agnificent garden of some thirty
acres in extent, which Escombe rightly judged to be the royal palace.
It was not a particularly handsome structure--indeed, the builders of
the city seemed to be singularly devoid of architectural taste as it is
understood elsewhere--but it was imposing on account of its size and
solidity, and the bold and massive character of such ornamentation as it
displayed. Contrary to the usual custom, which appeared to favour white
marble as a building material, the palace was built throughout of
massive blocks of greyish-green granite, so accurately joined together
that the joints were almost indistinguishable. It stood upon a solid
base of much darker granite, some six feet high, and access to its
interior was gained by means of a very wide flight of eighteen steps,
each about four inches high and some eighteen inches wide from back to
front. The door and window openings were surrounded by broad bands or
frames of granite projecting some six inches beyond the general face of
the walls, and in these bands were set several large, elaborately
sculptured medallions, which had all the appearance of--and, as a matter
of fact, actually were--solid gold. And all round the building, between
the upper and lower tier of windows, ran a flat band, or string course,
of solid gold, about two feet in depth, upon which a graceful pattern of
scroll-work was boldly chased. Finally, above the upper row of windows,
in the place usually occupied by a cornice in European buildings, there
was a massive bull-nose moulding, quite three feet deep, also of solid
gold, surmounted by the parapet which guarded the flat roof of the
building. The facade of the building was the middle of the three sides,
and faced toward the road, while the two wings ran from it at right
angles back toward the lake.

So much Escombe was able to note with regard to his new home, as the
cavalcade swung in through the magnificent gates of wrought copper which
gave access to the grounds, and made its way up a wide path or drive to
the main entrance, before which it halted. In an instant the two nobles
who had held his horse for him while he mounted some hours earlier were
again at the animal's head, and Harry swung himself somewhat stiffly out
of the saddle; for the ride had been a long and hot one, and it was now
a full fortnight since he had last been on horseback. As his foot
touched the ground the band of his bodyguard again struck up the