When it was night, the princess took her leave of the sultan her father: their adieus were tender, and accompanied with tears. They embraced each other several times, and at last the princess left her own apartment, and set forward for Aladdin’s palace, with his mother on her left hand, followed by a hundred women slaves, dressed with surprising magnificence. All the bands of music, which played from the time Aladdin’s mother arrived, joined together, led the procession, followed by a hundred chiaoux, and the like number of black eunuchs, in two files, with their officers at their head. Four hundred of the sultan’s young pages carried flambeaux on each side, which, together with the illuminations of the sultan’s and Aladdin’s palaces, made it as light as day.
In this order the princess walked on the carpet, which was spread from the sultan’s palace to Aladdin’s, preceded by bands of musicians, who, as they advanced, joining with those on the terraces of Aladdin’s palace, formed a concert, which extraordinary and confused as it appeared, increased the joy not only of the crowd assembled in the great square, but of all that were in the two palaces, the town, and a great way round about it.
At length the princess arrived at the new palace. Aladdin ran with all imaginable joy to receive her at the entrance of the apartment appointed for him. His mother had taken care to point him out to the princess, in the midst of the officers that surrounded him, and she was charmed with his person as soon as she saw him. “Adorable princess,” said Aladdin to her, accosting her and saluting her respectfully, “if I have the misfortune to have displeased you by my boldness in aspiring to the possession of so lovely a princess, and my sultan’s daughter, I must tell you, that you ought to blame your bright eyes and charms, not me.”—“Prince, as I may now call you,” answered the princess, “I am obedient to the will of my father: and it is enough for me to have seen you, to tell you that I obey without reluctance.”
Aladdin, charmed with so agreeable and satisfactory an answer, would not keep the princess standing after she had walked so far, which was more than she was used to do; but took her by the hand, which he kissed with the greatest demonstrations of joy, and led her into a large hall, illuminated with an infinite number of wax candles, where, by the care of the genie, a noble feast was served up. The plates were of massy gold, and contained the most delicate meats. The vases, basins, and goblets, with which the beaufet was furnished, were gold also, and of exquisite workmanship, and all the other ornaments and embellishments of the hall were answerable to this great wealth. The princess, dazzled to see so much riches collected in one place, said to Aladdin, “I thought, prince, that nothing in the world was so beautiful as the sultan my father’s palace; but the sight of this hall alone is sufficient to shew I was deceived.”