In the meantime, the Indian having pursued his journey for several hours, alighted in a wood, near the capital of Cashmere. As he was hungry himself, and doubted not but the princess was so too, he left her by the side of a brook and flew away on the horse to the city to procure provisions. The princess made the best use in her power of his absence; and though faint for want of food, she traveled on, and had got a considerable distance from the place where he left her, when she had the mortification to see him return and alight close by her; for the Indian had wished to be set down wherever the princess was, and the horse always obeyed the desire of the rider.
The Indian produced some wine and provisions, and ate heartily, urging her to follow his example, which she thought it best to do. When they had done, he drew near and began to pay his addresses to the princess, which she repulsed with indignation. Her outcries drew a company of horsemen to her assistance.
They proved to be the sultan of Cashmere and his attendants, returning from a day's hunting. When the sultan asked of the Indian why he annoyed the lady, he boldly answered that she was his wife; but the princess, though she knew not the quality of the sultan, besought his protection, and declared that by the basest deceit only she had been thrown into the power of such a reptile.
The sultan of Cashmere was very chivalrous. The disorder and distress of the princess added to her beauty and interested the monarch. Judging that, whether the Indian was the husband of the lady or not, he would be best out of the way, he pretended to be much enraged against him, and ordered his head to be stuck off immediately. He then conducted the princess to his palace, and directed his attendants to bring the horse after them, though he knew nothing of the use of it.
The princess of Bengal rejoiced at her deliverance. She entertained hopes that the sultan of Cashmere would generously restore her to the prince of Persia; but she was much deceived; for as soon as the sultan learned that she was daughter to the king of Bengal, he determined to marry her, and that no untoward circumstances might happen to prevent it, he gave orders for the necessary preparations to be completed by the next day.
In the morning the princess was awakened early by the sounding of trumpets, the beating of drums, and other noisy tokens of public joy, which echoed through the palace and city. On her asking the cause of this rejoicing, she was told it was to celebrate her marriage with their sultan, which was to take place presently.
The princess' attachment to Firouz would have made any other man disagreeable to her. But this conduct of the sultan of Cashmere in proclaiming their nuptials, without even having asked her consent, at once enraged and terrified her. She was entirely in his power; and the disrespect he had paid her convinced her that she had everything to fear from his violence, if she refused to comply with his wishes.
Thus critically situated, she had recourse to art. She arose and dressed herself fancifully, and in her whole behavior appeared to her women to be unsettled in her intellect. The sultan was soon told of his misfortune, and on his approach she put on the appearance of frenzy, and endeavored to fly at him; and this fury she ever after affected whenever he came in her sight. The sultan was much disturbed at this unfortunate event, as he thought it, and offered large rewards to any physician who could cure her, but the princess would not suffer any one to come near her, so that all hope of her recovery began to be despaired of.
During this interval, Firouz, disguised as a dervish, had traveled through many provinces, full of grief, and uncertain which way to direct his course in search of his beloved princess. At last, passing through a town in India, he heard an account that a princess of Bengal had run mad on the day of the celebration of her nuptials with the sultan of Cashmere. Slender as was the hope that such a report gave him, he resolved to travel to the capital of that kingdom; where, when he arrived, he had the happiness to find he had not journeyed in vain. He learned all the particulars of her having been delivered from the Indian by their sultan, and that the very next day she was seized with madness.
Firouz saw at once the reason of the princess' conduct, and was delighted with this tender proof of her love and constancy to him. All the difficulty which remained was to obtain an opportunity of speaking to her. To gain this, he put on the clothes of a physician, and, presenting himself to the sultan, undertook to cure the princess.