The amorous son of Timurtasch was continuing to indulge in tender and passionate speeches, when all of a sudden he was obliged to be silent to listen to, and observe a slave who had stood till then behind the Princess of China, and who, advancing now into the midst of the audience, surprised every one by her proceedings. She lifted her veil, and Calaf immediately recognised her as the same person whom he had seen in the night in his apart­ment; her face was as pale as death, her eyes wandered, and she seemed to be meditating some terrible deed. All the spectators looked at her with astonishment, and Altoun-Khan, like the others, was in a state of expectancy as to what she was going to say, when, turning to Tourandot, she spoke to her thus:

‘Princess, it is time to disabuse you; I did not go to seek the Prince Calaf to get him to reveal his name to me, I did not take this step to serve you; it was in my own interest that I risked it, I wished to free myself from slavery, and take your lover from you. I had arranged everything to fly with him; he rejected my proposal, or rather the ungrateful man despised my affection. I have nevertheless spared nothing to detach him from you. I painted your pride to him in the blackest colours, I even said you were going to have him assassinated to-day, but I charged you in vain with this intended crime. I have not been able to shake his constancy. He knows how I gave way on leaving him, and his eyes have been the witness of my rage and confusion. Jealous and desperate I returned to your apartment, and by a false con­fidence I earned your approbation by a step which has only led to my shame. It was not in order to relieve your embarrassment that I told you the name you wished to know; it escaped the prince in an outburst he could not restrain, and I thought that, still inimical to men, you would be very glad to be able to dismiss Calaf. In fact, I thought thereby to prevent the tying of the knots which are going to bind you together. But since my artifice has proved futile, and you are determined to marry your lover, I have no other alternative but to do this.’ Saying these words, she drew from beneath her dress a dagger, and plunged it in her breast.

The whole assembly shuddered at this action. Altoun-Khan was seized with horror at it; Calaf felt his joy diminish, and Tourandot, uttering a loud cry, descended from her throne to go to the assistance of her slave and save her if possible from perishing.

The other favourite slave also ran forward with the same intention, as well as the two others who held the ink and paper; but before they reached her, the unhappy woman enamoured of the son of Timurtasch, as though the blow she had given herself had not been sufficient to take her life, with­drew her dagger and stabbed herself again. All that they could do was to receive in their arms her tottering body.

‘Adelmuc,’ said the distressed Princess of China, ‘my dear Adelmuc, what have you done? Why have you gone to this extremity? Why did you not open your heart to me last night? Why did you not say you would take your life if I married Prince Calaf? What efforts would I not have made for a rival such as you?’

At these words the princess’s slave, opening her eyes already closing in death, turned them towards Tourandot and said to her: ‘It is all over, my princess, I am about to cease to live and suffer; do not pity my fate, rather praise my generous resolu­tion. In dying, I free myself from a double slavery; I escape from the chains of Altoun-Khan, and from those of love which are much more rigorous. I imbibed with my mother’s milk the principles of fortitude, so it need not excite surprise that I have been capable of this determination.’ Saying these words, she sighed a deep sigh and died.

The mandarins and doctors were touched at the pitiable end of Adelmuc: Tourandot broke out afresh in tears, and Calaf, looking upon himself as the author of this tragic event, was deeply grieved at it. The good King of China in his turn seemed greatly affected.

‘Ah, unfortunate princess,’ he said, ‘only and precious relic of a celebrated family, what does it avail you now to have been saved from the fury of the waters? Alas! you would have been happier had you achieved your destiny the day that saw that unhappy monarch, your father, and all your family perish. May you at least, after having passed through the nine hells, be born again, the daughter of another sovereign, at the first trans­migration.’

Altoun-Khan did not content himself with deploring thus the misfortune of the Princess Adelmuc. He ordered a superb funeral. Her body was borne into a separate palace, where it was clothed with rich white garments, and before placing it in a coffin, the king, with all the officers of his household, went to make reverence and offer perfumes to it: then it was enclosed in a coffin of aloe wood, and it was placed on a sort of throne which had been raised for this purpose in the middle of a great courtyard. It remained there a whole week, and every day the wives of the mandarins, in mourning from head to foot, were obliged to go and visit it and make before it four reverences, each with demonstrations of grief.

After this ceremony, the day which the king had designated for the burial having come, the coffin was placed on a triumphal car, covered with silver plates mingled with figures of animals painted on cardboard; then a sacrifice was made to the genius who guarded the car, so that the funeral might be happily concluded, and after having watered the coffin with scented water, the procession began. It lasted three days, on account of the various ceremonies and the pauses it was necessary to make before arriving at the mountain where the tombs of the Kings of China are; for Altoun-Khan wished that the ashes of the Princess Adelmuc should be mingled with those of the princes of his house. It is true that Tourandot, out of friendship for her favourite slave, had begged the king to do her this honour. When the procession was near the mountain the coffin was removed from the car which had borne it thus far, to be placed on another still richer. Then a bull was sacrificed which was sprinkled with aromatic wine, and the coffin was given to the Earth, that was entreated to receive the body of the princess favour­ably.

When the obsequies of Adelmuc were over, the aspect of the court of China changed: mourning was put aside and pleasure succeeded the grief which had occupied it. Altoun-Khan ordered preparations to be made for the marriage of Calaf with Tourandot, and whilst they were engaged on them, he sent ambassadors to the tribe of Berlas to inform the Khan of the Nogaïs of all that had passed in China, and to beg him to come thither with the princess his wife.

The preparations being completed, the marriage took place with all the pomp and magnificence due to the quality of the bridal pair. No mandarins were given to Calaf for masters, as is customary in China. Moreover, the king declared publicly that, to mark the particular esteem and consideration he had for his son-in-law, he dispensed him from making the ordinary four daily reverences to his wife that are enjoined upon the husband of the daughter of a king of that land until she has given him children. For a whole month there were nothing but spectacles and feasts at the court, and there were also great rejoicings in the town.

The possession of Tourandot did not at all abate the love of Calaf; and this princess, who had till then looked upon men with so much contempt, could not help loving so perfect a prince. Some time after their marriage the ambassadors whom Altoun-Khan had sent to the country of Berlas returned with a goodly company; they had with them not only the father and mother of their king’s son-in-law, but even prince Alinguer, who, to do greater honour to Elmaze and Timurtasch, had wished to accompany them with the greatest lords of his court, and conduct them as far as Pekin.

The young prince of the Nogaïs, informed of their arrival, hastened to meet them. He met them at the door of the palace. The joy he had in seeing his father and mother again, and the delight they experienced at sight of him, must be imagined, for it is impossible to express it in words.

They embraced each other again and again, and the tears they shed moved the Chinese and Tar­tars who were present to do likewise.

After such sweet embraces, Calaf saluted the Khan of Berlas: he assured him how deeply he was touched at his kindness, and especially at his having wished to accompany the authors of his being as far as the court of China; to whieh Prince Alinguer replied that, being ignorant of the quality of Timurtasch and Elmaze, he had not paid them all the regard due to them, and so, in order to make reparation for the ill-treatment he might have shown them, he had thought it his duty to take this step.

Thereupon the Khan of the Nogaïs and the Princess his wife complimented the sovereign of Berlas; then they all entered the palace to go and see Altoun-Khan. They found this monarch, who awaited them in the first hall. He embraced them all one after the other, and received them very agreeably; he then conducted them into his cabinet, where, after having expressed to Timurtasch the pleasure he had in seeing him and his sympathy in his misfortunes, he assured him he would do all he could to avenge him upon the Sultan of Carizma; and it was no vain assurance, for that very day orders were sent to the governors of the province to put on the road without delay the soldiers who were in the towns of their jurisdictions, and to make them take the route to that place which had been chosen as the rendezvous of the formidable army which was to be assembled. On his side, the Khan of Berlas, who had foreseen this war, and who hoped to contribute to the re-establishment of Timurtasch in his states, had ordered the commander-in-chief of his troops to hold himself in readiness to commence a campaign of the first order. He commanded him to join the Chinese army as soon as possible.