the tabernacle; it had been nicely measured, and
every Hebrew who ventured forth from the camp this day might be observed
counting the steps of a Sabbath-day's journey. At length the sun again
set, and on a sudden fires blazed, voices sounded, men stirred, in
the same enchanted and instantaneous manner that had characterised the
stillness of the preceding eve. Shouts of laughter, bursts of music,
announced the festivity of the coming night; supplies poured in from all
the neighbouring villages, and soon the pious conquerors commemorated
their late triumph in a round of banqueting.

On the morrow, a Tatar arrived from Ithamar, informing Alroy that the
Sultan of Roum had retreated into Syria, that Bagdad was undefended, but
that he had acceded to the request of the inhabitants that a deputation
should wait upon Alroy before the troops entered the city, and had
granted a safe conduct for their passage.

On the morrow, messengers announced the approach of the deputation. All
the troops were under arms. Alroy directed that the suppliants should
be conducted through the whole camp before they arrived at the royal
pavilion, on each side of which the Sacred Guard was mustered in array.
The curtains of his tent withdrawn displayed the conqueror himself,
seated on a sumptuous divan. On his right hand stood Jabaster in his
priestly robes, on his left Scherirah. Behind him, the giant Elnebar
supported the sacred sceptre. A crowd of chieftains was ranged on each
side of the pavilion.

Cymbals sounded, muffled kettle-drums, and the faint flourish of
trumpets; the commencement of the procession might be detected in the
long perspective of the tented avenue. First came a company of beauteous
youths, walking two by two, and strewing flowers; then a band of
musicians in flowing robes of cloth of gold, plaintively sounding their
silver trumpets. After these followed slaves of all climes, bearing
a tribute of the most rare and costly productions of their countries:
Negroes with tusks and teeth of the elephant, plumes of ostrich
feathers, and caskets of gold dust; Syrians with rich armour; Persians
with vases of atar-gul, and Indians with panniers of pearls of Ormuz,
and soft shawls of Cachemire. Encircled by his children, each of whom
held alternately a white or fawn-coloured gazelle, an Arab clothed in
his blue bornouz, led by a thick cord of crimson silk a tall and tawny
giraffe. Fifty stout men succeeded two by two, carrying in compa