he
lamp, and vainly wondered who had robbed him of it.

That morning the Princess rose earlier than she had done since she had
been carried into Africa by the magician, whose company she was forced
to endure once a day. She, however, treated him so harshly that he
dared not live there altogether. As she was dressing, one of her women
looked out and saw Aladdin. The Princess ran and opened the window,
and at the noise she made, Aladdin looked up. She called to him to
come to her, and great was the joy of these lovers at seeing each other
again. After he had kissed her Aladdin said: "I beg of you, Princess,
in God's name, before we speak of anything else, for your own sake and
mine, tell me what has become of an old lamp I left on the cornice in
the hall of four-and-twenty windows when I went a-hunting." "Alas," she
said, "I am the innocent cause of our sorrows," and told him of the
exchange of the lamp. "Now I know," cried Aladdin, "that we have to
thank the African magician for this! Where is the lamp?" "He carries
it about with him," said the Princess. "I know, for he pulled it out
of his breast to show me. He wishes me to break my faith with you and
marry him, saying that you were beheaded by my father's command. He is
forever speaking ill of you, but I only reply by my tears. If I
persist, I doubt not but he will use violence." Aladdin comforted her,
and left her for a while. He changed clothes with the first person he
met in the town, and having bought a certain powder returned to the
Princess, who let him in by a little side door. "Put on your most
beautiful dress," he said to her, "and receive the magician with
smiles, leading him to believe that you have forgotten me. Invite him
to sup with you, and say you wish to taste the wine of his country. He
will go for some, and while he is gone I will tell you what to do."
She listened carefully to Aladdin and when he left her, arrayed herself
gaily for the first time since she left China. She put on a girdle and
head-dress of diamonds and seeing in a glass that she was more
beautiful than ever, received the magician, saying, to his great
amazement: "I have made up my mind that Aladdin is dead, and that all
my tears will not bring him back to me, so I am resolved to mourn no
more, and have therefore invited you to sup with me; but I am tired of
the wines of China, and would fain taste those of Africa." The
magician flew to his cellar, and the Princes