ihar, 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