CHAPTER XXI
After my terrible adventure I did not rest badly that night, albeit
I slept on an empty stomach (the sardines counting as nothing), and
under the vast, void sky, powdered with innumerable stars. And when
I proceeded next day on my journey, _God's light_, as the pious
Orientals call the first wave of glory with which the rising sun floods
the world, had never seemed so pleasant to my eyes, nor had earth ever
looked fresher or lovelier, with the grass and bushes everywhere hung
with starry lace, sparkling with countless dewy gems, which the
_epeiras_ had woven overnight. Life seemed very sweet to me on
that morning, so softening my heart that when I remembered the murderous
wretch who had endangered it I almost regretted that he was now probably
blind and deaf to nature's sweet ministrations.
Before noon I came to a large, thatched house, with clumps of shady
trees growing near it, also surrounded with brushwood fences and sheep
and cattle enclosures.
The blue smoke curling peacefully up from the chimney and the white
gleam of the walls through the shady trees--for this _rancho_
actually boasted a chimney and whitewashed walls--looked exceedingly
inviting to my tired eyes. How pleasant a good breakfast, with a long
siesta in the shade after it, would be, thought I; but, alas! was I
not pursued by the awful phantoms of political vengeance? Uncertain
whether to call or not, my horse jogged straight on towards the house,
for a horse always knows when his rider is in doubt and never fails
at such times to give his advice.
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