approaching, and more than a high-priest; for Herod
Agrippa, the tetrarch of Judea had descended from Jerusalem to Caesarea,
for the celebration of warlike games in honour of the Emperor Claudius,
and, on the completion of those festivities, the deputed sovereign had
consented, at the intercession of Blastus, to receive a deputation of
certain Phenician ambassadors who were solicitous for an assurance of
his clemency. Those envoys--the merchant princes of Tyre and Sidon--were
tarrying in the public theatre of the city for the promised interview in
the presence of the people of Samaria.

Cagliostro marvelled, as he scanned the scene before him, whether it
were all a reality or a delusion of his fancy; but the lapping of the
surge upon the adjacent beach, and the perfume of Oriental spices which
impregnated the breezes from the Levant, and even the motes that swarmed
about him like phosphoric atoms, proved that it was no juggle of a
distempered imagination.

Suddenly the air was rent with acclamations; the crowd rose as if by a
single impulse; trumpets sounded in the seven porches of the
amphitheatre; again the plaudits shook the air like the concussion of
enthusiasm, and the deputation in the arena prostrated themselves in the
dust. Balsamo saw, at once, the reason of this rejoicing; he saw the
tetrarch of Judea seated upon a throne of ivory. The crown of Agrippa
glittered upon his forehead with an unnatural brightness--it was of the
purest gold, radiating from the brow in spikes, and flecked with pearls
of an uncommon size. Silent--erect--inflated with pride at his own
grandeur, and the adulation of the rabble, sate the King of Palestine.
Silent--awe-stricken--uncovered before the majesty of the representative
of Claudius, stood the people of Samaria and Phenicia. Extreme beauty of
an elevated and heroic character shone upon the features of Herod,
although his beard was grizzled with the passage of fifty-four winters.
In the midst of the silence of the populace, the morning sun rose,
almost abruptly, above the topmost arches of the edifice, and darted his
beams full upon the glorious garments of Agrippa. It played in sparkles
of intense lustre upon the jewels of his diadem; and upon the outer
robe, which was of silver tissue woven with consummate skill and
powdered with diamonds, the refraction of the sunlight produced an
intolerable splendour.[13] The Samaritans shielded their eyes from its
magnificence; they were da