the word was no
sooner given that the African magician was fallen backwards, than
the door was immediately opened.
As soon as Alla ad Deen entered the hall, he saw the magician
stretched backwards on the sofa. The princess rose from her seat,
and ran overjoyed to embrace him; but he stopped her, and said,
"Princess, it is not yet time; oblige me by retiring to your
apartment; and let me be left alone a moment, while I endeavour
to transport you back to China as speedily as you were brought
from thence."
When the princess, her women and eunuchs, were gone out of the
hall, Alla ad Deen shut the door, and going directly to the dead
body of the magician, opened his vest, took out the lamp, which
was carefully wrapped up, as the princess had told him, and
unfolding and rubbing it, the genie immediately appeared.
"Genie," said Alla ad Deen, "I have called to command thee, on
the part of thy good mistress this lamp, to transport this palace
instantly into China, to the place from whence it was brought
hither." The genie bowed his head in token of obedience, and
disappeared. Immediately the palace was transported into China,
and its removal was only felt by two little shocks, the one when
it was lifted up, the other when it was set down, and both in a
very short interval of time.
Alla ad Deen went to the princess's apartment, and embracing her,
said, "I can assure you, princess, that your joy and mine will be
complete tomorrow morning." The princess, guessing that Alla ad
Deen must be hungry, ordered the dishes, served up in the great
hall, to be brought down. The princess and Alla ad Deen ate as
much as they thought fit, and drank of the African magician's old
wine; during which time their conversation could not be otherwise
than satisfactory, and then they retired to their own chamber.
From the time of the transportation of Alla ad Deen's palace,
the princess's father had been inconsolable for the loss of her.
He could take no rest, and instead of avoiding what might
continue his affliction, he indulged it without restraint. Before
the disaster he used to go every morning into his closet to
please himself with viewing the palace, he went now many times in
the day to renew his tears, and plunge himself into the deepest
melancholy, by the idea of no more seeing that which once gave
him so much pleasure, and reflecting how he had lost what was
most dear to him in this world.
The very morning of the return of Alla a
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