“My dear husband, what have you done?” cried the princess in surprise. “You have killed the holy woman.” “No, my princess,” answered Aladdin without emotion, “I have not killed Fatima, but a wicked wretch that would have assassinated me, if I had not prevented him. This wicked man,” added he, uncovering his face, “has strangled Fatima, whom you accused me of killing, and disguised himself in her clothes, to come and murder me: but that you may know him better, he is brother to the African magician.” Then Aladdin told her how he came to know those particulars, and afterwards ordered the dead body to be taken away. Thus was Aladdin delivered from the persecution of two brothers who were magicians. Within a few years afterwards the sultan died in a good old age, and as he left no male children, the princess Badr-oul-boudour, as lawful heir of the crown, succeeded him, and communicating the power to Aladdin, they reigned together many years, and left a numerous and illustrious posterity behind them. “Sir,” said the sultaness Scheherazade, after she had finished the story of the Wonderful Lamp, “your majesty without doubt has observed in the person of the African magician a man abandoned to the unbounded passion for possessing immense treasures by the most unworthy means. On the contrary, your majesty sees in Aladdin a person of mean birth raised to the regal dignity by making use of the same treasures, which came to him without his seeking, but just as he had an occasion for them to compass the end proposed; and in the sultan you will have learnt what dangers a just and equitable monarch runs, even to the risk of being dethroned, when, by crying injustice, and against all the rules of equity, he dares by an unreasonable precipitation, condemn an innocent person to death, without giving him leave to justify himself. In short, you must abhor those two wicked magicians, one of whom sacrificed his life to attain great riches, the other his life and religion to revenge him, and both received the chastisements they deserved.”[233] KHUDADAD AND HIS BROTHERS. Quoth Dunyazad, “O sister mine, how rare is thy tale and delectable!” and quoth Shahrazad, “And what is this compared with that I could relate to you after the coming night, an this my lord the King deign leave me on life?” So Shahryar said to himself, “Indeed I will not slay her until she tell me the whole tale.” And when it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-second Night,[234] Shahrazad began to relate the adventures of _KHUDADAD[235] AND HIS BROTHERS._