elleran, and the child said:
'Why did Welleran wear this great red cloak?' And his mother
answered: 'It was the way of Welleran.'

When Rold was a little older he stole out of his mother's house
quite in the middle of the night when all the world was still, and
Merimna asleep dreaming of Welleran, Soorenard, Mommolek, Rollory,
Akanax, and young Iraine. And he went down to the ramparts to hear
the purple guard go by singing of Welleran. And the purple guard
came by with lights, all singing in the stillness, and dark shapes
out in the desert turned and fled. And Rold went back again to his
mother's house with a great yearning towards the name of Welleran,
such as men feel for very holy things.

And in time Rold grew to know the pathway all round the ramparts,
and the six equestrian statues that were there guarding Merimna
still. These statues were not like other statues, they were so
cunningly wrought of many-coloured marbles that none might be quite
sure until very close that they were not living men. There was a
horse of dappled marble, the horse of Akanax. The horse of Rollory
was of alabaster, pure white, his armour was wrought out of a stone
that shone, and his horseman's cloak was made of a blue stone, very
precious. He looked northwards.

But the marble horse of Welleran was pure black, and there sat
Welleran upon him looking solemnly westwards. His horse it was
whose cold neck Rold most loved to stroke, and it was Welleran whom
the watchers at sunset on the mountains the most clearly saw as they
peered towards the city. And Rold loved the red nostrils of the
great black horse and his rider's jasper cloak.

Now beyond the Cyresians the suspicion grew that Merimna's heroes
were dead, and a plan was devised that a man should go by night and
come close to the figures upon the ramparts and see whether they
were Welleran, Soorenard, Mommolek, Rollory, Akanax, and young
Iraine. And all were agreed upon the plan, and many names were
mentioned of those who should go, and the plan matured for many
years. It was during these years that watchers clustered often at
sunset upon the mountains but came no nearer. Finally, a better
plan was made, and it was decided that two men who had been by
chance condemned to death should be given a pardon if they went down
into the plain by night and discovered whether or not Merimna's
heroes lived. At first the two prisoners dared not go, but after a
while one of them, See