ingers toyed playfully with the
raven locks and the heavy earrings of the magnificent princess at his
elbow. Some word of hers roused a thought in his whirling brain.

"Is not this day the feast of victories?" he cried in sudden animation;
and there was silence to catch the king's words. "Is not this the day
wherein my sire brought home the wealth of the Israelites, kept holy
with feasting for ever? Bring me the vessels of the unbelievers' temple,
that I may drink and pour out wine this night to Bel, the god of gods!"

The keeper of the treasure had anticipated the king's desire and had
caused everything to be made ready; for scarcely had Belshazzar spoken
when a long train of serving-men entered the hall of the banquet and
came and stood before the royal presence, their white garments and the
rich vessels they bore aloft standing vividly out against the deep even
red of the opposite wall.

"Let the vessels be distributed among us," cried the king,--"to every
man a cup or a goblet till all are served."

And so it was done, and the royal cup-bearer came and filled the huge
chalice that the king held, and the serving-men hastened to fill all the
cups and the small basins; while the lords and princes laughed at the
strange shapes, and eyed greedily enough the thickness and the good
workmanship of the gold and silver. And so each man and each woman had a
vessel from the temple of Jerusalem wherein to drink to the glory of Bel
the god and of Belshazzar his prince. And when all was ready, the king
took his chalice in his two hands and stood up, and all that company of
courtiers stood up with him, while a mighty strain of music burst
through the perfumed air, and the serving-men showered flowers and
sprinkled sweet odours on the tables.

Without stood the Angel of Death, whetting his sword upon the stones of
Babylon. But Belshazzar held the chalice and spoke with a loud voice to
the princes and the lords and the fair women that stood about the tables
in the great hall:

"I, Belshazzar the king, standing in the hall of my fathers, do pour
and drink this wine to the mighty majesty of Bel the great god, who
lives for ever and ever; before whom the gods of the north and of the
west and of the east and of the south are as the sand of the desert in
the blast; at whose sight the vain deities of Egypt crumbled into
pieces, and the God of the Israelites trembled and was made little in
the days of Nebuchadnezzar my sire. And I com