, he fell to the earth and nursed his hand and moaned
over it like a baby. But he took the lesson in good part; and whether
from that, or from what I had said to him, or the higher notion he now
had of my bodily strength, his original affection was changed into a dog-
like, adoring fidelity.

Meanwhile I gained rapidly in health. The residencia stood on the crown
of a stony plateau; on every side the mountains hemmed it about; only
from the roof, where was a bartizan, there might be seen 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 hilltops; 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 storey 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
storeys of the house, which were thus broken up into distinct divisions.
The windows, both within and without, were closely shuttered; some of the
stone-work 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 lon