lation, though his ambition made him disguise his feelings so well, that nobody doubted of his being a happy bridegroom.
Aladdin, who was well acquainted with what passed in the palace, was resolved that the troublesome adventure of the night before should again disturb the unhappy pair, and therefore had recourse to his lamp, and when the genie appeared and offered his service, he said to him: “Bring the grand vizier’s son and the Princess Badroulboudour hither to-night, as thou didst yesterday.”
The genie obeyed as faithfully and exactly as the day before; the grand vizier’s son passed the night as coldly and disagreeably, and the princess had the same alarm and mortification. The genie, according to orders, came the next morning, and returned the new-married couple again to the palace.
The sultan, after the reception the princess had given him, was very anxious to know how she had passed the second night, and therefore went into her chamber as early as the morning before. After the same caresses he had given her the former morning, he bade her good-morrow. “Well, daughter,” said he, “are you in a better humour than yesterday?” Still the princess was silent, and the sultan, perceiving her to be in greater confusion than before, doubted not that something very extraordinary was the cause; but provoked that his daughter should conceal it, he said to her in a rage, with his sabre in his hand: “Daughter, tell me what is the matter, or I will cut off your head immediately.”
The princess, more frightened at the tone of the enraged sultan than at the sight of the drawn sabre, at last broke silence, and said with tears in her eyes: ‘‘My dear father and sultan, I ask your majesty’s pardon if I have offended you, and hope that out of your goodness you will have compassion on me.”
[ 138 ]
