then quite suddenly a cloud passed over the sun, and the silence was broken by shrieks from far off; and, like a many-colored torrent, all the children burst from the wood and rushed, a red and blue and yellow and white wave, across the field, screaming as they ran. their voices came up to the princess on her tower, and she heard the words threaded on their screams like beads on sharp needles: "the dragon, the dragon, the dragon! open the gates! the dragon is coming! the fiery dragon!"