But as spoil-sport, marriage-parting Fate is always a hindrance to
the steps of Love, it fell out that the Prince was summoned to hunt
a great wild boar which was ravaging the country. So he was
forced to leave his wife. But as he loved her more than his life, and
saw that she was beautiful beyond all beautiful things, from this
love and beauty there sprang up the feeling of jealousy, which is a
tempest in the sea of love, a piece of soot that falls into the pottage
of the bliss of lovers--which is a serpent that bites, a worm that
gnaws, a gall that poisons, a frost that kills, making life always
restless, the mind unstable, the heart ever suspicious. So, calling
the fairy, he said to her, "I am obliged, my heart, to be away from
home for two or three days; Heaven knows with how much grief I
tear myself from you, who are my soul; and Heaven knows too
whether, ere I set out, my life may not end; but as I cannot help
going, to please my father, I must leave you. I, therefore, pray you,
by all the love you bear me, to go back into the flower-pot, and not
to come out of it till I return, which will be as soon as possible."

"I will do so," said the fairy, "for I cannot and will not refuse what
pleases you. Go, therefore, and may the mother of good luck go
with you, for I will serve you to the best of my power. But do me
one favour; leave a thread of silk with a bell tied to the top of the
myrtle, and when you come back pull the thread and ring, and
immediately I will come out and say, Here I am.'"

The Prince did so, and then calling a chamberlain, said to him,
"Come hither, come hither, you! Open your ears and mind what I
say. Make this bed every evening, as if I were myself to sleep in it.
Water this flower-pot regularly, and mind, I have counted the
leaves, and if I find one missing I will take from you the means of