The princess answered, 'Yesterday I was king, sir, and to-day I am
the Princess of China, wife of the true Prince Camaralzaman, the
true son of King Schahzaman. If your majesty will have the patience
to hear both our stories, I hope you will not condemn me for putting
an innocent deceit upon you.' The king bade her go on, and heard her
discourse from the beginning to the end with astonishment. The
princess on finishing it said to him, 'Sir, in our religion men may
have several wives; if your majesty will consent to give your
daughter the Princess Haiatalnefous in marriage to Prince
Camaralzaman, I will with all my heart yield up to her the rank and
quality of queen, which of right belongs to her, and content myself
with the second place. If this precedence was not her due, I would,
however, give it her, after she has kept my secret so generously.'
King Armanos listened to the princess with astonishment, and when
she had done, turned to Prince Camaralzaman, saying, 'Son, since the
Princess Badoura your wife, whom I have all along thought to be my
son-in-law, through a deceit of which I cannot complain, assures me
that she is willing, I have nothing more to do but to ask you if you
are willing to marry my daughter and accept the crown, which the
Princess Badoura would deservedly wear as long as she lived, if she
did not quit it out of love to you.
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