journey? tear thyself from the
arms of this little simpleton, drown her in the water before me, and
instantly follow my guidance."

In the first ebullition of his fury Vathek resolved to make a skeleton of
Alboufaki, and to stuff the skins of Carathis and her blacks; but the
ideas of the Giaour, the palace of Istakar, the sabres and the talismans,
flashing before his imagination with the simultaneousness of lightning,
he became more moderate, and said to his mother, in a civil but decisive
tone: "Dread lady! you shall be obeyed, but I will not drown Nouronihar;
she is sweeter to me than a Myrabolan comfit, and is enamoured of
carbuncles, especially that of Giamschid, which hath also been promised
to be conferred upon her; she therefore shall go along with us, for I
intend to repose with her beneath the canopies of Soliman; I can sleep no
more without her."

"Be it so!" replied Carathis, alighting, and at the same time committing
Alboufaki to the charge of her women.

Nouronihar, who had not yet quitted her hold, began to take courage, and
said, with an accent of fondness to the Caliph: "Dear Sovereign of my
soul! I will follow thee, if it be thy will, beyond the Kaf in the land
of the Afrits; I will not hesitate to climb for thee the nest of the
Simurgh, who, this lady excepted, is the most awful of created
existences."

"We have here then," subjoined Carathis, "a girl both of courage and
science!"

Nouronihar had certainly both; but, notwithstanding all her firmness, she
could not help casting back a look of regret upon the graces of her
little Gulchenrouz, and the days of tenderness she had participated with
him; she even dropped a few tears, which Carathis observed, and
inadvertently breathed out with a sigh: "Alas! my gentle cousin! what
will become of him!"

Vathek at this apostrophe knitted up his brows, and Carathis inquired
what it could mean.

"She is preposterously sighing after a stripling with languishing eyes
and soft hair, who loves her," said the Caliph.

"Where is he?" asked Carathis. "I must be acquainted with this pretty
child; for," added she, lowering her voice, "I design before I depart to
regain the favour of the Giaour; there is nothing so delicious in his
estimation as the heart of a delicate boy, palpitating with the first
tumults of love."

Vathek, as he came from the bath, commanded Bababalouk to collect the
women and other movables of his harem, embody his troops, and hold
hims