er were nine or ten
who wore a scarlet sash, among whom I recognised a face I had not seen
since the day of my memorable visit to the Astronaut; not precisely
the face of a friend--Endo Zampta. Behind the throne were ranged a
dozen guards, armed with the spear and with the lightning gun used in
hunting. That a single Martial battalion with its appropriate
artillery could annihilate the best army of the Earth I could not but
be aware; yet the first thought that occurred to me, as I looked on
these formidably armed but diminutive soldiers, was that a score of my
Arab horsemen would have cut a regiment of them to pieces. But by the
time I had reached the foot of the steps my attention was concentrated
on a single figure and face--the form and countenance of the Prince,
who rose from his throne as I approached. Those who remember that
Louis XIV., a prince reputed to have possessed the most majestic and
awe-inspiring presence of his age, was actually beneath the ordinary
height of Frenchmen, may be able to believe me when I say that the
Autocrat of Mars, though scarcely five feet tall, was in outward
appearance and bearing the most truly royal and imposing prince I have
ever seen. His stature, rising nearly two inches over the tallest of
those around him, perhaps added to the effect of a mien remarkable for
dignity, composure, and self-confidence. The predominant and most
immediately observable expression of his face was one of serene calm
and command. A closer inspection and a longer experience explained
why, notwithstanding, my first conception of his character (and it was
a true one) ascribed to him quite as much of fire and spirit as of
impassive grandeur. His voice, though its tone was gentle and almost
strikingly quiet, had in it something of the ring peculiar to those
which have sent the word of command along a line of battle. I felt as
I heard it more impressed with the personal greatness, and even with
the rank and power, of the Prince before me, than when I knelt to kiss
the hand of the Most Christian King, or stood barefooted before the
greatest modern successor of the conqueror of Stamboul.

"I am glad to receive you," he said. "It will be among the most
memorable incidents of my reign that I welcome to my Court the first
visitor from another world, or," he added, after a sudden pause, and
with an inflection of unmistakable irony in his tone, "the first who
has descended to our world from a height to which no bal