The History of Caliph Vathek | Page 9

given him a kick than he felt himself

constrained to reiterate the stroke.
The stranger afforded them no small entertainment; for, being both
short and plump, he collected himself into a ball, and rolled round on
all sides at the blows of his assailants, who pressed after him wherever
he turned with an eagerness beyond conception, whilst their numbers
were every moment increasing. The ball, indeed, in passing from one
apartment to another, drew every person after it that came in its way,
insomuch that the whole palace was thrown into confusion, and
resounded with a tremendous clamour. The women of the harem,
amazed at the uproar, flew to their blinds to discover the cause; but no
sooner did they catch a glimpse of the ball, than feeling themselves
unable to refrain, they broke from the clutches of their eunuchs, who to
stop their flight pinched them till they bled, but in vain; whilst
themselves, though trembling with terror at the escape of their charge,
were as incapable of resisting the attraction.
The Indian, after having traversed the halls, galleries, chambers,
kitchens, gardens, and stables of the palace, at last took his course
through the courts; whilst the Caliph, pursuing him closer than the rest,
bestowed as many kicks as he possibly could, yet not without receiving
now and then one, which his competitors in their eagerness designed
for the ball.
Carathis, Morakanabad, and two or three old vizirs, whose wisdom had
hitherto withstood the attraction, wishing to prevent Vathek from
exposing himself in the presence of his subjects, fell down in his way to
impede the pursuit; but he, regardless of their obstruction, leaped over
their heads, and went on as before. They then ordered the Muezzins to
call the people to prayers, both for the sake of getting them out of the
way and of endeavouring by their petitions to avert the calamity; but
neither of these expedients was a whit more successful: the sight of this
fatal ball was alone sufficient to draw after it every beholder. The
Muezzins themselves, though they saw it but at a distance, hastened
down from their minarets and mixed with the crowd, which continued
to increase in so surprising a manner, that scarce an inhabitant was left
in Samarah, except the aged, the sick confined to their beds, and infants

at the breast, whose nurses could run more nimbly without them. Even
Carathis, Morakanabad, and the rest were all become of the party.
The shrill screams of the females, who had broken from their
apartments, and were unable to extricate themselves from the pressure
of the crowd, together with those of the eunuchs jostling after them,
terrified lest their charge should escape from their sight, increased by
the execrations of husbands urging forward and menacing both, kicks
given and received, stumblings and overthrows at every step; in a word,
the confusion that universally prevailed rendered Samarah like a city
taken by storm and devoted to absolute plunder.
At last the cursed Indian, who still preserved his rotundity of figure,
after passing through all the streets and public places, and leaving them
empty, rolled onwards to the plain of Catoul, and traversed the valley at
the foot of the mountain of the Four Fountains.
As a continual fall of water had excavated an immense gulf in the
valley, whose opposite side was closed in by a steep acclivity, the
Caliph and his attendants were apprehensive lest the ball should bound
into the chasm, and, to prevent it, redoubled their efforts, but in vain.
The Indian persevered in his onward direction, and, as had been
apprehended, glancing from the precipice with the rapidity of lightning,
was lost in the gulf below.
Vathek would have followed the perfidious Giaour, had not an invisible
agency arrested his progress. The multitude that pressed after him were
at once checked in the same manner, and a calm instantaneously ensued.
They all gazed at each other with an air of astonishment; and,
notwithstanding that the loss of veils and turbans, together with torn
habits and dust blended with sweat, presented a most laughable
spectacle, there was not one smile to be seen; on the contrary, all, with
looks of confusion and sadness, returned in silence to Samarah, and
retired to their inmost apartments, without ever reflecting that they had
been impelled by an invisible power into the extravagance for which
they reproached themselves; for it is but just that men, who so often
arrogate to their own merit the good of which they are but instruments,
should attribute to themselves the absurdities which they could not

prevent.
The Caliph was the only person that refused to leave the valley. He
commanded his tents to be pitched there, and stationed himself on the
very edge of the precipice, in spite of the