There was one prince who was
so captivated by this likeness, that he shut himself up with it, and
talked to it, as if it had been alive, making love to it in the most
passionate manner, and then falling into a hopeless melancholy.
When his father tried to discover the cause of this--"Sir," said
Prince Warrior (he went by that name, because, young as he was, he had
already gained three battles), "my grief is that you wish me to marry
the Black Princess, while I will only marry the Princess Desiree. I
have seen her portrait, and without her I shall surely die. Behold
her!"
The king looked at the portrait. "Well, my son, I cannot wish for a
more charming daughter-in-law, we will retract our offers for the
Black Princess, and send an ambassador to propose for the Princess
Desiree."
The prince, kissing his father's hand, overwhelmed him with his
gratitude and joy. A courtier, Becafico by name, young and gallant,
was despatched with eighty equipages, a hundred mounted squires, and
the portrait of the Prince Warrior, to ask the Princess Desiree in
marriage. The report of his splendours travelled before him, till it
reached the ears of the king and queen, and of the six fairies, who
were all equally delighted.
"But," said the Fairy Tulip, who was the sagest of them, "beware,
queen, of allowing Becafico to see our child," as they tenderly called
Desiree, "and do not upon any account suffer her to leave her tower
for the kingdom of Prince Warrior until her fifteenth birthday is
past.
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