to be supposed you can ever be contradicted with impunity."

This touched Cherry on his weak point--his good impulses faded; he
resolved once more to ask Zelia if she would marry him, and if she again
refused, to sell her as a slave. Arrived at the cell in which she was
confined, what was his astonishment to find her gone! He knew not whom
to accuse, for he had kept the key in his pocket the whole time. At
last, the foster-brother suggested that the escape of Zelia might have
been contrived by an old man, Suliman by name, the prince's former
tutor, who was the only one who now ventured to blame him for anything
that he did. Cherry sent immediately, and ordered his old friend to be
brought to him, loaded heavily with irons. Then, full of fury, he went
and shut himself up in his own chamber, where he went raging to and fro,
till startled by a noise like a clap of thunder. The fairy Candide stood
before him.

"Prince," said she, in a severe voice, "I promised your father to give
you good counsels and to punish you if you refused to follow them. My
counsels were forgotten, my punishment despised. Under the figure of a
man, you have been no better than the beasts you chase: like a lion in
fury, a wolf in gluttony, a serpent in revenge, and a bull in brutality.
Take, therefore, in your new form the likeness of all these animals."

Scarcely had Prince Cherry heard these words than to his horror he found
himself transformed into what the Fairy had named. He was a creature
with the head of a lion, the horns of a bull, the feet of a wolf, and
the tail of a serpent. At the same time he felt himself transported to
a distant forest, where, standing on the bank of a stream, he saw
reflected in the water his own frightful shape, and heard a voice
saying: