The magic mirror had been for about a year in the Prince 's possession , when one day a new subject of disquiet seized upon him . As usual , he was engaged in looking at the girl , when suddenly he thought he saw a second mirror reflected in the first , exactly like his own , and with the same power . And in this he was perfectly right . The young girl had only possessed it for a short time , and neglected all her duties for the sake of the mirror . Now it was not difficult for Saphir to guess the reason of the change in her , nor why the new mirror was consulted so often ; but try as he would he could never see the face of the person who was reflected in it , for the young girl 's figure always came between . All he knew was that the face was that of a man , and this was quite enough to make him madly jealous . This was the doing of the fairies , and we must suppose that they had their reasons for acting as they did . When these things happened Saphir was about eighteen years old , and fifteen years had passed away since the death of his mother . King Peridor had grown more and more unhappy as time went on , and at last he fell so ill that it seemed as if his days were numbered . He was so much beloved by his subjects that this sad news was heard with despair by the nation , and more than all by the Prince . During his whole illness the King never spoke of anything but the Queen , his sorrow at having grieved her , and his hope of one day seeing her again . All the doctors and all the water-cures in the kingdom had been tried , and nothing would do him any good . At last he persuaded them to let him lie quietly in his room , where no one came to trouble him . Perhaps the worst pain he had to bear was a sort of weight on his chest , which made it very hard for him to breathe . So he commanded his servants to leave the windows open in order that he might get more air . One day , when he had been left alone for a few minutes , a bird with brilliant plumage came and fluttered round the window , and finally rested on the sill . His feathers were sky-blue and gold , his feet and his beak of such glittering rubies that no one could bear to look at them , his eyes made the brightest diamonds look dull , and on his head he wore a crown . I can not tell you what the crown was made of , but I am quite certain that it was still more splendid than all the rest . As to his voice I can say nothing about that , for the bird never sang at all . In fact , he did nothing but gaze steadily at the King , and as he gazed , the King felt his strength come back to him .
In a little while the bird flew into the room , still with his eyes fixed on the XXXXX , and at every glance the strength of the sick man became greater , till he was once more as well as he used to be before the Queen died .
King day days first left old plumage right second year