Vathek; An Arabian Tale

by William Beckford

Gulchenrouz, and the days of tenderness she had participated withhim. She even dropped a few tears, which Carathis observed, andinadvertently breathed out with a sigh:

  “Alas! my gentle cousin, what will become of him!”

  Vathek at this apostrophe knitted up his brows, and Carathis enquiredwhat it could mean.

  “She is preposterously sighing after a stripling with languishing eyesand soft hair who loves her,” said the Caliph.

  “Where is he?” asked Carathis. “I must be acquainted with this prettychild; for,” added she, lowering her voice, “I design before I depart toregain the favour of the Giaour. There is nothing so delicious in hisestimation as the heart of a delicate boy, palpitating with the firsttumults of love.”

  Vathek as he came from the bath commanded Bababalouk to collect the womenand other moveables of his harem, embody his troops, and hold himself inreadiness to march in three days; whilst Carathis retired alone to atent, where the Giaour solaced her with encouraging visions; but atlength waking, she found at her feet Nerkes and Cafour, who informed herby their signs, that having led Alboufaki to the borders of a lake, tobrowse on some moss that looked tolerably venomous, they had discoveredcertain blue fishes of the same kind with those in the reservoir on thetop of the tower.

  “Ah, ah,” said she, “I will go thither to them. These fish are pastdoubt of a species that by a small operation I can render oracular. Theymay tell me where this little Gulchenrouz is, whom I am bent uponsacrificing.”

  Having thus spoken, she immediately set out with her swarthy retinue.

  It being but seldom that time is lost in the accomplishment of a wickedenterprise, Carathis and her negresses soon arrived at the lake, where,after burning the magical drugs with which they were always provided,they, stripping themselves naked, waded to their chins, Nerkes and Cafourwaving torches around them, and Carathis pronouncing her barbarousincantations. The fishes with one accord thrust forth their heads fromthe water, which was violently rippled by the flutter of their fins, andat length finding themselves constrained by the potency of the charm,they opened their piteous mouths, said:

  “From gills to tail we are yours; what seek ye to know?”

  “Fishes,” answered she, “I conjure you by your glittering scales, tell mewhere now is Gulchenrouz?”

  “Beyond the rock,” replied the shoal in full chorus: “will this contentyou? for we do not delight in expanding our mouths.”

  “It will,” returned the princess: “I am not to learn that you like notlong conversations; I will leave you therefore to repose, though I hadother questions to propound.”

  The instant she had spoken the water became smooth, and the fishes atonce disappeared.

  Carathis, inflated with the venom of her projects, strode hastily overthe rock, and found the amiable Gulchenrouz asleep in an arbour, whilstthe two dwarfs were watching at his side, and ruminating their accustomedprayers. These diminutive personages possessed the gift of diviningwhenever an enemy to good Mussulmans approached; thus they anticipatedthe arrival of Carathis, who stopping short, said to herself:

  “How placidly doth he recline his lovely little head! how pale andlanguishing are his looks! it is just the very child of my wishes!”

  The dwarfs interrupted this delectable soliloquy by leaping instantlyupon her, and scratching her face with their utmost zeal. But Nerkes andCafour betaking themselves to the succour of their mistress, pinched thedwarfs so severely in return, that they both gave up the ghost, imploringMahomet to inflict his sorest vengeance upon this wicked woman and allher household.

  At the noise which this strange conflict occasioned in the valley,Gulchenrouz awoke, and bewildered with terror sprung impetuously upon anold fig-tree that rose against the acclivity of the rocks, from thencegained their summits, and ran for two hours without once looking back.At last, exhausted with fatigue, he fell as if dead into the arms of agood old Genius, whose fondness for the company of children had made ithis sole occupation to protect them, and who, whilst performing hiswonted rounds through the air, happening on the cruel Giaour at theinstant of his growling in the horrible chasm, rescued the fifty littlevictims which the impiety of Vathek had devoted to his maw. These theGenius brought up in nests still higher than the clouds, and himselffixed his abode in a nest more capacious than the rest, from which he hadexpelled the possessors that had built it.

  These inviolable asylums were defended against the Dives and the Afritsby waving streamers, on which were inscribed in characters of gold thatflashed like lightning, the names of Alla and the prophet. It was therethat Gulchenrouz, who as yet remained undeceived with respect to hispretended death, thought himself in the mansions of eternal peace. Headmitted without fear the congratulations of his little friends, who wereall assembled in the nest of the venerable Genius, and vied with eachother in kissing his serene forehead and beautiful eye-lids. This hefound to be the state congenial to his soul—remote from the inquietudesof earth—the impertinence of harems—the brutality of eunuchs—and thelubricity of women. In this peaceable society his days, months, andyears glided on, nor was he less happy than the rest of his companions,for the Genius, instead of burdening his pupils with perishable riches,and the vain sciences of the world, conferred upon them the boon ofperpetual childhood.

  Carathis, unaccustomed to the loss of her prey, vented a thousandexecrations on her negresses for not seizing the child, instead ofamusing themselves with pinching to death the dwarfs, from which theycould gain no advantage. She returned into the valley murmuring, andfinding that her son was not risen from the arms of Nouronihar,discharged her ill-humour upon both. The idea, however, of departingnext day for Istakar, and cultivating, through the good offices of theGiaour, an intimacy with Eblis himself, at length consoled her chagrin:but fate had ordained it otherwise.

  In the evening, as Carathis was conversing with Dilara, who through hercontrivance had become of the party, and whose taste resembled her own,Bababalouk came to acquaint her “that the sky towards Samarah looked of afiery red, and seemed to portend some alarming disaster.” Immediatelyrecurring to her astrolabes and instruments of magic, she took thealtitude of the planets, and discovered by her calculations, to her greatmortification, that a formidable revolt had taken place at Samarah; thatMotavakel, availing himself of the disgust which was inveterate againsthis brother had incited commotions amongst the populace, made himselfmaster of the palace, and actually invested the great tower, to whichMorakanabad had retired with a handful of the few that still remainedfaithful to Vathek.

  “What,” exclaimed she, “must I lose then my tower, my mutes, mynegresses, my mummies, and worse than all, the laboratory, in which Ihave spent so many a night, without knowing, at least, if my hair-brainedson will complete his adventure? No! I will not be the dupe!Immediately will I speed to support Morakanabad. By my formidable artthe clouds shall sleet hail-stones in the faces of the assailants, andshafts of red-hot iron on their heads. I will spring mines of serpentsand torpedoes from beneath them, and we shall soon see the stand theywill make against such an explosion!”

  Having thus spoken, Carathis hasted to her son, who was tranquillybanqueting with Nouronihar in his superb carnation coloured tent.

  “Glutton that thou art,” cried she, “were it not for me, thou wouldstsoon find thyself the commander only of pies. Thy faithful subjects haveabjured the faith they swore to thee. Motavakel thy brother now reignson the hill of pied horses; and had I not some slight resources in thetower, would not be easily persuaded to abdicate. But that time may notbe lost, I shall only add four words: strike tent to-night; set forward;and beware how thou loiterest again by the way. Though thou hastforfeited the conditions of the parchment, I am not yet without hope; forit cannot be denied that thou hast violated to admiration the laws ofhospitality by seducing the daughter of the emir, after having partakenof his bread and his salt. Such a conduct cannot but be delightful tothe Giaour; and if on thy march thou canst signalize thyself by anadditional cr
ime, all will still go well, and thou shalt enter the palaceof Soliman in triumph. Adieu! Alboufaki and my negresses are waiting.”

  The Caliph had nothing to offer in reply: he wished his mother aprosperous journey, and eat on till he had finished his supper. Atmidnight the camp broke up, amidst the flourishing of trumpets and othermartial instruments; but loud indeed must have been the sound of thetymbals, to overpower the blubbering of the emir and his long-beards, whoby an excessive profusion of tears had so far exhausted the radicalmoisture, that their eyes shrivelled up in their sockets, and their hairsdropped off by the roots. Nouronihar, to whom such a symphony waspainful, did not grieve to get out of hearing. She accompanied theCaliph in the imperial litter, where they amused themselves withimagining the splendour which was soon to surround them. The otherwomen, overcome with dejection, were dolefully rocked in their cages,whilst Dilara consoled herself with anticipating the joy of celebratingthe rites of fire on the stately terraces of Istakar.

  In four days they reached the