At this information Prince Wish was so delighted that he made the
courtier a very handsome present, and immediately sent off ambassadors
to demand Princess Darling in marriage.
She accepted his offer at once, and returned with the ambassadors. He
made all haste to meet and welcome her; but when she was only three
leagues distant from his capital, before he had time even to kiss her
hand, the magician who had once assumed the shape of his mother's cat,
Minon, appeared in the air and carried her off before the lover's very
eyes.
Prince Wish, almost beside himself with grief, declared that nothing
should induce him to return to his throne and kingdom till he had
found Darling. He would suffer none of his courtiers or attendants to
follow him; but, bidding them all adieu, mounted a good horse, laid
the reins on the animal's neck, and let him take him wherever he
would.
The horse entered a wide-extended plain, and trotted on steadily the
whole day without finding a single house. Master and beast began
almost to faint with hunger; and Prince Wish might have wished himself
safe at home again, had he not discovered, just at dusk, a cavern,
where there sat, beside a bright lantern, a little woman who might
have been more than a hundred years old.
She put on her spectacles the better to look at the stranger, and he
noticed that her nose was so small that the spectacles would hardly
stay on; then the prince and the fairy,--for it was a fairy--burst
into a mutual fit of laughter.
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