We entered at length the vestibule through a line of soldiers, and passed to the right of a Chinese screen of painted glass, into the presence of his majesty. There lay prostrate, or rather on all fours resting on their knees and elbows, with hands united and head bowed low, all the princes and nobility of the land: it was an impressive but an abasing sight, such as no freeman could look on, with any other feelings than those of indignation and disgust. We halted in front of the presents which were delivered the day previous, being piles of silks, rich fillagreed silver baskets, elegant gold watches studded with large pearls: they were well disposed to make a show. Having gone through the first ceremony of bowing, we sat down on a carpet: on our being seated the prostrate slaves around us (being the great men of the land) bowed simultaneously three times to the ground, in a slow solemn manner, and we joined in the ceremony as had been previously agreed upon. The king was seated under a canopy, in the Asiatic style, on a cushion of red silk velvet, on the lower and more advanced of the two thrones, which occupied the upper end of the apartment: this was a square seat raised some half dozen feet from the floor. Every thing was blazing in gold, in and about the two thrones: the larger and unoccupied one was of an hexagonal shape, and resembled a church pulpit, so that the king’s person when seated in it, can be visible only through the open spaces, in the form of Gothic windows, about four feet in height by one and a half and two in width. One of these windows is in front, and one on each side of the throne. A pair of curtains of gold cloth formed a partition between him and several individuals of the royal family, who lay crouching just without, on separate carpets, leaving a wide open space between the throne and the two interpreters, who were midway of the hall. Before the curtain and on either side, were eight or ten umbrellas of various sizes: these consist of a series of canopies of eight or ten tiers, decreasing in size upward.