Then

Then the cat claw moon shone bright in the late evening blue sky. Then the evening star stood alone of all stars, clear and wishing. Then the starlight of night was smurred, patterns obscurred. Then the roar of the distant sea was loud. Then the night, so mild after such bitter, bighting cold and the stream so fast with water music after the iron hard silence of ice. Even in such darkness it seemed that the water laughed to be free again.
Then a moorhen called as the fox was hunting by the water's edge.