"You would," he answered, "if you were old yourself; if you had outlived all that made life worth having--your wife, and others you love, your ambitions, your hopes. _Then_ does the soul grow weary, and restless as well; it is like unto a bird that is caged whose time for migration has come. It will either fret or pine itself to death, or beat itself to death against the bars of its cage. Only two things can then keep the soul from taking its flight; the _will_ to live to complete some unfinished work, or a delight in a worldly, wicked life. A nature superlatively evil, like Coryon's, may enable its possessor to live on and on for an indefinite time; where better men take the 'falloa' and die. Or a man, not himself enamoured of life upon this earth, may exert his _will_ to carry out to its end some great work to benefit his fellow-creatures, and he too may keep the 'falloa' at arm's length for an unusually long period. In other words, the 'falloa' is a form of melancholia, of weariness with the world, of an inward sense that life's work is completed. It is the result of that feeling that we are told took possession at last even of him who has been called the Wise Man of the World--King Solomon--whose wisdom and riches and power only brought him to the same point I have indicated--that at which the soul declares that all earthly things are but vanity." On another occasion, Templemore was accompanied by Zonella and Colenna; and the latter took him into a gallery he had not before seen, the door being usually kept locked. In it, to his surprise, were ranged hundreds of stands of arms and military uniforms, helmets, spears, shields, swords, daggers, and red tunics, all kept in splendid condition, as though for instant use. All the helmets had little silver wings at their sides, and the shields were engraved in the centre with a strange hieroglyphic, the same that he had noticed chiselled upon the fronts of many of the principal buildings. "There," said Colenna, "are the arms and uniforms of Mellenda's soldiers. Over in Myrlanda, in the great temple of the White Priests, are hundreds more; all kept ready for use, as you see these here. You see the silver wings upon the helmets, similar to those on that of Mellenda's suit that stands in the other gallery. And that figure upon the shields is the sacred sign that was engraved upon his signet-ring. It signifies his seal or sign-manual. Wherever you see that mark, it refers to him; on a building it implies that he designed or built it. His royal colour was red, as the king's to-day is blue; and these red tunics are for his soldiers." "When they come," said Jack, discreetly repressing the incredulous smile that almost forced itself upon his lips. "When _he_ comes," said Colenna, lifting his hat reverently. "Yes, when _he_ returns to us."