his dream.

"Ah, my lord!" cried he, recoiling ten steps, and covering his eyes with
both hands: "do you then perform the office of a Goul? 'tis true you have
dug up the dead, yet hope not to make her your prey; for after all she
hath caused me to suffer, she is even wicked enough to prey upon you."

"Cease thy folly," said Vathek, "and thou shalt soon be convinced that it
is Nouronihar herself, alive and well, whom I clasp to my breast; go only
and pitch my tents in the neighbouring valley; there will I fix my abode
with this beautiful tulip, whose colours I soon shall restore; there
exert thy best endeavours to procure whatever can augment the enjoyments
of life, till I shall disclose to thee more of my will."

The news of so unlucky an event soon reached the ears of the Emir, who
abandoned himself to grief and despair, and began, as did all his old
grey-beards, to begrime his visage with ashes. A total supineness
ensued, travellers were no longer entertained, no more plaisters were
spread, and, instead of the charitable activity that had distinguished
this asylum, the whole of its inhabitants exhibited only faces of a half
cubit long, and uttered groans that accorded with their forlorn
situation.

Though Fakreddin bewailed his daughter as lost to him for ever, yet
Gulchenrouz was not forgotten. He despatched immediate instruction to
Sutlememe, Shaban, and the dwarfs, enjoining them not to undeceive the
child in respect to his state, but, under some pretence, to convey him
far from the lofty rock at the extremity of the lake, to a place which he
should appoint, as safer from danger; for he suspected that Vathek
intended him evil.

Gulchenrouz in the meanwhile was filled with amazement at not finding his
cousin; nor were the dwarfs at all less surprised; but Sutlememe, who had
more penetration, immediately guessed what had happened. Gulchenrouz was
amused with the delusive hope of once more embracing Nouronihar in the
interior recesses of the mountains, where the ground, strewed over with
orange blossoms and jasmines, offered beds much more inviting than the
withered leaves in their cabin, where they might accompany with their
voices the sounds of their lutes, and chase butterflies in concert.
Sutlememe was far gone in this sort of description, when one of the four
eunuchs beckoned her aside to apprise her of the arrival of a messenger
from their fraternity, who had explained the secret of the flight of
Nouron