Whilst the two women were executing the fairy’s commands, she went up to prince Ahmed, and whispering him in the ear, said, “Prince, I commend your compassion, which is worthy of you and your birth.  I take great pleasure in gratifying your good intention; but permit me to tell you I am afraid it will be but ill rewarded.  This woman is not so sick as she pretends to be; and I am much mistaken if she is not sent hither on purpose to occasion you great trouble.  But do not be concerned, let what will be devised against you; be persuaded that I will deliver you out of all the snares that shall be laid for you.  Go and pursue your journey.”

This address of the fairy’s did not in the least alarm prince Ahmed.  “My princess,” said he, “as I do not remember I ever did, or designed to do, any body injury, I cannot believe any one can have a thought of injuring me; but if they have, I shall not forbear doing good whenever I have an opportunity.”  So saying, he took leave of the fairy, and set forward again for his father’s capital, where he soon arrived, and was received as usual by the sultan, who constrained himself as much as possible, to disguise the anxiety arising from the suspicions suggested by his favourites.

In the mean time, the two women to whom Perie Banou had given her orders conveyed the sorceress into an elegant apartment, richly furnished.  They first set her down upon a sofa, with her back supported by a cushion of gold brocade, while they made a bed on the same sofa, the quilt of which was finely embroidered with silk, the sheets of the finest linen, and the coverlid cloth of gold.  When they had put her into bed (for the old sorceress pretended that her fever was so violent she could not help herself in the least), one of the women went out, and returned soon with a china cup in her hand, full of a certain liquor, which she presented to the sorceress, while the other helped her to sit up.  “Drink this,” said the attendant, “it is the water of the fountain of lions, and a sovereign remedy against fevers.  You will find the effeft of it in less than an hour’s time.”

The sorceress, the better to dissemble, took it, after a great deal of entreaty, as if she did it with reluctance.  When she was laid down again, the two women covered her up:  “Lie quiet,” said she, who brought her the china cup, “and get a little sleep, if you can:  we will leave you, and hope to find you perfectly recovered when we return an hour hence.”

The sorceress, who came not to act a sick part long, but to discover prince Ahmed’s retreat, being fully satisfied in what she wanted to know, would willingly have declared that the potion had then had its effeft, so great was her desire to return to the sultan, to inform him of the success of her commission:  but as she had been told that the potion did not operate immediately, she was forced to wait the women’s return.