The Queen of Beauty, who watched him, after entertaining herself with his astonishment, undrew the curtains of the bed, and advancing her head, said in a tender voice, “My lord, what are you doing at the door? Come, and lie down again. You have been out of the room a long time: I was much surprised, when I awoke, not to find you by my side.” Bedreddin’s countenance changed, when he perceived that the lady, who spoke to him, was the same charming person with whom he remembered to have slept. He went into the chamber, but instead of going to bed, as his mind was full of the thoughts of what had passed during the last ten years, and he could not persuade himself that so many events had taken place in only one night, he approached the chair, where his clothes and purse of sequins were, and having examined them with great attention, “By the great living God!” cried he, “these are things which I cannot comprehend.” The lady, who was diverted with his embarrassment, said to him, “Once more, my dear lord, let me beg you to come to bed; what engages your attention?” At these words, he advanced towards the Queen of Beauty, “I entreat you, madam,” said he, “to acquaint me, if it is long since I was with you.”--“The question surprises me,” replied she, “did you not just now rise from my side? Your mind must be strangely absent.”--“Madam,” resumed Bedreddin, “my spirits certainly are not very composed. I remember to have been with you, it is true; but I also remember to have lived ten years at Damascus. If I have really slept with you this night, I cannot have been absent so long.”--“Yes, my lord,” replied the Queen of Beauty, “you have no doubt dreamt that you were at Damascus.”--“Nothing can be so ridiculous,” cried Bedreddin, bursting into a laugh, “I assure you, madam, that this dream will appear to you very laughable. Imagine, if you please, that I found myself at the gates of Damascus in my shirt and drawers, just as I am at this moment; that I entered the city amidst the shouts and hisses of the populace, who followed to insult me; that I took refuge with a pastry-cook, who adopted me, taught me his business, and left me all his property when he died; that after his death, I kept his shop. In short, madam, an infinity of adventures befel me, which would be too tedious to relate; all I can say is, that I did well to awake, otherwise I should have been nailed to a stake.” --“And why, pray,” said the Queen of Beauty, pretending surprise, “were you to suffer so cruelly? You must have committed some heinous crime.”--“No, indeed,” replied Bedreddin, “it was for the most comical and ridiculous thing you can conceive. My only crime was the having sold a cheesecake in which I had not put any pepper.”--“I must confess,” said the lady, laughing heartily, “that you were treated very unjustly.”--“Oh, madam,” resumed he, “this was not all; on account of this cursed cheesecake, in which I was accused of not having put any pepper,