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gave him the cup, and he, hearing the princess’s words and seeing her drink in his cup and give him to drink in hers, deemed himself Iskender of the Horns, whenas he saw from her all this love. Then she bent towards him, swaying gracefully from side to side, and laying her hand on his, said, “O my life, here is thy cup with me and mine is with thee; thus do lovers drink one from other’s cup.” Then she kissed[1] his cup and drinking it off, set it down and came up to him and kissed him on the cheek;[2] whereat he was like to fly for joy and purposing to do even as she had done, raised the cup to his mouth and drank it all off, without looking if there were aught therein or not; but no sooner had he done this than he turned over on his back, like a dead man, and the cup fell from his hand.
The Lady Bedrulbudour rejoiced at this and the damsels ran, vying with each other in their haste,[3] and opened the palace-door[4] to Alaeddin, their lord; whereupon he entered and[5] going up to his wife’s pavilion,[6] found her sitting at the table and the Maugrabin before her, as one
