He hastened to make the
exchange with the more pleasure, because he looked upon this favor as
the most certain token of an entire conquest over the princess, which
raised his rapture to the highest pitch. Before he drank, he said to
her, with the cup in his hand, "Indeed, princess, we Africans are not
so refined in the art of love as you Chinese: and your instructing me
in a lesson I was ignorant of, informs me how sensible I ought to be of
the favor done me. I shall never, lovely princess, forget my
recovering, by drinking out of your cup, that life, which your cruelty,
had it continued, must have made me despair of."
The princess, who began to be tired with this impertinent declaration
of the African magician, interrupted him, and said, "Let us drink
first, and then say what you will afterwards;" at the same time she set
the cup to her lips, while the African magician, who was eager to get
his wine off first, drank up the very last drop. In finishing it, he
had reclined his head back to show his eagerness, and remained some
time in that state. The princess kept the cup at her lips, till she saw
his eyes turn in his head, when he fell backwards lifeless on the sofa.
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