When Zobeide's favourite saw that the caliph would needs have the trunk opened where I lay, As for this trunk, says she, your majesty will please to dispense with the opening of it; there are some things in it which I cannot show you unless your lady be by. Well, well, says 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 removed into her chamber, where I began to come to life 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 clapped him down upon the very trunk wherein I had been. The occasion of this visit was a motion of curiosity that did not respect me. He had a mind to discourse the lady about what she had seen or heard in the city. So they discoursed together a pretty while, after which 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 from love to you; perhaps another would not have had the presence of mind to manage matters so dexterously upon so tender an occasion; 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 some tender discourse between us, she told me it was time to go to bed, and that she would not fail to introduce me to Zobeide, her mistress, to-morrow, some hour of the day; for the caliph never sees her, added she, but at nights. Heartened by these words, I slept very well; or at least, whatever interruptions happened were agreeable disquietings, caused by the hopes of enjoying a lady blessed with such sparkling wit and beauty. The next day, before I was introduced to Zobeide, her favourite instructed me how to behave, naming nearly the same questions as she put to me, and dictating the answers I was to give. This done, she carried me into a very magnificent and richly furnished hall: I had no sooner entered, than twenty female slaves, in rich and uniform habits, came out of Zobeide's apartment, and placed themselves very modestly before the throne in two equal rows: they were followed by twenty other ladies who looked younger, and were clothed after the same manner, though their habits appeared somewhat gayer. In the middle of these appeared Zobeide, with a majestic air, and so loaded with jewels, that she could scarcely walk. Zobeide then went and sat down on the throne, and the favourite lady, who had accompanied her, just by her, on her right hand; the other ladies being placed at some distance on each side of the throne.