midnight
Earth shall complain of floods red and deep , When I weep ! Upon that she ran up a secret passage to her chamber and rubbed the Jewel , and called the serpents , to delight her soul with the sight of her power , and rolled and sported madly among them , clutching them by the necks till their thin little red tongues hung out , and their eyes were as discoloured blisters of venom . Then she arose , and her arms and neck and lips were glazed with the slime of the serpents , and she flung off her robes to the close-fitting silken inner vest looped across her bosom with pearls , and whirled in a mazy dance-measure among them , and sang melancholy melodies , making them delirious , fascinating them ; and they followed her round and round , in twines and twists and curves , with arched heads and stiffened tails ; and the chamber swam like an undulating sea of shifting sapphire lit by the moon of midnight . Not before the moon of midnight was in the sky ceased Bhanavar sporting with the serpents , and she sank to sleep exhausted in their midst . Such was the occupation of the Queen of Mashalleed when he came not to her . The women and slaves of the palace dreaded her , and the King himself was her very slave . Meanwhile the plot of her unforgivingness against Aswarak ripened : and the Vizier beholding the bride he had lost Queen of Mashalleed his master , it was as she conceived , that his heart was eaten with jealousy and fierce rage .