The carpet—of Saxony
      material—is quite half an inch thick, and is of the same crimson
      ground, relieved simply by the appearance of a gold cord (like that
      festooning the curtains) slightly relieved above the surface of the _ground,
      _and thrown upon it in such a manner as to form a succession of short
      irregular curves—one occasionally overlaying the other. The walls
      are prepared with a glossy paper of a silver gray tint, spotted with small
      Arabesque devices of a fainter hue of the prevalent crimson. Many
      paintings relieve the expanse of paper. These are chiefly landscapes of an
      imaginative cast—such as the fairy grottoes of Stanfield, or the
      lake of the Dismal Swamp of Chapman. There are, nevertheless, three or
      four female heads, of an ethereal beauty-portraits in the manner of Sully. The tone of each picture is warm, but dark. There are no “brilliant
      effects.” _Repose _speaks in all. Not one is of small size. Diminutive paintings give that _spotty _look to a room, which is the
      blemish of so many a fine work of Art overtouched. The frames are broad
      but not deep, and richly carved, without being _dulled _or filagreed. They have the whole lustre of burnished gold. They lie flat on the walls,
      and do not hang off with cords. The designs themselves are often seen to
      better advantage in this latter position, but the general appearance of
      the chamber is injured. But one mirror—and this not a very large one—is
      visible. In shape it is nearly circular—and it is hung so that a
      reflection of the person can be obtained from it in none of the ordinary
      sitting-places of the room. Two large low sofas of rosewood and crimson
      silk, gold-flowered, form the only seats, with the exception of two light
      conversation chairs, also of rose-wood. There is a pianoforte (rose-wood,
      also), without cover, and thrown open. An octagonal table, formed
      altogether of the richest gold-threaded marble, is placed near one of the
      sofas. This is also without cover—the drapery of the curtains has
      been thought sufficient. Four large and gorgeous Sevres vases, in which
      bloom a profusion of sweet and vivid flowers, occupy the slightly rounded
      angles of the room. A tall candelabrum, bearing a small antique lamp with
      highly perfumed oil, is standing near the head of my sleeping friend. Some
      light and graceful hanging shelves, with golden edges and crimson silk
      cords with gold tassels, sustain two or three hundred magnificently bound
      books. Beyond these things, there is no furniture, if we except an Argand
      lamp, with a plain crimson-tinted ground glass shade, which depends from
      He lofty vaulted ceiling by a single slender gold chain, and throws a
      tranquil but magical radiance over all. A TALE OF JERUSALEM


     Intensos rigidam in frontem ascendere canos
     Passus erat——
                    —Lucan—_De Catone_

    ——a bristly _bore_. _Translation._


      “Let us hurry to the walls,” said Abel-Phittim to Buzi-Ben-Levi and Simeon
      the Pharisee, on the tenth day of the month Thammuz, in the year of the
      world three thousand nine hundred and forty-one—“let us hasten to the
      ramparts adjoining the gate of Benjamin, which is in the city of David,
      and overlooking the camp of the uncircumcised; for it is the last hour of
      the fourth watch, being sunrise; and the idolaters, in fulfilment of the
      promise of Pompey, should be awaiting us with the lambs for the
      sacrifices.”


      Simeon, Abel-Phittim, and Duzi-Ben-Levi were the Gizbarim, or
      sub-collectors of the offering, in the holy city of Jerusalem. “Verily,” replied the Pharisee; “let us hasten: for this generosity in the
      heathen is unwonted; and fickle-mindedness has ever been an attribute of
      the worshippers of Baal.”


      “That they are fickle-minded and treacherous is as true as the
      Pentateuch,” said Buzi-Ben-Levi, “but that is only toward the people of
      Adonai. When was it ever known that the Ammonites proved wanting to their
      own interests? Methinks it is no great stretch of generosity to allow us
      lambs for the altar of the Lord, receiving in lieu thereof thirty silver
      shekels per head!”


      “Thou forgettest, however, Ben-Levi,” replied Abel-Phittim, “that the
      Roman Pompey, who is now impiously besieging the city of the Most High,
      has no assurity that we apply not the lambs thus purchased for the altar,
      to the sustenance of the body, rather than of the spirit.”


      “Now, by the five corners of my beard!” shouted the Pharisee, who belonged
      to the sect called The Dashers (that little knot of saints whose manner of
      _dashing _and lacerating the feet against the pavement was long a
      thorn and a reproach to less zealous devotees—a stumbling-block to less
      gifted perambulators)—“by the five corners of that beard which, as a
      priest, I am forbidden to shave!—have we lived to see the day when a
      blaspheming and idolatrous upstart of Rome shall accuse us of
      appropriating to the appetites of the flesh the most holy and consecrated
      elements? Have we lived to see the day when—”

      “Let us not question the motives of the Philistine,” interrupted
      Abel-Phittim, “for to-day we profit for the first time by his avarice or
      by his generosity; but rather let us hurry to the ramparts, lest offerings
      should be wanting for that altar whose fire the rains of heaven can not
      extinguish, and whose pillars of smoke no tempest can turn aside.”


      That part of the city to which our worthy Gizbarim now hastened, and which
      bore the name of its architect, King David, was esteemed the most strongly
      fortified district of Jerusalem; being situated upon the steep and lofty
      hill of Zion. Here, a broad, deep, circumvallatory trench, hewn from the
      solid rock, was defended by a wall of great strength erected upon its
      inner edge. This wall was adorned, at regular interspaces, by square
      towers of white marble; the lowest sixty, and the highest one hundred and
      twenty cubits in height. But, in the vicinity of the gate of Benjamin, the
      wall arose by no means from the margin of the fosse. On the contrary,
      between the level of the ditch and the basement of the rampart sprang up a
      perpendicular cliff of two hundred and fifty cubits, forming part of the
      precipitous Mount Moriah.