reading from pages 98-105 of the Del Rey edition

The lead illustration by Mister Gianni depicts the royal pavilion guarded by ten hard-bitten “veterans,” left to defend the prostrate king and a squire attending a saddled and barded horse, lion banner blowing to the right.

As Conan lays suffering from lack of action moreso than any pain, the squire peeks through the curtain and relates the unfolding battle to Conan who sees it clearly in his mind’s eye, predicts folly and calamity and has his worst fears magnified and related to him, for, as his heroic body double falls for a wizardly ruse his strike force is not ambushed in the mountain pass viewed from across the contested riverbed, but the mountain itself reels and comes crashing down, crushing the flower of Conan’s army...

Read more over at the BlogSpot:

Literary Impressions of the Prose and Verse of Robert E. Howard