y a silence equally solemn. These warriors listened,
with a secret shuddering, to the steps of their horses resounding alone,
amid these deserted palaces. They were astonished to hear nothing but
themselves amid such numerous habitations. No-one thought of stopping or
of plundering, either from prudence, or because great civilized nations
respect themselves in enemies' capitals, in the presence of those great
centers of civilization.

Meanwhile they were silently observing that mighty city, which would
have been truly remarkable had they met with it in a flourishing and
populous country, but which was still more astonishing in these deserts.
It was like a rich and brilliant oasis. They had at first been struck by
the sudden view of so many magnificent palaces; but they now perceived
that they were intermingled with mean cottages; a circumstance which
indicated the want of gradation between the classes, and that luxury was
not generated there, as in other countries, by industry, but preceded
it; whereas, in the natural order, it ought to be its more or less
necessary consequence.

Here more especially prevailed inequality--that bane of all human
society, which produces pride in some, debasement in others, corruption
in all. And yet such a generous abandonment of every thing demonstrated
that this excessive luxury, as yet however entirely borrowed, had not
rendered these nobles effeminate.

They thus advanced, sometimes agitated by surprise, at others by pity,
and more frequently by a noble enthusiasm. Several cited events of the
great conquests which history has handed down to us; but it was for the
purpose of indulging their pride, not to draw lessons from them; for
they thought themselves too lofty and beyond all comparison: they had
left behind them all the conquerors of antiquity. They were exalted by
that which is second to virtue only, by glory. Then succeeded
melancholy; either from the exhaustion consequent on so many sensations,
or the effect of the operation produced by such an immeasurable
elevation, and of the seclusion in which we were wandering on that
height, whence we beheld immensity, infinity, in which our weakness was
lost: for the higher we ascend, the more the horizon expands, and the
more conscious we become of our own insignificance.

Amid these reflexions, which were favoured by a slow pace, the report of
fire-arms was all at once heard: the column halted. Its last horses
still covered the fie