The love and familiarity existing between us would not allow me to refuse him any thing.  I very readily took the oath required of me:  Upon which he says to me, Stay here till I return; I will be with you in a moment:  and accordingly he came with a lady in his hand, of singular beauty, and magnificently apparrelled.  He did not discover who she was, neither did I think it was polite in me to make inquiry.  We sat down again with this lady at table, where we continued some time entertaining ourselves with discourses upon indifferent subjects; and now and then a full glass to drink one another’s health.  After which the prince said, Cousin, we must lose no time, therefore pray oblige me to take this lady along with you, and conduct her to such a place, where you will see a tomb newly built in the form of a dome; you will easily know it; the gate is open; go in there together, and tarry till I come, which will be very speedily.

Being true to my oath, I made no further inquiry, but took the lady by the hand, and by the directions which the prince my cousin had given me, I brought her to the place, by the light of the moon, without losing one step of the way.  We were scarcely got thither, when we saw the prince following after, carrying a little pitcher with water, a hatchet, and a little bag with plaister.

The hatchet served him to break down the empty sepulchre in the middle of the tomb; he took away the stones one after another, and laid them in a corner.  When all this was taken away, he digged up the ground, where I saw a trap-door under the sepulchre, which he lifted up, and underneath perceived the head of a staircase leading into a vault.  Then my cousin, speaking to the lady, said, Madam, it is by this way that we are to go to the place I told you of.  Upon which the lady drew nigh and went down, and the prince began to follow after, but, turning first to me, said, My dear cousin, I am infinitely obliged to you for the trouble you have been at; I thank you:  Adieu.  I cried, Dear cousin, what is the meaning of this?  Be content, replied he; you may return back the same way you came.

Madam, said the calender to Zobeide, I could get nothing further from him, but was obliged to take leave of him; as I returned to my uncle’s palace, the vapours of the wine got up into my head; however, I got to my apartment, and went to bed.  Next morning, when I awaked, I began to reflect upon what befel me the night before, and, after recollecting all the circumstances of such a singular adventure, I fancied it was nothing but a dream.  Being full of these thoughts, I sent to see if the prince my cousin was ready to receive a visit from me; but when they brought back word that he did not lie in his own lodgings that night, they knew not what was become of him, and were in much trouble about it, I conceived that the strange event of the tomb was but too true.  I was sensibly afflicted at it, and, stealing away privately from my people, I went to the public burying-place, where there was a vast number of tombs like that which I had seen.  I spent the day in viewing them one after another, but could not find that I sought for; and thus I spent four days successively in vain.