I might, if I
held out, cover the distance in eight or nine hours, but I did not see
Myself walking in the middle heat on the plain of Lombardy, and even
if I had been able I should only have got into Milan at dark or later,
when the post office (with my money in it) would be shut; and where
could I sleep, for my one franc eighty would be gone? A man covering
these distances must have one good meal a day or he falls ill. I could
beg, but there was the risk of being arrested, and that means an
indefinite waste of time, perhaps several days; and time, that had
defeated me at the Gries, threatened me here again. I had nothing to
sell or to pawn, and I had no friends. The Consul I would not attempt;
I knew too much of such things as Consuls when poor and dirty men try
them. Besides which, there was no Consul I pondered.
I went into the cool of the cathedral to sit in its fine darkness and
think better. I sat before a shrine where candles were burning, put up
for their private intentions by the faithful. Of many, two had nearly
burnt out. I watched them in their slow race for extinction when a
thought took me.
'I will,' said I to myself, 'use these candles for an ordeal or
heavenly judgement.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 236 of 361
Words from 64039 to 64288
of 97758
