The grand vizier’s son, who was almost perished with cold because of 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 bedside and kissed the princess on the forehead, but was extremely surprised to see her look so melancholy. He questioned her, but she only cast him a sorrowful look, expressive of great affliction. He suspected there was something extraordinary in this silence, and 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 met her mother with sighs and tears, and signs of deep dejection. At last, her mother pressing on her the duty of telling her all her thoughts, she gave to the sultaness a precise description of what had 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
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