Remonstrances were all to no purpose; his resolution was
fixed, and an invasion commenced on the province of the goats, who sped
away in large troops before them. It was curious to view on these half
calcined rocks camels richly caparisoned, and pavilions of gold and silk
waving on their summits, which till then had never been covered but with
sapless thistles and fern.
The females and eunuchs uttered shrill wailings at the sight of the
precipices below them, and the dreary prospects that opened in the vast
gorges of the mountains. Before they could reach the ascent of the
steepest rock, night overtook them, and a boisterous tempest arose,
which, having rent the awnings of the palanquins and cages, exposed to
the raw gusts the poor ladies within, who had never before felt so
piercing a cold. The dark clouds that overcast the face of the sky
deepened the horrors of this disastrous night, insomuch that nothing
could be heard distinctly but the mewling of pages and lamentations of
sultanas.
To increase the general misfortune, the frightful uproar of wild beasts
resounded at a distance, and there were soon perceived, in the forest
they were skirting, the glaring of eyes which could belong only to devils
or tigers.
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