This
terrible noise in a moment dispelled the fumes of my wine, and
made me sensible, but too late, of the folly I had committed.
Princess, cried I, what means all this? She answered in a fright,
and without any concern for her own misfortune, cries, Alas! you
are undone, if you do not escape presently.
I followed her advice, and my fears were so great that I forgot
my hatchet and cords. I was scarcely got to the stairs by which I
came down, when the enchanted palace opened at once, and made a
passage for the genie. He asked the princess, in great anger,
what has happened to you, and why did you call me? A qualm at my
stomach, said the princess, made me fetch this bottle which you
see here, out of which I drank twice or thrice, and by mischance
made a false step, and fell upon the talisman, which is broken,
and that is all the matter.
At this answer the furious genie told her, You are a false woman
and a liar. How came that axe and those ropes there? I never saw
them till this moment, said the princess. Your coming in such an
impetuous manner has, it may be, forced them up in some place as
you came along, and so brought them hither without your knowing
it.
The genie made no other answer but what was accompanied with
reproaches and blows, of which I heard the noise. I could not
endure to hear the pitiful cries and shouts of the princess so
cruelly abused; I had already laid off the suit she made me put
on, and taken my own, which I had laid on the stairs the day
before, when I came out of the bagnio.
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