I looked, and at my feet great pillars lay. I cried aloud for joy to God, “The marble blossoms!” God said, “Ay, ‘twas a fairy house. There has not been one like to it, nor ever shall be. The pillars and the porticoes blossomed; and the wine cups were as gathered flowers: on this side all the curtain was broidered with fair designs, the stitching was of gold.” I said to God, “How came it that it fell?” God said, “On the side of the wine-press it was dark.” And as we travelled, we came where lay a mighty ridge of sand, and a dark river ran there; and there rose two vast mounds. I said to God, “They are very mighty.” God said, “Ay, exceeding great.” And I listened. God asked me what I was listening to. And I said, “A sound of weeping, and I hear the sound of strokes, but I cannot tell whence it comes.” God said, “It is the echo of the wine-press lingering still among the coping-stones upon the mounds. A banquet-house stood here.” And he called me to come further. Upon a barren hill-side, where the soil was arid, God called me to stand still. And I looked around. God said, “There was a feasting-house here once upon a time.” I said to God, “I see no mark of any!” God said, “There was not left one stone upon another that has not been thrown down.” And I looked round; and on the hill-side was a lonely grave. I said to God, “What lies there?” He said, “A vine truss, bruised in the wine-press!” And at the head of the grave stood a cross, and on its foot lay a crown of thorns. And as I turned to go, I looked backward. The wine-press and the banquet-house were gone; but the grave yet stood. And when I came to the edge of a long ridge there opened out before me a wide plain of sand. And when I looked downward I saw great stones lie shattered; and the desert sand had half covered them over. I said to God, “There is writing on them, but I cannot read it.” And God blew aside the desert sand, and I read the writing: “Weighed in the balance, and found--” but the last word was wanting. And I said to God, “It was a banquet-house?” God said, “Ay, a banquet-house.” I said, “There was a wine-press here?” God said, “There was a wine-press.” I asked no further question. I was very weary; I shaded my eyes with my hand, and looked through the pink evening light. Far off, across the sand, I saw two figures standing. With wings upfolded high above their heads, and stern faces set, neither man nor beast, they looked out across the desert sand, watching, watching, watching! I did not ask God what they were, for I knew what the answer would be. And, further and yet further, in the evening light, I looked with my shaded eyes. Far off, where the sands were thick and heavy, I saw a solitary pillar standing: the crown had fallen, and the sand had buried it. On the broken pillar sat a grey owl-of-the-desert, with folded wings; and in the evening light I saw the desert fox creep past it, trailing his brush across the sand.