this creature, a giant even amongst mammoths, yet tame as any
well-whipped slave, and bearing upon its back a great half-castle
of gold, stamped with the outstretched hand, and bedecked with
silver snakes. Its murderous tusks were gilded, its hairy neck was
garlanded with flowers, and it trod on in the procession as though
assisting at such pageantry was the beginning and end of its
existence. Its tameness seemed a fitting symbol of the masterful
strength of this new ruler of Atlantis.

Simultaneously with the mammoth, there came into sight that
other and greater wonder, the mammoth's mistress, the Empress
Phorenice. The beast took my eye at the first, from its very
uncouth hugeness, from its show of savage power restrained; but the
lady who sat in the golden half-castle on its lofty back quickly
drew away my gaze, and held it immovable from then onwards with an
infinite attraction.

I stood to my feet when the people first shouted at Phorenice's
approach, and remained in the porchway of my scarlet pavilion
till her vast steed had halted in the centre of the square,
and then I advanced across the pavement towards her.

"On your knees, my lord," said one of the chamberlains behind
me, in a scared whisper.

"At least with bent head," urged another.

But I had my own notions of what is due to one's own
self-respect in these matters, and I marched across the bare open
space with head erect, giving the Empress gaze for gaze. She was