noon
She had fortified herself and resisted the great invasion of the Rebu . Her generals had done battle with him and brought him home , chained to their chariots . And after the festivities in celebration of her prowess , she laid down pike and falchion , bull-hide shield and helmet , and took up the chisel and brush , the spindle and loom once more . The heavy drowsiness of a mid-winter noon had depopulated her booths and bazaars and quieted the quaint traffic of her squares . In the shadows of the city her porters drowsed , and from the continuous wall of houses blankly facing one another from either side of the streets , there came no sound . Each household sought the breezes on the balconies that galleried the inner walls of the courts , or upon the pillared and canopied housetops . Memphis had eaten and drunk and , sheltered behind her screens , waited for the noon to pass .