II
Wherein a Clerk Appraises a Fair Country
Horvendile peered out over broad rolling uplands. . . . He viewed a noble country, good to live in, rich with grain and metal, embowered with tall forests, and watered by pleasant streams. Walled cities it had, and castles crowned its eminencies. Very far beneath Horvendile the leaded roofs of these fortresses glittered in sunlight, for Storisende guards the loftiest part of the province.
And the people of this land—from its lords of the high, the low, and the middle justice, to the sturdy whining beggars at its cathedral doors—were not all unworthy of this fair realm. Un-*doubtedly, it was a land, as Horvendile whimsically reflected, wherein human nature kept its first dignity and strength; and wherein human passions were never in a poor way to find expression with adequate speech and action.
