"
This touched Cherry on his weak point--his good impulses faded; he
resolved once more to ask Zelia if she would marry him, and, if she
again refused, to sell her as a slave. Arrived at the cell in which
she was confined, what was his astonishment to find her gone! He knew
not who to accuse, for he had kept the key in his pocket the whole
time. At last, the foster-brother suggested that the escape of Zelia
might have been contrived by an old man, Suliman by name, the prince's
former tutor, who was the only one who now ventured to blame him for
anything that he did. Cherry sent immediately, and ordered his old
friend to be brought to him, loaded heavily with irons. Then, full of
fury, he went and shut himself up in his own chamber, where he went
raging to and fro, till startled by a noise like a clap of thunder.
The Fairy Candide stood before him.
"Prince," said she, in a severe voice, "I promised your father to give
you good counsels, and to punish you if you refused to follow them. My
counsels were forgotten, my punishments despised. Under the figure of
a man, you have been no better than the beasts you chase: like a lion
in fury a wolf in gluttony, a serpent in revenge, and a bull in
brutality. Take, therefore, in your new form the likeness of all these
animals."
Scarcely had Prince Cherry heard these words, than to his horror he
found himself transformed into what the fairy had named.
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