'
The chamberlain went, and immediately brought the princess, who had
her face uncovered; but she had no sooner come into the room than
she put on her veil, and said to the sultan, 'Sir, your majesty
must needs have forgotten yourself: I am very much surprised that
your majesty has sent for me to appear among men.'
'Nay, daughter,' said the sultan, 'you do not know what you say:
here is nobody but the little slave, the chamberlain your attendant
and myself, who have the liberty to see your face; and yet you
lower your veil, and blame me for having sent for you hither.'
'Sir,' said the princess, 'your majesty shall soon understand that
I am not in the wrong. That ape you see before you, though he has
the shape of an ape, is a young prince, son of a great king; he has
been metamorphosed into an ape by enchantment. A genie, the son of
the daughter of Eblis, has maliciously done him this wrong, after
having cruelly taken away the life of the Princess of the Isle of
Ebony, daughter to the King Epitimarus.'
The sultan, astonished at this discourse, turned towards me and
asked no more by signs, but in plain words if it was true what his
daughter said? Seeing I could not speak, I put my hand to my head
to signify that what the princess spoke was true.
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