multitude around them,—­a huge concourse of the citizens of Al-Kyris, who, strange as this part of their behavior seemed, still paid no heed to the presence of their Laureate, but with pale, rapt faces and anxious, frightened eyes, riveted their attention entirely on the sombre, black-garmented Prophet whose thin ghostly arms, outstretched above them, appeared to mutely invoke in their behalf some special miracle of mercy.

“See you not".. whispered Sah-luma to his companion,—­“how yon aged fool wears upon his breast the Symbol of his own Prophecy?  ’Tis the maddest freak to thus display his death-warrant!—­Only a month ago the King issued a decree, warning all those whom it might concern, that any one of his born subjects presuming to carry the sign of Khosrul’s newly invented Faith should surely die!  And that the crazed reprobate carries it himself makes no exemption from the rule!”

Theos shuddered.  His eyes were misty, but he could very well see the Emblem to which Sah-luma alluded,—­it was the Cross again! ... the same sacred Prefigurement of things “to come,” according to the perplexing explanation given by the Mystic Zuriel whom he had met in the Passage of the Tombs, though to his own mind it conveyed no such meaning.  What was it then? ... if not a Prototype of the future, was it a Record of the Past?  He dared not pursue this question,—­it seemed to send his brain reeling on the verge of madness!  He made no answer to Sah-luma’s remark,—­but fixed his gaze wistfully on the tall, melancholy Shape that like a black shadow darkened the whiteness of the Obelisk,—­and his sense of hearing became acute almost to painfulness when once more Khosrul’s deep vibrating tones peeled solemnly through the heavy air.

“God speaks to Al-Kyris!” and as the Prophet enunciated these words with majestic emphasis a visible thrill ran through the hushed assemblage..  “God saith:  Get thee up, O thou City of Pleasure, from thy couch of sweet wantonness,—­get thee up, gird thee with fire, and flee into the desert of forgotten things!  For thou art become a blot on the fairness of My world, and a shame to the brightness of My Heaven!—­thy rulers are corrupt,—­thy teachers are proud of heart and narrow in judgment,—­thy young men and maidens go astray and follow each after their own vain opinions,—­in thy great temples and holy places Falsehood abides, and Vice holds court in thy glorious palaces.  Wherefore because thou hast neither sought nor served Me, and because thou hast set up gold as thy god, and a multitude of riches as thy chief good, lo! now mine eyes have grown weary of beholding thee, and I will descend upon thee suddenly and destroy thee, even as a hill of sand is destroyed by the whirlwind,—­and thou shalt be known in the land of My creatures no more!  Woe to thee that thou hast taken pride in thy wisdom and learning, for therein lies thy much wickedness!  If thou wert truly wise thou wouldst have found Me,—­ if thou wert nobly learned thou wouldst have understood