on eitherhand, while the mist, parting into gossamers before the wind, tookmarvellously human forms in every alley and lane we passed. Thus I, a sodden giant, led by those elfin torches, paced through thecity until we came to an open square with a great lumber of ruins in thecentre all marred and spoiled by vegetation; and here the lights wavered,and went out by scores and hundreds, just as the petals drop from spentflowers, while it seemed, though it may have been only wind in the rankgrass, that the air was full of most plaintive sighs as each little lampslipped into oblivion. The big pile was a mass of fallen masonry, which, from the brokenpillars all about, might have been a palace or temple once. I pushed in,but it was as dark as Hades here, so, after struggling for a time in alabyrinth of chambers, chose a sandy recess, with some dry herbage byway of bedding in a corner, and there, thankful at least for shel- ter, mynight's wanderings came to an end and I coiled myself down, ate a lasthandful of dry fruit, and, strange as it may seem, was soon sleepingpeacefully. I dreamed that night that a woman, with a face as white as ivory, cameand bent over me. She led a babe by either hand, while behind her werescores of other ones, with lovely faces, but all as pale as the starsthemselves, who looked and sighed, but said nothing, and when they hadstared their fill, dropped out one by one, leaving a wonderful blank in themonotony where they had been; but beyond that dream nothing happened. It was a fine morning when I woke again, and ob- viously broad dayoutside, the sunshine coming down through cracks in the old palace roof,and lying in golden pools on the floor with dazzling effect. Rubbing my eyes and sitting up, it took me some time to get my sensestogether, and at first an uneasy feeling possessed me that I was somehowdematerialised and in an unreal world. But a twinge of cramp in my leftarm, and a healthy sneeze, which frightened a score of bats overheadnearly out of their senses, was reassuring on this point, and rubbing awaythe cramp and staggering to my feet, I looked about at the strangesurroundings. It was cavernous chaos on every side: magnificentarchitecture reduced to the confusion of a debris-heap, only the hollowchambers being here and there preserved by massive columns meetingoverhead. Into these the yellow light filtered wher- ever a rent in a cupola or side-wall admitted it, and allured by the vision of corridors onebeyond the other, I presently set off on a tour of discovery. Twenty minutes' scrambling brought me to a place where the fallenjambs of a fine doorway lay so close together that there was barely roomto pass between them. However, seeing light beyond, I squeezed through,and I found my- self in the best-preserved chamber of all--a wide, roomyhall with a domed roof, a haze of mural paintings on the walls, and amarble floor nearly hidden in a century of fallen dust. I stumbled oversomething at the threshold, and picking it up, found it was a baby's skull! And there were more of them now that my eyes became accustomed to thelight. The whole floor was mottled with them--scores and hundreds ofbones and those poor little relics of humanity jutting out of the sandeverywhere. In the hush of that great dead nursery the little whitetrophies seemed inexpressibly pathetic, and I should have turned backreverently from that chamber of forgotten sorrows but that somethingcaught my eye in the centre of it. It was an oblong pile of white stone, very ill-used and chipped, wrist-deep in dust, yet when a slant of light came in from above and fell straightupon it, the marble against the black gloom beyond blazed like living pearl. It was dazzling; and shading my eyes and going tenderly over through thepoor dead babes, I looked, and there, full in the shine, lay a woman'sskeleton, still wrapped in a robe of which little was left save the hard goldembroidery. Her brown hair, wonderful to say, still lay like lank, deadsea- weed about her, and amongst it was a fillet crown of plain iron setwith gems such as eye never looked upon before. There were not many,but enough to make the proud sim- plicity of that circlet glisten like a littleband of fire--a gleaming halo on her dead forehead infinitely fascinating. At her sides were two other little bleached human flowers, and I stoodbefore them for a long time in silent sympathy. Could this be Queen Yang, of whom the woodcutter had told me? Itmust be--who else? And if it were, what strange chance had brought mehere--a stranger, yet the first to come, since her sorrow, from her distantkindred? And if it were, then that fillet belonged of right to Heru, the lastrep- resentative of her kind. Ought I not to take it to her rather than leave it as spoil to the first idle thief with pluck enough to deride the mysteriesof the haunted city? Long time I thought over it in the faint, heavyatmosphere of that hall, and then very gently unwound the hair, lifted thecirclet, and, scarcely knowing what I did, put it in my shoulder-bag. After that I went more cheerfully into the outside sun- shine, andsetting my clothes to dry on a stone, took stock of the situation. Theplace was, perhaps, not quite so romantic by day as by night, and thescattered trees, matted by creepers, with which the whole were overgrown,prevented anything like an extensive view of the ruined city being obtained. But what gave me great satisfaction was to note over these treesto the eastward a two-humped mountain, not more than six or seven milesdistant--the very one I had mislaid the day before. Here was reality and achance of getting back to civilisation. I was as glad as if home were insight, and not, perhaps, the less so because the hill meant villages and food;and you who have doubtless lunched well and lately will please bear inmind I had had nothing since breakfast the day before; and though thismay look picturesque on paper, in practice it is a painful item in one'sprogramme. Well, I gave my damp clothes but a turn or two more in the sun, andthen, arguing that from the bare ground where the forest ended half-wayup the hill, a wide view would be obtained, hurried into my garments andset off thither right gleefully. A turn or two down the blank streets, nowprosaic enough, an easy scramble through a gap in the crumblingbattlements, and there was the open forest again, with a friendly path wellmarked by the passage of those wild animals who made the city their lairtrending towards my landmark. A light breakfast of soft green nuts, plucked on the way, and then theground began to bend upwards and the woods to thin a little. Withinfinite ardour, just before mid- day, I scrambled on to a bare knoll on thevery hillside, and fell exhausted before the top could be reached. But what were hunger or fatigue to the satisfaction of that moment? There was the sea before me, the clear, strong, gracious sea, blue leaguesof it, furrowed by the white ridges of some distant storm. I could smellthe scent of it even here, and my sailor heart rose in pride at the companion- ship of that alien ocean. Lovely and blessed thing! howoften have I turned from the shallow trivialities of the land and foundconsolation in the strength of your stately soli- tudes! How often have Iturned from the tinselled presence of the shore, the infinite pretensions ofdry land that make life a sorry, hectic sham, and found in the black bosomof the Great Mother solace and comfort! Dear, lovely sea, man- half ofevery sphere, as far removed in the sequence of your strong emotions fromthe painted fripperies of the woman-land as pole from pole--the gratefulblessing of the humblest of your followers on you! The mere sight of salt water did me good. Heaven knows ourseparation had not been long, and many 百度翻譯字數限制為5000字, "on "及其後面沒有被翻譯! 另一方面，當霧氣在風前化作薄紗時，我們經過的每一條小巷裡都出現了令人驚奇的人形。 就這樣，我，一個濕透了的巨人，在那些精靈火炬的帶領下，在都市裡踱步，直到我們來到一個開闊的廣場，廣場中心有一大片廢墟，都被植被破壞了；這裡的燈光搖曳著，成百上千地熄滅了，就在花瓣從花叢中掉落的時候，雖然這可能只是蘭草裡的風，但空氣中充滿了最悲傷的歎息，因為每一盞小燈都被遺忘了。 這一大堆是一堆倒塌的磚石，從斷壁殘垣上看，可能曾經是一座宮殿或寺廟。我推了進去，但這裡像陰間一樣黑，所以，在亞拉比林的密室裡掙扎了一段時間後，我選擇了一個沙質的休息室，角落裡有一些乾草作為被褥，在那裡，至少感謝謝爾特，我的夜晚的流浪走到了盡頭，我把自己盤繞起來，吃了最後一把乾果，而且，儘管看起來很奇怪，是這樣很快就安睡了。 那天晚上，我夢見一個臉色潔白如象牙的女人走過來俯伏在我身上。她用一隻手牽著一個嬰兒，身後是其他嬰兒的屍體，他們的臉很可愛，但都像星星一樣蒼白。他們望著，歎著氣，但什麼也沒說，當他們瞪得滿滿的時候，就一個接一個地掉了出來，在他們的夢裡留下了一片美妙的空白，但在那夢之外什麼也沒有發生。 這是一個晴朗的早晨，當我再次醒來時，外面的陽光透過舊宮殿屋頂的裂縫照射下來，陽光灑在地板上的金色水池裡，令人眼花繚亂。 揉了揉眼睛，坐了起來，我花了一些時間才恢復知覺，一開始，一種不安的感覺佔據了我的心，我覺得自己是一個非物質化的、虛幻的世界。不過，我左臂一陣抽筋，打了一個健康的噴嚏，嚇得幾十隻蝙蝠失去知覺，這一點讓我很放心，我擦去抽筋，搖搖晃晃地站起來，環顧四周陌生的環境。四面八方都是洞穴般的混亂：宏偉的建築淪為一堆廢墟的混亂，只有空曠的房間被頭頂上巨大的圓柱所保留。每當有人在沖天爐或側牆上看到它時，黃色的光線就照進了這些房間，並被一條又一條走廊的景象所吸引，我立刻開始了探索之旅。 二十分鐘的忙亂把我帶到了一個地方，一個漂亮的門洞的門柱靠得很近，幾乎沒有地方穿過。然而，看到遠處的光線，我擠了過去，我發現自己在保存最完好的房間裡——一個寬大的房間，屋頂是圓頂的，牆上掛著壁畫的薄霧，一層幾乎隱藏在一個世紀的塵土中的大理石地板。我在門口絆了一跤，撿起它，發現是個嬰兒的頭骨！ 因為我的眼睛已經習慣了光線，所以有更多的人。整層樓都是斑駁的，有幾十個，幾百個骨頭，還有那些可憐的人類遺物，從沙灘上到處伸出。在那間巨大的死亡託兒所的寂靜中，小小的白色獎盃似乎令人難以言喻地可憐，我本該從那間被遺忘的悲傷的屋子裡虔誠地轉過身來，但那屋子的中心卻有什麼東西吸引了我的目光。 那是一堆長方形的白石頭，用得很不好，有缺口，手腕上沾滿了灰塵，然而，當一道斜光從上面射進來，直射在上面時，對面黑色陰暗處的大理石像一顆鮮活的珍珠一樣閃閃發光。 它讓人眼花繚亂，遮住我的眼睛，溫柔地穿過那些死去的孩子們，我看了看，一個女人的長袍在陽光下閃閃發光，仍然裹著一件長袍，除了堅硬的金色刺繡品外，幾乎什麼都沒有了。可以說，她那棕色的頭髮仍然像枯死的海草一樣披散在身上，頭髮中間有一個由純鐵做成的鑲有寶石的圓冠，像以前從未見過的眼睛一樣。雖然不多，但足以使她那驕傲的小環閃閃發光，像一團火——她死去的額頭上閃爍的光環，無限迷人。 在她身旁還有另外兩朵漂白的小人花，我在它們前面彎了半天腰，默默地表示同情。 這是樵夫告訴我的楊皇后嗎？一定是——還有誰？如果是這樣的話，是什麼奇怪的機會把我帶到這裡來的呢——一個陌生人，但卻是她悲傷之後第一個從她遠親那裡來的？如果是的話，那魚片就屬於赫魯，她那種最後的代表。難道我不該把它送給她，而不該把它當作戰利品留給第一個膽子大到足以嘲弄鬼城神秘的閑賊嗎？我在大廳裡昏昏欲睡地想了很久，然後輕輕地解開頭髮，he heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. [bbe] So the nations will give honour to the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will be in fear of his glory: 102:16 [hgb] 因 為 耶 和 華 建 造 了 錫 安 ， 在 他 榮 耀 裡 顯 現 。[kjv] When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. [bbe] When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has been been！姜傾心霍栩《第一甜妻霍先生撩錯了》免費！