that brimmed with the fragrance of roses, they drove once more
together through the spacious streets of Al-Kyris--streets that
were now nearly deserted save for a few late passers-by whose
figures were almost as indistinct and rapid in motion as pale,
flitting shadows. There was not a sign of storm in the lovely
heavens, though now and again a sullen roll as of a distant
cannonade hinted of pent-up anger lurking somewhere behind that
clear and exquisitely dark-blue ether, in which a million worlds
blazed luminously like pendulous drops of white fire. Sah-luma's
chariot whirled along with incredible swiftness, the hoofs of the
galloping horses occasionally striking sparks of flame from the
smooth mosaic-pictured pavement; but Theos now began to notice
that there was a strange noiselessness in their movements--that
the whole CORTEGE appeared to be environed by a magic circle of
silence--and that the very night itself seemed breathlessly
listening in entranced awe to some unlanguaged warning from the
gods invisible.

Compared with the turbulence and terror just left behind at the
King's palace, this weird hush was uncomfortably impressive, and
gave a sense of fantastic unreality to the scene. The sleepy,
mesmeric radiance of the full moon, shining on the delicate
traceries of the quaintly sculptured houses on either hand, made
them look brittle and evanescent; the great heavy, hanging orange-
boughs and the feathery frondage of the tall palms seemed outlined
in mere mist against the sky; and the glimpses caught from time to
time of the broad and quietly flowing river were like so many
flashes of light seen through a veil of cloud. Theos, standing
beside his friend with one hand resting familiarly on his
shoulder, dreamily admired the phantom-like beauty of the city