e." Bababalouk and his fraternity, felicitating each other in a low
voice on their disability of ever being fathers, obeyed the mandate of
the vizir; who, seconding their exertions to the utmost of his power, at
length accomplished his generous enterprise, and retired as he resolved,
to lament at his leisure.

No sooner had the Caliph re-entered his palace than Carathis commanded
the doors to be fastened; but, perceiving the tumult to be still violent,
and hearing the imprecations which resounded from all quarters, she said
to her son: "Whether the populace be right or wrong, it behoves you to
provide for your safety; let us retire to your own apartment, and from
thence through the subterranean passage, known only to ourselves, into
your tower; there, with the assistance of the mutes who never leave it,
we may be able to make some resistance. Bababalouk, supposing us to be
still in the palace, will guard its avenues for his own sake; and we
shall soon find, without the counsels of that blubberer Morakanabad, what
expedient may be the best to adopt."

Vathek, without making the least reply, acquiesced in his mother's
proposal, and repeated as he went: "Nefarious Giaour! where art thou!
hast thou not yet devoured those poor children? where are thy sabres? thy
golden key? thy talismans?"

Carathis, who guessed from these interrogations a part of the truth, had
no difficulty to apprehend in getting at the whole, as soon as he should
be a little composed in his tower. This princess was so far from being
influenced by scruples that she was as wicked as woman could be, which is
not saying a little, for the sex pique themselves on their superiority in
every competition. The recital of the Caliph, therefore, occasioned
neither terror nor surprise to his mother; she felt no emotion but from
the promises of the Giaour, and said to her son: "This Giaour, it must be
confessed, is somewhat sanguinary in his taste, but the terrestrial
powers are always terrible; nevertheless, what the one hath promised and
the others can confer will prove a sufficient indemnification; no crimes
should be thought too dear for such a reward! forbear then to revile the
Indian; you have not fulfilled the conditions to which his services are
annexed; for instance, is not a sacrifice to the subterranean Genii
required? and should we not be prepared to offer it as soon as the tumult
is subsided? This charge I will take on myself, and have no doubt of