As she descended the steps she was followed by Orloff Lossenski and a guard of honour of twelve of her officers, splendidly dressed, and armed to the teeth, who, as soon as they landed, drew their swords, which were now only used as ornamental insignia of rank, and ranged themselves in two lines, one on either side of her. Before the _Revenge_ had alighted the Sultan had made a sign to one of the sentries, who blew a long, clear blast on a silver bugle, which was instantly answered by a hundred others from various parts of the city. At the sound the Moslem metropolis seemed to wake from sleep into universal activity. Thousands of soldiers in brilliant uniforms poured into the empty streets, the Moslem and Russian flags ran up to a thousand flagstaffs, squadron after squadron of aerial cruisers soared up from the earth and saluted with salvoes of artillery, which shook the very firmament and brought Alexis down to within three thousand feet of the palace roof in the belief that Alan and Alma had fallen victims to some treachery, and that the time had come for him to avenge them by laying the city in ruins, as he had promised to do in such an event. A single glance through his field-glasses showed him the true state of affairs, so he contented himself with keeping his crew at quarters with every gun trained on a Russian or a Moslem air-ship and ready to spread death and ruin far and wide should any harm happen to the _Alma_ or her crew. While this was taking place the Sultan’s bodyguard had filed out on to the terrace resplendent with gorgeous uniforms and glittering weapons, and between the two long lines that they formed Khalid advanced to meet his bride, leaving Alan and Alma interested and not unanxious spectators of the strange and unexpected scene. They met half-way down the double line, and as Olga held out the hand over which Khalid bowed low as he raised it to his lips, she said, with a glance of undisguised hate towards Alan and Alma and a mocking smile on her lips-- “Your Majesty’s generosity is unbounded! I see that you have invited to our wedding-feast the only enemies with whom we have yet to measure swords!” “They have not come as enemies, Tsarina,” replied Khalid, as he raised his head and looked with but half-restrained ardour on the beauty that was so soon to be his. “Nor yet have they come at my invitation. Alan Arnold and his wife”-- “His what!” interrupted Olga, her cheeks burning and her eyes flashing with a sudden blaze of uncontrollable anger. “His wife, Tsarina,” replied Khalid, somewhat coldly. “The son of Natasha and Richard Arnold has mated with the daughter of Alan Tremayne, and they have come in the fifth generation to warn you, the daughter of the House of Romanoff, and me, the son of the line of Mohammed Reshad, to cease our warfare upon the nations and prepare for the universal end which, they tell us, is at hand.”