apartment, and perceiving a melancholy hang upon her countenance, thought she had not succeeded, and said to her, “By your looks, I guess that your journey has been to no purpose, and that you have not made the discovery I expected from your diligence.”  “Sir,” replied the sorceress, “your majesty must give me leave to represent that you ought not to judge by my looks whether or no I have acquitted myself well in the execution of the commands you were pleased to honour me with; but by the faithful report I shall make you of all that has happened to me, and by which you will find that I have not neglected any thing that could render me worthy of your approbation.  The melancholy you observe proceeds from another cause than the want of success, which I hope your majesty will have ample reason to be satisfied with.  I do not tell you the cause; the relation I shall give will inform you.”

The sorceress now related to the sultan of the Indies how, pretending to be sick, prince Ahmed compassionating her, had her carried into a subterraneous abode, and presented and recommended her to a fairy of incomparable beauty, desiring her by her care to restore her health.  She then told him with how much condescension the fairy had immediately ordered two women to take care of her, and not to leave her till she was recovered; which great condescension, said she, could proceed from no other female, but from a wife to a husband.  Afterwards the old sorceress failed not to dwell on her surprise at the front of the palace, which she said had not its equal for magnificence in the world.  She gave a particular account of the care they took of her, after they had led her into an apartment; of the potion they made her drink, and of the quickness of her cure; which she had pretended as well as her sickness, though she doubted not the virtue of the draught; the majesty of the fairy seated on a throne, brilliant with jewels, the value of which exceeded all the riches of the kingdom of the Indies, and all the other treasures beyond computation contained in that vast palace.

Here the sorceress finishing the relation of the success of her commission, and continuing her discourse, said, “What does your majesty think of these unheard-of riches of the fairy?  Perhaps you will say, you are struck with admiration, and rejoice at the good fortune of prince Ahmed your son, who enjoys them in common with the fairy.  For my part, sir, I beg of your majesty to forgive me if I take the liberty to say that I think otherwise, and that I shudder when I consider the misfortunes which may happen to you from his present situation.  And this is the cause of the melancholy which I could not so well dissemble, but that you soon perceived it.  I would believe that prince Ahmed, by his own good disposition, is incapable of undertaking anything against your majesty; but who can answer that the fairy, by her attractions and caresses, and the influence she has over him, may not inspire him with the unnatural design of dethroning your majesty, and seizing the crown of the Indies?  This is what your majesty ought to consider as of the utmost importance.”