The princess, who took great pleasure in giving the sultan the satisfaction he demanded, said, “Sir, if I appear so little altered, I beg of your majesty to consider that I received new life yesterday morning by the presence of my dear husband and deliverer Aladdin, whom I looked upon and bewailed as lost to me; and the happiness of seeing and embracing whom has almost recovered me to my former state of health. But my greatest trouble was only to find myself forced from your majesty and my dear husband; not only in respect to the inclination I bore to my husband, but from the uneasiness I laboured under besides, for fear that he, though innocent, should feel the effects of your anger, to which I knew he was left exposed. I suffered but little from the insolence of the wretch who had carried me off; for having secured the ascendant over him, I always put a stop to his disagreeable discourse, and was as little constrained as I am at present. “As to what relates to my transportation, Aladdin had no hand in it; I myself am the innocent cause of it.” To persuade the sultan of the truth of what she said, she gave him a full account how the African magician disguised himself like a seller of lamps, and offered to change new lamps for old ones; and how she amused herself in making that exchange, being entirely ignorant of the secret and importance of that lamp; how the palace and herself were carried away and transported into Africa with the African magician, who was recollected by two of her women and the eunuch who made the exchange of the lamp, when he had the boldness to pay her the first visit, after the success of his audacious enterprise, to propose himself for her husband; how he persecuted her till Aladdin’s arrival; how he and she concerted measures together to get the lamp from him again, which he carried about him; and the success they had; and particularly by her dissimulation, inviting him to supper and giving him the cup with the powder prepared for him. “For the rest,” added she, “I leave it to Aladdin to give you an account.” Aladdin had not much to tell the sultan, but only said, “When the private door was opened, I went up into the great hall, where I found the magician lying dead on the sofa; as I thought it not proper for the princess to stay there any longer, I desired her to go down into her own apartment, with her women and eunuchs. As soon as I was alone, and had taken the lamp out of the magician’s breast, I made use of the same secret he had done to remove the palace, and carry off the princess; and by that means the palace was brought into the same place where it stood before; and I have the happiness to bring back the princess to your majesty, as you commanded me. But that your majesty may not think that I impose upon you, if you will give yourself the trouble to go up into the hall, you shall see the magician punished as he deserved.”