In this delirium, forgetting all ambitious projects and her thirst for
that knowledge which should ever be hidden from mortals, she overturned
the offerings of the Genii, and, having execrated the hour she was
begotten and the womb that had borne her, glanced off in a whirl that
rendered her invisible, and continued to revolve without intermission.
At almost the same instant the same voice announced to the Caliph,
Nouronihar, the five princes, and the princess, the awful and irrevocable
decree. Their hearts immediately took fire, and they at once lost the
most precious of the gifts of Heaven--Hope. These unhappy beings
recoiled with looks of the most furious distraction; Vathek beheld in the
eyes of Nouronihar nothing but rage and vengeance, nor could she discern
aught in his but aversion and despair. The two princes who were friends,
and till that moment had preserved their attachment, shrank back,
gnashing their teeth with mutual and unchangeable hatred. Kalilah and
his sister made reciprocal gestures of imprecation, whilst the two other
princes testified their horror for each other by the most ghastly
convulsions, and screams that could not be smothered.
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