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the Talisman — ome 175

Isle of Ebony, where she had: been obliged to marry the Princess
Haiatalnefous, and accept the crown which King Armanos offered
her as a condition of the marriage: how the princess, whose merit
she highly extolled, had kept the secret, and how she found the
talisman in the pots of olives mingled with the gold dust, and how
the finding it was the cause of her ‘sending for him to the city of
the idolaters. ,

The Princess Badoura and Prince Camaralzaman rose next
morning as soon as it was light, but the princess would no more
put on her royal robes as king; she dressed herself in the dress
of a woman, and then sent the chief chamberlain to King Armanos,
her father-in-law, to desire he would be so good as to come to
her apartment.

When the king entered the chamber, he was amazed to see
there a lady who was unknown to him, and the high treasurer
with her, who was not permitted to come within the inner palace.
He sat down and asked where the king was.

The princess answered, ‘ Yesterday I was king, sir, and to-day I
am the Princess of China, wife of the true Prince Camaralzaman,
the true son of King Schahzdman, If your majesty will have the
patience to hear both our stories, I hope you will not. condemn me
for putting an innocent deceit upon you.’ The king bade her go on,
and heard her discourse from the beginning to the end with astonish-
ment. The princess on finishing it said to him, * Sir, in our religion
men may have several wives ; if your majesty will consent to give
your daughter the Princess Haiatalnefous in marriage to Prince
Camaralzaman, I will with all my heart yield up to her the rank and
quality of queen, which of right belongs to her, and content myself
with the second place. If this precedence was not her due, I would,
however, give-it her, after she has kept my secret so generously.’

King Armanos listened to the princess with astonishment, and
when she had done, turned to Prince Camaralzaman, saying, ‘Son,