Here he turned aside out of the main thoroughfare,--there were tall, shady trees all about, and fantastically carved benches underneath them, ... he determined to sit down and rest, and steadily THINK OUT his involved and peculiar condition of mind.
As he passed the sculptured lion, he saw certain words engraved on the shield it held,--they were ... "THROUGH THE LION AND THE SERPENT SHALL AL-KYRIS FLOURISH."
There was no disorder in his intelligence concerning this sentence,--he was able to read it clearly and comprehensively, ... and yet ... WHAT was the language in which it was written, and how did he come to know it so thoroughly? ... With a sigh that was almost a groan, he sank listlessly on a seat, and burying his head in his hands to shut out all the strange sights which so direfully perplexed his reason, he began to subject himself to a patient, serious cross-examination.
In the first place ... WHO WAS HE? Part of the required answer came readily,--THEOS. Theos what? His brain refused to clear up this point,--it repeated THEOS--THEOS,--over and over again, but no more!
Shuddering with a vague dread, he asked himself the next question, ... FROM WHENCE HAD HE COME? The reply was direct and decisive-- FROM ARDATH.
But what was ARDATH? It was neither a country nor a city--it was a "waste field," where he had seen. ... ah! WHOM had he seen? He struggled furiously with himself for some response to this, ... none came! Total dumb blankness was the sole result of the inward rack to which he subjected his thoughts!
And where had he been before he ever saw Ardath? ... had he NO recollection of any other place, any other surroundings?-- ABSOLUTELY NONE!--torture his wits as he would,--ABSOLUTELY NONE! ... This was frightful ... incredible! ... Surely, surely, he mused piteously, there must have been something in his life before the name of "Ardath" had swamped his intelligence! ...
He lifted his head, ... his face had grown ashen gray and rigid in the deep extremity of his speechless trouble and terror,--there was a sick faintness at his heart, and rising, he moved unsteadily to one of the great fountains, and there dipping his hands in the spray, he dashed some drops on his brow and eyes. Then, making a cup of the hollowed palms, he drank thirstily several draughts of the cool, sweet water,--it seemed to allay the fever in his blood. ...
He looked around him with a wild, vague smile,--Al-Kyris! ... of course! ... he was in Al-Kyris!--why was he so distressed about it? It was a pleasant city,--there was much to see,--and also much to learn! ... At that instant a loud blast of silver-toned trumpets split the air, followed by a storm-roar of distant acclamation surging up from thousands of throats,--crowds of men and women suddenly flocked into the Square, across it, and out of it again, all pressing impetuously in one direction,--and urged forward by the general rush as well as by a corresponding impulse within himself, he flung all meditation to the winds, and plunged recklessly into the shouting, onsweeping throng. He was borne swiftly with it down a broad avenue lined with grand old trees and decked with flying flags and streamers, to the margin of a noble river, as still as liquid amber in the wide sheen and heat of the noonday sun. A splendid marble embankment, adorned with colossal statues, girdled it on both sides,--and here, under silken awnings of every color, pattern and design, an enormous multitude was assembled,--its white attired, closely packed ranks stretching far away into the blue distance on either hand.