Altoun-Khan, seeing Calaf unshakable in his resolution, was keenly afflicted at it. ‘Ah! bold young man,’ he said, ‘your destruction is assured since you persist in asking for my daughter. Heaven is witness that I have done all I can to inspire reasonable sentiments in you; you reject my advice, and prefer to perish to following it. Do not let us speak of it any more. You shall soon receive the reward of your foolish persistency. I consent to your undertaking to answer the questions of Tourandot. But I must first do you the honours which I am accustomed to offer to the princes who seek alliance with me.’

At these words, he called the chief of the first corps of eunuchs; he ordered him to conduct Calaf to the prince’s palace, and to give him two hundred eunuchs to wait upon him.

Hardly had the prince arrived in the palace to which he had been conducted than the principal mandarins came to salute him, that is to say they fell on their knees and lowered their heads to the ground, saying one after another: ‘Prince, the perpetual servant of your illustrious race comes to make reverence to you in that capacity.’ Then they made him presents and retired.

The king, however, who felt a great friendship for the son of Timurtasch and had compassion on him, sent for the most talented, or at least the most famous professor of his royal college, and said to him: ‘Doctor, there is at my court a new prince who asks for my daughter. I have spared nothing to deter him, but in vain. I would wish you to bring him to reason with your eloquence; it is for that I summon you here.’

The doctor obeyed; he went to see Calaf and had a very long conversation with him. Then he returned to Altoun-Khan and said: ‘My lord, it is impossible to persuade this young prince; he is determined to win the princess or die. When I recognised that it was a mistake to attempt to conquer his resolution, I was curious to see whether his obstinacy had any other foundation than his love. I interrogated him on several different matters and I found him so learned that I was surprised. He is a Mussulman, and he seems to me perfectly instructed in all that appertains to his religion. In fact, to tell your majesty what I think, I believe that if any prince is capable of replying well to the princess’s questions, it is he.’

‘O doctor!’ cried the king, ‘what you say delights me. Please Heaven this prince may become my son-in-law. As soon as I saw him, I felt an affection for him: may he be more fortunate than the others who have come to die in this town!’ The good King Altoun-Khan did not content him­self with making vows for Calaf, he endeavoured to make propitious to him the spirits who preside in the heavens, in the sun and the moon.

To this end he ordered public prayers, and made solemn sacrifices in the temples. By his order a bullock was sacrificed to Heaven, a goat to the sun, and a sucking-pig to the moon. More­over, he had it published in Pekin that everyone should appeal to Heaven in favour of the prince who came to ask for the princess.

After the prayers and sacrifices, the Chinese monarch sent his chancellor to Calaf, to warn him to hold himself in readiness to reply on the morrow to the princess’s questions and to tell him that they would not fail to conduct him to the divan, and that the persons who were to com­pose the assembly had already received the order to appear there.

Determined as was Calaf on the adventure, he did not pass the night without uneasiness. If sometimes he dared to trust to his genius and promise himself a happy success, sometimes, losing this confidence, he represented to himself the shame he would experience if his replies did not please the divan. He also thought sometimes of Elmaze and Timurtasch. ‘Alas!’ he said, ‘if I die, what will become of my father and mother?’

The daylight found him still in this agitated state. He presently heard the sound of several bells and a great noise of drums. He guessed that it was to summon to the council all those who were to appear there. Then, turning his thoughts to Mahomet: ‘O great Prophet!’ he said, ‘you see the state I am in; inspire me. Shall I go to the divan or shall I turn and tell the king that the danger alarms me?’

He had hardly said these words than he felt all his fears melt away and his courage revive; he rose and put on a caftan and a mantle of red silk with gold flowers which Altoun-Khan sent him, with blue silk stockings and shoes.

As he finished dressing six mandarins, with shoes on their feet and dressed in very large robes of a crimson colour, entered his apartment, and after having saluted him in the same manner as those of the preceding day, they told him that they came from the king to conduct him to the divan. He allowed himself to be conducted; they tra­versed a courtyard, walking through a double line of soldiers, and when they had arrived in the first council-hall they found more than a thousand singers and players on instruments, who, singing and playing in concert, made an astonish­ing noise. From there they advanced into the hall where the council was held, a hall which communi­cated with the inner palace. All the persons who were to be present at this assembly were already seated under pavilions of different colours, which were ranged around the hall.

The most prominent mandarins appeared on one side, the chancellor with the professors of the royal college were on the other, and several doctors whose capacity was well known occupied the other places. In the midst were two golden thrones placed on two triangular seats. As soon as Prince Calaf appeared, the noble and learned audience saluted him with every mark of great respect, but without saying a word to him, because everyone, expecting the arrival of the king, kept a profound silence.

The sun was about to rise. As soon as the first rays were seen to shine, two eunuchs opened on both sides the curtains of the door of the inner palace, and immediately the king came out, accom­panied by the Princess Tourandot, who wore a long robe of silken tissue of gold, and a veil of the same stuff which covered her face.

They both mounted their thrones by five silver steps.

When they had taken their places, two young girls of perfect beauty appeared, one at the side of the king and the other at the side of the princess. They were palace slaves of Altoun-Khan. Their faces were uncovered, they had great pearls in their ears, and they stood with a pen and paper, ready to write what the king ordered them.

During this time, all the persons in the assembly who had risen at the sight of Altoun-Khan, remained standing with much gravity and half-closed eyes. Calaf alone looked about everywhere, or rather he looked only at the princess, whose majestic bearing he admired.

When the powerful monarch of China had ordered the mandarins and doctors to be seated, one of the six lords who had conducted Calaf, and who were standing with him at fifteen arms’ lengths from the two thrones, knelt and read a notice con­taining the demand made by this foreign prince for the Princess Tourandot. Then he rose and told Calaf to make three reverences to the king. The Prince of the Nogaïs did so with such grace that Altoun-Khan could not help smiling to show him that he regarded him with pleasure.

Then the chancellor rose from his place and read aloud the fatal edict which condemned to death all the bold lovers who replied ill to the questions of Tourandot. Then addressing Calaf: ‘Prince,’ said he, ‘you have just heard on what conditions the princess can be obtained; if the picture of the present danger makes any impression on your mind, it is still permitted to you to retire.’

‘No,’ replied Prince Calaf; ‘the reward to be gained is too beautiful for me to be cowardly enough to renounce it.’

The king, seeing Calaf resolved to reply to the questions of Tourandot, turned towards the princess, and said to her: ‘My daughter, it is for you to speak; put to this young prince the ques­tions you have prepared, and may it please all the spirits to whom sacrifices were made yesterday, that he may discover the meaning of your words!’

Tourandot at these words said: ‘I call Heaven to witness that it is with regret that I see so many princes die, but why do they persist in wishing me to be theirs, why will they not let me live quietly in my palace, without coming to attack my liberty? Know then, bold young man,’ she added, addressing Calaf, ‘you will have no reproach to make me when, following the example of your rivals, you will have to suffer a cruel death. You alone are the cause of your destruction, since I do not force you to come and ask my hand.’

‘Beautiful princess,’ replied the Prince of the Nogaïs, ‘I know all that can be said on the subject. Put, I pray you, your questions to me, and I am going to try and unravel their meaning.’

‘Well,’ replied Tourandot, ‘tell me what is the creature which belongs to all countries, is beloved by all, and who cannot endure its like?’

‘Madam,’ replied Calaf, ‘it is the sun.’