season of hilarity, Ahasuerus extended the pleasures of the occasion to
all classes of his subjects at Shushan.

He threw open his palaces and pleasure-grounds, his parks and
gardens--always of vast extent around eastern palaces--and admitted all
the citizens to a feast prepared for them. Tents had been erected within
the precincts of the palace for the tables--and these tents were
furnished with all the luxurious appendages of the east--with white and
green and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to
silver rings and marble pillars; while the beds--the couches around the
tables, against which the ancients reclined--were of gold and silver,
upon a pavement of red and blue, and black and white marble; while they
gave them to drink in vessels of gold. Until these last days the princes
and nobles alone had participated in the festive scenes; but now, as we
have said, all ranks were allowed to share, and the citizens of Shushan,
subjects of Ahasuerus, thronged the palace and trod the royal gardens,
and, entering the tents, enjoyed all that royalty could offer in ancient
Persia--far surpassing in costly splendour and elegance the
entertainments of modern courts. And surely the monarch must have had
strong confidence in the security of his government and the loyalty of
his people, as he thus from day to day, for successive days, flung open
to them the recesses of his palace.

While the king thus feasted the men in the gardens and parks of the
palace, Vashti, the queen, held a festival for the women within the
secluded apartments appropriated to the female part of the royal
household. She made them a feast within the house of Ahasuerus; and this
queenly entertainment was conducted with all that regard for retirement
and decorum which accords with Eastern manners. But whatever the
amusements of the queen and her train of attendants, no rumours passed