Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/306

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
298
IN MAREMMA.

passed the Arrone by a ford, and, giving La Storta a wide berth to his right, kept clear of the post road and passed by a path across the downs to Isola Farnese. He walked slowly now, being himself fatigued; she followed over the turf, a grey gliding figure, little noticeable, for the hood of her woollen mantle was drawn over her head. On these open fields she feared that he might turn his head and at a glance recognise her.

He did not ascend the cliff to Isola, but passed on beneath it, still keeping clear of the highway.

The 'Troy of Italy' lay behind them on its bare ground; but of this she knew nothing. Beyond that were the dark heights where the waters of Tivoli fall, and the snow-line of the Sabine range; in front stretched the Campagna, broken here into narrow ravines, and with scattered groves of trees, whose golden leafage caught the sunshine of the early day as the morning broadened behind the frozen summit of the Leonessa, and over the once sacred oaks of Eleusinian Musino.

To her they were but such long heaving mountain-lines, such hills, with barren sides