their
majestical canopy.

The crown of the island prince was of the primitive old Eastern
style; in shape, similar, perhaps, to that jauntily sported as a
foraging cap by his sacred majesty King Nimrod, who so lustily
followed the hounds. It was a plaited turban of red tappa, radiated
by the pointed and polished white bones of the Ray-fish. These
diverged from a bandeau or fillet of the most precious pearls;
brought up from the sea by the deepest diving mermen of Mardi. From
the middle of the crown rose a tri-foiled spear-head. And a spear-
headed scepter graced the right hand of the king.

Now, for all the rant of your democrats, a fine king on a throne is a
very fine sight to behold. He looks very much like a god. No wonder
that his more dutiful subjects so swore, that their good lord and
master King Media was demi-divine.

A king on his throne! Ah, believe me, ye Gracchi, ye Acephali, ye
Levelers, it is something worth seeing, be sure; whether beheld at
Babylon the Tremendous, when Nebuchadnezzar was crowned; at old Scone
in the days of Macbeth; at Rheims, among Oriflammes, at the
coronation of Louis le Grand; at Westminster Abbey, when the
gentlemanly George doffed his beaver for a diadem; or under the soft
shade of palm trees on an isle in the sea.

Man lording it over man, man kneeling to man, is a spectacle that
Gabriel might well travel hitherward to behold; for never did he
behold it in heaven. But Darius giving laws to the Medes and the
Persians, or the conqueror of Bactria with king-cattle yoked to his
car, was not a whit more sublime, than Beau Brummel magnificently
ringing for his valet.

A king on his throne! It is Jupiter nodding in the councils of
Olympus; Satan, seen among the coronets in Hell.

A king on his throne! It is the sun over a mountain; the sun over
law-giving Sinai; the sun in our system: planets, duke-like, dancing
attendance, and baronial satellites in waiting.

A king on his throne! After all, but a gentleman seated. And thus sat
the good lord, King Media.

Time passed. And after trying and dismissing several minor affairs,
Media called for certain witnesses to testify concerning one Jiromo,
a foolhardy wight, who had been silly enough to plot against the
majesty now sitting judge and jury upon him.

His guilt was clear. And the witnesses being heard, from a bunch of
palm plumes Media taking a leaf, placed it in the hand of a runner or
pursuivant, saying, "This to Jiromo, whe