midnight
At Baghistan , among the rich gardens watered by fountains from the rock , he looked up at the mountain thrusting its immense rugged brow out over the road , and saw the figure of King Darius trampling upon his fallen foes , and the proud list of his wars and conquests graven high upon the face of the eternal cliff . Over many a cold and desolate pass , crawling painfully across the wind-swept shoulders of the hills ; down many a black mountain-gorge , where the river roared and raced before him like a savage guide ; across many a smiling vale , with terraces of yellow limestone full of vines and fruit-trees ; through the oak-groves of Carine and the dark Gates of Zagros , walled in by precipices ; into the ancient city of Chala , where the people of Samaria had been kept in captivity long ago ; and out again by the mighty portal , riven through the encircling hills , where he saw the image of the High Priest of the Magi sculptured on the wall of rock , with hand uplifted as if to bless the centuries of pilgrims ; past the entrance of the narrow defile , filled from end to end with orchards of peaches and figs , through which the river Gyndes foamed down to meet him ; over the broad rice-fields , where the autumnal vapours spread their deathly mists ; following along the course of the river , under tremulous shadows of poplar and tamarind , among the lower hills ; and out upon the flat plain , where the road ran straight as an arrow through the stubble-fields and parched meadows ; past the city of Ctesiphon , where the Parthian emperors reigned , and the vast metropolis of Seleucia which Alexander built ; across the swirling floods of Tigris and the many channels of Euphrates , flowing yellow through the corn-lands -- Artaban pressed onward until he arrived , at nightfall of the tenth day , beneath the shattered walls of populous Babylon . Vasda was almost spent , and he would gladly have turned into the city to find rest and refreshment for himself and for her . But he knew that it was three hours ' journey yet to the Temple of the Seven Spheres , and he must reach the place by midnight if he would find his comrades waiting . So he did not halt , but rode steadily across the stubble-fields . A grove of date-palms made an island of gloom in the pale yellow sea . As she passed into the shadow Vasda slackened her pace , and began to pick her way more carefully .