Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/184

140 and she was confounded and could return him no answer. Then he arose and putting off his clothes, placed a sword between himself and her and lay down by her side in the bed, without treason; it sufficed him to prevent [the consummation of] her marriage with the Vizier’s son. Nevertheless, the Lady Bedrulbudour passed the sorriest of nights, never in her life had she known a worse; whilst the Vizier’s son lay in the draught-house and dared not stir for fear of the genie.

When it was morning, the genie presented himself before Alaeddin, without his rubbing the lamp, and said to him, “O my lord, an thou wish aught, command me withal, so I may do it on my head and eyes.” And Alaeddin bade him go carry the bride and bridegroom to their own place. The genie did his bidding in the twinkling of an eye and laying the Vizier’s son with the Lady Bedrulbudour, took them up and set them down in their place in the palace, without their seeing any one; but they were like to die of fright, when they felt themselves carried from place to place. Hardly had the genie set them down and gone out when the Sultan came to visit his daughter; and when the Vizier’s son heard the