which, girding up his loins, he left the
place by the high-road.

The road at first ran through the plain, where, on every side, there
stretched away fields of brown grass, with flocks of sheep and goats.
The attendants upon these were nowhere visible, and this lack of
human life and action gave to the country an indescribable air of
solitude and desertion. In other respects, however, there was
everything which could gratify the eye and the taste. The land was
fertile, the soil cultivated, the scenery beautiful. Tall trees--the
mulberry and the poplar--arose in long lines; here and there the
cactus stretched forth its thorny arms, and at intervals there
appeared the dark green of extensive olive-groves. Behind the
traveller there extended a wall of purple hills, and before him arose
the giant heights of the Pyrenees. Among these last the road at
length entered, and, winding along at the base of sloping hills, it
ascended very gradually.

The priest walked onward at a long, slinging pace, which told of the
experienced pedestrian. For three hours he kept this up, being too
intent upon his progress, and upon his own thoughts, to pay much
attention to the scenery, except so far as was needed for purposes of
precaution. Save for this, the external form of nature and the many
beauties around him were disregarded; and at length, after three
hours, he sat down to rest at a rock by the wayside. Sitting here, he
drew forth from his pocket a well-used pipe, which he filled and
lighted; after which he sat smoking, and surveying, in a
contemplative manner, the scene before him.

It was, in truth, a scene well worthy of contemplation. For many a
mile the eye of the beholder could rove over the course of the Ebro,
and take in the prospect of one of the fairest lands in all the
world. He had advanced high enough to overlook the valley, which lay
behind him, with lines of hills in the distance, while in front arose
the mountains dark in the heavy shade. To the west the country spread
away until, in the far distance, it ended in a realm of glory. For
here the sun was sinking into a wide basin formed by a break in the
lines of mountains, filling it all with fire and splendor; and while
the hollow between the hills was thus filled with flame, immediately
above this there were piled up vast masses of heavy strata clouds, of
fantastic shapes and intense blackness. Above these the sky grew
clearer, but was still overlaid with thin streaks