Next morning before daybreak, the Khan gathered his grandees, and spoke to them as follows: “Let it be known unto you that I yesterday carried off the Tsarévich Khlor, a child of uncommon beauty and prudence. I wish to know perfectly whether all is true that is said of him; and I am determined to employ every means of trying his qualifications.” The grandees having heard the Khan’s words bowed themselves to the girdle. The flatterers among them praised the Khan’s conduct, that he had carried off a child, nay, the child of a neighbouring Tsar. The mean-spirited approved, saying: “Right lord Khan, our hope, whatever you do must be right.” A few of them who really loved the Khan shook their heads, and when the Khan asked why they held their tongues, they told him frankly: “You have done wrong in carrying off the son of a neighbouring Tsar; and you cannot escape misfortune, unless you compensate for this step.” The Khan answered: “Just so,--you are always discontented!” and passed by them. He ordered the Tsarévich to be brought to him as soon as he should awake. The child, seeing that they wished to carry him, said: “Do not trouble yourselves, I can walk. I will go myself.” Having come into the Khan’s kibítka, he bowed to them all, first to the Khan, and then to the rest on the right and left. He then placed himself before the Khan with such a respectful, polite and prudent mien, that he filled all the Kirgíz and the Khan himself with wonder. The Khan, however, recollecting himself, spoke as follows: “Tsarévich Khlor! They say of you that you are a wise child, pray seek me a flower,--a rose without prickles that stings not. Your tutor will show you a wide field. I give you a term of three days.” The child bowing again to the Khan said: “I hear,” and went out of the kibítka to his home. In the way he met the Khan’s daughter, who was married to the Sultan Bryúzga.[138] This man never laughed himself, and could not bear that another should smile. The Sultana, on the contrary, was of a sprightly temper and very agreeable. She, seeing Khlor, said to him: “Welcome, Khlor, how do you do? Where are you going?” The Tsarévich answered: “By order of your father the Khan, I am going to seek the rose without prickles that stings not.” The Sultana Felítsa (that was her name) wondered that they should send a child to seek such a rarity, and, taking a sincere liking to the boy, she said to him: “Tsarévich, stay a little, I will go with you to seek the rose without prickles that stings not, if my father will give me leave.” Khlor went into his kibítka to dine, for it was dinner-time, and the Sultana went to the Khan to ask leave to go with the Tsarévich to seek the rose without prickles that stings not. He did not only not give her leave, but strictly forbade her to go with the child to seek the rose without prickles that stings not.