For a little while I watched that distant cloud spread and blacken, then I judged it was time for me to appear.

I ordered the torch-baskets to be lit, and Merlin liberated and sent to me.
A quarter of an hour later I ascended the parapet and there found the king and the court assembled and gazing off in the darkness toward Merlin's Tower.

Already the darkness was so heavy that one could not see far; these people and the old turrets, being partly in deep shadow and partly in the red glow from the great torch-baskets overhead, made a good deal of a picture.
Merlin arrived in a gloomy mood.

I said: "You wanted to burn me alive when I had not done you any harm, and latterly you have been trying to injure my professional reputation.

Therefore I am going to call down fire and blow up your tower, but it is only fair to give you a chance; now if you think you can break my enchantments and ward off the fires, step to the bat, it's your innings." "I can, fair sir, and I will.