And with this the father had to rest content.

Not long afterwards the good King died, and two days later the Fairy appeared to Prince Cheri.

“I promised your father to be your friend,” she told him; “here is a little gold ring, take care of it, for it is worth more than diamonds.  Every time that you are about to do any wrong action it will prick you.  If, in spite of the pricks, you continue your bad actions, you will lose my friendship and I shall become your enemy.”

Saying this the Fairy vanished, leaving the Prince very much astonished.

For some time Cheri behaved so well that the ring did not prick at all, but one day when he returned from the chase, having caught nothing, he felt so ill-humoured, that when his dog Bibi came fawning upon him, he kicked the poor, faithful creature from him.  At that moment the ring pricked like a pin running into his finger.

“What is this?” he exclaimed:  “the Fairy must be mocking me, surely I’ve done no great harm in kicking an animal that annoyed me.  What’s the use of being ruler of a great empire if I may not treat my dog as I will?”

“I am not mocking you,” he heard in reply to his thoughts; “you have been bad tempered, and you have behaved unkindly to a poor animal who did not deserve such treatment.  I know you are higher than a dog, but the advantage of being ruler of a great empire is not in doing all the harm one wishes, but in doing all the good one can.”

Cheri promised to be better, but he did not keep his word, and so the ring often pricked him, sometimes until his finger bled, and at last, in anger, he threw it away.

Now he thought he would be truly happy, and he gave way to any foolish fancies and wrong wishes that came into his head, until he really became very wicked and was disliked by everyone.

One day when he was out walking he saw a girl named Zelie, who was so beautiful that he resolved to marry her.

But Zelie was as good as she was beautiful, and said to him: 

“Sir, I am only a shepherdess and have no fortune, but, in spite of that, I will never marry you, for although I should be a Queen, and you are handsome and rich, your evil behaviour would make me hate you.”

Upon this, Cheri flew into a passion, and ordered his officers to carry Zelie to the Palace, but she was not used unkindly there, for the Prince loved her.

However, after a while, urged by his foster-brother, a bad man who encouraged Cheri in his wickedness, the young man rushed in a rage to the room in which Zelie was confined, determined that, if she still refused to marry him, the very next day she should be sold as a slave.

Great was his surprise, on entering the apartment, to find the captive had disappeared, for he carried the key of the door in his pocket.

[Illustration:  Painted by Jennie Harbour ZELIE AND THE FAIRY CANDIDE “PRINCE CHERI”]