midnight
Adieu ! Alboufaki and my negresses are waiting . '' The Caliph had nothing to offer in reply ; he wished his mother a prosperous journey , and ate on till he had finished his supper . At midnight the camp broke up , amidst the flourishing of trumpets and other martial instruments ; but loud indeed must have been the sound of the tymbals to overpower the blubbering of the Emir and his long-beards , who , by an excessive profusion of tears , had so far exhausted the radical moisture , that their eyes shrivelled up in their sockets , and their hairs dropped off by the roots . Nouronihar , to whom such a symphony was painful , did not grieve to get out of hearing ; she accompanied the Caliph in the imperial litter , where they amused themselves with imagining the splendour which was soon to surround them . The other women , overcome with dejection , were dolefully rocked in their cages , whilst Dilara consoled herself with anticipating the joy of celebrating the rites of fire on the stately terraces of Istakar . In four days they reached the spacious valley of Rocnabad .