Enraged and hungry, he hurried back to his lodgings, where he had left Trumkard. On the way, he heard a great many people talking of the beautiful music that, it was reported, the Princess had played at the palace the evening previous. In fact, this matter seemed to be the town talk; but the Prince did not stay to listen to much of it, for he was extremely anxious to get something to eat, and to relate his troubles.
Trumkard did not encourage him much, and proposed that they should continue their journey; but the Prince would not listen to such advice, and as soon as he had finished his breakfast, he went back to the palace in order to try and see his Princess. But all the doors were fastened, and it was evident that there was no admission for the public that day. A great crowd stood around the gates, and they were very much excited about something.
The Prince learned from their discourse that it was thought that the Princess who played so splendidly, could certainly sing as well, and there was a suspicion that the Prime Minister, who had governed the people so long, was afraid of her powers, and had sent her away. Indeed, a certain Habbed-il-Gabbed, who kept a goat's-cheese shop, and who had a cousin who was one of the royal-black-eunuch-guards, had heard from him that the Princess had certainly disappeared, and that the public suspicions were very likely to be correct.
At this news the Prince smote his breast, and became very sad; and all that day and night, and the next day until sundown, he hung around the palace, hoping to get in. Trumkard was with him a great part of the time, and brought him cakes and things to keep him from starving. In the early evening of the second day, the Prince, while walking round the palace, saw a boy come out of a back-alley gate, to empty some ashes. Rushing at him, he seized him, and demanded of him news of the Princess. The boy, however, was deaf and dumb, and could not answer him; and the Prince perceiving this, and being very expert in making signs, asked him in that way what had become of his lady-love. The boy then replied by a sign representing a heavy door, with four locks, a big bar, and a chain; and a black eunuch with a drawn sword, asleep before it.