Pagina 213 di 1116

Yet it was furnished with silken stuffs gold starred; and the

hangings were let down over the door ways. In the midst was a

spacious court off which set four open saloons each with its

raised dais, saloon facing saloon; a canopy shaded the court and

in the centre was a jetting fount with four figures of lions made

of red gold, spouting from their mouths water clear as pearls and

diaphanous gems. Round about the palace birds were let loose and

over it stretched a net of golden wire, hindering them from

flying off; in brief there was everything but human beings. The

King marvelled mightily thereat, yet felt he sad at heart for

that he saw no one to give him account of the waste and its tarn,

the fishes, the mountains and the palace itself. Presently as he

sat between the doors in deep thought behold, there came a voice

of lament, as from a heart grief spent and he heard the voice

chanting these verses:-