I had scarcely got to the stairs by which I came
down, when the enchanted palace opened, 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,' 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.'
At this answer the furious genie told her, 'You are a false woman,
and a liar: how came that axe and those cords 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 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 bath; I made
haste upstairs, distracted with sorrow and compassion, as I had
been the cause of so great a misfortune.
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