De Vaux spoke in a whisper to the King. "Were it not well, my
liege, to send a page to the top of that sand-bank? Or would it
stand with your pleasure that I prick forward? Methinks, by all
yonder clash and clang, if there be no more than five hundred men
beyond the sand-hills, half of the Soldan's retinue must be
drummers and cymbal-tossers. Shall I spur on?"
The baron had checked his horse with the bit, and was just about
to strike him with the spurs when the King exclaimed, "Not for
the world. Such a caution would express suspicion, and could do
little to prevent surprise, which, however, I apprehend not."
They advanced accordingly in close and firm order till they
surmounted the line of low sand-hills, and came in sight of the
appointed station, when a splendid, but at the same time a
startling, spectacle awaited them.
The Diamond of the Desert, so lately a solitary fountain,
distinguished only amid the waste by solitary groups of palm-trees, was now the centre of an encampment,
the embroidered flags
and gilded ornaments of which glittered far and wide, and
reflected a thousand rich tints against the setting sun.
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