"BretHarte-LegendsAndTales" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harte Bret)

his companion. As they swept down the plain, they were joined by
like processions, that slowly defiled from every ravine and canyon
of the mysterious mountain. From time to time the peal of a
trumpet swelled fitfully upon the breeze; the cross of Santiago
glittered, and the royal banners of Castile and Aragon waved over
the moving column. So they moved on solemnly toward the sea,
where, in the distance, Father Jose saw stately caravels, bearing
the same familiar banner, awaiting them. The good Padre gazed with
conflicting emotions, and the serious voice of the stranger broke
the silence.

"Thou hast beheld, Sir Priest, the fading footprints of adventurous
Castile. Thou hast seen the declining glory of old Spain,--
declining as yonder brilliant sun. The sceptre she hath wrested
from the heathen is fast dropping from her decrepit and fleshless
grasp. The children she hath fostered shall know her no longer.
The soil she hath acquired shall be lost to her as irrevocably as
she herself hath thrust the Moor from her own Granada."

The stranger paused, and his voice seemed broken by emotion; at the
same time, Father Jose, whose sympathizing heart yearned toward the
departing banners, cried in poignant accents,--

"Farewell, ye gallant cavaliers and Christian soldiers! Farewell,
thou, Nunes de Balboa! thou, Alonzo de Ojeda! and thou, most
venerable Las Casas! Farewell, and may Heaven prosper still the
seed ye left behind!"

Then turning to the stranger, Father Jose beheld him gravely draw
his pocket-handkerchief from the basket-hilt of his rapier, and
apply it decorously to his eyes.

"Pardon this weakness, Sir Priest," said the cavalier,
apologetically; "but these worthy gentlemen were ancient friends
of mine, and have done me many a delicate service,--much more,
perchance, than these poor sables may signify," he added, with a
grim gesture toward the mourning suit he wore.

Father Jose was too much preoccupied in reflection to notice the
equivocal nature of this tribute, and, after a few moments'
silence, said, as if continuing his thought,--

"But the seed they have planted shall thrive and prosper on this
fruitful soil."

As if answering the interrogatory, the stranger turned to the
opposite direction, and, again waving his hat, said, in the same
serious tone,--

"Look to the East!"