“I have my fine part of the booty, now let us run to help Captain Pog in taking his. Ah, ah!” added he, with a diabolical laugh, as he beheld the bay and the city wrapped in profound stillness, “soon Eblis will shake his wings of fire over that scene. The sky will be in flames, and the waters will run with blood!” Then, as a last precaution, he emptied a tunnel of water on the signal pile, and descended in hot haste to join the pirate vessels. CHAPTER XXIX. CHRISTMAS While so many misfortunes were threatening the city, the inhabitants were quietly keeping Christmas. Notwithstanding the uneasiness the opinion of the watchman had given, notwithstanding the alarm caused by terror of the pirates, in every house, poor or rich, preparations were being made for the patriarchal feast. We have spoken of the magnificent cradle which had long been in course of preparation through the untiring industry of Dame Dulceline. It was at last finished and placed in the hall of the dais, or hall of honour in Maison-Forte. Midnight had just sounded. The woman in charge was impatiently awaiting the return of Raimond V., his daughter, Honorât de Berrol, and other relations and guests whom the baron had invited to the ceremony. All the family and guests had gone to La Ciotat, to be present at the midnight mass. Abbé Mascarolus had said mass in the chapel of the castle for those who had remained at home. We will conduct the reader to the hall of the dais, which occupied two-thirds of the long gallery which communicated with the two wings of the castle. It was never opened except on solemn occasions. A splendid red damask silk covered its walls. To supply the place of flowers, quite rare in that season, masses of green branches, cut from trees and arranged in boxes, hid almost entirely the ten large arched windows of this immense hall. At one end of the hall rose a granite chimneypiece, ten feet high and heavily sculptured. Notwithstanding the season was cold, no fire burned in this vast fireplace, but an immense pile, composed of branches of vine, beech, olive, and fir-apples, only waited the formality of custom to throw waves of light and heat into the grand and stately apartment. Two pine-trees with long green branches ornamented with ribbons, oranges, and bunches of grapes, were set up in boxes on each side of the chimney, and formed above the mantelpiece a veritable thicket of verdure. Six copper chandeliers with lighted yellow wax candles only partially dissipated the darkness of the immense room. At the other end, opposite the chimney, rose the dais, resembling somewhat the canopy of a bed, with curtains, hangings, and cushions of red damask, as were, too, the mantle and gloves, a part of the equipment of office. The red draperies covered, with their long folds, five wooden steps, which were hidden under a rich Turkey carpet.