16 ALADDIN OR THE
The sultan hearkened to this discourse with a great deal of mildness, but before he gave her any answer, he asked her what she bad brought tied up in that napkin. She took the china dish, untied it, and presented it to the sultan.
The sultan’s amazement and surprise were inexpressible, when he saw so many large, beautiful, and valuable jewels collected in one dish. After he had admired and handled them, one after another, he turned about to his grand vizier, and showing him the dish, said, Is it not worthy of the princess my daughter? And ought I not to bestow her on one who values her at so great a price?
These words put the grand vizier into a strange agitation. The sultan had some time before signified to him his intention of bestowing the princess his daughter on a son of his; therefore, he was afraid, that the sultan might change his mind. Thereupon, going to him, and whispering him in the ear, he said to him, Sir, I cannot but own that the present is worthy of the princess; but I beg of your majesty to grant me three months before you come to a resolution. I hope, before that time, my son, on whom you have had the goodness to look with a favourable eye, will be able to make a nobler present than Aladdin who is an entire stranger to your majesty.
The sultan, though he was very well persuaded that it was not possible for the vizier to provide so considerable a present for his son to make the princess, yet he hearkened to him, and granted him that favour. Turning about to Aladdin’s mother, he said to her, Good woman, tell your son that I agree to the proposal; but I cannot marry the princess my daughter till some furniture I design for her be got ready, which cannot be finished these three months; but at the expiration of that time come again.
Aladdin’s mother returned home much more overjoyed than she could have imagined, and told him all the particulars of the interview. Aladdin thought himself the most happy of all men, at hearing of this news. Though three months seemed an age, yet he disposed himself to wait with patience. When two of the three months were past, his mother one evening going to light the lamp, and finding no oil in the house, went out to buy some, and when she came into the city, found a general rejoicing. Aladdin’s mother asked the oil-merchant what was the meaning of all those doings. Whence came you, good woman, said he, that you don’t know that the grand vizier’s son is to marry the princess Badroulboudour, the sultan’s daughter to-night?
This was news enough for Aladdin’s mother. She ran till she was quite out of breath home to her son, Child, cried she, you are undone! the grand vizier’s son is to marry the princess Badroulboudour. She then related how she had heard it. At this account, Aladdin was thunderstruck. He bethought himself of the lamp; and went into his chamber, and took it and rubbed it in the same place as before, and immediately the genius appeared, and said to him, What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands; I and the other slaves of the lamp. What I
