“But where? Why? Do explain all about it,” cried Rachel, eagerly.
“Would you see the monument itself of which these columns, these statues, these poor broken things are but the fragments?”
“Oh, yes!” returned the children, both together. They glanced at one another rapturously, for evidently this adventure was to be continued.
“Your wish shall be granted,” said the lovely creature. “But first, that you may gaze upon one of the Wonders of the World with greater interest, look round you and behold, here, where you stand, the poor scattered remains of its beauty.... Take note of those statues facing you, for defaced, disfigured as they are, they represent a famous king and queen.”
The children looked up obediently at two gigantic statues of a man and a woman, both clad in robes beautifully draped, who stood side by side on a great block of stone. Scarcely anything was left of the woman’s face, though the head of the man was almost perfect.
“You behold Queen Artemisia and King Mausolus,” said their new friend. “Now turn and regard that pillar behind you.”
The children looked in the required direction and saw, flooded in moonlight, a tall, beautifully fluted column, to which was attached a piece of broken ceiling.
“That was once part of the monument you shall presently see as it looked in its first beauty,” he continued. “Come, mount upon my back. We tarry too long in this narrow place where there is scarce room to move, encumbered as it is by these fragments of the past. Let us away to sunshine and blue sky!”
THEY HAD A GLIMPSE OF THE CITY