e to that abode of true greatness and of glory sternly
shut against him. He looked towards the home of his youth, and the seat
of his long prosperity, across the Oxus, to Sogdiana, to Samarcand, its
splendid capital, with its rich groves and smiling pastures, and there
the old man went to die. Not that he directly thought of death; for
still he yearned after military success: and he went thither for but a
short repose, between his stupendous victories in Asia Minor and a
projected campaign in China. But Samarcand was a fitting halt in that
long march; and there for the last time he displayed the glory of his
kingdom, receiving the petitions or appeals of his subjects,
ostentatiously judging between the deserving and the guilty, inspecting
plans for the erection of palaces and temples, and giving audience to
ambassadors from Russia, Spain, Egypt, and Hindostan. An English
historian, whom I have already used, has enlarged upon this closing
scene, and I here abridge his account of it. "The marriage of six of the
Emperor's grandsons," he says, "was esteemed an act of religion as well
as of paternal tenderness; and the pomp of the ancient caliphs was
revived in their nuptials. They were celebrated in the garden of
Canighul, where innumerable tents and pavilions displayed the luxury of
a great city and the spoils of a victorious camp. Whole forests were cut
down to supply fuel for the kitchens; the plain was spread with pyramids
of meat and vases of every liquor, to which thousands of guests were
courteously invited. The orders of the state and the nations of the
earth were marshalled at the royal banquet. The public joy was testified
by illuminations and masquerades; the trades of Samarcand passed in
review; and every trade was emulous to execute some quaint device, some
marvellous pageant, with the materials of their peculiar art. After the
marriage contracts had been ratified by the cadhies, nine times,
according to the Asiatic fashion, were the bridegrooms and their brides
dressed and undressed; and at each change of apparel, pearls and rubies
were showered on their heads, and contemptuously abandoned to their
attendants."

You may recollect the passage in Milton's Paradise Lost, which has a
reference to the Oriental ceremony here described. It is in his account
of Satan's throne in Pandemonium. "High on a throne," the poet says,

"High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind,