"Where is the axe and the block?"
"Here, Sire!"
A score of men bearing broad, gleaming axes, with thrice a score of others, bearing, each three, a blood-red enamelled block, came forward into the centre of the square.
"Take those two drivelling prophets, and behead them!" cried Apleon.
A thousand hands were stretched towards the witnesses. This time they were readily taken. Their bodies were dragged to the blocks, and with one stroke to each, they were beheaded.
With a shout of triumph, that spread far and wide, the people acclaimed Apleon as "God Almighty."
"Let no man touch that carrion, to bury it!"
Was the order of Apleon.
That was to be doubly his hour of triumph. All arrangements had been made for his official coronation. An immense awning of purple and gold silk, was stretched over the whole of "The Broadway."
The time occupied in stretching the whole thing was not more than sixty seconds. A throne of Ivory, Pearl, and gold was set in the centre of the pavement, beneath the awning. Everything was done with the rapidity of a stage-setting in a theatre—it was all very theatrical!