lovely bodies, taken from their biers, were carefully deposited upon a
bed of dried leaves within the same cabin. The dwarfs began to recite
the Koran with their clear shrill voices, and Shaban and Sutlememe stood
at some distance, anxiously waiting the effects of the powder. At length
Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz faintly stretched out their arms, and
gradually opening their eyes, began to survey with looks of increasing
amazement every object around them; they even attempted to rise, but for
want of strength fell back again; Sutlememe on this administered a
cordial, which the Emir had taken care to provide.
Gulchenrouz, thoroughly aroused, sneezed out aloud, and raising himself
with an effort that expressed his surprise, left the cabin, and inhaled
the fresh air with the greatest avidity.
“Yes,” said he, “I breathe again! again do I exist! I hear sounds! I
behold a firmament spangled over with stars!”
Nouronihar, catching these beloved accents, extricated herself from the
leaves, and ran to clasp Gulchenrouz to her bosom. The first objects she
remarked were their long simars, their garlands of flowers, and their
naked feet; she hid her face in her hands to reflect; the vision of the
enchanted bath, the despair of her father, and, more vividly than both,
the majestic figure of Vathek recurred to her memory; she recollected
also that herself and Gulchenrouz had been sick and dying; but all these
images bewildered her mind. Not knowing where she was, she turned her
eyes on all sides, as if to recognise the surrounding scene; this
singular lake, those flames reflected from its glassy surface, the pale
hues of its banks, the romantic cabins, the bulrushes that sadly waved
their drooping heads, the storks whose melancholy cries blended with the
shrill voices of the dwarfs, everything conspired to persuade them that
the Angel of Death had opened the portal of some other world.
Gulchenrouz on his part, lost in wonder, clung to the neck of his cousin:
he believed himself in the region of phantoms, and was terrified at the
silence she preserved; at length addressing her:
“Speak,” said he, “where are we? do you not see those spectres that are
stirring the burning coals? are they Monker and Nakir, come to throw us
into them? does the fatal bridge cross this lake, whose solemn stillness
perhaps conceals from us an abyss, in which for whole ages we shall be
doomed incessantly to sink?”
“No, my children!” said Sutlememe, going towards them, “take comfort! the
exterminating Angel, who conducted our souls hither after yours, hath
assured us that the chastisement of your indolent and voluptuous life
shall be restricted to a certain series of years, which you must pass in
this dreary abode, where the sun is scarcely visible, and where the soil
yields neither fruits nor flowers. These,” continued she, pointing to
the dwarfs, “will provide for our wants, for souls so mundane as ours
retain too strong a tincture of their earthly extraction; instead of
meats your food will be nothing but rice, and your bread shall be
moistened in the fogs that brood over the surface of the lake.”
At this desolating prospect the poor children burst into tears, and
prostrated themselves before the dwarfs, who perfectly supported their
characters, and delivered an excellent discourse of a customary length
upon the sacred camel, which after a thousand years was to convey them to
the paradise of the faithful.
The sermon being ended, and ablutions performed, they praised Allah and
the Prophet, supped very indifferently, and retired to their withered
leaves. Nouronihar and her little cousin consoled themselves on finding
that, though dead, they yet lay in one cabin. Having slept well before,
the remainder of the night was spent in conversation on what had befallen
them, and both, from a dread of apparitions, betook themselves for
protection to one another’s arms.
In the morning, which was lowering and rainy, the dwarfs mounted high
poles like minarets, and called them to prayers; the whole congregation,
which consisted of Sutlememe, Shaban, the four eunuchs, and some storks,
were already assembled. The two children came forth from their cabin
with a slow and dejected pace; as their minds were in a tender and
melancholy mood, their devotions were performed with fervour. No sooner
were they finished, than Gulchenrouz demanded of Sutlememe and the rest,
“how they happened to die so opportunely for his cousin and himself.”
“We killed ourselves,” returned Sutlememe, “in despair at your death.”
On this, said Nouronihar, who, notwithstanding what was past, had not yet
forgotten her vision: “And the Caliph! is he also dead of his grief? and
will he likewise come hither?”
The dwarfs, who were prepared with an answer, most demurely replied:
“Vathek is damned beyond all redemption!”
“I readily believe so,” said Gulchenrouz, “and I am glad from my heart to
hear it; for I am convinced it was his horrible look that sent us hither
to listen to sermons and mess upon rice.”
One week passed away on the side of the lake unmarked by any variety;
Nouronihar ruminating on the grandeur of which death had deprived her,
and Gulchenrouz applying to prayers and to panniers, along with the
dwarfs, who infinitely pleased him.
Whilst this scene of innocence was exhibiting in the mountains, the
Caliph presented himself to the Emir in a new light; the instant he
recovered the use of his senses, with a voice that made Bababalouk quake,
he thundered out: “Perfidious Giaour! I renounce thee for ever! it is
thou who hast slain my beloved Nouronihar! and I supplicate the pardon of
Mahomet, who would have preserved her to me had I been more wise; let
water be brought to perform my ablutions, and let the pious Fakreddin be
called to offer up his prayers with mine, and reconcile me to him;
afterwards we will go together and visit the sepulchre of the unfortunate
Nouronihar; I am resolved to become a hermit, and consume the residue of
my days on this mountain, in hope of expiating my crimes.”
Nouronihar was not altogether so content, for though she felt a fondness
for Gulchenrouz, who, to augment the attachment, had been left at full
liberty with her, yet she still regarded him as but a bauble, that bore
no competition with the carbuncle of Giamschid. At times she indulged
doubts on the mode of her being, and scarcely could believe that the dead
had all the wants and the whims of the living. To gain satisfaction,
however, on so perplexing a topic, she arose one morning whilst all were
asleep, with a breathless caution, from the side of Gulchenrouz, and,
after having given him a soft kiss, began to follow the windings of the
lake till it terminated with a rock, whose top was accessible, though
lofty; this she clambered up with considerable toil, and having reached
the summit, set forward in a run, like a doe that unwittingly follows her
hunter; though she skipped along with the alertness of an antelope, yet
at intervals she was forced to desist, and rest beneath the tamarisks to
recover her breath. Whilst she, thus reclined, was occupied with her
little reflections on the apprehension that she had some knowledge of the
place, Vathek, who, finding himself that morning but ill at ease, had
gone forth before the dawn, presented himself on a sudden to her view;
motionless with surprise, he durst not approach the figure before him,
which lay shrouded up in a simar, extended on the ground, trembling and
pale, but yet lovely to behold. At length Nouronihar, with a mixture of
pleasure and affliction, raising her fine eyes to him, said: “My lord,
are you come hither to eat rice and hear sermons with me?”
“Beloved phantom!” cried Vathek; “dost thou speak? hast thou the same
graceful form? the same radiant features? art thou palpable likewise?”
and, eagerly embracing her, added: “here are limbs and a bosom animated
with a gentle warmth! what can such a prodigy mean?”
Nouronihar with diffidence answered: “You know, my lord, that I died on
the night you honoured me with your visit; my cousin maintains it was
from one of your glances, but I cannot believe him; for to me they seem
not so dreadful. Gulchenrouz died with me, and we were both brought into
a region of desolation, where we are fed with a wretched diet. If you be
dead also, and are come hither to join us, I pity your lot; for you will
be stunned with the noise of the dwarfs and the storks; besides, it is
mortifying in the extreme that you, as well as myself, should have lost
the treasures of the subterranean palace.”
At the mention of the subterranean palace the Caliph suspended his
caresses, to seek from Nouronihar an explanation of her meaning. She
then recapitulated her vision, what immediately followed, and the history
of her pretended death, adding also a description of the place of
expiation from whence she had fled, and all in a manner that would have
extorted his laughter, had not the thoughts of Vathek been too deeply
engaged. No sooner, however, had she ended, than he again clasped her to
his bosom, and said:
“Light of my eyes! the mystery is unravelled; we both are alive! your
father is a cheat, who, for the sake of dividing, hath deluded us both;
and the Giaour, whose design, as far as I can discover, is that we shall
proceed together, seems scarce a whit better; it shall be some time at
least before he find us in his palace of fire. Your lovely little person
in my estimation is far more precious than all the treasures of the
pre-adamite Sultans, and I wish to possess it at pleasure, and in open
day, for many a moon, before I go to burrow underground like a mole.
Forget this little trifler, Gulchenrouz, and—”
“Ah! my lord!” interposed Nouronihar, “let me entreat that you do him no
evil.”
“No, no!” replied Vathek, “I have already bid you forbear to alarm
yourself for him; he has been brought up too much on milk and sugar to
stimulate my jealousy; we will leave him with the dwarfs, who, by the
bye, are my old acquaintances; their company will suit him far better
than yours. As to other matters, I will return no more to your father’s;
I want not to have my ears dinned by him and his dotards with the
violation of the rites of hospitality; as if it were less an honour for
you to espouse the sovereign of the world than a girl dressed up like a
boy!”
Nouronihar could find nothing to oppose in a discourse so eloquent; she
only wished the amorous monarch had discovered more ardour for the
carbuncle of Giamschid; but flattered herself it would gradually
increase, and therefore yielded to his will with the most bewitching
submission.
When the Caliph judged it proper, he called for Bababalouk, who was
asleep in the cave of Meimoune, and dreaming that the phantom of
Nouronihar, having mounted him once more on her swing, had just given him
such a jerk, that he one moment soared above the mountains, and the next
sunk into the abyss; starting from his sleep at the voice of his master,
he ran gasping for breath, and had nearly fallen backward at the sight,
as he believed, of the spectre by whom he had so lately been haunted in
his dream.
“Ah, my lord!” cried he, recoiling ten steps, and covering his eyes with
both hands: “do you then perform the office of a Goul? ’tis true you have
dug up the dead, yet hope not to make her your prey; for after all she
hath caused me to suffer, she is even wicked enough to prey upon you.”
“Cease thy folly,” said Vathek, “and thou shalt soon be convinced that it
is Nouronihar herself, alive and well, whom I clasp to my breast; go only
and pitch my tents in the neighbouring valley; there will I fix my abode
with this beautiful tulip, whose colours I soon shall restore; there
exert thy best endeavours to procure whatever can augment the enjoyments
of life, till I shall disclose to thee more of my will.”
The news of so unlucky an event soon reached the ears of the Emir, who
abandoned himself to grief and despair, and began, as did all his old
grey-beards, to begrime his visage with ashes. A total supineness
ensued, travellers were no longer entertained, no more plaisters were
spread, and, instead of the charitable activity that had distinguished
this asylum, the whole of its inhabitants exhibited only faces of a half
cubit long, and uttered groans that accorded with their forlorn
situation.
Though Fakreddin bewailed his daughter as lost to him for ever, yet
Gulchenrouz was not forgotten. He despatched immediate instruction to
Sutlememe, Shaban, and the dwarfs, enjoining them not to undeceive the
child in respect to his state, but, under some pretence, to convey him
far from the lofty rock at the extremity of the lake, to a place which he
should appoint, as safer from danger; for he suspected that Vathek
intended him evil.
Gulchenrouz in the meanwhile was filled with amazement at not finding his
cousin; nor were the dwarfs at all less surprised; but Sutlememe, who had
more penetration, immediately guessed what had happened. Gulchenrouz was
amused with the delusive hope of once more embracing Nouronihar in the
interior recesses of the mountains, where the ground, strewed over with
orange blossoms and jasmines, offered beds much more inviting than the
withered leaves in their cabin, where they might accompany with their
voices the sounds of their lutes, and chase butterflies in concert.
Sutlememe was far gone in this sort of description, when one of the four
eunuchs beckoned her aside to apprise her of the arrival of a messenger
from their fraternity, who had explained the secret of the flight of
Nouronihar, and brought the commands of the Emir. A council with Shaban
and the dwarfs was immediately held; their baggage being stowed in
consequence of it, they embarked in a shallop, and quietly sailed with
the little one, who acquiesced in all their proposals; their voyage
proceeded in the same manner till they came to the place where the lake
sinks beneath the hollow of the rock; but as soon as the bark had entered
it, and Gulchenrouz found himself surrounded with darkness, he was seized
with a dreadful consternation, and incessantly uttered the most piercing
outcries; for he now was persuaded he should actually be damned for
having taken too much freedom in his life-time with his cousin.
But let us return to the Caliph and her who ruled over his heart.
Bababalouk had pitched the tents, and closed up the extremities of the
valley with magnificent screens of India cloth, which were guarded by
Ethiopian slaves with their drawn sabres; to preserve the verdure of this
beautiful enclosure in its natural freshness, the white eunuchs went
continually round it with their red water-vessels. The waving of fans
was heard near the imperial pavilion, where, by the voluptuous light that
glowed through the muslins, the Caliph enjoyed at full view all the
attractions of Nouronihar. Inebriated with delight, he was all ear to
her charming voice, which accompanied the lute; while she was not less
captivated with his descriptions of Samarah and the tower full of
wonders, but especially with his relation of the adventure of the ball,
and the chasm of the Giaour, with its ebony portal.
In this manner they conversed for a day and a night; they bathed together
in a basin of black marble, which admirably relieved the fairness of
Nouronihar. Bababalouk, whose good graces this beauty had regained,
spared no attention that their repasts might be served up with the
minutest exactness; some exquisite rarity was ever placed before them;
and he sent even to Schiraz for that fragrant and delicious wine which
had been hoarded up in bottles prior to the birth of Mahomet; he had
excavated little ovens in the rock to bake the nice manchets which were
prepared by the hands of Nouronihar, from whence they had derived a
flavour so grateful to Vathek, that he regarded the ragouts of his other
wives as entirely mawkish; whilst they would have died at the Emir’s of
chagrin at finding themselves so neglected, if Fakreddin, notwithstanding
his resentment, had not taken pity upon them.
The Sultana Dilara, who till then had been the favourite, took this
dereliction of the Caliph to heart with a vehemence natural to her
character, for during her continuance in favour she had imbibed from
Vathek many of his extravagant fancies, and was fired with impatience to
behold the superb tombs of Istakar, and the palace of forty columns;
besides, having been brought up amongst the Magi, she had fondly
cherished the idea of the Caliph’s devoting himself to the worship of
fire; thus his voluptuous and desultory life with her rival was to her a
double source of affliction. The transient piety of Vathek had
occasioned her some serious alarms, but the present was an evil of far
greater magnitude; she resolved, therefore, without hesitation, to write
to Carathis, and acquaint her that all things went ill; that they had
eaten, slept, and revelled at an old Emir’s, whose sanctity was very
formidable, and that after all, the prospect of possessing the treasures
of the pre-adamite Sultans was no less remote than before. This letter
was entrusted to the care of two wood-men, who were at work on one of the
great forests of the mountains, and, being acquainted with the shortest
cuts, arrived in ten days at Samarah.
The Princess Carathis was engaged at chess with Morakanabad, when the
arrival of these wood-fellers was announced. She, after some weeks of
Vathek’s absence, had forsaken the upper regions of her tower, because
everything appeared in confusion among the stars, whom she consulted
relative to the fate of her son. In vain did she renew her fumigations,
and extend herself on the roof to obtain mystic visions; nothing more
could she see in her dreams than pieces of brocade, nosegays of flowers,
and other unmeaning gewgaws. These disappointments had thrown her into a
state of dejection, which no drug in her power was sufficient to remove;
her only resource was in Morakanabad, who was a good man, and endowed
with a decent share of confidence, yet whilst in her company he never
thought himself on roses.
No person knew aught of Vathek, and a thousand ridiculous stories were
propagated at his expense. The eagerness of Carathis may be easily
guessed at receiving the letter, as well as her rage at reading the
dissolute conduct of her son. “Is it so?” said she; “either I will
perish, or Vathek shall enter the palace of fire. Let me expire in
flames, provided he may reign on the throne of Soliman!” Having said
this, and whirled herself round in a magical manner, which struck
Morakanabad with such terror as caused him to recoil, she ordered her
great camel Alboufaki to be brought, and the hideous Nerkes with the
unrelenting Cafour to attend. “I require no other retinue,” said she to
Morakanabad; “I am going on affairs of emergency; a truce therefore to
parade! Take you care of the people; fleece them well in my absence; for
we shall expend large sums, and one knows not what may betide.”
The night was uncommonly dark, and a pestilential blast ravaged the plain
of Catoul that would have deterred any other traveller, however urgent
the call; but Carathis enjoyed most whatever filled others with dread.
Nerkes concurred in opinion with her, and Cafour had a particular
predilection for a pestilence. In the morning this accomplished caravan,
with the wood-fellers who directed their route, halted on the edge of an
extensive marsh, from whence so noxious a vapour arose as would have
destroyed any animal but Alboufaki, who naturally inhaled these malignant
fogs. The peasants entreated their convoy not to sleep in this place.
“To sleep,” cried Carathis; “what an excellent thought! I never sleep
but for visions; and, as to my attendants, their occupations are too many
to close the only eye they each have.”
The poor peasants, who were not over-pleased with their party, remained
open-mouthed with surprise.
Carathis alighted, as well as her negresses, and severally stripping off
their outer garments, they all ran in their drawers, to cull from those
spots where the sun shone fiercest the venomous plants that grew on the
marsh; this provision was made for the family of the Emir, and whoever
might retard the expedition to Istakar. The wood-men were overcome with
fear when they beheld these three horrible phantoms run, and, not much
relishing the company of Alboufaki, stood aghast at the command of
Carathis to set forward, notwithstanding it was noon, and the heat fierce
enough to calcine even rocks. In spite, however, of every remonstrance,
they were forced implicitly to submit.
Alboufaki, who delighted in solitude, constantly snorted whenever he
perceived himself near a habitation; and Carathis, who was apt to spoil
him with indulgence, as constantly turned him aside, so that the peasants
were precluded from procuring subsistence; for the milch goats and ewes,
which Providence had sent towards the district they traversed, to refresh
travellers with their milk, all fled at the sight of the hideous animal
and his strange riders. As to Carathis, she needed no common aliment,
for her invention had previously furnished her with an opiate to stay her
stomach, some of which she imparted to her mutes.
At the fall of night Alboufaki, making a sudden stop, stamped with his
foot, which to Carathis, who understood his paces, was a certain
indication that she was near the confines of some cemetery. The moon
shed a bright light on the spot, which served to discover a long wall,
with a large door in it standing ajar, and so high that Alboufaki might
easily enter. The miserable guides, who perceived their end approaching,
humbly implored Carathis, as she had now so good an opportunity, to inter
them, and immediately gave up the ghost. Nerkes and Cafour, whose wit
was of a style peculiar to themselves, were by no means parsimonious of
it on the folly of these poor people, nor could anything have been found
more suited to their tastes than the site of the burying-ground, and the
sepulchres which its precincts contained; there were at least two
thousand of them on the declivity of a hill: some in the form of
pyramids, others like columns, and, in short, the variety of their shapes
was endless. Carathis was too much immersed in her sublime
contemplations to stop at the view, charming as it appeared in her eyes;
pondering the advantages that might accrue from her present situation,
she could not forbear to exclaim:
“So beautiful a cemetery must be haunted by Gouls! and they want not for
intelligence; having heedlessly suffered my guides to expire, I will
apply for directions to them, and as an inducement will invite them to
regale on these fresh corpses.”
After this short soliloquy she beckoned to Nerkes and Cafour, and made
signs with her fingers, as much as to say, “Go, knock against the sides
of the tombs, and strike up your delightful warblings, that are so like
to those of the guests whose company I wish to obtain.”
The negresses, full of joy at the behests of their mistress, and
promising themselves much pleasure from the society of the Gouls, went
with an air of conquest, and began their knockings at the tombs; as their
strokes were repeated a hollow noise was heard in the earth, the surface
hove up into heaps, and the Gouls on all sides protruded their noses, to
inhale the effluvia which the carcases of the wood-men began to emit.
They assembled before a sarcophagus of white marble, where Carathis was
seated between the bodies of her miserable guides; the princess received
her visitants with distinguished politeness, and, when supper was ended,
proceeded with them to business. Having soon learnt from them everything
she wished to discover, it was her intention to set forward forthwith on
her journey, but her negresses, who were forming tender connections with
the Gouls, importuned her with all their fingers to wait at least till
the dawn. Carathis, however, being chastity in the abstract, and an
implacable enemy to love and repose, at once rejected their prayer,
mounted Alboufaki, and commanded them to take their seats in a moment;
four days and four nights she continued her route, without turning to the
right hand or left; on the fifth she traversed the mountains and
half-burnt forests, and arrived on the sixth before the beautiful screens
which concealed from all eyes the voluptuous wanderings of her son.