The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,940 pages of information about The Arabian Nights Entertainments.

The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,940 pages of information about The Arabian Nights Entertainments.

The disguised princess on her return home delivered the twenty pieces of gold to her employer, who was alarmed, and inquired from whence they came:  upon which she informed him of her adventure, when the wallet-maker was in greater terror than before, and said to himself, “If this intrigue goes on, the sultan will discover it, I shall be put to death, and my family ruined on account of this young man and his follies.”  He then besought him not to repeat his visit, but he answered, “I cannot forbear, though I dread my death may be the consequence.”  In short, the disguised princess went every evening with the old nurse to the apartments of the sultan’s daughter, till at length the sultan one night suddenly entered, and perceiving, he supposed, a man with the princess, commanded him to be seized and bound hand and foot.

The sultan then sent for an executioner, resolved to put the culprit to death.  The executioner on his arrival seized the disguised princess; but what was the surprise of all present, when, on taking off the turban and vest, they discovered her sex.  The sultan commanded her to be conducted to his haram, and inquired her story, when having no resource but the truth, she related her adventures.

When the princess had informed the sultan of the treachery of the vizier, the consequent conduct of her father, the distress of her mother, her sisters and herself, their being relieved, and her escape from shipwreck, with what had happened since, he was filled with wonder and compassion, and ordered his daughter to accommodate her in the haram.  The love of the latter was now changed to sincere friendship, and under her care and attentions the unfortunate princess in a few months recovered her former beauty.  It chanced that the sultan visiting his daughter was fascinated with the charms of the princess, but unwilling to infringe the rules of hospitality concealed his love, till at length he became dangerously ill, when the daughter suspecting the matter, prevailed upon him to reveal the cause of his complaint.  She then informed her friend, and entreated her to accept her father in marriage; but the princess said, at the same time weeping bitterly, “Misfortune hath separated me from my family; I know not whether my sisters, my father and my mother, are living, or, if so, what is their condition.  How can I be happy or merry, while they are perhaps involved in misery?”

The daughter of the sultan did not refrain from comforting the unfortunate princess, at the same time representing the hopeless condition of her father, till at length she consented to the marriage.  This joyful intelligence speedily revived the love-lorn sultan, and the nuptials were celebrated with the utmost joy and magnificence.

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The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.