PRINCE RICARDO. 221

 

crying them on to besiege and break down the
royal palace. From the battlements of the
palace the king’s guardsmen were firing arrows
and throwing spears. The mob shot arrows
back, some of them tipped with lighted straw,
to burn the palace down.

But, in the very centre of the square, was
a clear space of ground, on which fell
the shadow of a tall column of red stone,
all carved with serpents and faces of gods.
Beside it stood a figure horrible to see: a man
clothed in serpent skins, whose face was the
grinning face of a skull; but the skull was
shining black and red in patches, and a long
white beard flowed from beneath it. This man,
mounted on a kind of altar of red stone,
waved his hand and yelled, and seemed to
point to the shadow of the column which fell
across the square.

The people were so finons and so eager
that they did not, at first, notice King Prigio
as he slowly descended. But at last the eyes
within the skull looked up and saw him, and
then the man gave a great cry, rent his
glittering dress of serpentskin, and held up
his hands.

Then all the multitude looked up, and seeing
the Flying Horse, let their weapons fall; and
the man of the skull tore it from his face, and
knelt before King Prigio, with his head in the
dust.