The King's Talisman — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~~ THE KINGS TALISMAN. | 19 all its associations and connections, as did this entrance to the famed city of Petra. Its width was not more than suf- ficient for the passage of two horsemen abreast, while on the sides arose the perpendicular walls of rocks, from four to seven hundred feet high, which in many places actually met at the top, thus forming a gigantic cavern which for- ever excluded the rays of the sun, and which, at the same time, served as a vast continuation of temples, tombs, and dwellings, cut and hewn out of the solid rock. For two miles this path descended toward the city, while the rock on either hand proportionately increased in height; but when, at length, the pass was cleared, the scene that burst upon the eye almost beggared description. Golden towers and silver domes basked in the light; temples, monuments, and obelisks arose in towering grandeur on every hand, while seated in the midst of the vast city, like a crystal amidst the sparkling sands, stood the royal palace. Splen- did indeed was this vast emporium of Hastern wealth and grandeur, and mighty was the monarch who ruled over her destinies, however much he might have abused the power that had fallen upon his shoulders. Eomichooks: co m