Once out upon the street again they began to look for another object of interest.

This soon turned up.

Passing through a sort of peristyle they came out into a large court, in the center of which was a large basin. Here no doubt a fountain had once played.

This court had no doubt once been the scene of magnificence. There was every indication of it.

Statues of the nude adorned its circle. These were hardly to be compared with Grecian sculpture, but they represented a very good knowledge of the art.

Instinctively both men pictured the place as it might once have been.

Flowering trees and shrubs, noble palms and trailing vines had once made the spot beautiful.

The sunlight had once glinted in upon these alabaster walls, with their setting of beautiful green. It had given light to a gay assemblage of dark-skinned people, and fell upon the state throne of the king.

For this stood at one end of the court just as it must have stood in those old days. It was a great chair of carven stone, with a canopy over it, or at least the frame where the canopy had once been.

But nothing was left of all this magnificence but the bare walls. These alone were imperishable.