lived; and had an embassy from
the moon or the planet Jupiter been announced to him, would have deemed
it not only natural enough, but absolutely due to his preeminence above
all other human beings. Nevertheless, he was, secretly, immensely
pleased with the Persian demonstration, and gave orders that no expense
should be spared in giving the strangers a reception worthy of himself
and France.

It would be needless for me to detail the events of the progress of Riza
Bey from Marseilles to Paris, by way of Avignon and Lyons. It was
certainly in keeping with the pretensions of the Ambassador. From town
to town the progress was a continued ovation. Triumphal arches,
bonfires, chimes of bells, and hurrahing crowds in their best bibs and
tuckers, military parades and civic ceremonies, everywhere awaited the
children of the farthest East, who were stared at, shouted at--and by
some wretched cynics sneered and laughed at--to their hearts' content.
All modern glory very largely consists in being nearly stunned with
every species of noise, choked with dust, and dragged about through the
streets, until you are well nigh dead. Witness the Japanese Embassy and
their visit to this country, where, in some cases, the poor creatures,
after hours of unmitigated boring with all sorts of mummery, actually
had their pigtails pulled by Young America in the rear, and--as at the
windows of Willard's Hotel in Washington--were stirred up with long
canes, like the Polar Bear or the Learned Seal.

Still Riza Bey and his dozen or two of dusky companions did not, by any
means, cut so splendid a figure as had been expected. They had with them
some camels, antelopes, bulbuls, and monkeys--like any travelling
caravan, and were dressed in the most outrageous and outlandish attire.
They jabbered, too, a gibberish utterly incomprehensible to the crowd,
and did everything that had never been seen or done before. All this,
however, delighted the populace. Had they been similarly transmogrified,
or played such queer pranks themselves, it would only have been food for
mockery; but the foreign air and fame of the thing made it all
wonderful, and, as the chief rogue in the plot had foreseen, blinded the
popular eye and made his "embassy" a complete success.

At length, after some four weeks of slow progress, the "Persians"
arrived at Paris, where they were received, as had been expected, with
tremendous _eclat_. They entered by Barriere du Trone, so styled b