And lo! in about an hour the doors
were opened, and through one larger than the rest, on the western side,
he was seen to enter in stately procession. His inferior counsellors
went before him, after them his privy-counsellors, and next the chief
officers belonging to the court; in the middle of these was the prince;
after him followed courtiers of various ranks, and lastly the guards; in
all they amounted to a hundred and twenty. Then the angel, advancing
before the ten strangers, who by their dress now appeared like inmates
of the place, approached with them towards the prince, and reverently
introduced them to his notice; and the prince, without stopping the
procession, said to them, "Come and dine with me." So they followed him
into the dining-hall, where they saw a table magnificently set out,
having in the middle a tall golden pyramid with a hundred branches in
three rows, each branch having a small dish, or basket, containing a
variety of sweetmeats and preserves, with other delicacies made of bread
and wine; and through the middle of the pyramid there issued as it were
a bubbling fountain of nectareous wine, the stream of which, falling
from the summit of the pyramid separated into different channels and
filled the cups.
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