When she awoke the next morning, and found by looking to the right and left that Prince Camaralzaman was not by, she cried out with a loud voice to her women. Her nurse, who presented herself first, desired to be informed what she would please to have, and if anything disagreeable had happened to her.
'Tell me,' said the princess, 'what is become of the young man whom
I love with all my soul?'
'Madam,' replied the nurse, 'we cannot understand your highness, unless you will be pleased to explain yourself.'
'A young man, the best and most amiable,' said the princess 'whom I could not awake; I ask you where he is?'
'Madam,' answered the nurse, 'your highness asks these questions to jest with us. I beseech you to rise.'
'I am in earnest,' said the princess, 'and I must know where this young man is.'
'Madam,' insisted the nurse, 'how any man could come without our knowledge we cannot imagine, for we all slept about the door of your chamber, which was locked, and I had the key in my pocket.'
At this the princess lost all patience, and catching her nurse by the hair of her head, and giving her two or three sound cuffs, she cried, 'You shall tell me where this young man is, old sorceress, or I will beat your brains out.'
The nurse struggled to get from her, and at last succeeded; when she went immediately, with tears in her eyes, to complain to the queen her mother, who was not a little surprised to see her in this condition, and asked who had done this.
'Madam,' began the nurse, 'you see how the princess has treated me; she would certainly have murdered me, if I had not had the good fortune to escape out of her hands.' She then began to tell what had been the cause of all that violent passion in the princess. The queen was surprised to hear it, and could not guess how she came to be so senseless as to take that for a reality which could be no other than a dream. 'Your majesty must conclude from all this, madam,' continued the nurse, 'that the princess is out of her senses. You will think so yourself if you go and see her.'