"Sardathrion, Sardathrion, and is Sardathrion gone?"

And furtively Time looked him in the face and edged towards him
fingering with his dripping fingers the hilt of his nimble sword.

Then the gods feared with a new fear that he that had overthrown Their
city would one day slay the gods. And a new cry went wailing through
the Twilight, the lament of the gods for Their dream city, crying:

"Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.

"But this the gods may do who have seen, and seen with unrelenting
eyes, the sorrows of ten thousand worlds--thy gods may weep for thee.

"Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.

"Believe it not, Sardathrion, that ever thy gods sent this doom to
thee; he that hath overthrown thee shall overthrow thy gods.

"How oft when Night came suddenly on Morning playing in the fields of
Twilight did we watch thy pinnacles emerging from the darkness,
Sardathrion, Sardathrion, dream city of the gods, and thine onyx lions
looming limb by limb from the dusk.

"How often have we sent our child the Dawn to play with thy fountain
tops; how often hath Evening, loveliest of our goddesses, strayed long
upon thy balconies.

"Let one fragment of thy marbles stand up above the dust for thine old
gods to caress, as a man when all else is lost treasures one lock of