Once upon a time there were two kings, each of whom was childless. And each one set out on a journey to discover a remedy that would make it possible for a child to be born to him. Now fate led both kings to the cave of an old sorcerer on the same day, and the sorcerer met with them at the same time. And after each had explained what it was that he sought, the two kings were amazed to discover that they both were on the same quest—each searching for a remedy so that he might be blessed with a child of his own.
After they had spoken, the sorcerer said to them: I have read in the stars that each of you is destined to have a child, one a boy and one a girl. And I have also read there that these two are destined to marry. If you permit their marriage to take place, you and your descendants will share a great blessing. But if you keep them apart, for any reason, many will suffer before they are reunited. Then the sorcerer stood up, and the kings left the cave. But before they parted they each vowed that if one had a boy and the other a girl, the children would be betrothed.
It happened that before a year had passed the two kings had each become fathers, one to a beautiful boy, and the other to a lovely girl. But the demands of their kingdoms were very great and the distractions endless, and so it happened that they both forgot about their vows concerning their son and daughter. And when their children came of age, they sent them off to study in a foreign land. And fate caused them both to study under a famous scholar, who was, in fact, the sorcerer who had predicted their birth.
In this way the prince and princess met, and knew from the first that they loved each other, and wanted to be wed. Yet even though the sorcerer saw this, he did not reveal their destiny to them, for he wanted them to stay together solely by the power of their love. So it was that the prince and the princess were together every day for several years. When the studies came to an end, he returned to his kingdom and she to hers. But when they were apart each became dejected, and soon it became plain for all to see that they were unhappy, but no one knew why it was.
At last the king who was the father of the prince asked him what was wrong, and why he had become so sad. Then the prince revealed his love for the foreign princess, and when the king heard this, and learned who she was, he recognized the father of the princess to be the king with whom he had made a vow to betroth their children. Therefore he wrote a letter to the other king, and reminded him of the vow, and suggested that their children should now be wed. And he gave the letter to the prince, and sent him to deliver it in person to the king.
Now when the king who was the father of the princess had received the prince and read the letter, he grew afraid, for he had forgotten about the vow he had made with the prince's father.
And he had since made an engagement between the princess and a prince whose father ruled a rich and powerful kingdom.
So it was that the king decided to delay the prince for as long as possible, until the princess had been wed to another. He then invited the prince to remain with him in the palace, so that he might observe him, and see if he had been properly prepared to be a ruler. But the king also left orders that the prince was not to be permitted to see the princess, nor was she to be told of his presence there.
In this way the prince and princess remained apart, although they were both living in the same palace. But one day the princess overheard two of the servants whispering about the prince, and learned in which chamber he was staying. Then she made a point of passing in front of that chamber as often as possible.
Before long the prince caught a glimpse of her in his mirror, and soon they managed to meet in secret. Then the princess told the prince how her father had betrothed her to another, and they decided to run away together that very night.
So it was that the prince and the princess climbed out of their windows at midnight, and ran together until they reached the ship of the prince. They set sail in the middle of the night, and by the time it was discovered that they were missing, they were already far away. They continued to sail together for a long time, until they were in need of fresh food and water. Soon afterward they spied an island on which fruit trees could be seen growing, and they sailed there, docked the ship, and walked together in the forest. There the princess climbed a fruit tree and tossed the fruit that she picked down to the prince, who filled up a sack with it. But it happened that a wealthy merchant's son was passing near that island in a ship, and he was observing the island with his telescope. In this way he happened to see the princess in the tree, and was astonished at her beauty. He had his ship brought to shore, and he set out with several sailors, armed with weapons, to capture the lovely girl in the tree, and to make her come with him whether she wanted to or not.
Now when the princess, from the vantage point in the tree, saw the men coming in their direction, and saw the long swords they carried, she told the prince to hide and not to reveal himself, no matter what happened. Then she tossed her ring to him, which he caught, and she vowed that even if they were separated, they would still one day be reunited. The prince hid himself in the dense woods, and saw the merchant's son and his men arrive at the foot of the tree, but there was nothing he could do about it, for he was unarmed.
At first the merchant's son spoke sweetly to the princess, but when she refused to reply he ordered his men to cut the tree down. And then, when she saw that she could not escape, the princess descended from the tree and returned with the merchant's son to the ship. But before she climbed on the ship, the princess made the merchant's son vow not to touch her until they were married in his land. And even though she was his prisoner, he agreed to this vow, for he was smitten with love for her, and hoped to win her love as well. Nor would the princess tell him who she was, but she promised him that once they were wed she would reveal the secret, but until then he must not ask to know. And this condition, too, the merchant's son agreed to honor. So it was that the princess entertained him on that voyage by playing various musical instruments, and the time quickly passed.
When the day came that the ship approached the land of the merchant's son, filled with much valuable merchandise, the princess told the merchant that the proper thing to do would be for him to go to his home and inform his family that he was bringing with him the one who would become his bride. The merchant agreed to this, and also to the request of the princess that all of the sailors on the ship should be given wine to drink, so that they would share in their celebration.
In this way the merchant's son left the ship to inform his family, and the sailors began to drink. Before long they were all drunken, and they decided to leave the ship to look around the town. And when she had the ship to herself, the princess untied it from its moorings and unfurled the sails and set sail by herself.
Meanwhile the family of the merchant's son all came down to the harbor to greet his bride-to-be. But when they found the ship gone, including all the merchandise it had carried, the merchant was furious with his son, and asked him what had happened.
All the merchant's son could say was Ask the sailors, and when they searched for the sailors they found them sprawled drunken on the ground, and neither then, nor later, when they were sober again, did they have any idea at all of what had happened to the ship. So it was that the merchant, in a great rage, drove his son out of his house, to become a wanderer in the world.
Meanwhile the princess continued to sail the ship, intent on searching for her lost love. As it happened, she sailed by the kingdom of a king who had built his palace on the shore of the sea. And that king liked to watch the passing ships with his telescope.
So it was that he noticed a ship sailing by that seemed to be empty, and sailing without any guidance. Then he sent his sailors to catch up with it, to bring it into port. This they did, and in this way the princess was again captured, and became a pris oner of the king.
But when the king met his lovely prisoner, who had been sailing the ship by herself, he was greatly struck with her beauty and royal bearing, and he desired to marry her. This she agreed to do on three conditions: that the king not touch her until after their wedding; that her ship not be unloaded until the same time, so that all might, see how much she had brought the king, and so that none would say that she had come empty-handed; and, finally, she asked that she be given eleven ladies-in-waiting, to remain with her in her palace chamber. The king agreed to these conditions, and made plans for a lavish wedding. So too did he sent to her the daughters of eleven lords of his kingdom, to serve as her ladies-in-waiting. And before long they had all become good friends, and they all played musical instruments together to amuse themselves.
One day before the wedding the princess invited her ladiesin- waiting to go with her onto the deck of the ship, to see what a ship was like. They all were glad to join her there, for they had never before been on a ship, and greatly enjoyed themselves.
Then the princess offered them the good wine that she had found stored there, and they drank the wine and soon became intoxicated and fell asleep. Then the princess went and untied the moorings and raised the sails and once again escaped with the ship.
Now when the king was told that the ship was no longer docked, he became afraid that the princess would be distressed to hear it was missing, for he did not know that it was she who had taken it. But when they looked for her in her chamber, they did not find her there, nor did they find her ladies-in-waiting. Finally they realized that the princess and her ladies had disappeared along with the ship, and the lords who were the fathers of the ladies were enraged, and forced the king to give up his throne, and afterward drove him from the land, so that he too became a wanderer in the world.
Now the princess and the eleven ladies were already far away at sea when the ladies awoke. And when they saw that they had sailed far beyond the shore, they were afraid and wanted to turn back, for they had never sailed in a ship. But the princess said to them: Let us tarry here awhile. So they did, but when the ladies asked her why she had left the harbor, the princess said that a storm had arisen, and she had been afraid that the ship might have been broken in the harbor—therefore she had set out to sea. And soon afterward a storm did arise, and the ladies saw that they could not turn back, but were at the mercy of the currents.
And when the storm subsided, they found themselves alone at sea, with no idea of how to seek out the land they had left, so they agreed to sail with the princess until they should reach land somewhere.
So they continued to journey at sea, the princess and the eleven ladies. At last they came to an island, and landed there, hoping to find fresh food and water. But. it turned out that this was an island of bloodthirsty pirates, and when their sentries saw the ladies on the island, they approached them with their weapons drawn, and brought them to the chief pirate among them, asking if they might kill them right then and there.
Now when they stood before the pirate chief, the princess spoke for the others and said: We too are pirates, but while you are pirates who use force, we are pirates who use wisdom. If you were wise the twelve of you—for there were twelve pirates in all—would each take one of us for a wife, and make use of our wisdom, which will surely help you to become far richer. And for our part we will each contribute a twelfth of the merchandise we have captured as pirates, which you will find on our ship. Now the chief among the pirates was taken with the great beauty of the princess, and thought to himself how nice it would be to take her for a wife. So too did he think that what she had said made sense, and when the pirates saw all the wealth in the ship, which the princess had taken from the merchant's son, they agreed that they were indeed fine pirates. Therefore the pirates agreed among themselves that they would each, according to his rank, choose a lady to take for a wife. And after the chief of the pirates had chosen the princess, and the other pirates had made their choices among the ladies, the princess invited them to share the fine wine that they had on their ship.
So the princess poured out twelve goblets of wine for them, and the pirates drank until they all became drunk and fell asleep.
Then she spoke to the ladies and said: Now let us go and each kill her man, and they went and slaughtered them all. And there, on that island, they found such great wealth as is not possessed by any king. There was such an abundance that they resolved to take only the gold and precious gems, and unloaded all the merchandise from the ship, to make room for it. In this way they filled the whole ship with treasures, and prepared to set sail. But before they did, the princess had each of them sew a uniform to wear, so that they would all look like sailors, and then they set out to sea.
Once again they sailed for a long time, until they reached a distant port. There they docked the ship and descended into the city, wearing the sailors' uniforms that they had sewn. They roamed about the city, looking very much like men, and in this way they reached the center of the town, where they heard a great commotion and saw many people ail running in one direction.
One of the ladies inquired as to what was the matter, and she learned that the king of that country had just died childless, and that in such a case it was the custom of the country to have the queen go up to the roof of the palace and from there to throw down the dead king's crown. And on whomever's head it fell, that person became king.
Now the princess had hardly heard of this custom when she was struck with a heavy object, which landed on her head. She cried out, Oh, my head! But immediately she was surrounded by the viziers and wise men of the kingdom, who raised her onto their shoulders and cried out: Long live our king! The crown had indeed fallen on her head, and since she was wearing men's clothing, no one knew that she was a woman.
When the funeral of the former king was over, the wedding between the new king and the old king's widow was to take place. But the viziers, seeing that the new king was very young, preferred to marry the new king to the daughter of the chief vizier.
The old queen agreed that this could be done, for she no longer wished to rule, and the wedding was set for the very next day.
Now the princess, disguised as a man, was afraid of what would happen when the truth came out, and she did not know what to do. Finally she called in the daughter of the vizier, and after pledging her to secrecy, she confessed that she was a woman, and told her the story of how she had been traveling with the other ladies, and how they had just come into port in that city and reached the center of town when the crown had landed on her head. The girl promised to help her, and together they worked out an excuse for postponing the wedding.
Meanwhile the disguised princess had the sculptors of the city brought into the palace, and ordered them to make many sculptures of the new king's head, and to put these up at every crossroad and at every road leading to and from the city. Soldiers were to be stationed at every spot where a sculpture was placed, and they were commanded to arrest anyone who stopped and showed great emotion at the sight of it.
It happened that three such people came along, and were arrested. The first was the prince who was the true bridegroom of the princess. The second was the son of the merchant whose ship the princess had seized, and who had afterward been banished by his father. And the third to be arrested was the king who had been driven out of his kingdom because the princess had sailed off with the eleven daughters of the high lords. For each had recognized the features of the princess, even though the sculpture represented a man.
Then, on the day of the wedding, the princess had these three brought into her presence, and she asked them what had happened to them since she had last seen them, and they told her their stories. The prince who was her true love had journeyed all over the world in search of her. He had come to the kingdom where she had escaped with the merchant's boat, and had passed through the kingdom where the king had been driven out because the princess had escaped with the eleven ladies.
And he had also found the island of the pirates, and found their bodies there, along with the clothes of the princess and the ladies.
So it was that he had sailed after them and reached that kingdom, which was the closest to the island of the pirates, and he had been searching for her there when he had come upon the sculpture of the king who was about to be crowned, and had recognized her face. So too had the merchant's son and the deposed king traveled around the world, seeking only their daily bread, and wondering why such disaster had befallen them.
And when the princess had heard what they had to say, she turned first to the king who had lost his kingdom and said: You, king, were driven out because of the eleven ladies who were lost. Take back your ladies. Return to your country and your kingdom, where you will surely be welcomed. And to the merchant's son she said: Your father drove you out because of a ship filled with merchandise that was lost. Now you can take back your ship, which is filled with much more valuable treasures, whose worth is many times that which you had in it before.
Finally she turned to the prince who was her true bridegroom:
It is you to whom I was betrothed before any other.
Come, let us be married to each other. Then the princess called in all the viziers and ministers, and revealed that she was not a man, but a beautiful woman. And she showed them the ring the prince carried with him, which she had given him in the forest before she had been captured by the merchant's son, which proved that it was he to whom she was truly betrothed. And the viziers were so impressed with the character of the prince and princess that they asked them to remain among them as their king and queen, and this they agreed to do.
That day the prince and princess were married in a great celebration, and afterward they ruled with an evenhanded mercy that all admired, and they lived happily ever after.