"But wait!" cried Magor. "Watch well to-night."
"Be not uneasy," said Prince Erian. "Meanwhile permit us to promenade in your magnificent garden."
They inspected the palace from top to bottom and went through the garden. They saw some very strange things, and much that they saw was calculated to make a very serious impression on their minds. That which most affected the friends of the young Princess was the spectacle of a wall along which were ranged the statues of many Knights.
Some stood with clubs uplifted as if for combat. Others were in an attitude of supplication, while still others, with muscles strained and eyes filled with fire, seemed to be having a hand-to-hand contest with the terrible Sorcerer; but they had all been vanquished and turned to stone by his power.
"These unfortunate men," said the Princess, "have been transformed into statues for attempting to rescue me from the King of the Magicians. I have been the innocent cause of the misfortune of these brave men, and I bring misery to all who interest themselves in my sad fate."
"Then why do you not fly from this desolate palace?" Prince Erian asked. "Are you never free from this Magician? He has such power over you?"
"Alas!" replied the Princess, "I am not the mistress of my destiny, and when the King of the Magicians commands me I must obey. His power over me is boundless. He can change me into a bird that flies, into a grain of dust blown about by the wind, or into a flower that perfumes the garden. He can send me a million leagues away, and I can neither resist his caprice nor oppose his cruel tyranny. Those who love me perish. He is so powerful, the others are so weak!"
"Ah, well!" exclaimed the Prince, "I shall not die, I will deliver you from the talons of this cruel vulture! I will take you away from this castle, a thousand times accursed since it is your prison!"
"Alas!" said the Princess, "I fear that you also will suffer defeat. Are you a magician, are you a sorcerer, that you can contend against Magor?"