Vathek; An Arabian Tale

by William Beckford

not this surmise;ask him, at least, of what it was compounded; whence he procured it; andmention the sabres, which you seem to have forgotten.”

  Vathek, to whom the insolent airs of the stranger became every momentless supportable, intimated to his vizier by a wink of acquiescence, thathe would adopt his advice, and at once turning towards the Indian, said:

  “Get up and declare in full divan of what drugs the liquor was compoundedyou enjoined me to take, for it is suspected to be poison; add also theexplanation I have so earnestly desired concerning the sabres you soldme, and thus show your gratitude for the favours heaped on you.”

  Having pronounced these words in as moderate a tone as a Caliph wellcould, he waited in silent expectation for an answer; but the Indian,still keeping his seat, began to renew his loud shouts of laughter, andexhibit the same horrid grimaces he had shown them before, withoutvouchsafing a word in reply. Vathek, no longer able to brook suchinsolence, immediately kicked him from the steps, instantly descendingrepeated his blow, and persisted with such assiduity, as incited all whowere present to follow his example. Every foot was aimed at the Indian,and no sooner had any one given him a kick than he felt himselfconstrained to reiterate the stroke.

  The stranger afforded them no small entertainment; for being both shortand plump, he collected himself into a ball and rolled round on all sidesat the blows of his assailants, who pressed after him wherever he turned,with an eagerness beyond conception, whilst their numbers were everymoment increasing. The ball, indeed, in passing from one apartment toanother, drew every person after it that came in its way, insomuch thatthe whole palace was thrown into confusion, and resounded with atremendous clamour. The women of the harem, amazed at the uproar, flewto their blinds to discover the cause, but no sooner did they catch aglimpse of the ball than feeling themselves unable to refrain, they brokefrom the clutches of their eunuchs, who to stop their flight pinched themtill they bled, but in vain; whilst themselves, though trembling withterror at the escape of their charge, were as incapable of resisting theattraction.

  The Indian, after having traversed the halls, galleries, chambers,kitchens, gardens, and stables of the palace, at last took his coursethrough the courts, whilst the Caliph, pursuing him closer than the rest,bestowed as many kicks as he possibly could, yet not without receivingnow and then one, which his competitors, in their eagerness, designed forthe ball.

  Carathis, Morakanabad, and two or three old viziers whose wisdom hadhitherto withstood the attraction, wishing to prevent Vathek fromexposing himself in the presence of his subjects, fell down in his way toimpede the pursuit, but he, regardless of their obstruction, leaped overtheir heads, and went on as before. They then ordered the muezzins tocall the people to prayers, both for the sake of getting them out of theway, and of endeavouring by their petitions to avert the calamity; butneither of these expedients was a whit more successful. The sight ofthis fatal ball was alone sufficient to draw after it every beholder.The muezzins themselves, though they saw it but at a distance, hasteneddown from their minarets and mixed with the crowd, which continued toincrease in so surprising a manner, that scarce an inhabitant was left inSamarah, except the aged, the sick confined to their beds, and infants atthe breast, whose nurses could run more nimbly without them. EvenCarathis, Morakanabad, and the rest, were all become of the party.

  The shrill screams of the females who had broken from their apartments,and were unable to extricate themselves from the pressure of the crowd,together with those of the eunuchs jostling after them, terrified lesttheir charge should escape from their sight, increased by the execrationsof husbands urging forward and menacing both, kicks given and received,stumblings and overthrows at every step, in a word, the confusion thatuniversally prevailed, rendered Samarah like a city taken by storm, anddevoted to absolute plunder.

  At last the cursed Indian, who still preserved his rotundity of figure,after passing through all the streets and public places, and leaving themempty, rolled onwards to the plain of Catoul, and traversed the valley atthe foot of the mountain of the four fountains.

  As a continual fall of water had excavated an immense gulph in thevalley, whose opposite side was closed in by a steep acclivity, theCaliph and his attendants were apprehensive lest the ball should boundinto the chasm, and to prevent it, redoubled their efforts, but in vain.The Indian persevered in his onward direction, and as had beenapprehended, glancing from the precipice with the rapidity of lightning,was lost in the gulph below.

  Vathek would have followed the perfidious Giaour, had not an invisibleagency arrested his progress. The multitude that pressed after him wereat once checked in the same manner, and a calm instantaneously ensued.They all gazed at each other with an air of astonishment; andnotwithstanding that the loss of veils and turbans, together with tornhabits, and dust blended with sweat, presented a most laughablespectacle, there was not one smile to be seen; on the contrary, all withlooks of confusion and sadness returned in silence to Samarah, andretired to their inmost apartments, without ever reflecting that they hadbeen impelled by an invisible power into the extravagance for which theyreproached themselves: for it is but just, that men who so often arrogateto their own merit the good of which they are but instruments, shouldattribute to themselves the absurdities which they could not prevent.

  The Caliph was the only person that refused to leave the valley. Hecommanded his tents to be pitched there, and stationed himself on thevery edge of the precipice, in spite of the representations of Carathisand Morakanabad, who pointed out the hazard of its brink giving way, andthe vicinity to the magician that had so severely tormented him. Vathekderided all their remonstrances; and having ordered a thousand flambeausto be lighted, and directed his attendants to proceed in lighting more,lay down on the slippery margin, and attempted, by the help of thisartificial splendour, to look through that gloom which all the fires ofthe empyrean had been insufficient to pervade. One while he fancied tohimself voices arising from the depth of the gulph, at another he seemedto distinguish the accents of the Indian, but all was no more than thehollow murmur of waters, and the din of the cataracts that rushed fromsteep to steep, down the sides of the mountain.

  Having passed the night in this cruel perturbation, the Caliph atday-break retired to his tent, where, without taking the leastsustenance, he continued to doze till the dusk of evening began to comeon; he then resumed his vigils as before, and persevered in observingthem for many nights together. At length, fatigued with so successlessan employment, he sought relief from change. To this end he sometimespaced with hasty strides across the plain; and as he wildly gazed at thestars, reproached them with having deceived him; but lo! on a sudden theclear blue sky appeared streaked over with streams of blood, whichreached from the valley even to the city of Samarah. As this awfulphenomenon seemed to touch his tower, Vathek at first thought ofrepairing thither to view it more distinctly, but feeling himself unableto advance, and being overcome with apprehension, he muffled up his facein his robe.

  Terrifying as these prodigies were, this impression upon him was no morethan momentary, and served only to stimulate his love of the marvellous.Instead, therefore, of returning to his palace, he persisted in theresolution of abiding where the Indian vanished from his view. Onenight, however, while he was walking as usual on the plain, the moon andthe stars at once were eclipsed, and a total darkness ensued. The earthtrembled beneath him, and a voice came forth, the voice of the Giaour,who in accents more sonorous than thunder, thus addressed him:

  “Would’st thou devote thyself to me? adore then the terrestrialinfluences, and abjure Mahomet. On these conditions I will bring thee tothe palace of subterranean fire: there shalt thou behold, in immensedepositories, the treasures which the stars have promised thee, and whichwill be conferred by those intelligences whom thou shalt thus renderpropitious. It was from thence I brought my sabres; and it is there thatSoliman Ben Daoud reposes, surrounded by the talismans that control theworld.”

  The astonished Caliph
trembled as he answered, yet in a style that showedhim to be no novice in preternatural adventures:

  “Where art thou? Be present to my eyes; dissipate the gloom thatperplexes me, and of which I deem thee the cause. After the manyflambeaus I have burnt to discover thee, thou mayest at least grant aglimpse of thy horrible visage.”

  “Abjure then Mahomet,” replied the Indian, “and promise me full proofs ofthy sincerity; otherwise thou shalt never behold me again.”

  The unhappy Caliph, instigated by insatiable curiosity, lavished hispromises in the utmost profusion. The sky immediately brightened; and bythe light of the planets, which seemed almost to blaze, Vathek beheld theearth open, and at the extremity of a vast black chasm a portal of ebony,before which stood the Indian, still blacker, holding in his hand agolden key, that caused the lock to resound.

  “How,” cried Vathek, “can I descend to thee, without the certainty ofbreaking my neck? Come take me, and instantly open the portal.”

  “Not