if you please, that I was at the gate of Damascus in my shirt and drawers, as I am here now; that I entered the town with the halloo of a mob who followed and insulted me; that I fled into a pastry-cook’s, who adopted me, taught me his trade, and left me all he had when he died; and that after his death I kept a shop.  In fine, madam, I had a great number of other adventures too tedious to recount; and all I can say is, that it was not amiss that I awaked, for they were going to nail me to a stake.  Oh, Lord, and for what (cried the lady, feigning astonishment) would they have used you so cruelly?  You must certainly have committed some enormous crime.  Not in the least, replied Bedreddin; it was nothing in the world but a mere trifle, the most ridiculous thing you can think of.  All the crime I was charged with, was selling a cream-tart that had no pepper in it.  As for that matter, said the beautiful lady, laughing heartily, I must say they did you great injustice.  Ah, madam, replied he, that was not all; for this cursed cream-tart was every thing in my shop broken to pieces, and myself bound, fettered, and flung into a chest, where I lay so close, that methinks I am there still.  In fine, a carpenter was sent for, and he was ordered to get ready a stake for me; but, thanks be to God, all these things are no more than a dream.

Bedreddin was not easy all night; he awaked from time to time, and put the question to himself, whether he dreamed or was awake.  He distrusted his felicity; and to ascertain whether it was real or not, opened the curtains, and looked round the room.  I am not mistaken, said he; this is the same chamber which I entered, instead of the hunch-backed groom of the stables, and am now in bed with the fair lady who was designed for him.  Day-light, which then appeared, had not yet dispelled his uneasiness, when the vizier Schemseddin, his uncle, knocked at the door, and went to bid him good-morrow.

Bedreddin was extremely surprised to see, on a sudden, a man whom he knew so well, and who now appeared with a quite different air from that with which he pronounced the terrible sentence of death against him.  Ah! cried Bedreddin, it was you who condemned me so unjustly to a manner of death the thoughts of which make me shrink still; and all for a cream-tart without pepper.  The vizier laughed heartily; but, to put him out of suspense, told him how, by the ministry of a genius, (for Bossu’s relation had made him suspect the adventure) he had been at his house, and had married his daughter instead of the sultan’s groom of the stables; he then acquainted him that he had discovered him to be his nephew by a book written by the hand of Noureddin Ali, and, pursuant to that discovery, had gone from Cairo to Balsora in quest of him.  My dear nephew, added he, with embraces and all the marks of tenderness, I ask your pardon for all I have made you undergo since I discovered you:  I had a mind to bring you to my house before I told you