Carathis, in transports,
anticipated the success of her enterprise, whilst her mutes and
negresses, to whom these sweets had given the colic, retired to their
cells grumbling.
Scarcely were they gone when, instead of the pile, horns, mummies, and
ashes, the Caliph both saw and felt, with a degree of pleasure which he
could not express, a table covered with the most magnificent repast;
flagons of wine and vases of exquisite sherbet floating on snow. He
availed himself without scruple of such an entertainment and had already
laid hands on a lamb stuffed with pistachios, whilst Carathis was
privately drawing from a filigree urn a parchment that seemed to be
endless, and which had escaped the notice of her son; totally occupied in
gratifying an importunate appetite he left her to peruse it without
interruption, which, having finished, she said to him in an authoritative
tone, "Put an end to your gluttony, and hear the splendid promises with
which you are favoured!" She then read as follows: "Vathek, my
well-beloved, thou hast surpassed my hopes; my nostrils have been regaled
by the savour of thy mummies, thy horns, and still more by the lives
devoted on the pile.
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