And the new king went mining and mining in the rock under the city, and grew more and more eager after the gold, and paid less and less heed to his people.

Rapidly they sank toward their old wickedness.

But still the king went on mining, and coining gold by the pailful, until the people were worse even than in the old time.

And so greedy was the king after gold, that when at last the ore began to fail, he caused the miners to reduce the pillars which Peter and they that followed him had left standing to bear the city.

And from the girth of an oak of a thousand years, they chipped them down to that of a fir tree of fifty.
One day at noon, when life was at its highest, the whole city fell with a roaring crash.