lash of sunlight from the golden roofs of the principal
buildings; and finally a great archway, pierced through the lofty and
massive wall that enclosed the city, came into view, spanning the road,
and at the same moment a great blare of horns stifled the sound of
trampling hoof-beats, the jingle of accoutrements, and the frantic
shouts of the cheering multitude. Then Umu flung his flashing sword-
blade aloft and shouted a word of command, whereupon the panting,
sweating horses were pulled into a walking pace, the riders straightened
themselves in their saddles, the band of musicians which led the way
struck up a weird, barbaric air, the great bronze gates, which had been
closed, were flung open, and the cavalcade passed through into the
principal street of the City of the Sun. If Escombe had been questioned
ten minutes earlier he would, in reply, have expressed the confident
opinion that every man, woman, and child had left the city in order to
line the road outside the gates by which it was known that he must pass;
but he had no sooner traversed the echoing archway in the immensely
thick city wall than he saw how greatly mistaken such an opinion would
have been. For, starting from the very wall itself, the pavement on
either hand, all along the line of route, was simply packed with
people--the children in front, the women next, and the men in the rear--
frantic with enthusiasm, and shouting themselves hoarse in their
eagerness to afford an adequate welcome to the Inca whose coming had
been looked forward to by them and their ancestors for more than three
hundred years. But they did not confine their demonstrations of welcome
to mere acclamations. At frequent intervals triumphal arches of an
elaborate character and of great beauty, decorated with banners and
flags, and profusely wreathed with flowers, were thrown across the
roadway, each being connected with the next by a line of poles, painted
blue, surmounted by a banner or flag, twined with flowers, and
supporting a heavy festoon of flowers which formed an unbroken floral
chain from one triumphal arch to the next. The houses on either hand
were also decorated with flowers, banners, and long streamers of many-
tinted cloths hung from the eaves and windows, the whole scene strongly
reminding the young Englishman of the aspect of London's streets on the
occasion of our own gracious King's coronation. But what impressed
Escombe more than anything else was the fact