When they arrived at the other end of the Palace, the gates of bronze
upon the order of the Master were suddenly thrown open, while the mass
behind, lifting their heads from the ground, looked enviously after
them.
'Behold, this is my Treasury,' said the Monarch. 'Look, and have faith
in the extent of my power!'
The young man looked before him. He was standing at the portals of deep
mines of wealth, endlessly extended. Alas! the glowing splendor from the
hills and valleys burned into the blue eyes of the young man; his pupils
rapidly absorbed the molten torrents of gold and silver; circles of
light from amethyst, opal, and emerald, bent like rainbows round the
azure orbs. The subterranean flames roared and crackled; the hills were
shaken to their centre; the caves were heaving in their depths, and
fresh, glittering, golden, diamantine lumps came ever gushing from the
fused and seething mass.
But strange sounds were ever and anon heard amidst the hissing and
sputtering of the boiling metals. Long cries came up as if from men in
the agonies of death; a clatter as of chains sounded from the abyss;
muttered curses; and bent and wretched human figures were seen moving
over swards of diamonds and precious stones, like the dark stains
passing athwart the bright face of the moon. The eye of the Monarch then
flamed with wrath. Sometimes clanging their chains as they moved their
fettered limbs, these melancholy figures raised to him their suppliant
hands, begging with anguished cries for one drop of water, for one
moment of respite to breathe the free air of heaven.
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