like expression were found still shut up here.

[Illustration: 405.jpg ONE OF THE BRONZE LIONS FROM DUR-SHARRUKIN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre.

The kitchens adjoined the pantries, and the stables for horses and
camels communicated direct with the coach-houses in which the state
chariots were kept, while the privies were discreetly hidden in a
secluded corner. On the other side, among the buildings occupying the
southern angle of the courtyard, the menials of the palace lived
huddled together, each family quartered in small, dark rooms. The royal
apartments, properly so called, stood at the back of these domestic
offices, facing the south-east, near the spot where the inclined plane
debouched on to the city ramparts. The monumental entrance to these
apartments was guarded, in accordance with religious custom, by a
company of winged bulls; behind this gate was a lawn, then a second
gate, a corridor and a grand quadrangle in the very centre of the
palace.

[Illustration: 406.jpg A HUNTING EXPEDITION IN THE WOODS NEAR
DUR-SHARRUKIN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a drawing by Flandin, in Botta.

The king occupied a suite of some twenty rooms of a rather simple
character; here he slept, ate, worked, and transacted the greater
part of his daily business, guarded by his eunuchs and attended by his
ministers and secretaries. The remaining rooms were apartments of state,
all of the same pattern, in which the crowd of courtiers and employes
assembled while waiting for a private audience or to intercept the king
as he passed. A subdued light made its way from above through narrow
windows let into the massive arches. The walls were lined to a height
of over nine feet from the floor with endless bas-reliefs, in greyish
alabaster, picked out in bright colours, and illustrating the principal
occupations in which the sovereign spent his days, such as the audiences
to ambassadors, hunting in the woods, sieges and battles. A few brief
inscriptions interspersed above pictures of cities and persons indicated
the names of the vanquished chiefs or the scenes of the various events
portrayed; detailed descriptions were engraved on the back of the
slabs facing the brick wall against which they rested. This was a
precautionary measure, the necessity for which had been but too plainly
proved by past experience. Every one--the king himself included--well
knew that some day or other Dur-Sharrukin would b