Night being then pretty far advanced, the vizier Schemseddin
Mohammed ordered Bedreddin to be clapped up again in his cage,
saying to him, Stay there till to-morrow; the day shall not be spent
before I give orders for your death. Then the chest or cage was
carried away and laid upon the camel that had brought it from
Damascus: at the same time, all the other camels were loaded again;
and the vizier mounting his horse, ordered the camel that carried
his nephew to march before him, and so entered the city with all his
suite. After passing through several streets, where nobody appeared,
every one being in bed, he arrived at his house, where he ordered
the chest to be taken down, but not opened till farther orders.
While his retinue were unlading the other camels, he took
Bedreddin’s mother and his daughter aside, and addressed himself
to the latter: God be praised, said he, my child, for this happy
occasion of meeting your cousin and your husband. You remember, to
be sure, what order your chamber was in on your wedding-night: go
and put every thing in the very same order they were then in; and in
the mean time, if your memory do not serve you, I can supply it by a
written account, which I caused to be taken upon that occasion: as
for what else is to be done, I will take care of that.
The beautiful lady went joyfully about her father’s orders; and he
at the same time, began to put the things in the hall in the same
order they were in when Bedreddin Hassan was there with the sultan
of Egypt’s hunch backed groom. As he went over his manuscript, his
domestics placed every moveable accordingly. The throne was not
forgot, nor the lighted wax candles. When every thing was put to
rights in the hall, the vizier went into his daughter’s chamber,
and put in their due place Bedreddin’s clothes, with the purse of
sequins. This done, he said to the beautiful lady, Undress yourself,
my child, and go to bed. As soon as Bedreddin enters your room,
complain of his being from you so long, and tell him, that when you
awaked you were astonished you did not find him by you. Press him to
come to bed again; and to-morrow morning you will divert your
mother-in-law and me, in telling us what passes between you and him
this night. This said, he went from his daughter’s apartment, and
left her to undress herself and go to bed.
Schemseddin Mohammed ordered all his domestics to depart the hall,
excepting two or three, whom he ordered to stay there. These he
commanded to go and take Bedreddin out of the chest, to strip him to
his shirt and drawers, to conduct him in that condition to the hall,
to leave him there all alone, and to shut the door upon him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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