To look round was refreshing.  Of all the lands we had seen, none looked more promising.  The groves stood tall and green; the fields spread flush and broad; the dew of the first morning seemed hardly vanished from the grass.  On all sides was heard the fall of waters, the swarming of bees, and the rejoicing hum of a thriving population.

“Ha, ha!” laughed Yoomy, “Labor laughs in this land; and claps his hands in the jubilee groves! methinks that Yillah will yet be found.”

Generously entertained, we tarried in this land; till at length, from over the Lagoon, came full tidings of the eruption we had witnessed in Franko, with many details.  The conflagration had spread through Porpheero and the kings were to and fro hunted, like malefactors by blood-hounds; all that part of Mardi was heaving with throes.

With the utmost delight, these tidings were welcomed by many; yet others heard them with boding concern.

Those, too, there were, who rejoiced that the kings were cast down; but mourned that the people themselves stood not firmer.  A victory, turned to no wise and enduring account, said they, is no victory at all.  Some victories revert to the vanquished.

But day by day great crowds ran down to the beach, in wait for canoes periodically bringing further intelligence.

Every hour new cries startled the air.  “Hurrah! another, kingdom is burnt down to the earth’s edge; another demigod is unhelmed; another republic is dawning.  Shake hands, freemen, shake hands!  Soon will we hear of Dominora down in the dust; of hapless Verdanna free as ourselves; all Porpheero’s volcanoes are bursting!  Who may withstand the people?  The times tell terrible tales to tyrants!  Ere we die, freemen, all Mardi will be free.”

Overhearing these shouts, Babbalanja thus addressed Media:—­“My lord, I can not but believe, that these men, are far more excited than those with whom they so ardently sympathize.  But no wonder.  The single discharges which are heard in Porpheero; here come condensed in one tremendous report.  Every arrival is a firing off of events by platoons.”

Now, during this tumultuous interval, King Media very prudently kept himself exceedingly quiet.  He doffed his regalia; and in all things carried himself with a dignified discretion.  And many hours he absented himself; none knowing whither he went, or what his employment.

So also with Babbalanja.  But still pursuing our search, at last we all journeyed into a great valley, whose inhabitants were more than commonly inflated with the ardor of the times.

Rambling on, we espied a clamorous crowd gathered about a conspicuous palm, against which, a scroll was fixed.

The people were violently agitated; storming out maledictions against the insolent knave, who, over night must have fixed there, that scandalous document.  But whoever he may have been, certain it was, he had contrived to hood himself effectually.