And how they must have enjoyed their vengeance,
completely slaughtering the idolaters! No doubt the city was gorged with
the dead! They must have been at the garden gates, on the staircases,
and packed so closely together in the various rooms that the doors could
not be closed! But here am I plunging into thoughts of murder and
bloodshed!"

He opens the book at another passage.

"'_Nebuchadnezzar prostrated himself with his face on the ground and
adored Daniel._'

"Ah! that is good! The Most High exalts His prophets above kings. This
monarch spent his life in feasting, always intoxicated with sensuality
and pride. But God, to punish him, changed him into a beast, and he
walked on four paws!"

Antony begins to laugh; and, while stretching out his arms, disarranges
the leaves of the book with the tips of his fingers. Then his eyes fall
on these words:

"'_Ezechias felt great joy in coming to them. He showed them his
perfumes, his gold and silver, all his aromatics, his sweet-smelling
oils, all his precious vases, and the things that were in his
treasures._'

"I can imagine how they beheld, heaped up to the very ceiling, gems,
diamonds, darics. A man who possesses such an accumulation of these
things is not the same as others. While handling them, he assumes that
he holds the result of innumerable exertions, and that he has absorbed,
and can again diffuse, the very life of the people. This is a useful
precaution for kings. The wisest of them all was not wanting in it. His
fleets brought him ivory--and apes. Where is this? It is----"

He rapidly turns over the leaves.

"Ah! this is the place:

"'_The Queen of Sheba, being aware of the glory of Solomon, came to
tempt him, propounding enigmas._'

"How did she hope to tempt him? The Devil was very desirous to tempt
Jesus. But Jesus triumphed because He was God, and Solomon owing,
perhaps, to his magical science. It is sublime, this science; for--as a
philosopher has explained to me--the world forms a whole, all whose
parts have an influence on one another, like the different organs of a
single body. It is interesting to understand the affinities and
antipathies implanted in everything by Nature, and then to put them into
play. In this way one might be able to modify laws that appear to be
unchangeable."

At this point the two shadows traced behind him by the arms of the cross
project themselves in front of him. They form, as it were, two great
horns. Antony exc