brupt end; for no more ground
on which to set a foot was before him, but only the ocean--that
ocean which he had wanted so badly, and had loved at a distance more
than the plains and hills, and all they contained to delight him!
How wide, how vast it was, stretching away to where it melted into
the low sky, its immense grey-blue surface broken into ten thousand
thousand waves, lit with white crests that came in sight and
vanished like lightning flashes! How tremendous, how terrible it was
in its agitation--O the world had nothing to compare with it,
nothing to hold his heart after it; and it was well that the earth
was silent, that it only gazed upon it with the sun and moon and
stars, listening day and night for ever to the great voice of the sea!

Only by lying flat on his chest could Martin look down over the edge
of the awful cliff, which is one of the highest in the world; and
then the sight of the sea swirling and beating at the foot of that
stupendous black precipice, sending up great clouds of spray in its
fury, made him shudder, it was so awful to look upon. But he could
not stir from that spot; there he stayed lying flat on his chest,
gazing and gazing, feeling neither hunger nor thirst, forgetful of
the beautiful woman he had called mother, and of everything besides.
And as he gazed, little by little, that great tumult of the waves
grew less; they no longer lifted themselves up, wave following wave,
to beat upon the cliff, and make it tremble; but sank lower and lower;
and at last drew off from the precipice, leaving at its foot a long
narrow strip of sand and shingle exposed to sight. A solemn calm
fell upon the waste of waters; only near the shore it continued to
move a little, rising and falling like the chest of a sleeping giant,
while along the margin small waves continued to form and break in
white foam on the shingle with a perpetual low, moaning sound.
Further out it was quite calm, its surface everywhere flushed with
changing violet, green, and rosy tints: in a little while these
lovely colours faded as from a sunset cloud, and it was all deep
dark blue: for the sun had gone, and the shadows of evening were
over land and sea. Then Martin, his little heart filled with a great
awe and a great joy, crept away a few yards from the edge of the
cliff and coiled himself up to sleep in a hollow in the soft warm
sand.

On the following morning, after satisfying his hunger and thirst
with some roots which h