After Queen Gulnare had received them with all imaginable honour, and made them sit down upon a sofa, the queen her mother addressed herself to her:  “Daughter,” said she, “I am overjoyed to see you again after so long an absence; and I am confident that your brother and your relations are no less so.  Your leaving us without acquainting any one with your intention, involved us in inexpressible concern; and it is impossible to tell you how many tears we have shed on your account.  We know of no reason that could induce you to take such a resolution, but what your brother related to us respecting the conversation that passed between him and you.  The advice he gave you seemed to him at that time advantageous for settling you in the world, and suitable to the then posture of our affairs.  If you had not approved of his proposal, you ought not to have been so much alarmed; and give me leave to tell you, you took his advice in a different light from what you ought to have done.  But no more of this; it serves only to renew the occasion of our sorrow and complaint, which we and you ought to bury forever in oblivion; give us now an account of all that has happened to you since we saw you last, and of your present situation, but especially let us know if you are married.”

Gulnare immediately threw herself at her mother’s feet, and kissing her hand, “Madam,” said she, “I own I have been guilty of a fault, and I am indebted to your goodness for the pardon which you are pleased to grant me.  What I am going to say, in obedience to your commands, will soon convince you, that it is often in vain for us to have an aversion for certain measures; I have myself experienced that the only thing I had an abhorrence to, is that to which my destiny has led me.”  She then related the whole of what had befallen her since she quitted the sea for the earth.  As scon as she had concluded, and acquainted them with her having been sold to the king of Persia, in whose palace she was at present; “Sister,” said the king her brother, “you have been wrong to suffer so many indignities, but you can properly blame nobody but yourself; you have it in your power now to free yourself, and I cannot but admire your patience, that you could endure so long a slavery.  Rise, and return with us into my kingdom, which I have reconquered from the proud usurper who had made himself master of it.”

The king of Persia, who heard these words from the closet where he stood, was in the utmost alarm; “Ah!” said he to himself, “I am ruined, and if my queen, my Gulnare, hearken to this advice, and leave me, I shall surely die, for it is impossible for me to live without her.”  Queen Gulnare soon put him out of his fears.