we were being brought in by a private gate , and now we were welcomed out of our little compartments so that we might walk on the grand stairway of gold and glazed brick , through the magnificent veils that separated one giant room from another , and we did , we walked , in silence , my father and i , we walked , following the priest , and they took us into the royal chamber where belshazzar , listening to cases , made a farce of justice every day , and where his wise men told him hour after hour what the stars were saying to them , and we went beyond that into small and fine apartments that i had never seen .