narch kept his saddle. Five were drawn up on one side, and five
on the other. They waited for Apleon. A moment or two only, then amid
a thunder of acclaim of "Long live the World's Emperor!" Lucien Apleon,
the Anti-christ, the Man of Sin, riding a jet black horse, cantered
through the gate.

He was a marvellous figure of a man. In stature he was nearer seven
feet than six. His form as erect as a Venetian mast. His costume was
strange, but very striking, and gave him a regality of appearance.

It was partly Oriental, partly occidental, and consisted of a
curious-toned darkish green military tunic, heavily-frogged with gold,
and with a wide, gold-braid collar. The buttons of the tunic were
separate emeralds set in circles of diamonds, and enclosed in a wide
circlet of gold. He wore white knee-breeches, and high Hessian boots,
adorned at the heels with gold spurs. Over his shoulders, clasped at
the neck with a large gold-and-precious-stone buckle of the same
mysterious form as the hieroglyphic crest at the head of the Programs,
he wore a wonderful burnouse of white and gold fleece, the gold
predominating over the white, and flashing fiercely, gorgeously in the
sun. His leonine head was surmounted with a dazzling covering that was
neither a crown, a mitre, nor a turban, but partook of the nature of
all three. It was profusely bedecked with the most costly of precious
stones. The largest diamond ever seen, shaped as an eight-pointed
star, and measuring nearly six inches from point to point, was set in
the front-centre of the mitre-turban-crown. With the sun shining upon
it, it was impossible to gaze upon the diamond.

Riding up to the door of the porch of the Temple, his horse's
fore-hoofs resting on the upper of the four steps, he paused only to
return the salutes of the ten kings, then flung himself from the
saddle, and waited a moment until his horse was led away. Then turning
outwards towards the way by which he had come, he surveyed the scene
below him.

Never in the history of the world had anything more Wonderful been
seen. Several million people were gathered--streets were blocked;
walls of the city, roofs of the houses and palaces and public buildings
were packed. Every window that faced the mount was crowded. Flags
flew everywhere within the city, and beyond the walls, where hundreds
of thousands of acclaiming people were gathered, every eye was directed
towards that Temple entrance where Anti-