noon
The whole line moved down on them , horsemen and soldiers and people . The city was saved from the Red Plague , and the people , gone mad with joy , would have carried Cumner 's Son to the Palace on their shoulders , but he walked beside the beggar to his father 's house , hillsmen in front and English soldiers behind ; and wasted and ghostly , from riding and fighting and watching , he threw himself upon the bed in his own room , and passed , as an eyelid blinks , into a deep sleep . But the beggar sat down on a mat with a loaf of bread , a bowl of goat 's milk , and a long cigar which McDermot gave him , and he received idly all who came , even to the sick man , who ere the day was done was brought to the Residency , and , out of danger and in his right mind , lay in the shade of a banyan tree , thinking of nothing save the joy of living . It was noon again . In the Hall of the Heavenly Hours all the chiefs and great people of the land were gathered , and in the Palace yard without were thousands of the people of the Bazaars and the one-storied houses . The Bazaars were almost empty , the streets deserted . Yet silken banners of gorgeous colours flew above the pink terraces , and the call of the silver horn of Mandakan , which was made first when Tubal Cain was young , rang through the long vacant avenues .