will serve you to the best of my power. But do me one
favour; leave a thread of silk with a bell tied to the top of the
myrtle, and when you come back pull the thread and ring, and
immediately I will come out and say, Here I am.'"

The Prince did so, and then calling a chamberlain, said to him, "Come
hither, come hither, you! Open your ears and mind what I say. Make this
bed every evening, as if I were myself to sleep in it. Water this
flower-pot regularly, and mind, I have counted the leaves, and if I
find one missing I will take from you the means of earning your bread."
So saying he mounted his horse, and went, like a sheep that is led to
the slaughter, to follow a boar. In the meanwhile seven wicked women,
with whom the Prince had been acquainted, began to grow jealous; and
being curious to pry into the secret, they sent for a mason, and for a
good sum of money got him to make an underground passage from their
house into the Prince's chamber. Then these cunning jades went through
the passage in order to explore. But