een, between two
peaks, a small segment of plain, blue with extreme distance. The air in
these altitudes moved freely and largely; great clouds congregated
there, and were broken up by the wind and left in tatters on the
hill-tops; a hoarse and yet faint rumbling of torrents rose from all
round; and one could there study all the ruder and more ancient
characters of nature in something of their pristine force. I delighted
from the first in the vigorous scenery and changeful weather; nor less
in the antique and dilapidated mansion where I dwelt. This was a large
oblong, flanked at two opposite corners by bastion-like projections, one
of which commanded the door, while both were loopholed for musketry. The
lower story was, besides, naked of windows, so that the building, if
garrisoned, could not be carried without artillery. It enclosed an open
court planted with pomegranate trees. From this a broad flight of marble
stairs ascended to an open gallery, running all round and resting,
towards the court, on slender pillars. Thence, again, several enclosed
stairs led to the upper stories of the house, which were thus broken up
into distinct divisions. The windows, both within and without, were
closely shuttered; some of the stonework in the upper parts had fallen;
the roof, in one place, had been wrecked in one of the flurries of wind
which were common in these mountains; and the whole house, in the
strong, beating sunlight, and standing out above a grove of stunted
cork-trees, thickly laden and discoloured with dust, looked like the
sleeping palace of the legend. The court, in particular, seemed the very
home of slumber. A hoarse cooing of doves haunted about the eaves; the
winds were excluded, but when they blew outside, the mountain dust fell
here as thick as rain, and veiled the red bloom of the pomegranates;
shuttered windows and the closed doors of numerous cellars, and the
vacant arches of the gallery, enclosed it; and all day long the sun made
broken profiles on the four sides, and paraded the shadow of the pillars
on the gallery floor. At the ground level there was, however, a certain
pillared recess, which bore the marks of human habitation. Though it was
open in front upon the court, it was yet provided with a chimney, where
a wood fire would be always prettily blazing; and the tile floor was
littered with the skins of animals.

It was in this place that I first saw my hostess. She had drawn one of
the skins forward