when the purple guard were wont to go back into the city with their
tapers pale and their robes a brighter colour, when the cold
sentinels came shuffling in from dreaming in the desert; it was the
hour when the desert robbers hid themselves away, going back to
their mountain caves; it was the hour when gauze-winged insects are
born that only live for a day; it was the hour when men die that are
condemned to death; and in this hour a great peril, new and
terrible, arose for Merimna and Merimna knew it not.

Then Seejar turning said: 'See how red the dawn is and how red the
spires of Merimna. They are angry with Merimna in Paradise and they
bode its doom.'

So the two spies went back and brought the news to their King, and
for a few days the Kings of those countries were gathering their
armies together; and one evening the armies of four Kings were
massed together at the top of the deep ravine, all crouching below
the summit waiting for the sun to set. All wore resolute and
fearless faces, yet inwardly every man was praying to his gods, unto
each one in turn.

Then the sun set, and it was the hour when the bats and the dark
creatures are abroad and the lions come down from their lairs, and
the desert robbers go into the plains again, and fevers rise up
winged and hot out of chill marshes, and it was the hour when safety
leaves the thrones of Kings, the hour when dynasties change. But in
the desert the purple guard came swinging out of Merimna with their
lights to sing of Welleran, and the sentinels lay down to sleep.

Now into Paradise no sorrow may ever come, but may only beat like