When Désiré thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his horse
into a walk, like a prudent man who knows he has far to go. He
travelled in this way for many weeks, passing by villages, towns,
mountains, valleys, and plains, but always pushing south, where every
day the sun seemed hotter and more brilliant.
At last one day at sunset Désiré felt the sun so warm, that he thought
he must now be near the place of his dream. He was at that moment close
to the corner of a wood where stood a little hut, before the door of
which his horse stopped of his own accord. An old man with a white
beard was sitting on the doorstep enjoying the fresh air. The Prince
got down from his horse and asked leave to rest.
‘Come in, my young friend,’ said the old man; ‘my house is not large,
but it is big enough to hold a stranger.’
The traveller entered, and his host put before him a simple meal. When
his hunger was satisfied the old man said to him:
‘If I do not mistake, you come from far. May I ask where you are
going?’
‘I will tell you,’ answered Désiré, ‘though most likely you will laugh
at me. I dreamed that in the land of the sun there was a wood full of
orange trees, and that in one of the oranges I should find a beautiful
princess who is to be my wife. It is she I am seeking.’
‘Why should I laugh?’ asked the old man. ‘Madness in youth is true
wisdom. Go, young man, follow your dream, and if you do not find the
happiness that you seek, at any rate you will have had the happiness of
seeking it.’