The sultan immediately felt all the extreme uneasiness so surprising an adventure must have given the princess. “Daughter,” said he, “you are very much to blame for not telling me this yesterday, since it concerns me as much as yourself. I did not marry you with an intention to make you miserable, but that you might enjoy all the happiness you deserve and might hope for from a husband, who to me seemed agreeable to you. Efface all these troublesome ideas out of your memory; I will take care and give orders that you shall have no more such disagreeable and insupportable nights.”
As soon as the sultan got back to his own apartment, he sent for the grand vizier. “Vizier,” said he, “have you seen your son, and has he not told you anything?” The vizier replied, “No.” Then the sultan related all that the princess Badr-oul-boudour had told him, and afterwards said, “I do not doubt but that my daughter has told me the truth; but nevertheless I should be glad to have it confirmed by your son; therefore go and ask him how it was.”
The grand vizier went immediately to his son, and communicated to him what the sultan had told him, and enjoined him to conceal nothing from him, but to tell him the whole truth. “I will disguise nothing from you, father,” replied the son, “for indeed all that the princess says is true; but what relates particularly to myself she knows nothing of. After my marriage, I have passed two such nights as are beyond imagination or expression; not to mention the fright I was in, to feel my bed lifted up four times, and transported from one place to another, without being able to guess how it was done. You shall judge of the miserable condition I was in, to pass two whole nights in nothing but my shirt, standing in a kind of privy, unable to stir out of the place where I was put, or to make the least movement, though I could not perceive any obstacle to prevent me. Yet I must tell you that all this ill-usage does not in the least lessen those sentiments of love, respect and latitude I entertain for the princess, and of which she is so deserving; but I must confess, that notwithstanding all the honour and splendour that attends my marrying my sovereign’s daughter I would much rather die, than live longer in so great an alliance, if I must undergo what I have already endured. I do not doubt but that the princess entertains the same sentiments, and that she will readily agree to a separation, which is so necessary both for her repose and mine. Therefore, father, I beg you, by the same tenderness you had for me to procure me so great an honour, to get the sultan’s consent that our marriage may be declared null and void.”