l regarded him as but a bauble, that bore
no competition with the carbuncle of Giamschid. At times she indulged
doubts on the mode of her being, and scarcely could believe that the dead
had all the wants and the whims of the living. To gain satisfaction,
however, on so perplexing a topic, she arose one morning whilst all were
asleep, with a breathless caution, from the side of Gulchenrouz, and,
after having given him a soft kiss, began to follow the windings of the
lake till it terminated with a rock, whose top was accessible, though
lofty; this she clambered up with considerable toil, and having reached
the summit, set forward in a run, like a doe that unwittingly follows her
hunter; though she skipped along with the alertness of an antelope, yet
at intervals she was forced to desist, and rest beneath the tamarisks to
recover her breath. Whilst she, thus reclined, was occupied with her
little reflections on the apprehension that she had some knowledge of the
place, Vathek, who, finding himself that morning but ill at ease, had
gone forth 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 simar, extended on the ground, trembling and
pale, but yet lovely to behold. At length Nouronihar, with a mixture of
pleasure 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 same
graceful form? the same radiant features? art thou palpable likewise?"
and, eagerly embracing her, added: "here are limbs and a bosom animated
with a gentle warmth! what can such a prodigy mean?"

Nouronihar with diffidence answered: "You know, my lord, that I died on
the night you honoured me with your visit; my cousin maintains it was
from one of your glances, but I cannot believe him; for to me they seem
not so dreadful. Gulchenrouz died with me, and we were both brought into
a region of desolation, where we are fed with a wretched diet. If you be
dead also, and are come hither to join us, I pity your lot; for you will
be stunned with the noise of the dwarfs and the storks; besides, it is
mortifying in the extreme that you, as well as myself, should have lost
the treasures of the subterranean palace."

At the mention of the subterranean palace the Caliph suspended his
caresses, to seek from Nouronihar an expl