When I came to that curious cleft or gorge through which the river, the road and the railway all make their way together, one above the other, from the plateau down into the desert plain, I saw a Christian house after so many miles and days. I went in at once, drank wine, and asked the hour of the train, for I was tired of this land. I was hurrying to get back to reasonable shrines, and to smell the sea.
|The Return|
“Very soon,” I said to myself, “I shall come back to the coast-harbours, and I shall see again all the business of the shipping and the waves; and I shall see, rounding the pier-heads, those happy boats which seem to be part of the mist and of the very early morning.” So it was; for I came at the close of a bright day through the hills of the Tell to the sea: here was the Mediterranean, and here were all the sails. I saw again the little harbour by which I had entered Africa, and I was glad to find such a choice of ships at the quays, ready, as it seemed, to go to all parts of the world. So I chose one that was a Spaniard, bound for Palma in Majorca and I drove a bargain by which I was to go for next to nothing, provided I stayed on deck, and ate none of their food.
|The Last Bargain|
When I had driven this bargain, I bought wine, bread and meat ashore, and came back and took a place right up in the bows from which to watch the sea. It was the afternoon when we cast off and left the harbour, and before it was quite dark we had lost the land. I lay there for many hours in the bows, and thought about my home. And as I went across the sea I recalled those roofs built for true winters, and those great fireplaces of my own land. I also thought of the thick, damp woods which begin by Tay and go on to Roncesvalles, but which north or south of these are never seen; I remembered Europe well. There were women there (to whom I was sailing) whose eyes were clear and simple, and whose foreheads low; I remembered that all their gestures were easy. I remembered that in the harbours men would meet me kindly; I was to meet my own people again, and their ritual would not seem to be ritual because it would be my own, and the air would be full of bells. The ship also, going eagerly onwards dead north under the stars; she carried me towards my native things, herself reaching her own country, for nothing alien to Europe could make or preserve the science that had constructed such engines and such a hull.
|The Memory of Europe And her Toast|
“In Europe, in the river-valleys,” I thought, “I will rest and look back, as upon an adventure, towards my journey in this African land. I shall be free of travel. I shall be back home. I shall come again to inns and little towns. I shall see railways (of which I am very fond), and I shall hear and see nothing that the Latin Order has not made.” I thought about all these things as the ship drove on.