XX
I saw her eyes like stars and her face pale and wonderful as dawn, and her lips like twilight water.
Fiona Macleod.
Eric had now reached the base of the mountains, had actually set his foot within that fruitful, smiling plain.
One of the long roads that he had perceived from the heights lay before him.
It was covered with thick white dust, and on both sides the cornfields stood in ripening abundance, rippling in the soft wind like waves that had been dyed yellow by the rays of the sun. Bright-tinted flowers grew in the ditches—red, blue, and yellow—a feast for the traveller's eye.
Eric walked quickly; new hope had risen in his heart, his body felt rested, his spirit eager; he wondered if this would be the land of his dreams? The sun shone upon him from a cloudless sky; the crystal of his sword reflected its dazzling blue, whilst the staff he held in his hand had turned into burnished gold.
He passed many peasants as he went, and all of them turned and gazed after this stranger in silken clothes.