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Page 39
Yet she followed me uncomplaining along these narrow avenues of
silence, and without more ado turned her trivial tail on Death and his
dim flocks, and well-nigh scampered me off into the vivid morning.
Soon afterwards, with Hunger in the saddle, we began to climb a road
almost precipitous, and stony in the extreme. Often enough we breathed
ourselves as best we could in the still, sultry air, and rested on the
sun-dappled slopes. But at length we came out upon the crest, and
surveyed in the first splendour of day a region of extraordinary
grandeur.
Beneath a clear sky to the east stood a range of mountains, cold and
changeless beneath their snows. At my feet a great river flowed,
broken here and there with isles in the bright flood. The dark
champaign that flanked its shores was of an unusual verdure. Mystery
and peril brooded on those distant ravines, the vapours of their
far-descending cataracts. In such abysmal fastnesses as these the
Hyrcan tiger might hide his surly generations. This was an air for the
sun-disdaining eagle, a country of transcendent brightness, its
flowers strangely pure and perfect, its waters more limpid, its
grazing herds, its birds, its cedar trees, the masters of their kind.
Yet not on these nearer glories my eyes found rest. But, with a kind
of heartache, I gazed, as it were towards home, upon the distant
waters of the sea. Here, on the crest of this green hill, was silence.
There, too, was profounder silence on the sea's untrampled floor.
Whence comes that angel out of nought whispering into the ear strange
syllables? I know not; but so seemed I to stand--a shattered
instrument in the world, past all true music, o'er which none the less
the invisible lute-master stooped. Could I but catch, could I but in
words express the music his bent fingers intended, the mystery, the
peace--well; then I should indeed journey solitary on the face of the
earth, a changeling in its cities.
I half feared to descend into a country so diverse from any I had yet
seen. Hitherto at least I had encountered little else than
friendliness. But here--doves in eyries! I stood, twisting my fingers
in Rosinante's mane, debating and debating. And she turned her face to
me, and looked with age into my eyes: and I know not how woke courage
in me again.
"On then?" I said, on the height. And the gentle beast leaned forward
and coughed into the valley what might indeed be "Yea!"
So we began to descend. Down we went, alone, yet not unhappy, until in
a while I discovered, about a hundred yards in advance of me, another
traveller on the road, ambling easily along at an equal pace with
mine. I know not how far I followed in his track debating whether to
overtake and to accost him, or to follow on till a more favourable
chance offered.
But Chance--avenger of all shilly-shally--settled the matter offhand.
For my traveller, after casting one comprehensive glance towards the
skies, suddenly whisked off at a canter that quickly carried him out
of sight.
A chill wind had begun to blow, lifting in gusts dust into the air and
whitening the tree-tops. As suddenly, calm succeeded. A cloud of
flies droned fretfully about my ears. And I watched advancing,
league-high, transfigured with sunbeams, the enormous gloom of storm.
The sun smote from a silvery haze upon its peaks and gorges. Wind, far
above the earth, moaned, and fell; only to sound once more in the
distance in a mournful trumpeting. Lightnings played along the
desolate hills. The sun was darkened. A vast flight of snowy,
arrow-winged birds streamed voiceless beneath his place. And day
withdrew its boundaries, spread to the nearer forests a bright
amphitheatre, fitful with light, whereof it seemed to me Rosinante
with her poor burden was the centre and the butt. I confess I began to
dread lest even my mere surmise of danger should engage the piercing
lightnings; as if in the mystery of life storm and a timorous thought
might yet be of a kin.
We hastened on at the most pathetic of gallops. Nor seemed indeed the
beauteous lightning to regard at all that restless mote upon the
cirque of its entranced fairness. In an instantaneous silence I heard
a tiny beat of hoofs; in instantaneous gloom recognised almost with
astonishment my own shape bowed upon the saddle. It was a majestic
entry into a kingdom so far-famed.
The storm showed no abatement when at last I found shelter. From far
away I had espied in the immeasurable glare a country barn beneath
trees. Arrived there, I almost fell off my horse into as incongruous
and lighthearted a company as ever was seen.
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