The Lady Badr al-Budur began to inform the Sultan of all which had
befallen her, saying: "O my father, I recovered not life save
yesterday when I saw my husband, and he it was who freed me from the
thraldom of that Maghrabi, that magician, that accursed, than whom I
believe there be none viler on the face of earth. And but for my
beloved, I had never escaped him, nor hadst thou seen me during the
rest of my days. But mighty sadness and sorrow gat about me, O my
father, not only for losing thee but also for the loss of a husband
under whose kindness I shall be all the length of my life, seeing that
he freed me from that fulsome sorcerer." Then the Princess began
repeating to her sire everything that happened to her, and relating to
him how the Moorman had tricked her in the guise of a lamp-seller
who offered in exchange new for old, how she had given him the lamp
whose worth she knew not, and how she had bartered it away only to
laugh at the lampman's folly.
"And next morning, O my father," she continued, "we found
ourselves and whatso the pavilion contained in Africa land, till
such time as my husband came to us and devised a device whereby we
escaped.
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