Next morning the queen and king Beder went to the bagnio; and as soon as they came out, the women who had served the king there, presented him with fine linen and a magnificent habit. The queen likewise, who was more splendidly dressed than the day before, came to receive him, and they went together to her apartment, where they had a good repast brought before them, and spent the remainder of the day in walking and other amusements.
Queen Labe treated king Beder after this manner for forty days, as she had been accustomed to do all her lovers. The fortieth night, as they were lying together, she, believing he was really asleep, arose without making any noise; but he was awake, and perceiving she had some design upon him, watched all her motions. Being up, she opened a chest, from whence she took a little box, full of a certain yellow powder. Taking some of the powder, she laid a train of it across the chamber, and immediately flowed in a rivulet of water, to the great astonishment of king Beder. He trembled with fear, but still pretended to sleep, that he might not discover to the sorceress he was awake.
Queen Labe next took up some of the water in a pot, and poured it into a basin where there was flour, with which she made paste, and kneaded it for a long time: then she mixed certain drugs with it, which she took from different boxes, and made a cake, and put it into a covered baking-pan. As she had taken care at first to make a good fire, she took some of the coals, and set the pan upon them; and as the cake was baking, she put up her pot and boxes again; and at the pronouncing of certain words, dismissed the rivulet, which appeared no more. When the cake was baked, she took it off the coals, and carried it into her closet, and afterwards returned to bed again to king Beder, who dissembled the matter so well with her, that she had not the least suspicion that he knew any thing of what she had done.
King Beder, whom the pleasures and delights of a court had made to forget his good host Abdallah, began now to think of him again, and believed he had more than ordinary occasion for his advice at this juncture, since he saw all the queen had done that night. As soon as he was up, therefore, he expressed a great desire to go and see his uncle, and begged of her majesty to permit him. Alas! my dear Beder, cried the queen, are you then already tired, I will not say with the pleasures of so superfine a palace as mine is, but with the company of a queen who loves you so passionately as I do?
Great queen, answered king Beder, how can I be tired with so many favours and graces as your majesty perpetually heaps upon me? Very far from that, I desire this permission, madam, purely to go and give my uncle an account of the mighty obligations I have to your majesty. I must own likewise it is partly in this respect, that my uncle loving me so tenderly, as it is very well known he does, and I having been from him now forty days, without so much as once seeing him, he will surely take it very unkindly if I cannot afford him one visit. Go, said the queen, I consent to it; but you will not be long before you return, if you consider I cannot possibly live without you. This said, she ordered him a fine horse richly caparisoned, and so he departed.
Old Abdallah was overjoyed to see his dear adopted son again; insomuch that, without regard to his quality, he embraced him heartily, and king Beder returned the like, that nobody might doubt but that he was his nephew. As soon as they were sat down, Well, said Abdallah to the king, how do you do, sir? and how have you passed your time with that infidel sorceress?
Hitherto, answered king Beder, I must needs own she has been extraordinary kind to me, and has done all she could to persuade me that she loves me entirely; but I observed something last night, which gives me just reason to suspect that all her kindness hitherto is but dissimulation. Whilst she thought me asleep, although I was really awake, she stole from me with a great deal of precaution, which made me suspect her intention, and therefore I resolved to watch her. Going on with his discourse, he related to Abdallah how, and after what manner, he had seen her make the cake; and then added, Hitherto, said he, I must needs confess I had almost forgot, not only you, but all the advice you gave me concerning the wickedness of this queen: but this last action of hers gives me reason to fear she neither intends to observe any of her oaths nor promises. I thought of you immediately, and esteem myself happy in that I have obtained permission to come to you.
You are not deceived in this wicked queen, replied old Abdallah with a smile, to show he did not himself believe she would observe one word she spoke, nor oath she made; nothing is capable of obliging a perfidious woman to mend her morals. But fear nothing; I have a way to make the mischief she intends you fall upon herself. You are become jealous in time; and you could not have done better than this, to have recourse to me. It is her ordinary practice to keep her lovers only forty days; and after that time, instead of sending them home, to turn them into animals to stock her forests and parks; but I thought of measures yesterday to prevent her doing any harm. The earth has borne this monster long enough, and it is now high time she should be served as she deserves.
So saying, Abdallah put two cakes into king Beder’s hands, bidding him keep them to make use of as he should direct. You told me, continued he, the sorceress made a cake last night: it was for you to eat of, depend upon it, but take great care you do not touch it. Nevertheless, do not refuse to receive it when she offers it you; but, instead of tasting it, break off part of one of the two that I gave you, unobserved, and eat that. As soon as she thinks you have swallowed it, she will not fail to attempt transforming you into some animal, but she shall not succeed; which when she sees, she will immediately turn the thing to pleasantry, as if what she had done was only to frighten you; but she will conceal a mortal aversion in her heart, and think her having failed proceeded only from the want of something in the composition of her cake. As for the cake she made, and which she will not know to be her own, you shall make a present of it to her, and press her to eat it; which she will not refuse to do, if it were only to convince you she does not mistrust you, though she has given you so much reason to mistrust her. When she has quite eaten it, take a little water in the hollow of your hand, and, throwing it in her face, say, Quit that form you now wear, and take that of such or such an animal, as you shall think fit; which done, come to me with the animal, and I will tell you what you shall do afterwards.
King Beder made all possible acknowledgments to old Abdallah, for the great obligations he had to him, for defending him from the wiles of a pestilent sorceress who sought to ruin him; and after some little discourse, he took his leave of him and returned to the palace. Upon his arrival, he understood that the queen waited for him with great impatience in the garden. He went to pay his respects to her, and she no sooner perceived him, than she came in great haste to meet him. My dear Beder! said she, it is said, with a great deal of reason, that nothing moves more the force and excess of love than absence from the object beloved. I have had no quiet since I saw you, and the minutes I have been separated from you have seemed so many ages; nay, if you had staid ever so little longer, I was preparing to come and fetch you once more to my arms.