would set the palace on fire.  But we very soon had a more pressing occasion of fear; for the genie, having got loose from the princess, came to the gallery where we stood, and blew flames of fire upon us.  We had all perished, if the princess, running to our assistance, had not forced him, by her efforts, to retire and defend himself against her; yet, notwithstanding all her diligence, she could not hinder the sultan’s beard from being burnt, and his face spoiled, the chief of the eunuch’s from being stifled, and burnt on the spot, nor a spark to enter my right eye, and make it blind.  The sultan and I expected nothing but death, when we heard a cry, Victory, victory; and, all of a sudden, the princess appeared in her natural shape, but the genie was reduced to a heap of ashes.

The princess came near to us, and, that she might not lose time, called for a cup of cold water, which the young slave that had got no damage brought her:  She took it, and, after pronouncing some words over it, threw it upon me, saying, If thou art become an ape by enchantment, change thy shape, and take that of a man, which thou hadst before.  These words were hardly uttered till I became a man, as I was before, one eye only excepted.

I was preparing myself to give thanks to the princess, but she prevented me, by addressing herself to her father thus:  Sir, I have got the victory over the genie, as your majesty may see; but it is a victory that costs me dear; I have but a few moments to live, and you will not have the satisfaction to make the match you intended; the fire has pierced me during the terrible combat, and I find it consumes me by degrees.  This would not have happened, had I perceived the last of the pomegranate seeds, and swallowed it as I did the other, when I was changed into a cock.  The genie had fled thither as to his last intrenchment, and upon that the success of the combat depended, which would have been successful, and without danger to me.  This slip obliged me to have recourse to fire, and to fight with those mighty arms as I did between heaven and earth in your presence; for, in spite of all his redoubtable art and experience, I made the genie to know that I understood more than he:  I have conquered and reduced him to ashes, but I cannot escape death, which is approaching.

The sultan suffered the princess, the lady of beauty, to go on with the recital of her combat; and when she had done, he spoke to her in a tone that sufficiently testified his grief.  My daughter, said he, you see in what condition your father is:  Alas!  I wonder that I am yet alive!  Your governor, the eunuch, is dead, and the prince whom you have delivered from his enchantment has lost one of his eyes.  He could speak no more; for his tears, sighs, and sobs, made him speechless; his daughter and I were exceedingly sensible of his sorrow, and wept with him.

In the mean time, while we were striving to outdo one another in grief, the princess cried, I burn; Oh, I burn!  She found that the fire which consumed her had at last seized upon her whole body, which made her still to cry, I burn, until death had made an end of her intolerable pains.  The effect of that was so extraordinary, that in a few moments she was wholly reduced to ashes like the genie.