About this time, the Prince made up his mind that he could no longer stand the din and confusion, the everlasting up-setting and setting-up in his native city.  He would go away, and see if he could find the Princess with whom he had eaten a philopena.  If he should win, she would be obliged to marry him; and then, perhaps, they could settle down in some place where it was quiet and peaceful.  So, on the same morning in which the Princess rode away, he put on a handsome suit of black clothes, and mounting a gentle white horse, he rode out of the city.  Only one person saw him go; for, even at that early hour, the people were so busy that little attention was paid to his movements.

About half way between these two cities, in a tall tower which stood upon a hill, there lived an Inquisitive Dwarf, whose whole object in life was to find out what people were doing and why they did it.  From the top of this tower he generally managed to see all that was going on in the surrounding country; and in each of the two cities that have been mentioned he had an agent, whose duty it was to send him word, by means of carrier pigeons, whenever a new thing happened.  Before breakfast, on the morning when the Prince and Princess rode away, a pigeon from the city of the Prince came flying to the tower of the Inquisitive Dwarf.

“Some new building started, I suppose,” said the Dwarf, as he took the little roll of paper from under the pigeon’s wing.  “But no; it is very different!  ’The Prince has ridden away from the city alone, and is travelling to the north.’”

But before he could begin to puzzle his brains about the meaning of this departure, another pigeon came flying in from the city of the Princess.

“Well!” cried the Dwarf, “this is amazing!  It is a long time since I have had a message from that city, and my agent has been drawing his salary without doing any work.  What possibly can have happened there?”

When he read that the Princess had ridden alone from the city that morning, and was travelling to the south, he was truly amazed.

“What on earth can it mean?” he exclaimed.  “If the city of the Prince were to the south of that of the Princess, then I might understand it; for they would be going to see each other, and that would be natural enough.  But as his city is to the north of her city, they are travelling in opposite directions.  And what is the meaning of this?  I most certainly must find out.”

The Inquisitive Dwarf had three servants whom he employed to attend to his most important business.  These were a Gryphoness, a Water Sprite, and an Absolute Fool.  This last one was very valuable; for there were some things he would do which no one else would think of attempting.  The Dwarf called to him the Gryphoness, the oldest and most discreet of the three, and told her of the departure of the Princess.

“Hasten southward,” he said, “as fast as you can, and follow her, and do not return to me until you have found out why she left her city, where she is going, and what she expects to do when she gets there.  Your appearance may frighten her; and, therefore, you must take with you the Absolute Fool, to whom she will probably be willing to talk; but you must see that every thing is managed properly.”