The prince replied, it will be best, then, to make the cure without seeing her, that you may be witness of my skill:  though I cannot, without impatience, put off seeing a princess of her rank, who is to be my wife, yet, out of respect to you, I will deprive myself of that pleasure for a little while.  Being furnished with every thing proper for an astrologer, and taking pen, ink, and paper, out of his pocket, wrote this billet to the princess.

Prince Camaralzaman to the Princess of China.

Adorable princess!—­The love-sick prince Camaralzaman will not trouble you with the pains that he has endured ever since the fatal night when your charms deprived him of that liberty which he resolved to preserve as long as he lived:  he only tells you, that he devoted his heart to you in your charming slumbers; those slumbers which hindered him from beholding the brightness of your piercing eyes, in spite of all his endeavours to oblige you to open them.  He presumed to present you with his ring as a token of his passion, and, in exchange, would be proud to receive yours, which he encloses in this billet.  If you will condescend to return it as a reciprocal assurance of your love, he will reckon himself the happiest of all lovers:  if not, the sentence of death, which your fatal refusal brings him, will be received with the more resignation, because he dies for love of you.  He waits in your anti-chamber for your answer.

When the prince had finished his billet, he made it up, and enclosed with it the ring in a little packet, without letting the eunuch see what he did.  When he sealed it, he gave it to him:  There, friend, said he, carry it to your mistress.  If it does not cure her as soon as she reads it, and sees what is enclosed in it, I give you leave to tell every body that I am the most ignorant and impudent astrologer that ever was, is, or ever will be.

The eunuch entering the princess of China’s chamber, gave her the packet he received from prince Camaralzaman.  Madam, said he, the boldest astrologer that ever lived, if I am not mistaken, is arrived here, and pretends that, on reading this letter, and seeing what is in it, you will be cured:  I wish he may prove neither a liar nor an impostor.

The princess Badoura took the billet, and opened it with a great deal of indifference, but, on seeing the ring, she had not patience to read it through; she rose hastily, broke the chair; which held her down with struggling, and ran and opened the door.  She knew the prince the moment she saw him, and he her; they presently embraced each other with all imaginable tenderness, and, without being able to say a word for excess of joy, they looked on one another, admiring how they met again after their first interview.  The princess’s nurse, who ran to the door with her, made them come into her chamber, where the princess Badoura gave the prince her ring, saying, Take it, I cannot fairly keep it without restoring yours, which I will never part with:  neither yours nor mine can be in better hands.