e him at the
foot of the great staircase. "Aladdin," said the sultan, "I cannot speak
to you till I have seen and embraced my daughter." The happy father was
then led to the princess's apartment and embraced her with his face
bathed in tears of joy. The sultan was some time before he could open
his lips, so great was his surprise and joy to find his daughter again,
after he had given her up for lost; and the princess, upon seeing her
father, let fall tears of rapture and affection.

At last the sultan broke silence, and said: "I would believe, daughter,
your joy to see me makes you seem as little changed as if no misfortune
had befallen you; yet I cannot be persuaded but that you have suffered
much alarm; for a large palace cannot be so suddenly transported as
yours has been, without causing great fright and apprehension. I would
have you tell me all that has happened, and conceal nothing from me."

The princess, who took great pleasure in giving the sultan the
satisfaction he demanded, said: "If I appear so little altered, I beg of
your majesty to consider that I received new life yesterday morning by
the presence of my dear husband and deliverer, Aladdin, whom I looked
upon and bewailed as lost to me. My greatest suffering was to find
myself forced not only from your majesty, but from my dear husband; not
only from the love I bore him, but from the uneasiness I laboured under
through fear that he, though innocent, might feel the effects of your
anger. As to what relates to my transportation, I was myself the
innocent cause of it." To persuade the sultan of the truth of what she
said, she gave him a full account of how the African magician had
disguised himself, and offered to change new lamps for old ones; how she
had amused herself in making that exchange; how the palace and herself
were carried away and transported into Africa, with the magician, who
was recognised by two of her women and the eunuch who made the exchange
of the lamp, when he had the audacity, after the success of his daring
enterprise, to propose himself for her husband; how he persecuted her
till Aladdin's arrival; how they had concerted measures to get the lamp
from him again, and the success they had fortunately met with by her
dissimulation in inviting him to supper, and giving him the cup with the
powder prepared for him. "For the rest," added she, "I leave it to
Aladdin to recount."

Aladdin had not much to tell the sultan, but only said: "W