230 THE BOY GRUSADERS.

farther words, he consented to grant an audience to
the Franks.

Meanwhile, the ambassadors and their attendants
were admitted within the gates of the palace, and
conducted into an immense garden, there to wait
till suitable apaitinents were assigned them. And
this garden made them stare with wonder; its regal
magnificence was so surprising as to make them start
and stop simultaneously, and to make Bisset ex-
claim—

‘Of a truth, the lines of this pope of the infidels
have fallen in pleasant places. None of King Henry’s
palaces can boast of anything like this. Surely it
must be the terrestrial paradise.’

Now, this garden might well surprise the ambas-
sadors. In the centre was a kiosk of the richest
architecture, constructed entirely of marble and ala-
baster, with an arcade composed of countless marble
pilars. In the court was a marble reservoir,
surrounded with marble balustrades, which at cach
angle opened on a flight of stairs, guarded by lions
and crocodiles sculptured of white marble; and
alabaster baths with taps of gold. On one side of
the garden was a large aviary; on the other a huge
elephant, chained to a tree. The walks were set in
mosaic of coioured pebbles, in all kinds of fanciful
patterns; and around were groves, bowers, arbours,
and trellis-covered paths, with streams, fountains,
hedges of box and myrtle, flowers, cypresses, odori-
ferous plants, and trees groaning under the weight of
icmons, oranges, citrons, and fruit in great variety.
Jt was more like such a scene as magicians are sup-