Note Page 250 — VATHEK: AN ARABIAN TALE BY WILLIAM BECKFORD (continued 2)

Gulchenrouz on his part, lost in wonder, clung to the neck of his cousin. He believed himself in the region of phantoms, and was terrified at the silence she preserved. At length addressing her: “Speak,” said he; “where are we? Do you not see those spectres that are stirring the burning coals? Are they Monker and Nekir* who are come to throw us into them? Does the fatal bridge* cross this lake, whose solemn stillness perhaps conceals from us an abyss, in which for whole ages we shall be doomed incessantly to sink?”