It Was Midnight When I Came To The Level, And Yet
I Heard No Water, And Did Not Yet See
The tower against the sky.
Extreme fatigue made it impossible, as I thought, to proceed farther,
when I saw a
Light in a window, and went to it quickly and stood
beneath it. A woman from the window called me _Caro mio,_ which was
gracious, but she would not let me sleep even in the straw of the
barn.
I hobbled on in despair of the night, for the necessity of sleep was
weighing me down after four high hills climbed that day, and after the
rough ways and the heat and the continual marching.
I found a bridge which crossed the deep ravine they had told me of.
This high bridge was new, and had been built of fine stone, yet it was
broken and ruined, and a gap suddenly showed in the dark. I stepped
back from it in fear. The clambering down to the stream and up again
through the briars to regain the road broke me yet more, and when, on
the hill beyond, I saw the tower faintly darker against the dark sky,
I went up doggedly to it, fearing faintness, and reaching it where it
stood (it was on the highest ground overlooking the Secchia valley), I
sat down on a stone beside it and waited for the morning.
The long slope of the hills fell away for miles to where, by daylight,
would have lain the misty plain of Emilia.
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