e thundered even louder than the elements, and
muttered forth certain hints of the bow-string, which were not very
soothing to literary ears. Disgusted at the toilsome weariness of the
way, he determined to cross over the craggy heights and follow the
guidance of a peasant, who undertook to bring him in four days to
Rocnabad. Remonstrances were all to no purpose; his resolution was
fixed, and an invasion commenced on the province of the goats, who sped
away in large troops before them. It was curious to view on these half
calcined rocks camels richly caparisoned, and pavilions of gold and silk
waving on their summits, which till then had never been covered but with
sapless thistles and fern.

The females and eunuchs uttered shrill wailings at the sight of the
precipices below them, and the dreary prospects that opened in the vast
gorges of the mountains. Before they could reach the ascent of the
steepest rock, night overtook them, and a boisterous tempest arose,
which, having rent the awnings of the palanquins and cages, exposed to
the raw gusts the poor ladies within, who had never before felt so
piercing a cold. The dark clouds that overcast the face of the sky
deepened the horrors of this disastrous night, insomuch that nothing
could be heard distinctly but the mewling of pages and lamentations of
sultanas.

To increase the general misfortune, the frightful uproar of wild beasts
resounded at a distance, and there were soon perceived, in the forest
they were skirting, the glaring of eyes which could belong only to devils
or tigers. The pioneers, who, as well as they could, had marked out a
track, and a part of the advanced guard were devoured before they had
been in the least apprized of their danger. The confusion that prevailed
was extreme; wolves, tigers, and other carnivorous animals, invited by
the howling of their companions, flocked together from every quarter; the
crashing of bones was heard on all sides, and a fearful rush of wings
overhead, for now vultures also began to be of the party.

The terror at length reached the main body of the troops which surrounded
the monarch and his harem, at the distance of two leagues from the scene.
Vathek (voluptuously reposed in his capacious litter upon cushions of
silk, with two little pages beside him of complexions more fair than the
enamel of Franguestan, who were occupied in keeping off flies) was
soundly asleep, and contemplating in his dreams the treasure