In spite of all outward prosperity, Ortnit was lonely and unhappy.  One day, while he was strolling along the seashore at sunset, he saw a misty castle rise slowly out of the waves.  On its topmost tower he beheld a fair maiden, with whom he fell deeply in love at first sight.  As he was gazing spellbound at the lady’s beauty, castle and maiden suddenly vanished; and when Ortnit asked his uncle, Ylyas (Elias), Prince of the Reussen, what this fantastic vision might mean, he learned that the castle was the exact reproduction of the stronghold of Muntabure, and the maiden a phantom of Princess Sidrat, daughter of the ruler of Syria, which the Fata Morgana, or Morgana the fay, had permitted him to behold.

    “As the weary traveler sees,
      In desert or prairie vast,
    Blue lakes, overhung with trees,
      That a pleasant shadow cast;

    “Fair towns with turrets high,
      And shining roofs of gold,
    That vanish as he draws nigh,
      Like mists together rolled.” 
                         LONGFELLOW, Fata Morgana.

Of course Ortnit vowed that he would go and ask the maiden’s hand in marriage; and although his uncle warned him that Machorell, the girl’s father, beheaded all his daughter’s suitors, to use their heads as decorations for his fortifications, the young king persisted in this resolve.

[Sidenote:  Ortnit and the magic ring.] Forced to go by sea in order to reach Syria, Ortnit had to delay his departure until suitable preparations had been made.  During that time his mother vainly tried to dissuade him from the undertaking.  Finally, seeing that nothing could deter him from going in search of the lovely maiden he had seen, she slipped a ring on his hand, and bade him ride out of town in a certain direction, and dismount under a lime tree, where he would see something marvelous.

“’If thou wilt seek the adventure, don thy armor strong;
Far to the left thou ride the towering rocks along. 
But bide thee, champion, and await, where grows a linden tree;
There, flowing from the rock, a well thine eyes will see.

“’Far around the meadow spread the branches green;
Five hundred armed knights may stand beneath the shade, I ween. 
Below the linden tree await, and thou wilt meet full soon
The marvelous adventure; there must the deed be done.’”
Heldenbuch (Weber’s
tr.).

Ortnit obeyed these instructions, dismounted in a spot which seemed strangely familiar, and, gazing inquisitively around him, became aware of the presence of a lovely sleeping infant.  But when he attempted to take it in his arms he found himself sprawling on the ground, knocked over by a single blow from the child’s tiny fist.  Furious at his overthrow, Ortnit began wrestling with his small assailant; but in spite of his vaunted strength he succeeded in pinioning him only after a long struggle.