tervals of the courts, where was massed
the heavy blackness of foliage. The night air swept cool around him;
above him was the high vault of heaven, cloudless now, where a young
moon rode in the loneliness of space. To his left as he stood was the
squat dome of the Hall of Columns, with light showing through the series
of narrow windows which encircled it. And these windows were barely four
feet above the level of the roof from which the dome sprang.

Nicanor started across the tiles, black against the moonlight, clawing
his way along steep and treacherous slopes and gliding along the leads,
sure-footed as a cat, toward the nearest window in the dome which would
look down into the hall below. This he gained in safety, and found that
it had been left half open, for ventilation. He leaned over the ledge,
gazing downward; and a ripple of music from hidden players rose to him
above a humming undercurrent of sound.

Below him, the great hall was a riot of color. On its hundred columns of
polished marble, veined in green and rose, light played in sliding
gleams from great lamps of wrought bronze hung by chains around the dome
and between the pillars, each with many lights floating in cups of
perfumed oil. The floors, of white marble, were overlaid with silken
rugs of glowing colors, with silver matting and with tawny skins of
beasts. The walls were wide panels of mosaics set in stucco, vivid with
red and blue, green and azure, picturing scenes of hunting and carousal.
Perfumes burned in silver jars set on pedestals of black marble at
intervals along the walls, sending forth faint spirals of smoke on the
heated air. The long table, lined on either side with men and women, was
directly beneath the dome. Looking down upon it Nicanor saw only a
confusion of gold and silver dishes, with the ruby glow of Samian plates
and cups, gleaming among strewn leaves and blossoms. The garments of the
guests were as a fringe of color about the table's edge; purple,
saffron, and gold, crimson, green, and white.

At the head of the board, raised somewhat above the other seats, three
figures had risen,--one, in the centre, tall, spare, stooping somewhat,
in spite of his brave attire; at his left, another as tall as he, but
broader, more compactly built, with the square shoulders of a military
man, richly dressed also in a scarlet tunic embroidered in gold, with
heavy bands of gold about his arms. And at the right of the central
figure, the thir