ed wall, a
hemispherical sentry-box and several shanties whose roofs had been
carried off by the tempests. These were the debris of old
fortifications,--perhaps dating back to the time in which the Spaniards
had tried to reconquer the place.

As Luna descended, with uncertain step, supported by her lover's hand
and scattering pebbles at every turn, the melodious silence of the sea
was broken by a reverberating _raack!_ as if a hundred fans had been
brusquely opened. For a few seconds everything vanished from before
their eyes; the blue waters, the red crags, the foam of the
breakers,--under a flying cloud of grayish white that spread out at
their feet. This was formed by hundreds of sea-gulls who had been
frightened from their place of refuge and were taking to flight; there
were old, huge gulls, as fat as hens, young gulls, as white and graceful
as doves. They flew off uttering shrill cries, and as this cloud of
fluttering wings dissolved, there came into view with all its grandeur,
the promontory and the deep waters that beat against it in ceaseless
undulation.

It was necessary to raise one's head and to lift one's eyes to behold in
all its height this fortress of Nature, sheer, gray, without any sign of
human presence other than the flagstaff visible at the summit, as small
as a toy. Over all the extensive face of this enormous cliff there was
no other projection than several masses of dark vegetation, clumps
suspended from the rock. Below, the waves receded and advanced, like
blue bulls that retreat a few paces so as to attack with all the greater
force; as an evidence of this continuous assault, which had been going
on for centuries and centuries, there were the crevices opened in the
rock, the mouths of the caves, gates of ghostly suggestion and mystery
through which the waves plunged with terror-inspiring roar. The debris
of these openings, the fragments of the ageless assaults,--loosened
crags, piled up by the tempests,--formed a chain of reefs between whose
teeth the sea combed its foamy hair or raged with livid frothing on
stormy days.

The lovers remained seated among the old fortifications, beholding at
their feet the blue immensity and before their eyes the seemingly
interminable wall that barred from sight a great part of the horizon.
Perhaps on the other side of the cliff the gold of the sunset was still
shining. On this side already the shades of night were gently falling.
The sweethearts were silen