“O gentle white dove, as thou soar’st through the air,
   Vouchsafe one kind glance on the mate of thy love;
   Melodious Philomel, I am thy rose;
   Warble some couplet to ravish my heart!”

The sultanas and their slaves, stimulated by these pleasantries, persevered at the swing with such unremitted assiduity, that at length the cord which had secured it snapped suddenly asunder, and Bababalouk fell floundering like a turtle to the bottom of the bath.  This accident occasioned a universal shout; twelve little doors, till now unobserved, flew open at once, and the ladies in an instant made their escape, after throwing all the towels on his head, and putting out the lights that remained.

The deplorable animal, in water to the chin, overwhelmed with darkness, and unable to extricate himself from the wrap that embarrassed him, was still doomed to hear for his further consolation the fresh bursts of merriment his disaster occasioned.  He bustled, but in vain, to get from the bath, for the margin was become so slippery with the oil spilt in breaking the lamps, that at every effort he slid back with a plunge, which resounded aloud through the hollow of the dome.  These cursed peals of laughter at every relapse were redoubled; and he, who thought the place infested rather by devils than women, resolved to cease groping, and abide in the bath, where he amused himself with soliloquies, interspersed with imprecations, of which his malicious neighbours reclining on down suffered not an accent to escape.  In this delectable plight the morning surprised him.  The Caliph, wondering at his absence, had caused him to be everywhere sought for.  At last he was drawn forth, almost smothered from the wisp of linen, and wet even to the marrow.  Limping and chattering his teeth, he appeared before his master, who inquired what was the matter, and how he came soused in so strange a pickle.

“And why did you enter this cursed lodge?” answered Bababalouk, gruffly.  “Ought a monarch like you to visit with his harem the abode of a grey-bearded Emir, who knows nothing of life?  And with what gracious damsels doth the place, too, abound!  Fancy to yourself how they have soaked me like a burnt crust, and made me dance like a jack-pudding the live-long night through, on their damnable swing!  What an excellent lesson for your sultanas to follow, into whom I have instilled such reserve and decorum!”

Vathek, comprehending not a syllable of all this invective, obliged him to relate minutely the transaction; but instead of sympathising with the miserable sufferer, he laughed immoderately at the device of the swing, and the figure of Bababalouk mounting upon it.  The stung eunuch could scarcely preserve the semblance of respect.

“Ay, laugh, my lord! laugh,” said he; “but I wish this Nouronihar would play some trick on you; she is too wicked to spare even majesty itself.”

Those words made for the present but a slight impression on the Caliph; but they not long after recurred to his mind.