Howard, Volume 4 THE SCARLET CITADEL Weird Tales, January 1933 They trapped the Lion on Shamu’s plain; They weighted his limbs with an iron chain; They cried loud in the trumpet-blast, They cried, “The Lion is caged at last!” Woe to the cities of river and plain If ever the Lion stalks again! —Old Ballad. The roar of battle had died away; the shout of victory mingled with the cries of the dying. Like gay-hued leaves after an autumn storm, the fallen littered the plain; the sinking sun shimmered on burnished helmets, gilt-worked mail, silver breastplates, broken swords, and the heavy regal folds of silken standards, overthrown in pools of curdling crimson. In silent heaps lay war-horses and their steel-clad riders, flowing manes and blowing plumes stained alike in the red tide.
