midnight
Her forehead was unmatchable for shape and brilliancy ; its whiteness was contrasted with a Vandyke point of hair blacker and more shining than jet -- whence she took her name of `` Luisante '' ; the shape of her face seemed made to frame so many wonders . But her eyes spoilt everything . No one had ever been able to look at them long enough to distinguish their exact colour ; for as soon as one met her glance it was like a stroke of lightning . When she was eight years old her father , the Caliph , was in the habit of sending for her , to admire his offspring and give the courtiers the opportunity of paying a thousand feeble compliments to her youthful beauty ; for even then they used to put out the candles at midnight , no other light being necessary except that of the little one 's eyes . Yet all this was nothing but -- in the literal sense , and the other -- child 's play ; it was when her eyes had acquired full strength that they became no joking matter . -LSB- _ The fatal effects -- killing men in twenty-four hours , and blinding women -- are then told , with the complaints of the nobility whose sons have fallen victims , and the various suggestions for remedying the evil made at a committee , which is presided over by the Seneschal of the kingdom ... `` the silliest man who had ever held such an office -- so much so that the caliph could not possibly think of choosing any one less silly . '' Tarare happens to be in this pundit-potentate 's service ; and so the story starts .