It was about this time that the fairies suddenly took fright lest his love for his father should interfere with the plans they had made for the young prince . So , to prevent this , they placed in a pretty little room of which Saphir was very fond a little mirror in a black frame , such as were often brought from Venice . The Prince did not notice for some days that there was anything new in the room , but at last he perceived it , and went up to look at it more closely . What was his surprise to see reflected in the mirror , not his own face , but that of a young girl as lovely as the morning ! And , better still , every movement of the girl , just growing out of childhood , was also reflected in the wonderful glass . As might have been expected , the young Prince lost his heart completely to the beautiful image , and it was impossible to get him out of the room , so busy was he in watching the lovely unknown . Certainly it was very delightful to be able to see her whom he loved at any moment he chose , but his spirits sometimes sank when he wondered what was to be the end of this adventure . The magic mirror had been for about a year in the Prince 's possession , when one day a new subject of disquiet seized upon him . As usual , he was engaged in looking at the girl , when suddenly he thought he saw a second mirror reflected in the first , exactly like his own , and with the same power . And in this he was perfectly right . The young girl had only possessed it for a short time , and neglected all her duties for the sake of the mirror . Now it was not difficult for Saphir to guess the reason of the change in her , nor why the new mirror was consulted so often ; but try as he would he could never see the face of the person who was reflected in it , for the young girl 's figure always came between . All he knew was that the face was that of a man , and this was quite enough to make him madly jealous . This was the doing of the fairies , and we must suppose that they had their reasons for acting as they did . When these things happened Saphir was about eighteen years old , and fifteen years had passed away since the death of his mother . King Peridor had grown more and more unhappy as time went on , and at last he fell so ill that it seemed as if his days were numbered . He was so much beloved by his subjects that this sad news was heard with despair by the nation , and more than all by the Prince . During his whole illness the King never spoke of anything but the Queen , his sorrow at having grieved her , and his hope of one day seeing her again . All the doctors and all the water-cures in the kingdom had been tried , and nothing would do him any good . At last he persuaded them to let him lie quietly in his room , where no one came to trouble him .
Perhaps the worst pain he had XXXXX bear was a sort of weight on his chest , which made it very hard for him to breathe .
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