You may guess, my lord, how much I was surprised at this conversation, and with what sentiments it inspired me; yet, whatever emotions it excited in me, I had command enough over myself to dissemble, and feigned to awake without having heard one word of it. The queen returned from the bath, we supped together, and before we went to bed, she, with her own hand, presented me with a cup full of such water as I was accustomed to drink: but instead of putting it into my mouth, I went to a window that was open, and threw out the water so quickly, that she did not perceive it, and I put the cup again into her hands, to persuade her that I had drank it. We went to bed together, and soon after, believing that I was asleep, though I was not, she got up with so little precaution, that she said so loud that I could hear it distinctly, Sleep, and may you never wake again! She dressed herself speedily, and went out of the chamber. As Scheherazade spoke these words, she saw day appear, and stopped. Dinarzade had heard her sister with a great deal of pleasure, and Schahriar thought the history of the king of the Black Isles so worthy of his curiosity, that he rose up full of impatience for the rest of it. TWENTY-THIRD NIGHT. An hour before day, Dinarzade being awake, failed not to call upon the sultaness, and said, Pray, dear sister, go on with the history of the young king of the four Black Islands; Scheherazade, calling to mind where she had left off, resumed the story thus: As soon as the queen my wife went out, continued the king of the Black Islands, I got up, dressed me in haste, took my scimitar, and followed her so quick, that I soon heard the sound of her feet before me, and then walked softly after her, for fear of being heard. She passed through several gates, which opened upon her pronouncing some magical words; and the last she opened was that of the garden, which she entered. I stopped at that gate, that she might not perceive me as she crossed a plat, and looking after her as far as the darkness of the night permitted, I perceived that she entered a little wood, whose walks were guarded by thick pallisades. I went thither by another way, and slipping behind the pallisades of a long walk, I saw her walking there with a man. I was very attentive to their discourse, and heard her say thus to her gallant: I do not deserve to be upbraided by you for want of diligence; you know very well what hinders me; but if all the tokens of love that I have already given you, be not enough, I am ready to give you greater: you need but command me, you know my power. I will, if you desire it, before sun-rising, change this great city, and this fine palace, into frightful ruins, which shall be inhabited by nothing but wolves, owls, and ravens. If you wish me to transport all the stones of those walls so solidly built, beyond mount Caucasus, and out of the bounds of the habitable world, speak but the word, and all those places shall undergo a change.