| Manservants of the Warlord dressed in bright red, the color of life, carried a scarlet sedan chair draped in crimson silk and embroidered with designs of phoenixes. |
| They reached the great doors of the palace and she threw them open before the menservants could even move to do so for her. |
| She had been beautiful, once, for a peasant, though she'd never gotten married, even to one of the menservants. |
| William and his father had been received by Campbell and some other menservants and relieved of their coats. |
