Thus did Virgilius restore peace and order to the city . Now about this time there came to be noised abroad the fame of the daughter of the sultan who ruled over the province of Babylon , and indeed she was said to be the most beautiful princess in the world . Virgilius , like the rest , listened to the stories that were told of her , and fell so violently in love with all he heard that he built a bridge in the air , which stretched all the way between Rome and Babylon . He then passed over it to visit the princess , who , though somewhat surprised to see him , gave him welcome , and after some conversation became in her turn anxious to see the distant country where this stranger lived , and he promised that he would carry her there himself , without wetting the soles of his feet . The princess spent some days in the palace of Virgilius , looking at wonders of which she had never dreamed , though she declined to accept the presents he longed to heap on her . The hours passed as if they were minutes , till the princess said that she could be no longer absent from her father . Then Virgilius conducted her himself over the airy bridge , and laid her gently down on her own bed , where she was found next morning by her father . She told him all that had happened to her , and he pretended to be very much interested , and begged that the next time Virgilius came he might be introduced to him . Soon after , the sultan received a message from his daughter that the stranger was there , and he commanded that a feast should be made ready , and , sending for the princess delivered into her hands a cup , which he said she was to present to Virgilius herself , in order to do him honour . When they were all seated at the feast the princess rose and presented the cup to Virgilius , who directly he had drunk fell into a deep sleep . Then the sultan ordered his guards to bind him , and left him there till the following day . Directly the sultan was up he summoned his lords and nobles into his great hall , and commanded that the cords which bound Virgilius should be taken off , and the prisoner brought before him . The moment he appeared the sultan 's passion broke forth , and he accused his captive of the crime of conveying the princess into distant lands without his leave . Virgilius replied that if he had taken her away he had also brought her back , when he might have kept her , and that if they would set him free to return to his own land he would come hither no more . ` Not so ! ' cried the sultan , ` but a shameful death you shall die ! ' And the princess fell on her knees , and begged she might die with him . ` You are out in your reckoning , Sir Sultan ! ' said Virgilius , whose patience was at an end , and he cast a spell over the sultan and his lords , so that they believed that the great river of Babylon was flowing through the hall , and that they must swim for their lives . So , leaving them to plunge and leap like frogs and fishes , Virgilius took the princess in his arms , and carried her over the airy bridge back to Rome .
Now Virgilius did not think that either his palace , or even Rome itself , was good enough to contain such a pearl as the princess , so he built her a city whose foundations stood upon eggs , buried far away down in the depths XXXXX the sea .
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