outside--another bank, in fact, of like composition, but more difficult
to pass on account of the darkness.

With his foot the leading adventurer felt the way down to a floor; and
when his assistants came to him, he took from a pocket in his gown a
small case filled with a chemical powder which he poured at his feet;
then he produced a flint and steel, and struck them together. Some
sparks dropped upon the powder. Instantly a flame arose and filled the
place with a ruddy illumination. Lighting the lamps by the flame, the
party looked around them, the slaves with simple wonder.

They were in a vault--a burial vault of great antiquity. Either it was
an imitation of like chambers in Egypt, or they were imitations of it.
The excavation had been done with chisels. The walls were niched, giving
them an appearance of panelling, and over each of the niches there had
been an inscription in raised letters, now mostly defaced. The floor was
a confusion of fragments knocked from sarcophagi, which, massive as they
were, had been tilted, overturned, uncovered, mutilated, and robbed.
Useless to inquire whose the vandalism. It may have been of Chaldeans of
the time of Almanezor, or of the Greeks who marched with Alexander, or
of Egyptians who were seldom regardful of the dead of the peoples they
overthrew as they were of their own, or of Saracens, thrice conquerors
along the Syrian coast, or of Christians. Few of the Crusaders were like
St. Louis.

But of all this the master took no notice. With him it was right that
the vault should look the wreck it was. Careless of inscriptions,
indifferent to carving, his eyes ran rapidly along the foot of the
northern wall until they came to a sarcophagus of green marble. Thither
he proceeded. He laid his hand upon the half-turned lid, and observing