midnight
They knew it when the pebbles were being made and before the isles of coral were given unto the sea . And thus the prophecy came unto fulfilment and passed into history , and so at length to Oblivion , out of which I drag it as it goes floating by , into which I shall one day tumble . The hippogriffs dance before dawn in the upper air ; long before sunrise flashes upon our lawns they go to glitter in light that has not yet come to the World , and as the dawn works up from the ragged hills and the stars feel it they go slanting earthwards , till sunlight touches the tops of the tallest trees , and the hippogriffs alight with a rattle of quills and fold their wings and gallop and gambol away till they come to some prosperous , wealthy , detestable town , and they leap at once from the fields and soar away from the sight of it , pursued by the horrible smoke of it until they come again to the pure blue air . He whom prophecy had named from of old to come to the City of Never , went down one midnight with his magic halter to a lake-side where the hippogriffs alighted at dawn , for the turf was soft there and they could gallop far before they came to a town , and there he waited hidden near their hoofmarks . And the stars paled a little and grew indistinct ; but there was no other sign as yet of the dawn , when there appeared far up in the deeps of the night two little saffron specks , then four and five : it was the hippogriffs dancing and twirling around in the sun . Another flock joined them , there were twelve of them now ; they danced there , flashing their colours back to the sun , they descended in wide curves slowly ; trees down on earth revealed against the sky , jet-black each delicate twig ; a star disappeared from a cluster , now another ; and dawn came on like music , like a new song . Ducks shot by to the lake from still dark fields of corn , far voices uttered , a colour grew upon water , and still the hippogriffs gloried in the light , revelling up in the sky ; but when pigeons stirred on the branches and the first small bird was abroad , and little coots from the rushes ventured to peer about , then there came down on a sudden with a thunder of feathers the hippogriffs , and , as they landed from their celestial heights all bathed with the day 's first sunlight , the man whose destiny it was as from of old to come to the City of Never , sprang up and caught the last with the magic halter .