the sun at noon
They had taken the _ San José _ and sunk the caravels , they had sacked the pearl-towns and Nueva Cordoba , they had gathered laurels for themselves and England . For the fortress , they deemed that they might yet drain it of hoarded treasure . The poison of the land and time had touched them . The wind sang to them of conquest ; morn and eve , the sun at noon , and at night the phosphorescent sea , were of the color of gold , and the stars spoke of Fame . The great mountains also , to the south , -- how might the eye leap from height to height and the soul not stir ? In Time 's hornbook ambition is an early lesson , and these scholars had conned it well . Of all that force , scarce one simple soldier or mariner in whom expectation ran not riot , while the gentlemen adventurers in whose company were to sup De Guardiola and his ten cavaliers saw that all things might be done with ease and that evil chances lurked not for them .