The three
beautiful princesses turned pale and red, pale and red, and
trembled, and looked down, and cast shy looks at each other, but
said nothing. Meantime, the old woman sat rocking backward and forward
in violent agitation, and now and then breaking out into exclamations,
"That ever I should live to be so insulted!- I, the most faithful of
servants!"
At length, the eldest princess, who had most spirit and always
took the lead, approached her, and laying her hand upon her
shoulder, "Well, mother," said she, "supposing we were willing to
fly with these Christian cavaliers- is such a thing possible?"
The good old woman paused suddenly in her grief, and looking up,
"Possible," echoed she; "to be sure, it is possible. Have not the
cavaliers already bribed Hussein Baba, the renegado captain of the
guard, and arranged the whole plan? But, then, to think of deceiving
your father! your father, who has placed such confidence in me!"
Here the worthy woman gave way to a fresh burst of grief, and began to
rock backward and forward, and to wring her hands.
"But our father has never placed any confidence in us," said the
eldest princess, "but has trusted to bolts and bars, and treated us as
captives."
"Why, that is true enough," replied the old woman, again pausing
in her grief; "he has indeed treated you most unreasonably, keeping
you shut up here, to waste your bloom in a moping old tower, like
roses left to wither in a flower-jar.
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