Wondering greatly, but feeling much relieved, Rachel watched the slaves as very carefully they set down the litter close to a throne-like seat, covered with silken pillows. The arms of the chair she noticed, were two-winged bulls in stone, and the back of it shone with enamelled tiles and plates of gold. The maidens now surrounded their mistress, helping her to rise from the litter, and, as she sank into the great chair, Rachel gazed at her wonderful robe, made of stuff like gossamer, clasped with a great jewel at the waist. Her slim, olive-coloured feet were bare, and, to Rachel’s amazement, she saw the gleam of emeralds in rings upon her toes! On her bare arms and neck there were jewels, also, and there were emeralds in the fillet that bound her beautiful black hair. Never had Rachel ever dreamt of such a vision! Never indeed could she have imagined such luxury and magnificence as she had seen since she entered Babylon. “It’s like—like the stories in the Arabian Nights,” she thought, confusedly. Presently the queen spoke in that language which sounded strange to her ears, but which with her _mind_ she somehow understood quite well. “Listen! One can hear the singing from the Temple of Belus.” “To-day is a high festival. They offer sacrifices to the God,” answered one of her maidens. “There has been great stir in the city since sunrise.” “But when the darkness falls there will be silence, and the wise men on the topmost tower will watch the stars.” Queen Amytis said this as though to herself. Her great dark eyes were fixed upon the shining city below, and Rachel thought she looked sad and anxious. “The most high God will protect our lord the king on his perilous journey,” one of her maidens declared consolingly. “And the wise men will surely learn good tidings from the stars,” added another. The queen did not reply, and Rachel looked enquiringly at Salome, who was lying full length on a great tiger-skin stretched in front of her mistress’s chair. “Sit near me,” said the little maid, making room for her. “No one else sees or hears you. What is it you would ask?” “Tell me about the temple,” whispered Rachel. “That temple of Belus.” She could see it very distinctly from where she sat, a wonderful building with a number of storeys piled up one above the other, each storey covered with glazed tiles of a colour different from that above and below. “It is the Tower of the Seven Planets—the Temple of Belus, who is the God of our city,” Salome told her. “Our great king has lately built it where once stood, so they say, the Tower of Babel.” “The Tower of Babel? That’s in the Bible!” But a glance at Salome’s face showed her that she didn’t know anything about the Bible—and she remembered that the gods Salome and all the people here worshipped were those the Bible called “false gods.”