looded the streets he was met by a choir of
some sixty young women arrayed in gala attire, crowned with roses, and
wearing garlands of flowers round their necks, who, forming up at the
head of the procession, led the way, some singing a hymn of triumph,
rejoicing, and glorification of the victors, while others accompanied
them on flutes, flageolets, and cymbals. But this was not all. As
Dick, blushing furiously and feeling more uncomfortable than he ever
before remembered, emerged from the gateway, two maidens stepped
forward, one from each side of the way, and while one deftly twined a
garland of roses round the horse's neck, the other, catching the lad's
hand, gently drew him down and caused him to bend in the saddle
sufficiently to permit her to cast a similar garland round his neck!

It was a distinctly embarrassing situation for a modest young Englishman
to find himself in, but as he heard the shouts of greeting and
acclamation that rang out from the throats of the jubilant crowd who
thronged the streets, and realised that all this was but the outward
expression of a very real and deep feeling of gratitude for important
services rendered, he put his embarrassment on one side, and bowed and
smiled his acknowledgments, to the frantic delight of the spectators.

In this fashion, then, the troops paraded the principal streets of the
city, while young girls and tiny children strewed flowers before them in
the roadway, and the populace cheered and applauded, until the spacious
park in which stood the palace and the House of Legislature was reached,
when a halt was called before the principal entrance of the palace,
where the Queen, once more in radiant health, came forth and, in a few
well-chosen words, expressed her fervent gratitude to all the brave men
who had borne themselves so nobly and gallantly in the defence of their
country, winding up with an expression of admiration and sorrow for the
fallen, and of sympathy for those whom the relentless cruelty of war had
bereaved of their nearest and dearest.

Then Malachi and his fellow Elders appeared and pronounced a long
oration of a very similar character, but going somewhat more into
detail. He dwelt particularly upon the fierce, undying animosity with
which the savages of the surrounding nations had regarded the presence
of the Izreelites in the country from time immemorial, reminded his
hearers of the state of almost perpetual warfare in which the nation had
li