Next morning as the day dawned , Desire went down to the stable and saddled his pretty white horse . Then he went , all dressed for a journey , to the bedside of Tubby , and found him smoking his first pipe . ` Father , ' he said gravely , ' I have come to bid you farewell . Last night I dreamed that I was walking in a wood , where the trees were covered with golden apples . I gathered one of them , and when I opened it there came out a lovely princess with a golden skin . That is the wife I want , and I am going to look for her . ' The Lord of Avesnes was so much astonished that he let his pipe fall to the ground ; then he became so diverted at the notion of his son marrying a yellow woman , and a woman shut up inside an orange , that he burst into fits of laughter . Desire waited to bid him good-bye until he was quiet again ; but as his father went on laughing and showed no signs of stopping , the young man took his hand , kissed it tenderly , opened the door , and in the twinkling of an eye was as at the bottom of the staircase . He jumped lightly on his horse , and was a mile from home before Tubby had ceased laughing . ' A yellow wife ! He must be mad ! fit for a strait waistcoat ! ' cried the good man , when he was able to speak . ` Here ! quick ! bring him back to me . ' The servants mounted their horses and rode after the Prince ; but as they did not know which road he had taken , they went all ways except the right one , and instead of bringing him back they returned themselves when it grew dark , with their horses worn out and covered with dust . III When Desire 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 Desire felt the sun so warm , that he thought he must now be near the place of his dream .
He was XXXXX 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 .
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