" Replied Aladdin: "O my lord the
Sultan, as I said to thy Highness, an I fail to bring her within the
term appointed, I will present myself for my head to he stricken off."
Now when the folk and the lieges all saw Aladdin at liberty, they
rejoiced with joy exceeding and were delighted for his release, but
the shame of his treatment and bashfulness before his friends and
the envious exultation of his foes had bowed down Aladdin's head. So
he went forth a wandering through the city ways, and he was
perplexed concerning his case and knew not what had befallen him. He
lingered about the capital for two days, in saddest state, wotting not
what to do in order to find his wife and his pavilion, and during this
time sundry of the folk privily brought him meat and drink. When the
two days were done, he left the city to stray about the waste and open
lands outlying the walls, without a notion as to whither he should
wend. And he walked on aimlessly until the path led him beside a
river, where, of the stress of sorrow that overwhelmed him, he
abandoned himself to despair and thought of casting himself into the
water.
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