CHAPTER L
ULIX
Damascus! One of the oldest cities of the earth,
and ose of the most beautiful the seat of power,
and the store-house of vast wealth-one of the gar-
dens of the world, where prince and peasant alilke
shared the luxury of fruit and Hower, and where art
vied with nature in grand and pleasurable adorn-
ments. The Damascus of ages long since passed
away
Horam the Childless was King of Damascus He
had passed the age of three-score. His hair and
beard were white, and his once stalwart frame was
bent and weak. But not age alone had best the
form of Horam. Trouble had touched him heavily;
and to drown his trouble he had resorted to dissi-
pation, Oace noble and generous, he had now
become irritable and unjust, and oftentimes cruel.
Bowed and bent, in the evening of life, sat Horam
Pomnis voluptas assumenda
