and placed
herself in front of the Sultan. He, however, took no notice of her.
She went every day for a week, and stood in the same place.

When the council broke up on the sixth day the Sultan said to his
vizir: "I see a certain woman in the audience-chamber every day
carrying something in a napkin. Call her next time, that I may find
out what she wants."

Next day, at a sign from the vizir, she went up to the foot of the
throne, and remained kneeling till the Sultan said to her: "Rise, good
woman, and tell me what you want."

She hesitated, so the Sultan sent away all but the vizir, and bade her
speak freely, promising to forgive her beforehand for anything she
might say. She then told him of her son's violent love for the
princess.

"I prayed him to forget her," she said, "but in vain; he threatened to
do some desperate deed if I refused to go and ask your Majesty for the
hand of the princess. Now I pray you to forgive not me alone, but my
son Aladdin."

The Sultan asked her kindly what she had in the napkin, whereupon she
unfolded the jewels and presented them.

He was thunderstruck, and turning to the vizir said: "What sayest
thou? Ought I not to bestow the princess on one who values her at such
a price?"

The vizir, who wanted her for his own son, begged the Sultan to
withhold her for three months, in the course of which he hoped his son
would contrive to make him a richer present. The Sultan granted this,
and told Aladdin's mother that, though he consented to the marriage,
she must not appear before him again for three months.

Aladdin waited patiently for nearly three months, but after two had
elapsed his mother, going into the city to buy oil, found everyone
rejoicing, and asked what was going on.

"Do you not know," was the answer, "that the son of the grand-vizir is
to marry the Sultan's daughter to-night?"

Breathless, she ran and told Aladdin, who was overwhelmed at first, but
presently bethought him of the lamp. He rubbed it, and the genie
appeared, saying: "What is thy will?"

Aladdin replied: "The Sultan, as thou knowest, has broken his promise
to me, and the vizir's son is to have the princess. My command is that
to-night you bring hither the bride and bridegroom."

"Master, I obey," said the genie.

Aladdin then went to his chamber, where, sure enough at midnight the
genie transported the bed containing the vizir's son and the princess.

"Take this new-married man," he s