Huon burned with indignation at seeing his uncle with forehead encircled with a rich turban, surmounted with a crescent of precious stones.  His natural candor made him receive with pain the embraces which the treacherous Governor lavished upon him.  Meanwhile the hope of finding a suitable moment to reproach him for his apostasy made him submit to those honors which his uncle caused to be rendered to him.  The Governor evaded with address the chance of being alone with Huon and spent all the morning in taking him through his gardens and palace.  At last, when the hour of dinner approached, and the Governor took him by the hand to lead him into the dining-hall, Huon seized the opportunity and said to him in a low voice, “O my uncle!  O Prince, brother of the Duke Sevinus! in what condition have I the grief and shame of seeing you!” The Governor pretended to be moved, pressed his hand, and whispered in his ear, “Silence! my dear nephew; to-morrow morning I will hear you fully.”

Huon, comforted a little by these words, took his seat at the table by the side of the Governor.  The Mufti, some Cadis, Agas, and Santons, filled the other places.  Sherasmin sat down with them; but Floriac, who would not lose sight of his guests, remained standing, and passed in and out to observe what was going on within the palace.  He soon perceived a number of armed men gliding through the passages and antechambers connected with the dining-hall.  He was about to enter to give his guests notice of what he had seen when he heard a violent noise and commotion in the hall.  The cause was this.

Huon and Sherasmin were well enough suited with the first course and ate with good appetite; but the people of their country not being accustomed to drink only water at their meals, Huon and Sherasmin looked at one another, not very well pleased at such a regimen.  Huon laughed outright at the impatience of Sherasmin, but soon, experiencing the same want himself, he drew forth Oberon’s cup and made the sign of the cross.  The cup filled and he drank it off, and handed it to Sherasmin, who followed his example.  The Governor and his officers, seeing this abhorred sign, contracted their brows and sat in silent consternation.  Huon pretended not to observe it, and having filled the cup again handed it to his uncle, saying, “Pray, join us, dear uncle; it is excellent Bordeaux wine, the drink that will be to you like mother’s milk.”  The Governor, who often drank in secret with his own favorite Sultanas the wines of Greece and Shiraz, never in public drank anything but water.  He had not for a long time tasted the excellent wines of his native land; he was sorely tempted to drink what was now handed to him, it looked so bright in the cup, outshining the gold itself.  He stretched forth his hand, took the brimming goblet, and raised it to his lips, when immediately it dried up and disappeared.  Huon and Sherasmin, like Gascons as they were, laughed at his astonishment.  “Christian dogs!”