midnight
The will of Heaven be done to me . So be it , we will go together , but the end of it is not with us . '' Two days had gone by , and at the appointed hour three figures , wrapped in dark cloaks , might have been seen walking swiftly towards the little entrance of the temple fortress . Although it was near to midnight the city was still astir with men , for this very evening news had reached it that Ithobal was advancing at the head of tens of thousands of the warriors of the Tribes . More , it was rumoured freely that within the next few days the siege of Zimboe would begin . Late as it was , the council had been just summoned to the palace of Sakon to consider the conduct of the defence , while in every street stood knots of men engaged in anxious discussion , and from many a smithy rose the sound of armourers at their work . Here marched parties of soldiers of various races , there came long strings of mules laden with dried flesh and grain ; yonder a woman beat her breast , and wept loudly because her three sons had been impressed by order of the council , two of them to serve as archers and the third to carry blocks of stone for the fortifications .