more thoughtful and melancholy than usual; and asked what had
happened to make him so, or if he was ill? He returned her no
answer, but sat carelessly down on the sofa, and remained silent,
musing on the image of the charming Buddir al Buddoor. His
mother, who was dressing supper, pressed him no more. When it was
ready, she served it up, and perceiving that he gave no attention
to it, urged him to eat, but had much ado to persuade him to
change his place; which when he did, he ate much less than usual,
all the time cast down his eyes, and observed so profound a
silence, that she could not obtain a word in answer to all the
questions she put, in order to find the reason of so
extraordinary an alteration.

After supper, she asked him again why he was so melancholy, but
could get no information, and he determined to go to bed rather
than give her the least satisfaction. Without examining how he
passed the night, his mind full as it was with the charms of the
princess, I shall only observe that as he sat next day on the
sofa, opposite his mother, as she was spinning cotton, he spoke
to her in these words: "I perceive, mother, that my silence
yesterday has much troubled you; I was not, nor am I sick, as I
fancy you believed; but I assure you, that what I felt then, and
now endure, is worse than any disease. I cannot explain what ails
me; but doubt not what I am going to relate will inform you.

"It was not proclaimed in this quarter of the town, and therefore
you could know nothing of it, that the sultan's daughter was
yesterday to go to the baths. I heard this as I walked about the
town, and an order was issued that all the shops should be shut
up in her way thither, and everybody keep within doors, to leave