Not only were their wings whirring, but their cooing was plainly audible.
From such a multitude of birds the mass of sound, individually small, assumed the volume of a storm.

Surprised at the influx of birds, to which they had been strangers so long, they all looked towards Castra Regis, from whose high tower the great kite had been flying as usual.

But even as they looked, the cord broke, and the great kite fell headlong in a series of sweeping dives.

Its own weight, and the aerial force opposed to it, which caused it to rise, combined with the strong easterly breeze, had been too much for the great length of cord holding it.
Somehow, the mishap to the kite gave new hope to Mimi.

It was as though the side issues had been shorn away, so that the main struggle was thenceforth on simpler lines.