, every arrangement
(from their stand-point) was complete.

At seven o'clock, sharp, the gun was fired at the "Palace Apleon," and
the great silken flag, with its "Covenant" sign, flew out upon the
breeze. The whole city and its suburbs were astir.

Suddenly a burst of brazen music rent the more or less silent air of
the city, and Cohen and his fellow priests knew that the procession had
started from the Palace. Soon it was in sight. Oh the wonder, the
gorgeousness, the BLASPHEMY of it! Riding on a white horse, there came
first the standard bearer. The heel of the standard pole was socketted
in a deep barrel of leather that ran from the saddle to the stirrup.
The rider was a man of enormous strength, and he had need to be, to
bear the strain of the breeze that tugged at the many square yards of
white silk, of which the standard was composed. Like the flag on the
place, like the brand on the brows and right hands of many of the
multitude, the "_Covenant_" sign appeared in the centre of the standard
borne aloft by that mounted bearer.

Behind the standard came the band, fifty mounted players. Behind the
band there was a gap of sixty or seventy feet. Then, alone, proud,
regal, handsome, mighty of stature, noble in pose, mounted on his
jet-black mare, and attired as he had been overnight, rode Apleon, the
Emperor--Dictator of the World. After him, but with fifty feet of
space between, rode the ten kings, then their respective suites. Then
came the Babylonian merchant princes, and others.

It was a triumphal procession for Apleon. For it was _his_ name that
filled throats of the acclaiming multitudes as they roared out their
"Huzzahs!"

The scene in the Courtyard of the Temple was one of wondrous pomp, and
of even deeper significance. As Apleon rode in, a fan-fare of trumpets
gave him greeting. Then when the last intricate brazen note had
sounded, the mighty multitude drowned even the memory of the trumpets,
by the deafening roar of their Huzzahs!

Ten bugles sounded "Silence." It took a full minute for the command to
pass from lip to lip to the uttermost reaches of the people. Then, in
the comparative stillness, Apleon dismounted from his horse, took the
diamond-studded key from the hand of the High-Priest, opened the door,
flung it wide, and proclaimed The Temple opened, "in the name of
Apleon, Emperor--Dictator of the World."

That opening word truly translated, meant, "in the name of the Devil,
by