Without examining how he passed the night, his
mind full as it was with the charms of the princess, I shall only
observe that as he sat next day on the sofa, opposite his mother, as
she was spinning cotton, he spoke to her in these words: "I perceive,
mother, that my silence yesterday has much troubled you; I was not, nor
am I sick, as I fancy you believed; but I assure you, that what I felt
then, and now endure, is worse than any disease. I cannot explain what
ails me; but doubt not what I am going to relate will inform you.
"It was not proclaimed in this quarter of the town, and therefore you
could know nothing of it, that the sultan's daughter was yesterday to
go to the baths. I heard this as I walked about the town, and an order
was issued that all the shops should be shut up in her way thither, and
everybody keep withindoors, to leave the streets free for her and her
attendants. As I was not then far from the bath, I had a great
curiosity to see the princess's face; and as it occurred to me that the
princess, when she came nigh the door of the bath, would pull her veil
off, I resolved to conceal myself behind the door.
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