As she had taken
care first of all to make a good fire, she took some of the coals,
and set the pan upon them; and while the cake was baking, she put
up the vessels and boxes in their places again; and on her
pronouncing certain words, the rivulet, which ran along the end of
the room, appeared no more. When the cake was baked, she took it
off the coals, and carried it into her room, without the least
suspicion that he had seen anything of what she had done.
King Beder, whom the pleasures and amusements of a court had made
forget his good host Abdallah, began now to think of him again, and
believed he had more than ordinary occasion for his advice, after
all he had seen the queen do that night. As soon as he was up,
therefore, he expressed a great desire to go and see his uncle, and
begged her majesty to permit him. 'What! my dear Beder,' cried the
queen, 'are you then already tired, I will not say with living in
so superb a palace as mine is, where you must find so many
pleasures, but with the company of a queen who is so fond of you as
I am?'
'Great queen!' answered King Beder, 'how can I be tired of so many
favours and graces as your majesty perpetually heaps upon me? I
must own, however, it is partly for this reason, that, my uncle
loving me so tenderly, as I well know he does, and I having been
absent from him now forty days, without once seeing him, I would
not give him reason to think that I consent to remain longer
without seeing him.
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