THE SWORD OF WELLERAN AND OTHER STORIES

By Lord Dunsany

Author of "Time and the Gods," etc.



DEDICATED

with deep gratitude to those few, known to me or unknown,
who have cared for either of my former books, "The Gods of
Pegana," "Time and the Gods."




The Sword of Welleran

Where the great plain of Tarphet runs up, as the sea in estuaries,
among the Cyresian mountains, there stood long since the city of
Merimna well-nigh among the shadows of the crags. I have never seen
a city in the world so beautiful as Merimna seemed to me when first
I dreamed of it. It was a marvel of spires and figures of bronze,
and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad
streets given over wholly to the Beautiful. Right through the
centre of the city there went an avenue fifty strides in width, and
along each side of it stood likenesses in bronze of the Kings of all
the countries that the people of Merimna had ever known. At the end
of that avenue was a colossal chariot with three bronze horses