were going to impale me!” “And for what,” cried the lady, feigning astonishment, “would they have used you so cruelly?  Surely you must have committed some enormous crime.”  “Not the least,” replied Buddir ad Deen; “it was for nothing but a mere trifle, the most ridiculous thing you can imagine.  All the crime I was charged with, was selling a cream-tart that had no pepper in it.”  “As for that matter,” said the beautiful lady laughing heartily, “I must say they did you great injustice.”  “Ah!” replied he, “that was not all.  For this cursed cream-tart was every thing in my shop broken to pieces, myself bound and fettered, and flung into a chest, where I lay so close, that methinks I am there still, but thanks be to God all was a dream.”

Buddir ad Deen was not easy all night.  He awoke from time to time, and put the question to himself, whether he dreamed or was awake.  He distrusted his felicity; and, to be sure whether it was true or not, looked round the room.  “I am not mistaken,” said he; “this is the same chamber where I entered instead of the hunch-backed groom of the stables; and I am now in bed with the fair lady designed for him.”  Day-light, which then appeared, had not yet dispelled his uneasiness, when the vizier Shumse ad Deen, his uncle, knocked at the door, and at the same time went in to bid him good morrow.

Buddir ad Deen was extremely surprised to see a man he knew so well, and who now appeared with a different air from that with which he pronounced the terrible sentence of death against him.  “Ah!” cried Buddir ad Deen, “it was you who condemned me so unjustly to a kind of death, the thoughts of which make me shudder, and all for a cream-tart without pepper.”  The vizier fell a laughing, and to put him out of suspense, told him how, by the ministry of a genie (for hunch-back’s relation made him suspect the adventure), he had been at his palace, and had married his daughter instead of the sultan’s groom of the stables; then he acquainted him that he had discovered him to be his nephew by the memorandum of his father, and pursuant to that discovery had gone from Cairo to Bussorah in quest of him.  “My dear nephew,” added he, embracing him with every expression of tenderness, “I ask your pardon for all I have made you undergo since I discovered you.  I resolved to bring you to my palace before I told you your happiness; which ought now to be so much the dearer to you, as it has cost you so much perplexity and distress.  To atone for all your afflictions, comfort yourself with the joy of being in the company of those who ought to be dearest to you.  While you are dressing yourself I will go and acquaint your mother, who is beyond measure impatient to see you; and will likewise bring to you your son, whom you saw at Damascus, and for whom, without knowing him, you shewed so much affection.”