telling you that you have quite forgotten yourself; and I do not see who you can get to venture to propose it for you.'
'You, yourself,' replied he immediately.
'I go to the sultan!' answered his mother, amazed and surprised. 'I shall take good care how I engage in such an affair. Why, who are you, son,' continued she, 'that you can have the assurance to think of your sultan's daughter? Have you forgotten that your father was one of the poorest tailors in the capital, and that I am of no better extraction; and do not you know that sultans never marry their daughters but to princes, sons of sultans hke themselves?'
'Mother,' answered Aladdin, 'I have already told you that I foresaw all that you have said, or can say: and tell you again that neither your discourse nor your remonstrances shall make me change my mind. I have told you that you must ask the Princess Badroulboudour in marriage for me: it is a favour I request with all the respect I owe you; and I beg of you not to refuse me, unless you would rather see me in my grave, than by so doing give me new life.'
The good old woman was very much embarrassed, when she found Aladdin so obstinately persisting in so foolish a design. 'My son,' said she again, 'I am your mother, and there is nothing reasonable that I would not readily do for you. If I were to go and treat about your marriage with some neighbour's daughter, whose circumstances were equal to yours, I would do it with all my heart; and even then they would expect you to have some little estate or fortune, or be of some trade. When such poor folks as we are marry, the first thing they ought to think of is how to live. But without reflecting on your lowly birth, and the little merit and fortune you have to recommend you, you aim at the highest; you demand in marriage the daughter of your sovereign, who with one single word can crush you to pieces. How could so extraordinary a thought come into your head, as that I should go to the sultan, and make a proposal to him to give his daughter in marriage to you? Suppose I had, not to say the boldness, but the impudence to present myself before the sultan and make so extravagant a request, to whom should I address myself to be
