e preceding evening. Aladdin,
knowing that this would be so, had already given his commands to the
genie of the lamp; and no sooner were they alone than their bed was
removed in the same mysterious manner as on the preceding evening; and
having passed the night in the same unpleasant way, they were in the
morning conveyed to the palace of the sultan. Scarcely had they been
replaced in their apartment, when the sultan came to make his
compliments to his daughter. The princess could no longer conceal from
him the unhappy treatment she had been subjected to, and told him all
that had happened, as she had already related it to her mother.

The sultan, on hearing these strange tidings, consulted with the grand
vizier; and finding from him that his son had been subjected by an
invisible agency to even worse treatment, he determined to declare the
marriage canceled, and all the festivities, which were yet to last for
several days, countermanded and terminated.

This sudden change in the mind of the sultan gave rise to various
speculations and reports. Nobody but Aladdin knew the secret, and he
kept it with the most scrupulous silence. Neither the sultan nor the
grand vizier, who had forgotten Aladdin and his request, had the least
thought that he had any hand in the strange adventures that befell the
bride and bridegroom.

On the very day that the three months contained in the sultan's
promise expired, the mother of Aladdin again went to the palace, and
stood in the same place in the divan. The sultan knew her again, and
directed his vizier to have her brought before him.

After having prostrated herself, she made answer, in reply to the
sultan: "Sire, I come at the end of three months to ask of you the
fulfillment of the promise you made to my son."

The sultan little thought the request of Aladdin's mother was made to
him in earnest, or that he would hear any more of the matter. He
therefore took counsel with his vizier, who suggested that the sultan
should attach such conditions to the marriage that no one of the
humble condition of Aladdin could possibly fulfill. In accordance with
this suggestion of the vizier, the sultan replied to the mother of
Aladdin: "Good woman, it is true sultans ought to abide by their word,
and I am ready to keep mine, by making your son happy in marriage
with the princess my daughter. But as I cannot marry her without some
further proof of your son being able to support her in royal state,