dier acknowledged by letting the
iron shaft of his spear fall with a ringing sound upon the pavement,
and we passed on through the massive wall into the courtyard
of the palace. This was about forty yards square, and laid out
in flower-beds full of lovely shrubs and plants, many of which
were quite new to me. Through the centre of this garden ran
a broad walk formed of powdered shells brought from the lake
in the place of gravel. Following this we came to another doorway
with a round heavy arch, which is hung with thick curtains, for
there are no doors in the palace itself. Then came another short
passage, and we were in the great hall of the palace, and once
more stood astonished at the simple and yet overpowering grandeur
of the place.

The hall is, as we afterwards learnt, one hundred and fifty feet
long by eighty wide, and has a magnificent arched roof of carved
wood. Down the entire length of the building there are on either
side, and at a distance of twenty feet from the wall, slender
shafts of black marble springing sheer to the roof, beautifully
fluted, and with carved capitals. At one end of this great place
which these pillars support is the group of which I have already
spoken as executed by the King Rademas to commemorate his building
of the staircase; and really, when we had time to admire it,
its loveliness almost struck us dumb. The group, of which the
figures are in white, and the rest is black marble, is about
half as large again as life, and represents a young man of noble
countenance and form sleeping heavily upon a couch. One arm
is carelessly thrown over the side of this couch, and his head
reposes upon the other, its curling locks partially hiding it.
Bending over him, her hand resting on his forehead, is a draped
female form of such white loveliness as to make the beholder's
breath stand still. And as for the calm glory that shines upon
her perfect face -- well, I can never hope to describe it. But
there it rests like the shadow of an angel's smile; and power,
love, and divinity all have their part in it. Her eyes are fixed
upon the sleeping youth, and perhaps the most extraordinary thing
about this beautiful work is the success with which the artist
has succeeded in depicting on the sleeper's worn and weary face
the sudden rising of a new and spiritual thought as the spell
begins to work within his mind. You can see that an inspiration
is breaking in upon the darkness of the man's