With the royal robe Labakan seemed also to have assumed a royal mood and he began really to persuade himself that he must be a king’s son in disguise, and he therefore decided to leave the place, where the people all seemed too stupid to recognise his worth. It seemed to him as though the splendid robe had been sent to him by some good fairy and to be too precious a gift to be despised, and so, putting the little money he possessed into his pockets, he slipped through the gates of Alexandria, his flight being covered by the darkness of the night. The new prince caused a good deal of surprise amongst the people of the towns he passed through, for it was not usual to see a man so handsomely arrayed walking on foot, but on being questioned he would reply in dignified tones that he had his own reasons for so travelling. This, however, did not satisfy the folks, and when he found he was making a laughing-stock of himself, he spent part of his money in purchasing a broken-down old horse, which he obtained for a very small sum, and which suited him excellently, because its quiet pace called for little display of horsemanship and therefore did not betray the fact that he was an unskilful rider. One day, as he rode carefully along upon old Murva, as he had named his horse, he was joined by another rider, who requested permission to travel in his company, as converse made the time pass more pleasantly and quickly. This rider was a cheery young fellow, and very good-looking. He questioned Labakan as to whence he came and whither he was going, and it appeared that he too was riding about at present merely for his own pleasure. He told his new friend that his name was Omar and that he was the nephew of Elfi Bey, the unfortunate Pasha of Cairo, and that his uncle had made a communication to him shortly before his death which would presently necessitate his taking a journey in a certain direction. Labakan was not quite so communicative as his companion, but he intimated that he came of very high parentage and was travelling for his own pleasure. The two young men seemed mutually pleased with each other and on the second day Labakan had become sufficiently familiar with him to ask him what was the communication Elfi Bey had made to him, and was much surprised to hear the following: Elfi Bey had brought up Omar from his earliest youth and he had never known his own parents. But the Pasha, being defeated and mortally wounded by his enemies, thought the right time had now come to tell his adopted nephew that, instead of being his nephew, he was really the son of a mighty ruler, who had removed the young prince from his court on account of a prophecy the astrologers had made concerning him, and who had declared he would not see his son again until his two-and-twentieth birthday.