When Zobeide’s favourite saw that the caliph would needs have the trunk open where I lay, As for this trunk, said she, your majesty will please to dispense with the opening of it: there are some things in it which I cannot show you without your lady be by. Well, well, said the caliph, since it is so, I am satisfied; order the trunks to be carried away. The word was no sooner spoken than the trunks were moved into her chamber, where I began to revive again. As soon as the eunuchs who had brought them were gone, she presently opened the trunk where I was prisoner. Come out, said she, go up these stairs that lead to an upper room, and stay there till I come. The door which led to the stairs she locked after I was in; and that was no sooner done, than the caliph came and sat down on the very trunk where I had been confined. The occasion of this visit was a motive of curiosity that did not respect me. He had a mind to question the lady about what she had seen or heard in the city. So they discoursed together some while, and then he left her and retired to his apartment. When she found the coast clear, she came to the chamber where I was, and made many apologies for the alarms she had given me. My uneasiness, said she, was no less than yours; you cannot well doubt of that, since I have run the same risk out of love to you: perhaps, another person in my situation would not have had the presence of mind to manage matters so dexterously upon so delicate an occasion, where so much courage and presence of mind were requisite; nothing less than the love I had for you could have inspired me with courage to do it. But come, take heart, now the danger is over. After much tender discourse between us, she told me it was time to go to rest, and that she would not fail to introduce me to Zobeide, her mistress, some hour to morrow, which will be very easy; For the caliph never sees her, added she, but at night. Encouraged by these words, I slept very well; or if my sleep was interrupted it was by agreeable disquietudes, caused by the hopes of enjoying a lady, blest with so much wit and beauty.