Thus he gave the vessel to one of the
genies that submitted to him, with orders to throw it into the
sea, which was executed to my great sorrow.
During the first hundred years imprisonment, I swore that if one
would deliver me before the hundred years expired, I would make
him rich even after his death: But that century ran out, and
nobody did me that good office. During the second, I made an
oath, that I would open all the treasures of the earth to any one
that would set me at liberty, but with no better success. In the
third, I promised to make my deliverer a potent monarch, to be
always near him in spirit, and to grant him every day three
demands, of what nature soever they might be: But this century
ran out as well as the two former, and I continued in prison. At
last, being angry, or rather mad, to find myself a prisoner so
long, I swore, that if afterwards any one should deliver me, I
would kill him without pity, and grant him no other favour but to
choose what kind of death he would die; and therefore, since you
have delivered me to-day, I give you that choice.
This discourse afflicted the poor fisherman extremely: I am very
unfortunate, cries he, to come hither to do such a piece of good
service to one that is so ungrateful. I beg you to consider your
injustice, and revoke such an unreasonable oath: pardon me, and
Heaven will pardon you; if you grant me my life, Heaven will
protect you from all attempts against yours.
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