He had however no time to analyze his emotion,—­for just then the Herald-in-Waiting, having performed a backward evolution from the throne to the threshold of the audience-chamber, beckoned impatiently to Sah-luma, who at once stepped forward, bidding Theos keep close behind him.  The harp-bearer followed, . . and thus all three approached the dais where the King still stood erect, awaiting them.  Zabastes the Critic glided in also, almost unnoticed, and joined a group of courtiers at the furthest end of the long, gorgeously lighted room, while at sight of the Laureate the assembled officers saluted, and all conversation ceased.  At the foot of the throne Sah-luma paused, but made no obeisance,—­ raising his glorious eyes to the monarch’s face he smiled,—­and Theos beheld with amazement, that here it was not the Poet who reverenced the King, but the King who reverenced the Poet!

What a strange state of things! he thought,—­especially when the mighty Zephoranim actually descended three steps of his flower-strewn dais, and grasping Sah-luma’s hands raised them to his lips with all the humility of a splendid savage paying homage to his intellectual conqueror!  It was a scene Theos was destined never to forget, and he gazed upon it as one gazes on a magnificently painted picture, wherein two central figures fascinate and most profoundly impress the beholder’s imagination.  He heard, with a vague sense of mingled pleasure and sadness, the deep, mellow tones of the monarch’s voice vibrating through the silence, ... .

“Welcome, my Sah-luma!—­Welcome at all times, but chiefly welcome when the heart is weighted by care!  I have thought of thee all day, believe me! ... aye, since early dawn, when on my way to the chase I heard in the depths of the forest a happy nightingale singing, and deemed thy voice had taken bird-shape and followed me!  And that I sent for thee in haste, blame me not!—­as well blame the desert athirst for rain, or the hungry heart agape for love to come and fill it!” Here his restless eye flashed on Theos, who stood quietly behind Sah-luma, passive, yet expectant of he knew not what.

“Whom hast thou there? ...  A friend?” This as Sah-luma apparently explained something in a low tone, ...  “He is welcome also for thy sake”—­and he extended one hand, on which a great ruby signet burned like a red star, to Theos, who, bending over it, kissed it with the grave courtesy he fancied due to kings.  Zephoranim appeared good-naturedly surprised at this action, and eyed him somewhat scrutinizingly as he said:  “Thou art not of Sah-luma’s divine calling assuredly, fair sir, else thou wouldst hardly stoop to a mere crowned head like mine!  Soldiers and statesmen may bend the knee to their chosen rulers, but to whom shall poets bend?  They, who with arrowy lines cause thrones to totter and fall,—­ they, who with deathless utterance brand with infamy or hallow with honor the most potent names of kings and emperors,—­they by whom alone a nation lives in the annals of the future,—­what homage do such elect gods owe to the passing holders of one or more earthly sceptres?  Thou art too humble, methinks, for the minstrel-vocation,—­dost call thyself a Minstrel? or a student of the art of song?”