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, when the princess could no longer conceal
from him the unhappy treatment she had been subject 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 to even
worse treatment by an invisible agency, he determined to declare the
marriage to be cancelled, and all the festivities, which were yet to
last for several days, to be 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; and 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