The floor was a mosaic of multicolored stones, formed
into large symmetrical designs. The walls were covered with a
similar mosaic, arranged in panels, Pompeiian allegories, Byzantine
compositions, frescoes of the Middle Ages. A Bacchus bestriding a
cask. An emperor wearing a gold crown, a flowing beard, and
holding a sword in his right hand.
Quite high, after the style of an artist's studio, there was a
large window--the only one in the room. That window being always
open at night, it was probable that the men had entered through it,
by the aid of a ladder. But, again, there was no evidence. The
bottom of the ladder would have left some marks in the soft earth
beneath the window; but there were none. Nor were there any traces
of footsteps in any part of the yard.
I had no idea of informing the police, because the facts I had
before me were so absurd and inconsistent. They would laugh at me.
However, as I was then a reporter on the staff of the `Gil Blas,' I
wrote a lengthy account of my adventure and it was published in the
paper on the second day thereafter. The article attracted some
attention, but no one took it seriously. They regarded it as a
work of fiction rather than a story of real life.
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