At length the advancing heralds of Apollo were seen bounding above the mountains of Damascus,--springing with their gold-imbuing feet from cloud to cloud until they reached the zenith,--when the Sun-God himself appeared and approached from the mighty portals of the East, arrayed in the gorgeous mantle of his eternal throne! There was a moment of calm, breathless intensity,--as before the hurricane;--then arose the loud hosannahs from his Tyrian subjects, now prostrate with adoration;--but they were answered by the terrific and appalling shouts of the ambushed Macedonians! Sudden as the storm-flash, a breathless panic seized the kneeling worshippers;--they were transfixed with fear, surprise, and wonder;--they felt that their ever-faithful Deity had delivered them, bound in his own fetters, to the unsparing foe,--they called aloud for his protection,--but the brow of their God was suddenly shadowed by the clouds of an approaching Tempest, indicating the war of elements as of man;--the voice of supplication was now changed to the wild language of despair,--all was horror and confusion amid the Temples, Palaces, Courts, and Streets of the Metropolis,--the screams and shrieks of women and children, trodden underfoot by the frantic and flying citizens, were unheard amid the demoniac yells of the invaders, which even deadened the sound of the distant and murmuring thunder: and they now in their shouts of approaching triumph applied the battering-engines with every energy and success,--for the ramparts were unmanned, and their desperate assault unchecked. The boldest of the Tyrians, recovering from surprise, now rallied, and snatching up weapons merely of attack (for their persons were defenceless from their festival attire) flew towards the wall, against which the impious attack was so furiously rendered. It was too late,--an upper breach had been made, and the soft stone wall was fast falling beneath the repeated and ponderous blows of the battering engines;--the balistæ and catapultæ were now unmanned and overthrown as being useless, while the giant towers were wheeled and levered toward the breach, which now momentarily increased in width; the several drop-bridges of the towers were instantly lowered upon the battered walls, when the concealed Soldiery, after their first discharge of arrows and javelins, rushed like wolves from their dens upon the devoted sheepfolds! As the towers, galleries, and hive-cells were emptied, they were instantly replaced by swarms of warriors from the camp, the whole of which was now in motion. The hitherto inactive and impatient Cavalry were drawn out and marshalled ready to plunge like fierce dragons within the city, when the crumbling walls should be partially levelled. The bravest of the hardy Tyrians met the first storming party (the forlorn-hope even of ancient days) with dauntless courage, and kept in check, even by their dead bodies, the instant advance of the foe;--the