Jun 06, 2006

sultan

1. A ruler of a Muslim country, especially of the former Ottoman Empire.

2. A powerful person: a sultan of vice and corruption.

would rouse up and take the reins of government and threaten to be a sultan

pageants

1.	pageant - an elaborate representation of scenes from history etc; usually involves a parade with rich costumes pageantry representation - an activity that stands as an equivalent of something or results in an equivalent
	2.	pageant - a rich and

The Patriarch of Jerusalem stood under them in the old days of chivalry and romance, and preached the third Crusade, more than six hundred years ago; and since that day they have stood there and looked quietly down upon the most thrilling scenes, the grandest pageants, the most extraordinary spectacles that have grieved or delighted Paris.

batter

1. To hit heavily and repeatedly with violent blows.

2. To subject to repeated beatings or physical abuse.

3. To damage, as by heavy wear.

carnage

1. Massive slaughter, as in war; a massacre.

2. Corpses, especially of those killed in battle.

These battered and broken-nosed old fellows saw many and many a cavalcade of mail-clad knights come marching home from Holy Land; they heard the bells above them toll the signal for the St. Bartholomew's Massacre, and they saw the slaughter that followed; later they saw the Reign of Terror, the carnage of the Revolution, the overthrow of a king, the coronation of two Napoleons, the christening of the young prince that lords it over a regiment of servants in the Tuileries to-day -- and they may possibly continue to stand there until they see the Napoleon dynasty swept away and the banners of a great republic floating above its ruins.