and obtain admission. A hundredand forty of the strongest and most resolute at length accomplished theirpurpose. Having gained the staircase by their violent exertions, theyattained 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 topof 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 ofyour subjects, imagining, no doubt, that we were on fire, have been rashenough to break through those doors, which had hitherto remainedinviolate, for the sake of bringing up water. They are very kind, youmust allow, so soon to forget the wrongs you have done them: but that isof little moment. Let us offer them to the Giaour. Let them come up:our mutes, who neither want strength nor experience, will soon despatchthem, 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 thousandstairs in such haste, and chagrined at having spilt, by the way, thewater they had taken, were no sooner arrived at the top than the blaze ofthe 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 themutes and the negresses adjusted the cord to their necks: these amiablepersonages rejoiced, however, no less at the scene. Never before had theceremony of strangling been performed with so much facility. They allfell without the least resistance or struggle; so that Vathek, in thespace of a few moments, found himself surrounded by the dead bodies ofhis most faithful subjects, all of which were thrown on the top of thepile.
Carathis, whose presence of mind never forsook her, perceiving that shehad carcases sufficient to complete her oblation, commanded the chains tobe stretched across the staircase, and the iron doors barricaded, that nomore might come up.
No sooner were these orders obeyed, than the tower shook; the dead bodiesvanished in the flames; which at once changed from a swarthy crimson to abright rose colour. An ambient vapour emitted the most exquisitefragrance; the marble columns rang with harmonious sounds, and theliquefied horns diffused a delicious perfume. Carathis, in transports,anticipated the success of her enterprise; whilst the mutes andnegresses, to whom these sweets had given the cholic, retired to theircells grumbling.
Scarcely were they gone, when, instead of the pile, horns, mummies, andashes, the Caliph both saw and felt, with a degree of pleasure which hecould not express, a table, covered with the most magnificent repast:flaggons of wine, and vases of exquisite sherbet, floating on snow. Heavailed himself, without scruple, of such an entertainment; and hadalready laid hands on a lamb stuffed with pistachios, whilst Carathis wasprivately drawing from a fillagreen urn, a parchment that seemed to beendless; and which had escaped the notice of her son. Totally occupied,in gratifying an importunate appetite, he left her to peruse it, withoutinterruption; which having finished, she said to him, in an authoritativetone,
“Put an end to your gluttony, and hear the splendid promises with whichyou are favoured!” She then read, as follows:
“Vathek, my well-beloved, thou hast surpassed my hopes: my nostrils havebeen regaled by the savour of thy mummies, thy horns; and, still more, bythe lives devoted on the pile. At the full of the moon, cause the bandsof thy musicians, and thy tymbals, to be heard; depart from thy palacesurrounded by all the pageants of majesty; thy most faithful slaves, thybest beloved wives; thy most magnificent litters; thy richest loadencamels; and set forward on thy way to Istakar. There await I thy coming.That is the region of wonders. There shalt thou receive the diadem ofGian Ben Gian, {50} the talismans of Soliman, and the treasures of thepreadimite Sultans: there shalt thou be solaced with all kinds ofdelight. But, beware how thou enterest any dwelling on thy route, orthou shalt feel the effects of my anger.”
The Caliph, who, notwithstanding his habitual luxury, had never beforedined with so much satisfaction, gave full scope to the joy of thesegolden tidings, and betook himself to drinking anew. Carathis, whoseantipathy to wine was by no means insuperable, failed not to supply areason for every bumper, which they ironically quaffed to the health ofMahomet. This infernal liquor completed their impious temerity, andprompted them to utter a profusion of blasphemies. They gave a loose totheir wit, at the expense of the ass of Balaam, the dog of the sevensleepers, 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 thesquare, through the oilets of the tower, and at length arrived at theroyal apartments by the subterranean passage. Bababalouk was parading toand fro, and issuing his mandates with great pomp to the eunuchs, whowere snuffing the lights and painting the eyes of the Circassians. Nosooner 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 carehow you stop by the way to make your insipid reflections.”
Morakanabad delayed not to obey the summons, and was received by Vathekand his mother with great solemnity. They told him with an air ofcomposure and commiseration that the fire at the top of the tower wasextinguished, but that it had cost the lives of the brave people whosought to assist them.
“Still more misfortunes!” cried Morakanabad with a sigh. “Ah, commanderof the faithful, our holy prophet is certainly irritated against us! itbehoves you to appease him.”
“We will appease him hereafter,” replied the Caliph, with a smile thataugured nothing of good. “You will have leisure sufficient for yoursupplications during my absence; for this country is the bane of myhealth. I am disgusted with the mountain of the Four Fountains, and amresolved to go and drink of the stream of Rocnabad. {51} I long torefresh myself in the delightful valleys which it waters. Do you, withthe advice of my mother, govern my dominions; and take care to supplywhatever her experiments may demand; for you well know that our towerabounds in materials for the advancement of science.”
The tower but ill suited Morakanabad’s taste. Immense treasures had beenlavished upon it, and nothing had he ever seen carried thither but femalenegroes, mutes, and abominable drugs. Nor did he know well what to thinkof Carathis, who like a chamelion could assume all possible colours. Hercursed eloquence had often driven the poor Mussulman to his last shifts.He considered, however, that if she possessed but few good qualities, herson had still fewer, and that the alternative, on the whole, would be inher favour. Consoled, therefore, with this reflection, he went in goodspirits to soothe the populace, and make the proper arrangements for hismaster’s journey.
Vathek, to conciliate the spirits of the subterranean palace, resolvedthat his expedition should be uncommonly splendid. With this view heconfiscated on all sides the property of his subjects, whilst his worthymother stripped the seraglios she visited of the gems they contained.She collected all the sempstresses and embroiderers of Samarah, and othercities, to the distance of sixty leagues, to prepare pavilions,palanquins, sofas, canopies, and litters, for the train of the monarch.There was not left in Masulipatan a single piece of chintz; and so muchmuslin had been bought up to dress out Bababalouk and the other blackeunuchs, that there remained not an ell in the whole Irak of Babylon.
During these preparations, Carathis, who never lost sight of her greatobject, which was to obtain favour with the powers of darkness, madeselect parties of the fairest and most delicate ladies of the city; butin the midst of their gaiety she contrived to introduce serpents amongstthem, and to break pots of scorpions under the table. They all bit to awonder, and Carathis would h
ave left them to bite, were it not that tofill up the time, she now and then amused herself in curing their woundswith an excellent anodyne of her own invention; for this good princessabhorred being indolent.
Vathek, who was not altogether so active as his mother, devoted his timeto the sole gratification of his senses, in the palaces which wereseverally dedicated to them. He disgusted himself no more with the divanor the mosque. One half of Samarah followed his example, whilst theother lamented the progress of corruption.
In the midst of these transactions, the embassy returned which had beensent in pious times to Mecca. It consisted of the most reverendmoullahs, {53} who had fulfilled their commission, and brought back oneof those precious besoms which are used to sweep the sacred caaba; apresent truly worthy of the greatest potentate on earth!
The Caliph happened at this instant to be engaged in an apartment by nomeans adapted to the reception of embassies, though adorned with acertain magnificence, not only to render it agreeable, but also becausehe resorted
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