door."

At this account, Aladdin was thunderstruck, and he bethought himself of
the lamp, and of the genie who had promised to obey him; and without
indulging in idle words against the sultan, the vizier, or his son, he
determined, if possible, to prevent the marriage.

When Aladdin had got into his chamber, he took the lamp, rubbed it in
the same place as before, when immediately the genie appeared, and said
to him, "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave;
I, and the other slaves of the lamp." "Hear me," said Aladdin; "thou
hast hitherto obeyed me, but now I am about to impose on thee a harder
task. The sultan's daughter, who was promised me as my bride, is this
night married to the son of the grand vizier. Bring them both hither to
me immediately they retire to their bedchamber."

"Master," replied the genie, "I obey you."

Aladdin supped with his mother as was their wont, and then went to his
own apartment, and sat up to await the return of the genie, according to
his commands.

In the mean time the festivities in honour of the princess's marriage
were conducted in the sultan's palace with great magnificence. The
ceremonies were at last brought to a conclusion, and the princess and
the son of the vizier retired to the bedchamber prepared for them. No
sooner had they entered it, and dismissed their attendants, than the
genie, the faithful slave of the lamp, to the great amazement and alarm
of the bride and bridegroom, took up the bed, and by an agency invisible
to them, transported it in an instant into Aladdin's chamber, where he
set it down. "Remove the bridegroom," said Aladdin to the genie, "and
keep him a prisoner till to-morrow dawn, and then return with him here."
On Aladdin being left alone with the princess, he endeavoured to assuage
her fears, and explained to her the treachery practiced upon him by the
sultan her father. He then laid himself down beside her, putting a drawn
scimitar between them, to show that he was determined to secure her
safety, and to treat her with the utmost possible respect. At break of
day, the genie appeared at the appointed hour, bringing back the
bridegroom, whom by breathing upon he had left motionless and entranced
at the door of Aladdin's chamber during the night, and at Aladdin's
command transported the couch with the bride and bridegroom on it, by
the same invisible agency, into the palace of the sultan.

At the instant that the genie had set down