Every eye was instantly turned toward the stately pillar of white granite that sparkled in the sunlight like an immense carven jewel, ... great Heaven! ...  It was tottering to and fro like the unsteadied mast of a ship at sea! ...  One look sufficed,—­and a frightful panic ensued—­a horrible, brutish stampede of creatures without faith in anything human or divine save their own wretched personalities,—­the King, infected by the general scare, urged his horses into furious gallop, and dashed through the cursing, swearing, howling throng like an embodied whirlwind,—­and for a few seconds nothing seemed distinctly visible But a surging mass of infuriated humanity, fighting with itself for life.

Theos alone remained singularly calm,—­his sole consideration was for his friend Sah-luma, whom he entwined with one arm as he sprang down from the position they had hitherto occupied on the brink of the fountain, and made straight for the nearest of the six broad avenues that opened directly into the Square.  Sah-luma looked pale, but was apparently unafraid,—­he said nothing, and passively allowed himself to be piloted by Theos through the madly raging multitude, which, oddly enough, parted before them like mist before the wind, so that in a magically short interval they successfully reached a place of safety.

And they reached it not a moment too soon.  For the Obelisk was now plainly to be seen lurching forward at an angle of several degrees, . . strange muffled, roaring sounds were heard at its base, as though demons were digging up its foundations, . . then, seemingly shaken by underground tremors, it began to oscillate violently,—­a terrific explosion was heard as of the bursting of a giant bomb,—­and immediately afterward the majestic monolith toppled over and fell!—­with the crash of a colossal cannonade that sent its thunderous reverberations through and through the length and breadth of the city!  Hundreds of persons were killed and wounded,—­many of the mounted guards and spearmen, who were striving to force a way of escape through the crowd, were struck down and crushed pell-mell with their horses as they rode,—­the desperate people trampled each other to death in their frenzied efforts to reach the nearest outlet to the river embankment, . . but when once the Obelisk had actually fallen, all this turmoil was for an instant checked, and the gasping, torn, and bleeding survivors of the struggle stopped, as it were to take breath, and stared in blank dismay upon the strange ruin before them.

Theos, still holding Sah-luma by the arm, with the protecting fondness of an elder brother guarding a younger, gazed also at the scene with quiet, sorrowfully wondering eyes.  For it meant something to him he was sure, because it was so familiar,—­yet he found it impossible to grasp the comprehension of that meaning!  It was a singular spectacle enough; the lofty four-sided white pillar, that had so lately been a monumental glory of Al-Kyris, had