“Miranda,” said Prospero, “tell me what you are looking at yonder.”

“O father,” said Miranda, in a strange surprise, “surely that is a spirit.  How it looks about!  Believe me, sir, it is a beautiful creature.  Is it not a spirit?”

“No, girl,” answered her father; “it eats, and sleeps, and has senses such as we have.  This young man you see was in the ship.  He is somewhat altered by grief, or you might call him a handsome person.  He has lost his companions, and is wandering about to find them.”

Miranda, who thought all men had grave faces and gray beards like her father, was delighted with the appearance of this beautiful young prince; and Ferdinand, seeing such a lovely lady in this desert place, and from the strange sounds he had heard, expecting nothing but wonders, thought he was upon an enchanted island, and that Miranda was the goddess of the place, and as such he began to address her.

She timidly answered, she was no goddess, but a simple maid, and was going to give him an account of herself, when Prospero interrupted her.  He was well pleased to find they admired each other, for he plainly perceived they had (as we say) fallen in love at first sight:  but to try Ferdinand’s constancy, he resolved to throw some difficulties in their way:  therefore advancing forward, he addressed the prince with a stern air, telling him, he came to the island as a spy, to take it from him who was the lord of it.  “Follow me,” said he, “I will tie you neck and feet together.  You shall drink sea-water; shell-fish, withered roots, and husks of acorns shall be your food.”  “No,” said Ferdinand, “I will resist such entertainment, till I see a more powerful enemy,” and drew his sword; but Prospero, waving his magic wand, fixed him to the spot where he stood, so that he had no power to move.

Miranda hung upon her father, saying, “Why are you so ungentle?  Have pity, sir; I will be his surety.  This is the second man I ever saw, and to me he seems a true one.”

“Silence,” said the father:  “one word more will make me chide you, girl!  What! an advocate for an impostor!  You think there are no more such fine men, having seen only him and Caliban.  I tell you, foolish girl, most men as far excel this, as he does Caliban.”  This he said to prove his daughter’s constancy; and she replied, “My affections are most humble.  I have no wish to see a goodlier man.”

“Come on, young man,” said Prospero to the prince; “you have no power to disobey me.”

“I have not indeed,” answered Ferdinand; and not knowing that it was by magic he was deprived of all power of resistance, he was astonished to find himself so strangely compelled to follow Prospero:  looking back on Miranda as long as he could see her, he said, as he went after Prospero into the cave, “My spirits are all bound up, as if I were in a dream:  but this man’s threats, and the weakness which I feel, would seem light to me if from my prison I might once a day behold this fair maid.”