In Maremma/Volume 3/Chapter 41
CHAPTER XLI.
LL the earth was rejoicing with the thrill of the spring.
The song-birds were returning, and through the hush cf morning and of evening the merry song of the starling and the sweet piping of the woodlark stirred the woods. In all green moss-grown places violets were blossoming and the tender fronds of new ferns uncurling; along the sides of all the runlets of water the first primroses were budding, and all along the sandy shores the squills and the sea daffodils were beginning to appear. The nights began to grow melodious, the first nightingales arriving with their love chaunts; and all the daylight seemed full of Hitting wings and amorous trills till even the sombre rosemary trembled with their mirth and their pleasure; the lowly tussocks of dog-grass and the lofty ilex and robur-oaks were alike the home of their innocent passions, and down the shadowy waters, between the solitary brakes and thickets, the water birds sailed before each other's eyes in their pomp of courtship and coquetry of wooing.
All living things loved one another; from the partridges that tripped together through the thyme to the little warblers sounding the first notes of their return amidst the sedges of the pools.
And the human lovers were also happy, and even in the shadows of the sepulchres their hearts thrilled in unison with the joy of the awakening year.
Now and then love triumphs over circumstances, and nature is a stronger thing than all the laws of men.
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