The princess had no occasion to order the back-door to be opened to Aladdin; for her women were so disposed from the great hall to the foot of the staircase, that the word was no sooner given, that the African magician was fallen backwards, but the door opened that instant.
As soon as Aladdin entered the hall, he saw the magician stretched backwards on the sofa. The princess Badr-oul-boudour rose from her seat, and ran overjoyed to him, to embrace him; but he stopped her, and said, “Princess, it is not yet time; oblige me by retiring to your apartment, and let me be left alone a moment, while I endeavour to transport you back to China as quickly as you were brought from thence.”
When the princess, her women and eunuchs were gone out of the hall, Aladdin shut the door, and going directly to the dead body of the magician, opened his vest, and took out the lamp carefully wrapt up, as the princess told him, and unfolding and rubbing it the genie immediately appeared. “Genie,” said Aladdin, “I have called thee to command thee, on the part of thy good mistress of this lamp, to transport this palace presently into China to the same place from whence it was brought hither.” The genie bowed his head in token of obedience, and disappeared. Immediately the palace was transported into China, and its removal was only felt by two little shocks, the one when it was lifted up, the other when it was set down, and both in a very short interval of time.
Aladdin went down to the princess’s apartment, and embracing her, said, “I can assure you, princess, that your joy and mine will be complete to-morrow morning.” The princess, who had not quite supped, guessing that Aladdin might be hungry, ordered the meats that were served up in the great hall, and were scarce touched, to be brought down. The princess and Aladdin ate as much as they thought fit, and drank in like manner of the African magician’s old wine: during which time their discourse could not be any otherwise than satisfactory, and then they retired to their own chamber.
From the time of the transportation of Aladdin’s palace, and of the princess Badr-oul-boudour in it, the sultan, that princess’s father, was inconsolable for the loss of her, as he considered it. He hardly slept night or day and instead of taking measures to avoid everything that could keep off his affliction, he, on the contrary, indulged in it; for whereas before he used to go every morning into his closet, to please himself with that agreeable prospect, he went now many times in the day, to renew his tears, and plunge himself into the deepest melancholy, by the idea of no more seeing that which once gave him so much pleasure, and reflecting how he had lost what was the most dear to him in this world.
The very morning of the return of Aladdin’s palace, the sultan went by break of day into his closet, to indulge his sorrows. Collected in himself, and in a pensive mood, he cast his eyes in a melancholy manner towards the place where he remembered the palace once stood, expecting only to see an open space; but perceiving that vacancy filled up, he at first imagined it to be the effect of a fog; but looking more attentively, he was convinced beyond the power of doubt that it was his son-in-law’s palace. Then joy and gladness succeeded to sorrow and grief. He returned immediately into his apartment, and ordered a horse to be saddled and brought to him in all haste, which he mounted that instant, thinking he could not make haste enough to get to Aladdin’s palace.
Aladdin, who foresaw what would happen, rose that morning by daybreak, put on one of the most magnificent habits his wardrobe afforded, and went up into the hall of twenty-four windows, from whence he perceived the sultan coming, and got down soon enough to receive him at the foot of the great staircase, and to help him to dismount. “Aladdin,” said the sultan, “I cannot speak to you till I have seen and embraced my daughter.”
He led the sultan into the princess Badr-oul-boudour’s apartment, who, having been told by him, when he rose, that she was no longer in Africa, but in China, and in the capital of the sultan her father, had just done dressing herself. The sultan embraced her with his face bathed in tears of joy; and the princess, on her side, gave him all the testimonies of the extreme pleasure the sight of him gave her.
The sultan was some time before he could open his lips, so great was his surprise and joy to find his daughter again, after he had given her up for lost; and the princess, after seeing her father, let fall tears of joy.
At last the sultan broke silence, and said, “I would believe, daughter, your joy to see me makes you seem so little changed, as if no misfortune had befallen you; for a large palace cannot be so suddenly transported as yours has been, without great fright and terrible anguish. I would have you tell me all that has happened, and conceal nothing from me.”