At this spot Alan noted that everybody left them except the bearers and a few men whom he took to be priests.

On they stole like ghosts beneath the mighty trees, from whose limbs hung long festoons of moss.

It was very dark there, only in places where a bough was broken the moonlight lay in white gules upon the ground.

Another wall and another gate, and suddenly the litter was set down.

Its curtains opened, torches flashed, women appeared clad in white robes, veiled and mysterious, who bowed before him, then half led and half lifted him from his litter.