Thereupon the princess began to speak: “Calm yourself! Nothing has fallen through my window; and, outwardly, I am unhurt. But my soul has become [[206]]loosened. It no longer will remain pent in this prison house. Take me out of this place, or, verily, I shall kill myself with longing.”
The nurse returned no answer. She turned and fled to the king, before whom she stood and related, one by one, the words which his daughter had spoken.
The king was thrown into great torment of mind at this news. Again he summoned the doctors and learned men in council. They shook their heads at the revelation which had come to the princess; but, after questioning the nurse carefully and pondering long, they gave this advice:
“O, king, let your daughter, our princess, be removed from her underground abode. But let the removal be most gradual, so that her eyes may become accustomed to the unobstructed light of nature. Also let her walk, each day, a little farther upon the earth’s surface, and then return to her accustomed dwelling place. With care and patience, it is our belief that the princess will, ere long, be able to remain the entire time upon, instead of under, the earth.”
Each day, after this welcome decision, her nurse led the young girl up the staircase and into the rose garden, where everything delighted her unaccustomed eyes. [[207]]
“It is like entering paradise after death!” she exclaimed.
But, most of all, the sea enchanted her. Hour after hour, as the days went by, she sat gazing upon its changing waters. The king, noticing this, asked her one day:
“What is it, my daughter? That thou lovest the sea is plain. But there is desire in thine eyes. What wouldst thou, my child?”
“O, my royal father!” she said, turning to him, “this sea is so splendid that I am thinking of a place from which it would seem fitting to view its waves.”
“Tell me the place you would have, my daughter, and I will set my carpenters at work upon it to-morrow,” answered the king, who could never cease delighting his eyes with sight of his child—dwelling, like other children, upon the surface of the earth.