published through Samarah; litters, camels, and horses were prepared.
Women and children, old men and young, every one placed himself in the
station he chose. The cavalcade set forward, attended by all the
confectioners in the city and its precincts; the populace following on
foot composed an amazing crowd, and occasioned no little noise; all was
joy, nor did any one call to mind what most of them had suffered when
they first travelled the road they were now passing so gaily.
The evening was serene, the air refreshing, the sky clear, and the
flowers exhaled their fragrance; the beams of the declining sun, whose
mild splendour reposed on the summit of the mountain, shed a glow of
ruddy light over its green declivity and the white flocks sporting upon
it; no sounds were audible save the murmurs of the Four Fountains, and
the reeds and voices of shepherds calling to each other from different
eminences.
The lovely innocents proceeding to the destined sacrifice added not a
little to the hilarity of the scene; they approached the plain full of
sportiveness, some coursing butterflies, others culling flowers, or
picking up the shining little pebbles that attracted their notice. At
intervals they nimbly started from each other, for the sake of being
caught again, and mutually imparting a thousand caresses.
The dreadful chasm at whose bottom the portal of ebony was placed began
to appear at a distance; it looked like a black streak that divided the
plain. Morakanabad and his companions took it for some work which the
Caliph had ordered; unhappy men! little did they surmise for what it was
destined.
Vathek, not liking they should examine it too nearly, stopped the
procession, and ordered a spacious circle to be formed on this side, at
some distance from the accursed chasm. The body-guard of eunuchs was
detached to measure out the lists intended for the games, and prepare
ringles for the lines to keep off the crowd. The fifty competitors were
soon stripped, and presented to the admiration of the spectators the
suppleness and grace of their delicate limbs; their eyes sparkled with a
joy which those of their fond parents reflected. Every one offered
wishes for the little candidate nearest his heart, and doubted not of his
being victorious; a breathless suspense awaited the contest of these
amiable and innocent victims.
The Caliph, awaiting himself of the first moment to retire from the
crowd, advanced towards the chasm, and there heard, yet not without
shuddering, the voice of the Indian, who, gnashing his teeth, eagerly
demanded: “Where are they? where are they? perceivest thou not how my
mouth waters?”
“Relentless Giaour!” answered Vathek, with emotion, “can nothing content
thee but the massacre of these lovely victims! Ah! wert thou to behold
their beauty it must certainly move thy compassion.”
“Perdition on thy compassion, babbler!” cried the Indian. “Give them me,
instantly give them, or my portal shall be closed against thee for ever!”
“Not so loudly,” replied the Caliph, blushing.
“I understand thee,” returned the Giaour, with the grin of an ogre; “thou
wantest to summon up more presence of mind; I will for a moment forbear.”
During this exquisite dialogue the games went forward with all alacrity,
and at length concluded just as the twilight began to overcast the
mountains. Vathek, who was still standing on the edge of the chasm,
called out, with all his might: “Let my fifty little favourites approach
me separately, and let them come in the order of their success. To the
first I will give my diamond bracelet, to the second my collar of
emeralds, to the third my aigret of rubies, to the fourth my girdle of
topazes, and to the rest each a part of my dress, even down to my
slippers.”
This declaration was received with reiterated acclamations, and all
extolled the liberality of a prince who would thus strip himself for the
amusement of his subjects and the encouragement of the rising generation.
The Caliph in the meantime undressed himself by degrees, and, raising his
arm as high as he was able, made each of the prizes glitter in the air;
but whilst he delivered it with one hand to the child, who sprang forward
to receive it, he with the other pushed the poor innocent into the gulf,
where the Giaour, with a sullen muttering, incessantly repeated, “More!
more!”
This dreadful device was executed with so much dexterity that the boy who
was approaching him remained unconscious of the fate of his forerunner;
and as to the spectators, the shades of evening, together with their
distance, precluded them from perceiving any object distinctly. Vathek,
having in this manner thrown in the last of the fifty, and expecting that
the Giaour on receiving them would have presented the key, already
fancied himself as great as Soliman, and consequently above being
amenable for what he had done: when, to his utter amazement, the chasm
closed, and the around became as entire as the rest of the plain.
No language could express his rage and despair. He execrated the perfidy
of the Indian, loaded him with the most infamous invectives, and stamped
with his foot as resolving to be heard; he persisted in this demeanour
till his strength failed him, and then fell on the earth like one void of
sense. His vizirs and grandees, who were nearer than the rest, supposed
him at first to be sitting on the grass at play with their amiable
children; but at length, prompted by doubt, they advanced towards the
spot, and found the Caliph alone, who wildly demanded what they wanted.
“Our children! our children!” cried they.
“It is assuredly pleasant,” said he, “to make me accountable for
accidents; your children while at play fell from the precipice that was
here, and I should have experienced their fate had I not been saved by a
sudden start back.”
At these words the fathers of the fifty boys cried out aloud, the mothers
repeated their exclamations an octave higher, whilst the rest, without
knowing the cause, soon drowned the voices of both with still louder
lamentations of their own.
“Our Caliph,” said they—and the report soon circulated—“Our Caliph has
played us this trick to gratify his accursed Giaour. Let us punish him
for his perfidy! let us avenge ourselves! let us avenge the blood of the
innocent! let us throw this cruel prince into the gulf that is near, and
let his name be mentioned no more!”
At this rumour and these menaces, Carathis, full of consternation,
hastened to Morakanabad, and said: “Vizir, you have lost two beautiful
boys, and must necessarily be the most afflicted of fathers, but you are
virtuous; save your master.”
“I will brave every hazard,” replied the vizir, “to rescue him from his
present danger, but afterwards will abandon him to his fate.
Bababalouk,” continued he, “put yourself at the head of your eunuchs;
disperse the mob, and, if possible, bring back this unhappy prince to his
palace.” Bababalouk and his fraternity, felicitating each other in a low
voice on their disability of ever being fathers, obeyed the mandate of
the vizir; who, seconding their exertions to the utmost of his power, at
length accomplished his generous enterprise, and retired as he resolved,
to lament at his leisure.
No sooner had the Caliph re-entered his palace than Carathis commanded
the doors to be fastened; but, perceiving the tumult to be still violent,
and hearing the imprecations which resounded from all quarters, she said
to her son: “Whether the populace be right or wrong, it behoves you to
provide for your safety; let us retire to your own apartment, and from
thence through the subterranean passage, known only to ourselves, into
your tower; there, with the assistance of the mutes who never leave it,
we may be able to make some resistance. Bababalouk, supposing us to be
still in the palace, will guard its avenues for his own sake; and we
shall soon find, without the counsels of that blubberer Morakanabad, what
expedient may be the best to adopt.”
Vathek, without making the least reply, acquiesced in his mother’s
proposal, and repeated as he went: “Nefarious Giaour! where art thou!
hast thou not yet devoured those poor children? where are thy sabres? thy
golden key? thy talismans?”
Carathis, who guessed from these interrogations a part of the truth, had
no difficulty to apprehend in getting at the whole, as soon as he should
be a little composed in his tower. This princess was so far from being
influenced by scruples that she was as wicked as woman could be, which is
not saying a little, for the sex pique themselves on their superiority in
every competition. The recital of the Caliph, therefore, occasioned
neither terror nor surprise to his mother; she felt no emotion but from
the promises of the Giaour, and said to her son: “This Giaour, it must be
confessed, is somewhat sanguinary in his taste, but the terrestrial
powers are always terrible; nevertheless, what the one hath promised and
the others can confer will prove a sufficient indemnification; no crimes
should be thought too dear for such a reward! forbear then to revile the
Indian; you have not fulfilled the conditions to which his services are
annexed; for instance, is not a sacrifice to the subterranean Genii
required? and should we not be prepared to offer it as soon as the tumult
is subsided? This charge I will take on myself, and have no doubt of
succeeding by means of your treasures, which, as there are now so many
others in store, may without fear be exhausted.”
Accordingly the princess, who possessed the most consummate skill in the
art of persuasion, went immediately back through the subterranean
passage; and presenting herself to the populace, from a window of the
palace, began to harangue them with all the address of which she was
mistress, whilst Bababalouk showered money from both hands amongst the
crowd, who by these united means were soon appeased; every person retired
to his home, and Carathis returned to the tower.
Prayer at break of day was announced, when Carathis and Vathek ascended
the steps which led to the summit of the tower, where they remained for
some time, though the weather was lowering and wet. This impending gloom
corresponded with their malignant dispositions; but when the sun began to
break through the clouds they ordered a pavilion to be raised, as a
screen from the intrusion of his beams. The Caliph, overcome with
fatigue, sought refreshment from repose, at the same time hoping that
significant dreams might attend on his slumbers; whilst the indefatigable
Carathis, followed by a party of her mutes, descended to prepare whatever
she judged proper for the oblation of the approaching night.
By secret stairs, known only to herself and to her son, she first
repaired to the mysterious recesses in which were deposited the mummies
that had been brought from the catacombs of the ancient Pharaohs; of
these she ordered several to be taken. From thence she resorted to a
gallery where, under the guard of fifty female negroes, mute and blind of
the right eye, were preserved the oil of the most venomous serpents,
rhinoceros’ horns, and woods of a subtle and penetrating odour procured
from the interior of the Indies, together with a thousand other horrible
rarities. This collection had been formed for a purpose like the present
by Carathis herself, from a presentment that she might one day enjoy some
intercourse with the infernal powers to whom she had ever been
passionately attached, and to whose taste she was no stranger.
To familiarise herself the better with the horrors in view, the princess
remained in the company of her negresses, who squinted in the most
amiable manner from the only eye they had, and leered with exquisite
delight at the skulls and skeletons which Carathis had drawn forth from
her cabinets, whose key she entrusted to no one; all of them making
contortions, and uttering a frightful jargon, but very amusing to the
princess; till at last, being stunned by their gibbering, and suffocated
by the potency of their exhalations, she was forced to quit the gallery,
after stripping it of a part of its treasures.
Whilst she was thus occupied, the Caliph, who, instead of the visions he
expected, had acquired in these insubstantial regions a voracious
appetite, was greatly provoked at the negresses; for, having totally
forgotten their deafness, he had impatiently asked them for food, and
seeing them regardless of his demand, he began to cuff, pinch, and push
them, till Carathis arrived to terminate a scene so indecent, to the
great content of these miserable creatures, who, having been brought up
by her, understood all her signs, and communicated in the same way their
thoughts in return.
“Son! what means all this?” said she, panting for breath. “I thought I
heard as I came up the shrieks of a thousand bats tearing from their
crannies in the recesses of a cavern; and it was the outcry only of these
poor mutes, whom you were so unmercifully abusing. In truth you but ill
deserve the admirable provision I have brought you.”
“Give it me instantly,” exclaimed the Caliph; “I am perishing for
hunger!”
“As to that,” answered she, “you must have an excellent stomach if it can
digest what I have been preparing.”
“Be quick,” replied the Caliph; “but, oh, heavens! what horrors! what do
you intend?”
“Come, come,” returned Carathis, “be not so squeamish, but help me to
arrange everything properly, and you shall see that what you reject with
such symptoms of disgust will soon complete your felicity. Let us get
ready the pile for the sacrifice of to-night, and think not of eating
till that is performed; know you not that all solemn rites are preceded
by a rigorous abstinence?”
The Caliph, not daring to object, abandoned himself to grief and the wind
that ravaged his entrails, whilst his mother went forward with the
requisite operations. Phials of serpents’ oil, mummies, and bones were
soon set in order on the balustrade of the tower; the pile began to rise,
and in three hours was as many cubits high. At length darkness
approached, and Carathis, having stripped herself to her inmost garment,
clapped her hands in an impulse of ecstasy and struck light with all her
force. The mutes followed her example; but Vathek, extenuated with
hunger and impatience, was unable to support himself, and fell down in a
swoon. The sparks had already kindled the dry wood, the venomous oil
burst into a thousand blue flames, the mummies dissolving emitted a thick
dun vapour, and the rhinoceros’ horns beginning to consume, all together
diffused such a stench, that the Caliph, recovering, started from his
trance, and gazed wildly on the scene in full blaze around him. The oil
gushed forth in a plenitude of streams; and the negresses, who supplied
it without intermission, united their cries to those of the princess. At
last the fire became so violent, and the flames reflected from the
polished marble so dazzling, that the Caliph, unable to withstand the
heat and the blaze, effected his escape, and clambered up the imperial
standard.
In the meantime the inhabitants of Samarah, scared at the light which
shone over the city, arose in haste, ascended their roofs, beheld the
tower on fire, and hurried half naked to the square. Their love to their
sovereign immediately awoke; and, apprehending him in danger of perishing
in his tower, their whole thoughts were occupied with the means of his
safety. Morakanabad flew from his retirement, wiped away his tears, and
cried out for water like the rest. Bababalouk, whose olfactory nerves
were more familiarised to magical odours, readily conjecturing that
Carathis was engaged in her favourite amusements, strenuously exhorted
them not to be alarmed. Him, however, they treated as an old poltroon,
and forbore not to style him a rascally traitor. The camels and
dromedaries were advancing with water, but no one knew by which way to
enter the tower. Whilst the populace was obstinate in forcing the doors
a violent east wind drove such a volume of flame against them, as at
first forced them off, but afterwards re-kindled their zeal; at the same
time the stench of the horns and mummies increasing, most of the crowd
fell backward in a state of suffocation; those that kept their feet
mutually wondered at the cause of the smell, and admonished each other to
retire. Morakanabad, more sick than the rest, remained in a piteous
condition; holding his nose with one hand, he persisted in his efforts
with the other to burst open the doors and obtain admission. A hundred
and forty of the strongest and most resolute at length accomplished their
purpose; having gained the staircase by their violent exertions, they
attained a great height in a quarter of an hour.
Carathis, alarmed at the signs of her mutes, advanced to the staircase,
went down a few steps, and heard several voices calling out from below:
“You shall in a moment have water!” Being rather alert, considering her
age, she presently regained the top of the tower, and bade her son
suspend the sacrifice for some minutes, adding: “We shall soon be enabled
to render it more grateful; certain dolts of your subjects, imagining no
doubt that we were on fire, have been rash enough to break through those
doors which had hitherto remained inviolate, for the sake of bringing up
water; they are very kind, you must allow, so soon to forget the wrongs
you have done them, but that is of little moment. Let us offer them to
the Giaour; let them come up; our mutes, who neither want strength nor
experience, will soon despatch them, exhausted as they are with fatigue.”
“Be it so,” answered the Caliph, “provided we finish and I dine.”
In fact, these good people, out of breath from ascending eleven thousand
stairs in such haste, and chagrined at having spilt by the way the water
they had taken, were no sooner arrived at the top than the blaze of the
flames and the fumes of the mummies at once overpowered their senses. It
was a pity; for they beheld not the agreeable smile with which the mutes
and the negresses adjusted the cord to their necks; these amiable
personages rejoiced, however, no less at the scene; never before had the
ceremony of strangling been performed with so much facility; they all
fell without the least resistance or struggle, so that Vathek in the
space of a few moments found himself surrounded by the dead bodies of his
faithfullest subjects, all which were thrown on the top of the pile.
Carathis, whose presence of mind never forsook her, perceiving that she
had carcases sufficient to complete her oblation, commanded the chains to
be stretched across the staircase, and the iron doors barricaded, that no
more might come up.
No sooner were these orders obeyed than the tower shook, the dead bodies
vanished in the flames, which at once changed from a swarthy crimson to a
bright rose colour; an ambient vapour emitted the most exquisite
fragrance, the marble columns rang with harmonious sounds, and the
liquefied horns diffused a delicious perfume. Carathis, in transports,
anticipated the success of her enterprise, whilst her mutes and
negresses, to whom these sweets had given the colic, retired to their
cells grumbling.
Scarcely were they gone when, instead of the pile, horns, mummies, and
ashes, the Caliph both saw and felt, with a degree of pleasure which he
could not express, a table covered with the most magnificent repast;
flagons of wine and vases of exquisite sherbet floating on snow. He
availed himself without scruple of such an entertainment and had already
laid hands on a lamb stuffed with pistachios, whilst Carathis was
privately drawing from a filigree urn a parchment that seemed to be
endless, and which had escaped the notice of her son; totally occupied in
gratifying an importunate appetite he left her to peruse it without
interruption, which, having finished, she said to him in an authoritative
tone, “Put an end to your gluttony, and hear the splendid promises with
which you are favoured!” She then read as follows: “Vathek, my
well-beloved, thou hast surpassed my hopes; my nostrils have been regaled
by the savour of thy mummies, thy horns, and still more by the lives
devoted on the pile. At the full of the moon cause the bands of thy
musicians and thy tymbals to be heard; depart from thy palace surrounded
by all the pageants of majesty; thy most faithful slaves, thy best
beloved wives, thy most magnificent litters, thy richest leaden camels,
and set forward on thy way to Istakhar; there await I thy coming; that is
the region of wonders; there shalt thou receive the diadem of Gian Ben
Gian, the talismans of Soliman, and the treasures of the Pre-Adamite
Sultans; there shalt thou be solaced with all kinds of delight. But
beware how thou enterest any dwelling on thy route, or thou shalt feel
the effects of my anger.”
The Caliph, who, notwithstanding his habitual luxury, had never before
dined with so much satisfaction, gave full scope to the joy of these
golden tidings, and betook himself to drinking anew. Carathis, whose
antipathy to wine was by no means insuperable, failed not to supply a
reason for every bumper, which they ironically quaffed to the health of
Mahomet. This infernal liquor completed their impious temerity, and
prompted them to utter a profusion of blasphemies; they gave a loose to
their wit at the expense of the ass of Balaam, the dog of the seven
sleepers, and the other animals admitted into the paradise of Mahomet.
In this sprightly humour they descended the eleven thousand stairs,
diverting themselves as they went at the anxious faces they saw on the
square through the oilets of the tower, and at length arrived at the
royal apartments by the subterranean passage. Bababalouk was parading to
and fro, and issuing his mandates with great pomp to the eunuchs, who
were snuffing the lights and painting the eyes of the Circassians. No
sooner did he catch sight of the Caliph and his mother than he exclaimed,
“Hah! you have then, I perceive, escaped from the flames; I was not,
however, altogether out of doubt.”
“Of what moment is it to us what you thought, or think?” cried Carathis;
“go, speed, tell Morakanabad that we immediately want him; and take care
how you stop by the way to make your insipid reflections.”
Morakanabad delayed not to obey the summons, and was received by Vathek
and his mother with great solemnity; they told him, with an air of
composure and commiseration, that the fire at the top of the tower was
extinguished; but that it had cost the lives of the brave people who
sought to assist them.
“Still more misfortunes,” cried Morakanabad, with a sigh. “Ah, Commander
of the Faithful, our holy Prophet is certainly irritated against us! it
behoves you to appease him.”
“We will appease him hereafter!” replied the Caliph, with a smile that
augured nothing of good. “You will have leisure sufficient for your
supplications during my absence; for this country is the bane of my
health; I am disgusted with the mountain of the Four Fountains, and am
resolved to go and drink of the stream of Rocnabad; I long to refresh
myself in the delightful valleys which it waters. Do you, with the
advice of my mother, govern my dominions, and take care to supply
whatever her experiments may demand; for you well know that our tower
abounds in materials for the advancement of science.”
The tower but ill suited Morakanabad’s taste. Immense treasures had been
lavished upon it; and nothing had he ever seen carried thither but female
negroes, mutes, and abominable drugs. Nor did he know well what to think
of Carathis, who, like a chameleon, could assume all possible colours;
her cursed eloquence had often driven the poor Mussulman to his last
shifts. He considered, however, that if she possessed but few good
qualities, her son had still fewer; and that the alternative on the whole
would be in her favour. Consoled, therefore, with this reflection, he
went in good spirits to soothe the populace, and make the proper
arrangements for his master’s journey.