ow dawn, and then return with him here." On
Aladdin being left alone with the princess, he endeavored 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 the couch with the bride
and bridegroom in their own chamber, the sultan came to the door to
offer his good wishes to his daughter. The grand vizier's son, who was
almost perished with cold, by standing in his thin under-garment all
night, no sooner heard the knocking at the door than he got out of
bed, and ran into the robing-chamber, where he had undressed himself
the night before.

The sultan, having opened the door, went to the bed-side, and kissed
the princess on the forehead, but was extremely surprised to see her
look so melancholy. She only cast at him a sorrowful look, expressive
of great affliction. He suspected there was something extraordinary
in this silence, and thereupon went immediately to the sultaness's
apartment, told her in what a state he found the princess, and how she
had received him.

"Sire," said the sultaness, "I will go and see her. She will not
receive me in the same manner."

The princess received her mother with sighs and tears, and signs of
deep dejection. At last, upon her pressing on her the duty of telling
her all her thoughts, she gave to the sultaness a precise description
of all that happened to her during the night; on which the sultaness
enjoined on her the necessity of silence and discretion, as no one
would give credence to so strange a tale. The grand vizier's son,
elated with the honor of being the sultan's son-in-law, kept silence
on his part, and the events of the night were not allowed to cast the
least gloom on the festivities on the following day, in continued
celebration of the royal marriage.

When night came, the bride and bridegroom were again attended to their
chamber with the same ceremonies as on th