Nor was he better provided in the article of drink, for he could procure
nothing to accompany these irritating viands but a few vials of
abominable brandy, which had been secreted by the scullions in their
slippers.
Vathek made wry faces at so savage a repast, and Bababalouk answered them
with shrugs and contortions; the Caliph, however, ate with tolerable
appetite, and fell into a nap that lasted six hours. The splendour of
the sun reflected from the white cliffs of the mountains, in spite of the
curtains that enclosed him, at length disturbed his repose; he awoke
terrified, and stung to the quick by those wormwood-coloured flies, which
emit from their wings a suffocating stench. The miserable monarch was
perplexed how to act, though his wits were not idle in seeking
expedients, whilst Bababalouk lay snoring amidst a swarm of those
insects, that busily thronged to pay court to his nose. The little
pages, famished with hunger, had dropped their fans on the ground, and
exerted their dying voices in bitter reproaches on the Caliph, who now
for the first time heard the language of truth.
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