9 - Some Account of the Palace of Jupiter

So dazzled was I by all that went on about me, by the gorgeousness of
my equipage and by the extraordinary richness of the costumes worn by
my escort, that for the moment I forgot that I was not myself clad in
suitable garments for so ultra-royal a function. The streets, the
houses, even the throngs that peopled the way, seemed to be of the
most lustrous gold, and it became necessary for me from time to time
as we progressed to close my eyes and shut out the too brilliant
vision. Fancy a bake-shop built of solid gold nuggets, its large plate
windows composed each of one huge, flashing diamond; imagine an
exquisitely wrought golden drug-store, whose colored jars in the
windows are made of rubies, emeralds, and sapphires; conjure up in
your mind's eye a sequence of city blocks whose sides are lined by
massive and exquisitely proportioned buildings, every inch of whose
fa�ade was fashioned, not by stone-cutters and sculptors, but by
goldsmiths, whose genius a Cellini might envy; picture to yourself a
street paved with golden asphalt, and a sidewalk built from huge slabs
of rolled silver, the curb and gutters being of burnished copper, and
you'll gain some idea of the thoroughfare along which I passed. And
oh, the music that the band gave forth to which the populace timed
their huzzas--I nearly went mad with the seductiveness of it all. If
it hadn't been for the ache the brilliance of it gave to my eyes, I
really think I should have swooned.

And then we came to the palace grounds. These, I must confess, I found
far from pleasing, for even as the avenue along which I had passed was
all gold and silver and gems, so too was the park, in the heart of
which stood Jupiter's own apartments made of similar stuff. The trees
were golden, and the leaves rustling in the breeze, catching and
reflecting the light of the sun, were blinding. The soft greenness of
the earthly grass was superseded by the glistening yellow of golden
spears, and here and there, where a drop of dew would have fallen,
were diamonds of purest ray. The paths were of silken rugs of richest
texture, and the palace, as it burst upon my vision, fashioned out of
undreamed-of blocks of onyx, resembled more a massive opal filled
with flashing, living, fire, than the mere home of a splendid royalty.

I was glad when the procession stopped before the gorgeous entrance to
the palace. Another minute of such splendor would have blinded me. A
fanfare of trumpets sounded, and I descended, so dizzy with what I had
seen that, as my feet touched the ground, I staggered like a drunken
man, and then I heard my name sounded and passed from one flunky to
another up the magnificent staircase into the blue haze of the
hallway, and gradually sounding fainter and