Prince Ahmed could not long withstand the pressing instances of the fairy.  “Madam,” said he, “God prolong the sultan my father’s life, and bless him to the end of his days.  I left him alive and in perfect health; therefore that is not the cause of the melancholy you perceive in me.  The sultan, however, is the occasion of it, and I am the more concerned because he has imposed upon me the disagreeable necessity of importuning you.  You know the care I have at your desire taken to conceal from him the happiness I have enjoyed in living with you, and of having received the pledge of your faith after having pledged my love to you.  How he has been informed of it I cannot tell.”

Here the fairy interrupted prince Ahmed, and said, “But I know.  Remember what I told you of the woman who made you believe she was sick, on whom you took so much compassion.  It is she who has acquainted your father with what you have taken so much care to hide from him.  I told you that she was no more sick than you or I, and she has made it appear so; for, in short, after the two women, whom I charged to take care of her, had given her the water sovereign against all fevers, but which however she had no occasion for, she pretended that it had cured her, and was brought to take her leave of me that she might go the sooner to give an account of the success of her undertaking.  She was in so much haste, that she would have gone away without seeing my palace if I had not, by bidding my two women shew it her, given her to understand that it was worth her seeing.  But proceed and tell me what is the necessity your father has imposed on you to be so importunate, which, be persuaded, however, you can never be to your affectionate wife.”

“Madam,” pursued prince Ahmed, “you may have observed that hitherto I have been content with your love, and have never asked you any other favour:  for what, after the possession of so amiable a wife, can I desire more?  I know how great your power is, but I have taken care not to make proof of it to please myself.  Consider then, I conjure you, that it is not myself, but the sultan my father, who, indiscreetly as I think, asks of you a pavilion large enough to shelter him, his court, and army, from the violence of the weather, when he takes the field, and which a man may carry in his hand.  Once more remember it is not I, but the sultan my father who asks this favour.”

“Prince,” replied the fairy smiling, “I am sorry that so trifling a matter should disturb and make you so uneasy as you appear.  I see plainly two things have contributed towards it:  one is, the law you have imposed on yourself, to be content with loving me, being beloved by me, and deny yourself the liberty of soliciting the least favour that might try my power.  The other, I do not doubt, whatever you may say, was, that you thought that what your father asked was out of my power.  As to the first, I commend you, and shall love you the better, if possible,