Schemseddin ordered all his domestics to leave the hall, except two or three, whom he ordered to remain.  These he commanded to go and take Bedreddin out of the chest, to strip him to his shirt and drawers, conduct him in that condition to the hall, leave him there all alone, and shut the door upon him.  Bedreddin, though overwhelmed with grief, had been asleep all the while; insomuch that the vizier’s domestics had taken him put of the chest, and stripped him, before he awaked, and carried him so suddenly into the hall, that they did not give him time to bethink himself where he was.  When he found himself alone in the hall, he looked round, and the objects of his sight recalling to his memory the circumstances of his marriage, he perceived with astonishment that it was the same hall where he had seen the sultan’s groom of the stables.  His surprise was still greater, when, approaching softly to the door of a chamber which he found open, he espied his clothes in the very place where he remembered to have left them on his wedding-night.  My God! said he, rubbing his eyes, am I asleep or awake?

His wife, who in the mean time was diverting herself with his astonishment, suddenly opened the curtains of her bed; and, bending her head forward, My dear lord, said she, with a tender air, what do you there?  Pr’ythee come to bed again; you have been out of it a long time.  I was strangely surprised, when I awaked, at not finding you by me.  Bedreddin’s countenance changed when he perceived that the lady who spoke to him was the charming person he had lain with before; he therefore entered the room; but, calling to mind all that had passed for an interval of ten years, and not being able to persuade himself that it could have happened in one night, he went to the place where his clothes and the purse of sequins lay, and, after examining them very carefully, By Heaven, cried he, these are things that I can by no means comprehend!  The lady, who enjoyed his confusion, said, Once more, I pray you, my lord, come to bed again; why do you stand?  He then stepped towards the bed, and said to her, Pray, madam, tell me, is it long since I left you?  The question, answered she, surprises me.  Did you not rise from me but now?  Your thoughts are surely very busy.  Madam, replied Bedreddin, I do assure you that my thoughts are not very easy.  I remember, indeed, to have been with you; but I remember, at the same time, that I have since lived ten years at Damascus.  Now, if I was actually in bed with you this night, I cannot have been from you so long; these two things are inconsistent.  Pray tell me what to think; whether my marriage with you be an illusion, or whether my absence from you be only a dream, Yes, my lord, cried she; doubtless you were light-headed when you thought you were at Damascus.  Upon this Bedreddin laughed heartily, and said, What a comical fancy is this!  I assure you, madam, this dream of mine will be very pleasant to you.  Do but imagine,