ance still lower over the broad steps that flanked the palace on every side.

At the farther limit of the stately structure, on the right of the esplanade, unrolled a magnificent efflorescent sea.

Its parterres were gorgeous, and its pleasances and bowers beautifully canopied and festooned with scandent growths whose buds and flowers jewelled their leafy weft of living green.

The mazy walks were fringed with ribbon-grass, fern-inwreathed and graceful and feathery as any helmet's panache.

Half-hidden in herbage and curious blowth were secluded grottoes, tapestried with ivy of gaudy foliage and carpeted with velvet mosses of many hues.

And scattered through this carnival of floral glory were picturesque lodges and chalets constructed wholly of intorted shrubbage and climbing lianos whose convolutions, which constituted both thatch and wall, were showered with blossoms interspersed with a wealth of emerald leaves.

Far and near espaliers shone with ripened fruits, multihued, that gleamed like gems in the green drapery of the bended branches; and streamlets were there which wound along sphagnum-reddened courses, their terraced banks tangled with bush and shrub of similitude to broom and laurestine and the guilder-rose.

In all the Universe there could scarcely have been a more entrancing spot than that touch of Paradise when it smiled in fretwork of sun and shadow beneath its native, far-away skies of blue.

Betimes I leisurely retraced my steps, scanning with much interest the new sights and wonders freshly unfolding far and near, until the great entrance once more fronted me.

Passing over the threshold I found myself in a vast vestibule or hall, gracefully pillared and arched and with tessellated floors. At the right stood a tall concierge leaning on a naked sword, with his left hand grasping the shaft of a spear that pressed against the marble jamb of the entrance-way.

There were many figures about the imposing room, all attired in costly habits and seemingly of dignified port.

Some there were who held rolls of parchment in their hands as if on business of state; others who may have been courtiers or attendants on the royal person, and others again in uniform and wearing swords, who, I held, were in all probability of the military establishment of the country.

I took my way into adjoining saloons and apartments, all richly adorned with hangings and marquetry and of indescribable magnificence.

The floors were inlaid with polished beryl and lazuli, sard and other rare stones, in representation

of flowers and fruits, of wave-kissed shores and scenes of rural loveliness.

Between the handsome pilasters were beautiful frescoes executed by a master hand, and the windowframework was embellished with anthemions or palmettes and fretted mouldings, all in gilt.

Along the walls gleamed triple rows of lustres with filagree ornamentation, and from above depended chandeliers, deftly formed of enamel and crystal and banded with gold. Throughout the splendid court the paneled ceilings were studded with stars, isolated and in clusters.

I entered a great room or hall where the king, superbly robed, sat under a canopy in an ivory chair. Over this chair had been carelessly flung a downy tabaret of lutescent hue, whose ample folds flowed down upon the floor. The walls were hung with lustrous crimson arras, and the doors bore vignettes of carved vines and blossoms with gilded cinquefoils on their every panel.

Before the royal presence was a bevy of girls, half a score and upwards were there, lissom of appearance and fair as the houris of a faery heaven.

The shapely nymphs were costumed in textures silken and light, and evidently were dancing for the edification of their royal master at the moment of the awful catastrophe that destroyed all life in that hapless world.