Our easy
compliance with your wishes may have occasioned this, but that shall
not excuse your rudeness."
As she spoke these words, she gave three stamps with her foot, and
clapping[13] her hands as often together, cried, "Come quickly!"
Upon this a door flew open, and seven black slaves[14] rushed in; each
one seized a man, threw him to the ground, and dragged him into the
middle of the room, brandishing a scimitar over his head.
[Footnote 13: This is the ordinary mode in the East of calling the
attendants in waiting.]
[Footnote 14: In this manner the apartments of ladies were constantly
guarded.--Beckford's _Vathek_, Notes to p. 204.]
We can easily conceive the alarm of the caliph. He repented, but too
late, that he had not taken the advice of his vizier, who, with
Mesrour, the calenders, and porter, were, from his ill-timed
curiosity, on the point of forfeiting their lives.
Before they gave the fatal stroke, one of the slaves said to Zobeide
and her sisters, "Would it not be right to interrogate them first?" On
which Zobeide, with a grave voice, said: "Answer me, and say who you
are, otherwise you shall not live one moment longer. I cannot believe
you to be honest men, or persons of authority or distinction in your
own countries; for, if you were, you would have been more modest and
more respectful to us."
The caliph, naturally warm, was infinitely more indignant than the
rest, to find his life depending upon the command of a woman: but he
began to conceive some hopes, when he found she wished to know who
they all were; for he imagined that she would by no means take away
his life when she should be informed of his rank.
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