Did she sleep or
did she wake? Sleeping or waking, I prayed God to keep her safe
and give her comfort. The stars now shone through naked
branches, black tree trunks hemmed us round, and under our feet
was the dreary rustling of dead leaves. The leafless trees gave way
to pines and cedars, and the closely woven, scented roof hid the
heavens, and made a darkness of the world beneath.
1. The modern York.
CHAPTER XXX IN WHICH WE START UPON A JOURNEY
WHEN the dawn broke, it found us traveling through a narrow
valley, beside a stream of some width. Upon its banks grew trees
of extraordinary height and girth; cypress and oak and walnut, they
towered into the air, their topmost branches stark and black against
the roseate heavens. Below that iron tracery glowed the firebrands
of the maples, and here and there a willow leaned a pale green
cloud above the stream. Mist closed the distances; we could hear,
but not see, the deer where they stood to drink in the shallow
places, or couched in the gray and dreamlike recesses of the forest.
Spectral, unreal, and hollow seems the world at dawn. Then, if
ever, the heart sickens and the will flags, and life becomes a
pageant that hath ceased to entertain. As I moved through the mist
and the silence, and felt the tug of the thong that bound me to the
wrist of the savage who stalked before me, I cared not how soon
they made an end, seeing how stale and unprofitable were all
things under the sun.
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