set forward in a run, like a doe that unwittingly follows her hunter; though she skipped along with the alertness of an antelope, yet at intervals she was forced to desist, and rest beneath the tamarisks to recover her breath.  Whilst she, thus reclined, was occupied with her little reflections on the apprehension that she had some knowledge of the place, Vathek, who, finding himself that morning but ill at ease, had gone forth before the dawn, presented himself on a sudden to her view; motionless with surprise, he durst not approach the figure before him, which lay shrouded up in a simar, extended on the ground, trembling and pale, but yet lovely to behold.  At length Nouronihar, with a mixture of pleasure and affliction, raising her fine eyes to him, said:  “My lord, are you come hither to eat rice and hear sermons with me?”

“Beloved phantom!” cried Vathek; “dost thou speak? hast thou the same graceful form? the same radiant features? art thou palpable likewise?” and, eagerly embracing her, added:  “here are limbs and a bosom animated with a gentle warmth! what can such a prodigy mean?”

Nouronihar with diffidence answered:  “You know, my lord, that I died on the night you honoured me with your visit; my cousin maintains it was from one of your glances, but I cannot believe him; for to me they seem not so dreadful.  Gulchenrouz died with me, and we were both brought into a region of desolation, where we are fed with a wretched diet.  If you be dead also, and are come hither to join us, I pity your lot; for you will be stunned with the noise of the dwarfs and the storks; besides, it is mortifying in the extreme that you, as well as myself, should have lost the treasures of the subterranean palace.”

At the mention of the subterranean palace the Caliph suspended his caresses, to seek from Nouronihar an explanation of her meaning.  She then recapitulated her vision, what immediately followed, and the history of her pretended death, adding also a description of the place of expiation from whence she had fled, and all in a manner that would have extorted his laughter, had not the thoughts of Vathek been too deeply engaged.  No sooner, however, had she ended, than he again clasped her to his bosom, and said: 

“Light of my eyes! the mystery is unravelled; we both are alive! your father is a cheat, who, for the sake of dividing, hath deluded us both; and the Giaour, whose design, as far as I can discover, is that we shall proceed together, seems scarce a whit better; it shall be some time at least before he find us in his palace of fire.  Your lovely little person in my estimation is far more precious than all the treasures of the pre-adamite Sultans, and I wish to possess it at pleasure, and in open day, for many a moon, before I go to burrow underground like a mole.  Forget this little trifler, Gulchenrouz, and—­”

“Ah! my lord!” interposed Nouronihar, “let me entreat that you do him no evil.”