adherents to assemble together, and
maybe form part of the funeral procession, without exciting comment or
suspicion."

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when, the great wrought
copper gates at the main entrance of the palace having been swung open,
the queen's chariot emerged therefrom and was carefully piloted to its
station immediately in the rear of the funeral car, to which, in the
meantime, twelve magnificently caparisoned white horses had been yoked,
the great cloths which covered the animals from head to heel being made
of purple silk, lavishly embroidered in silver thread and weighted at
the edges with heavy silver tassels. Their heads were decorated with
long plumes of the royal colours, and their bridles were fringed with
purple silk bands, scalloped and heavily embroidered in silver. All the
horses taking part in the procession, from those in the queen's chariot
down to the humble vehicle drawn by a single animal, were caparisoned
exactly alike, by strict regulation. And after the chariots, some of
which were drawn by six horses, yoked three abreast, came those who, not
being wealthy enough to own a chariot, must follow on foot.

The horses having been yoked to the funeral chariot, Dick Cavendish
mounted his powerful charger and gave the order for the bodyguard to
form round it and the queen's chariot, which was at once done, the
troopers forming a cordon six deep, which completely enveloped the two
chariots. At the same moment the great doors of the temple were thrown
open, and the priests, to the number of about one hundred and fifty,
clad in white robes and turbans edged with turquoise blue, filed out
through the portals of the building, walking with slow and measured
steps, and playing a kind of dirge upon their queer-looking musical
instruments, of which the most numerous consisted of long curved
trumpets formed of a kind of terra-cotta. Zorah, the high priest,
marched in the van bearing aloft a pole surmounted by an effigy of
Kuhlacan, the Winged Serpent, while on either side of him walked
acolytes swinging censers charged with certain aromatic substances,
smouldering and throwing off thin wisps of perfumed smoke.

Down the great flight of the temple steps came the priests, and across
the square, until they reached the foremost files of the bodyguard, when
they wheeled to the left and proceeded along the appointed route, the
funeral car and the rest of the procession getting into motio