The next day, as she contrived all manner of ways to please me, she brought in at dinner a bottle of old wine, the most excellent that ever was tasted, and, out of complaisance, she drank part of it with me. Whan my head grew hot with the agreeable liquor, Fair princess, said I, you have been too long thus buried alive; come follow me, and enjoy the real day from which you have been deprived of so many years, and abandon this false light that you have here. Prince, replied she with a smile, leave this discourse; if you, out of the days, will grant me nine, and resign the last to the genie, the fairest day that ever was would be nothing in my esteem. Princess, said I, it is the fear of the genie that makes you speak thus; for my part, I value him so little that I will break his talisman, with the conjuration that is written about it, in pieces. Let him come then, I will expect him, and how brave or redoubtable soever he be, I will make him feel the weight of my arm. I swear solemnly that I shall extirpate all the genies in the world, and him first. The princess, who knew the consequence, conjured me not to touch the talisman, for that would be a mean, said she, to ruin both you and me; I know what belongs to genies better than you. The fumes of the wine did not suffer me to hearken to her reasons, but I gave the talisman a kick with my foot, and broke it in several pieces. The talisman was no sooner broken than the palace began to shake, and was ready to fall, with a hideous noise like thunder, accompanied with flashes of lightning, and a great darkness. This terrible noise in a moment dispelled the fumes of my wine, and made me sensible, but too late, of the folly I had committed. Princess, cried I, what means all this? She answered in a fright, and without any concern for her own misfortune, cries, Alas! you are undone, if you do not escape presently. I followed her advice, and my fears were so great that I forgot my hatchet and cords. I was scarcely got to the stairs by which I came down, when the enchanted palace opened at once, and made a passage for the genie. He asked the princess, in great anger, what has happened to you, and why did you call me? A qualm at my stomach, said the princess, made me fetch this bottle which you see here, out of which I drank twice or thrice, and by mischance made a false step, and fell upon the talisman, which is broken, and that is all the matter. At this answer the furious genie told her, You are a false woman and a liar. How came that axe and those ropes there? I never saw them till this moment, said the princess. Your coming in such an impetuous manner has, it may be, forced them up in some place as you came along, and so brought them hither without your knowing it.