Note Page 248 — VATHEK: AN ARABIAN TALE BY WILLIAM BECKFORD (continued 2)
Reading edition
No sooner was the caliph gone, than the emir commanded biers to be brought, and forbade that any one should enter the harem. Every window was fastened; all instruments of music were broken;* and the imans began to recite their prayers.* Towards the close of this melancholy day, Vathek sobbed in silence; for they had been forced to compose with anodynes his convulsions of rage and desperation.