Having at length contrived to make our way through this crowd of worshippers, for such they must have been, we left the Palace far behind us in a few minutes, and escaped from the noise and even danger which were the present characteristics of its vicinity. Our sturdy boatmen, bending to their oars, soon brought us opposite to the dwelling of the bride, whose whole extent was bright with festooned fires; but my spirit had begun to weary with the perpetual glare, and I rejoiced when we struck out once more into the middle of the channel, and running under the shore of Asia, whose infrequent lights at this point of the stream rather relieved than pained the eye, left far behind us the clamorous merriment of the crowd. We had the moon high above us; the pale and placid moon, which had for many nights been mocked by a radiance more dazzling than her own; while the myriad stars that were twinkling their silver eyes as if in wonder at the scene beneath them, were reflected in the clear water as in a mirror. It was a heavenly night; and as we glided slowly along under the Asian mountains, the song of a hundred nightingales came to us from the groves and gardens of the coast. The transition was extraordinary; and, after the excitement, the hurry, and the exertion of the previous day, the quiet of the hour fell upon me like a happy dream; and I remember that I shed tears as I lay back upon my cushions, and looked upwards to the calm moon, and listened to the thrilling melody of the midnight woods, and felt the soft wind fanning the hair upon my brow; but they were tears in which there was no bitterness; an outpouring of the wearied spirit that relieved its weight; and when we once more became entangled in the floating crowd, and dashed forward into the blinding light of the fire-girt Palaces, the heart-laugh which went ringing over the ripple might sometimes have been traced to me. The mere worldling will sneer at this admission; but those whose misfortune it is to feel deeply will understand the seeming inconsistency. The sixth day was fixed upon for the Ambassadorial Banquet, where the representatives of the Mighty Ones of the Earth were to feast together at the board of the Brother of the Sun, and Emperor of the World. A table, well-appointed in the European style, had been prepared; and the banquetting tent was neatly fitted up with draperies and mirrors.