150

A MODERN PALACE.

his "Childe Harold." Returning to England in 1801, he sold off the furniture and pictures at Fonthill, and begun the erection of a sumptuous pile, with a tower, two hundred and sixty feet high. In 1822 he wearied of this, disposed of it hastily, and retired to Bath, where he again indulged himself in the costly luxury of realising his ideas in stone and marble. Lansdowne House had a tower one hundred and fifty feet high; a magnificent gallery; a museum of works of art and vertu, curiosities, and oddities; a superb library, and a vast garden adorned with choice statuary. Here, with the exception of a brief interval, he resided until his death, on the 2d day of May 1844.

THE

THE HALL OF EBLIS.*

HE Caliph and Nouronihar beheld each other with amazement at finding themselves in a place which, though roofed with a vaulted ceiling, was so spacious and lofty that, at first, they took it for an immeasurable plain. But their eyes at length growing familiar to the grandeur of the surrounding objects, they extended their view to those at a distance, and discovered rows of columns and arcades, which gradually diminished till they terminated in a point radiant as the sun when he darts his last beams athwart the ocean. The pavement, strewed over with gold dust and saffron, exhaled so subtile an odour as almost overpowered them. They, however, went on, and observed an infinity of censers, in which ambergrise and the wood of aloes were continually burning. Between the several columns were placed tables, each spread with a profusion of viands, and wines of every species sparkling in vases of crystal. A throng of genii, and other fantastic spirits, of either sex, danced lasciviously at the sound of music, which issued from beneath.

In the midst of this immense hall, a vast multitude was incessantly passing, who severally kept their right hands on their hearts, without once regarding anything around them. They had all the livid paleness of death. Their eyes, deep sunk in their sockets, resembled those phosphoric meteors that glimmer by night in places of interment. Some stalked slowly on, absorbed in profound reverie; some, shrieking with agony, ran furiously about, like tigers, wounded with poisoned arrows; whilst others, grinding their teeth in rage, foamed along more frantic than the wildest maniac. They all avoided each other; and though surrounded by a multitude that no one could number, each wandered at random, unheedful of the rest, as if alone on a desert where no foot had trodden.

Vathek and Nouronihar, frozen with terror at a sight so baleful, demanded of the Giaour what those appearances might mean, and why these ambulating spectres never withdrew their hands from their hearts?

* From "Vathek :" an Arabian Tale, from an unpublished MS., with Notes, critical and explanatory. (Edited by Henley. London, 1786. Small 8vo.)

152

THE FORMIDABLE EBLIS.

"Perplex not yourselves with so much at once," replied he, bluntly; "you will soon be acquainted with all : let us haste, and present you to Eblis.” They continued their way through the multitude; but, notwithstanding their confidence at first, they were not sufficiently composed to examine, with attention, the various perspective of halls and of galleries that opened on the right hand and left, which were all illuminated by torches and braziers, whose flames rose in pyramids to the centre of the vault. At length they came to a place, where long curtains, brocaded with crimson and gold, fell from all parts in solemn confusion. Here the choirs and dances were heard no longer; the light which glimmered came from afar.

After some time, Vathek and Nouronihar perceived a gleam brightening through the drapery, and entered a vast tabernacle hung round with the skins of leopards. An infinity of elders, with streaming beards, and afrits in complete armour, had prostrated themselves before the ascent of a lofty eminence; on the top of which, upon a globe of fire, sat the formidable Eblis his person was that of a young man, whose noble and regular features seemed to have been tarnished by malignant vapours in his large eyes appeared both pride and despair: his flowing hair retained some resemblance to that of an angel of light in his hand, which thunder had blasted, he swayed the iron sceptre that causes the monster Ouranbad, the afrits, and all the powers of the abyss to tremble at his presence the heart of the Caliph sunk within him, and he fell prostrate on his face. Nouronihar, however, though greatly dismayed, could not help admiring the person of Eblis, for she expected to have seen some stupendous giant. Eblis, with a voice more mild than might be imagined, but such as penetrated the soul, and filled it with the deepest melancholy, said, "Creatures of clay, I receive you into mine empire: ye are numbered amongst my adorers: enjoy whatever this palace affords,—the treasures of the pre-adamite sultans,-their fulminating sabres, and those talismans. that compel the dives to open the subterranean expanses of the mountains of Kaf, which communicate with these: there, insatiable as your curiosity may be, shall you find sufficient objects to gratify it: you shall possess the exclusive privileges of entering the fortresses of Aherman, and the halls of Argeuk, where are portrayed all creatures endowed with intelligence, and the various animals that inhabited the earth prior to the crea