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