'It is not our custom,' said Zenobia in reply, 'when seeking repose, as
now, from the cares of state, to allow aught to break it. But we will not
be selfish nor churlish. Bid the servants of your Emperor draw near, and
we will hear them.'

I was not unwilling that the messengers of Aurelian should see Zenobia
just as she was now. Sitting upon her noble Arabian, and leaning upon her
hunting spear, her countenance glowing with a higher beauty than ever
before, as it seemed to me--her head surmounted with a Parthian
hunting-cap, from which drooped a single ostrich feather, springing from a
diamond worth a nation's rental, her costume also Parthian, and revealing
in the most perfect manner the just proportions of her form--I thought I
had never seen even her, when she so filled and satisfied the eye and the
mind--and, for that moment, I was almost a traitor to Aurelian. Had Julia
filled her seat, I should have been quite so. As it was, I could worship
her who sat her steed with no less grace, upon the left of the Queen,
without being guilty of that crime. On Zenobia's right were Longinus and
Zabdas, Gracchus, and the other noblemen of Palmyra. I and Fausta were
near Julia. In this manner, just as we had come in from the chase, did we
await the ambassadors of Aurelian.

Announced by trumpets, and followed by their train, they soon wheeled into
the lawn, and advanced toward the Queen.

'Caius Petronius and Cornelius Varro,' said Zenobia, first addressing the
ambassadors, and moving toward them a few paces, 'we bid you heartily
welcome to Palmyra. If we receive you thus without form, you must take the
blame partly to yourselves, who have sought us with such haste. We put by
the customary observances, that we may cause you no delay. These whom you
see are all friends or counsellors. Speak your errand without restraint.'