e fate of his forerunner;
and as to the spectators, the shades of evening, together with their
distance, precluded them from perceiving any object distinctly. Vathek,
having in this manner thrown in the last of the fifty, and expecting that
the Giaour on receiving them would have presented the key, already
fancied himself as great as Soliman, and consequently above being
amenable for what he had done: when, to his utter amazement, the chasm
closed, and the around became as entire as the rest of the plain.

No language could express his rage and despair. He execrated the perfidy
of the Indian, loaded him with the most infamous invectives, and stamped
with his foot as resolving to be heard; he persisted in this demeanour
till his strength failed him, and then fell on the earth like one void of
sense. His vizirs and grandees, who were nearer than the rest, supposed
him at first to be sitting on the grass at play with their amiable
children; but at length, prompted by doubt, they advanced towards the
spot, and found the Caliph alone, who wildly demanded what they wanted.

"Our children! our children!" cried they.

"It is assuredly pleasant," said he, "to make me accountable for
accidents; your children while at play fell from the precipice that was
here, and I should have experienced their fate had I not been saved by a
sudden start back."

At these words the fathers of the fifty boys cried out aloud, the mothers
repeated their exclamations an octave higher, whilst the rest, without
knowing the cause, soon drowned the voices of both with still louder
lamentations of their own.

"Our Caliph," said they--and the report soon circulated--"Our Caliph has
played us this trick to gratify his accursed Giaour. Let us punish him
for his perfidy! let us avenge ourselves! let us avenge the blood of the
innocent! let us throw this cruel prince into the gulf that is near, and
let his name be mentioned no more!"

At this rumour and these menaces, Carathis, full of consternation,
hastened to Morakanabad, and said: "Vizir, you have lost two beautiful
boys, and must necessarily be the most afflicted of fathers, but you are
virtuous; save your master."

"I will brave every hazard," replied the vizir, "to rescue him from his
present danger, but afterwards will abandon him to his fate.
Bababalouk," continued he, "put yourself at the head of your eunuchs;
disperse the mob, and, if possible, bring back this unhappy prince to his
palac