The blow he gave Aladdin, and the authority he assumed over him, was only to use him to fear him, and to make him obey him more readily, and give him the lamp as soon as he asked for it. But his too great precipitation in executing his wicked intention on poor Aladdin, and his fear lest somebody should come that way during their dispute, and discover what he wished to keep secret, produced an effect quite contrary to what he proposed to himself. When the African magician saw that all his great hopes were frustrated for ever, he returned that same day for Africa; but went quite round the town, and at some distance from it, for fear lest some persons who had seen him walk out with the boy, seeing him come back without him, should entertain any jealousy of him, and stop him. According to all appearances, there was no prospect of Aladdin being any more heard of. But the magician, when he contrived his death, had forgotten the ring he put on his finger, which preserved him, though he knew not its virtue; and it is amazing that the loss of that, together with the lamp, did not drive the magician to despair; but magicians are so much used to misfortunes, and events contrary to their wishes, that they do not lay them to heart, but still feed themselves all their lives with unsubstantial notions and chimeras. As for Aladdin, who never suspected this bad usage from his pretended uncle, after all his caresses, and what he had done for him, his surprise is more easily to be imagined than expressed by words. When he found himself buried alive, he cried, and called out to his uncle to tell him he was ready to give him the lamp; but all in vain, since his cries could not be heard by him and he remained in this dark abode. At last when he had quite tired himself with crying, he went to the bottom of the steps, with a design to get into the garden, where it was light; but the door, which was opened before by enchantment, was now shut by the same means. Then he redoubled his cries and tears, and sat down on the steps, without any hopes of ever seeing the light again, and in a melancholy certainty of passing from the present darkness into that of a speedy death. Aladdin remained in this state two days, without eating or drinking, and on the third day looked upon death as inevitable. Clasping his hands with an entire resignation to the will of God, he said, “There is no strength or power but in the great and high God.” In this action of joining his hands, he rubbed the ring which the magician put on his finger, and of which he knew not yet the virtue, and immediately a genie of an enormous size and frightful look rose out of the earth, his head reaching the vault, and said to him, “What wouldst thou have with me? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all who have the ring on thy finger; I, and the other slaves of that ring.”