Vathek; An Arabian Tale

by William Beckford

the emir commanded biers to bebrought, and forbade that any one should enter the harem. Every windowwas fastened; all instruments of music were broken; and the Imams beganto recite their prayers. Towards the close of this melancholy day Vatheksobbed in silence, for they had been forced to compose with anodynes hisconvulsions of rage and desperation.

  At the dawn of the succeeding morning the wide folding doors of thepalace were set open, and the funeral procession moved forward for themountain. The wailful cries of “La Ilah illa Alla,” reached to theCaliph, who was eager to cicatrize himself and attend the ceremonial; norcould he have been dissuaded, had not his excessive weakness disabled himfrom walking. At the few first steps he fell on the ground, and hispeople were obliged to lay him on a bed, where he remained many days insuch a state of insensibility as excited compassion in the emir himself.

  When the procession was arrived at the grot of Meimoune, Shaban andSutlememe dismissed the whole of the train excepting the fourconfidential eunuchs who were appointed to remain. After resting somemoments near the biers which had been left in the open air, they causedthem to be carried to the brink of a small lake whose banks wereovergrown with a hoary moss. This was the great resort of herons andstorks, which preyed continually on little blue fishes. The dwarfs,instructed by the emir, soon repaired thither, and with the help of theeunuchs began to construct cabins of rushes and reeds, a work in whichthey had admirable skill. A magazine also was contrived for provisions,with a small oratory for themselves, and a pyramid of wood neatly piled,to furnish the necessary fuel, for the air was bleak in the hollows ofthe mountains.

  At evening two fires were kindled on the brink of the lake, and the twolovely bodies taken from their biers were carefully deposited upon a bedof dried leaves within the same cabin. The dwarfs began to recite thekoran with their clear shrill voices, and Shaban and Sutlememe stood atsome distance anxiously waiting the effects of the powder. At lengthNouronihar and Gulchenrouz faintly stretched out their arms, andgradually opening their eyes began to survey with looks of increasingamazement every object around them. They even attempted to rise, but forwant of strength fell back again. Sutlememe on this administered acordial which the emir had taken care to provide.

  Gulchenrouz thoroughly aroused sneezed out aloud, and raising himselfwith an effort that expressed his surprise, left the cabin, and inhaledthe fresh air with the greatest avidity.

  “Yes,” said he, “I breathe again! again do I exist! I hear sounds! Ibehold a firmament spangled over with stars!”

  Nouronihar catching these beloved accents extricated herself from theleaves, and ran to clasp Gulchenrouz to her bosom. The first objects sheremarked were their long symars, their garlands of flowers, and theirnaked feet: she hid her face in her hands to reflect. The vision of theenchanted bath, the despair of her father, and more vividly than both,the majestic figure of Vathek recurred to her memory. She recollectedalso, that herself and Gulchenrouz had been sick and dying; but all theseimages bewildered her mind. Not knowing where she was, she turned hereyes on all sides, as if to recognise the surrounding scene. Thissingular lake, those flames reflected from its glassy surface, the palehues of its banks, the romantic cabins, the bull-rushes that sadly wavedtheir drooping heads, the storks whose melancholy cries blended with theshrill voices of the dwarfs, every thing conspired to persuade them thatthe 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 thesilence she preserved. At length addressing her:

  “Speak,” said he; “where are we! do you not see those spectres that arestirring the burning coals? Are they the Monker and Nakir, come to throwus into them? Does the fatal bridge cross this lake, whose solemnstillness perhaps conceals from us an abyss, in which for whole ages weshall be doomed incessantly to sink?”

  “No my children,” said Sutlememe going towards them; “take comfort, theexterminating angel who conducted our souls hither after yours, hathassured us that the chastisement of your indolent and voluptuous lifeshall be restricted to a certain series of years, which you must pass inthis dreary abode, where the sun is scarcely visible, and where the soilyields neither fruits nor flowers. These,” continued she, pointing tothe dwarfs, “will provide for our wants; for souls so mundane as oursretain too strong a tincture of their earthly extraction. Instead ofmeats, your food will be nothing but rice, and your bread shall bemoistened in the fogs that brood over the surface of the lake.”

  At this desolating prospect the poor children burst into tears, andprostrated themselves before the dwarfs, who perfectly supported theircharacters, and delivered an excellent discourse of a customary lengthupon the sacred camel, which after a thousand years was to convey them tothe paradise of the faithful.

  The sermon being ended and ablutions performed, they praised Alla and theprophet, 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, theremainder of the night was spent in conversation on what had befallenthem; and both, from a dread of apparitions, betook themselves forprotection to one another’s arms.

  In the morning, which was lowering and rainy, the dwarfs mounted highpoles 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 cabinwith a slow and dejected pace. As their minds were in a tender andmelancholy mood, their devotions were performed with fervour. No soonerwere 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 yetforgotten her vision:

  “And the Caliph, is he also dead of his grief? and will he likewise comehither?”

  The dwarfs, who were prepared with an answer, most demurely replied:

  “Vathek is damned beyond all redemption!”

  “I readily believe so,” said Gulchenrouz; “and am glad from my heart tohear 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 thedwarfs, who infinitely pleased him. Whilst this scene of innocence wasexhibiting in the mountains, the Caliph presented himself to the emir ina new light. The instant he recovered the use of his senses, with avoice that made Bababalouk quake, he thundered out:

  “Perfidious Giaour! I renounce thee for ever! it is thou who hast slainmy beloved Nouronihar! and I supplicate the pardon of Mahomet, who wouldhave preserved her to me had I been more wise. Let water be brought toperform my ablutions, and let the pious Fakreddin be called to offer uphis prayers with mine, and reconcile me to him. Afterwards we will gotogether and visit the sepulchre of the unfortunate Nouronihar. I amresolved to become a hermit, and consume the residue of my days on thismountain, in hope of expiating my crimes.”

  Nouronihar was not altogether so content, for though she felt a fondnessfor Gulchenrouz, who to augment the attachment, had been left at fullliberty with her, yet she still regarded him as but a bauble that bore nocompetition with the carbuncle of Giamschid. At times she indulgeddoubts on the mode of her being, and scarcely could believe that the deadhad all the wants and the whims of the living. To gain satisfaction,however, on so perplexing a topic, she arose one morning whilst all wereasleep with a breathless caution from the side of Gulchenrouz, and afterhaving given him a soft kiss, began to follow the windings of the laketill it terminated with a rock whose top was accessible though lofty.This she clambered up with considerable
toil, and having reached thesummit, set forward in a run like a doe that unwittingly follows herhunter. Though she skipped along with the alertness of an antelope, yetat intervals she was forced to desist, and rest beneath the tamarisks torecover her breath. Whilst she, thus reclined, was occupied with herlittle reflections on the apprehension that she had some knowledge of theplace, Vathek, who finding himself that morning but ill at ease, had goneforth 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 symar extended on the ground, trembling andpale, but yet lovely to behold. At length Nouronihar, with a mixture ofpleasure 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 samegraceful form? the same radiant features? art thou palpable likewise?”and eagerly embracing her he added, “here are limbs and a bosom animatedwith a gentle