shafts, the rose-coloured walls and churches of Siena, I kept my eyes
steadily towards my Mecca, speaking very little, taking no heed of the
manner of our progress. I had other sights than those to occupy me. I
saw hedge-flowers which Aurelia might have plucked, shade where she
might have rested, orchards where she might have tasted fruit, wells
which might have cooled her feet. Some miles before I was in actual
sight of my desired haven I was in a thrill and tension of expectancy,
wrought upon me by these hopeful auguries, which I cannot describe. I
was in a perpetual tremble, my lips were dry. We passed Castiglioncello;
we rested for noonday at Monteriggione; at Castello del Diavolo, in full
sight of all men, I kissed the stony road. In my own country, I know
very well, I should have been hooted as a madman, but here, where a man
does what nature, or something higher, prompts him without shame or
circumspection, I was never molested. My companions were undoubtedly
curious. Pamfilo said that I was going to meet my amica at Siena; La
Panormita supposed that I regretted some bouncing girl of Certaldo. But
I was soaring now to such a height that I cared nothing. We entered the
Porta Camollia at half-past five o'clock in the evening, and trailed up
the steep Via di Citta, between houses like solemn cliffs, and in the
midst of a throng which, in the dusk of that narrow pass, seemed like
dense clouds, lit up by innumerable moons, to our lodging at an inn
called Le Tre Donzelle. These moons I found out were the wide straw hats
of the lovely daughters of Siena, sisters of Aurelia, companions of her
maiden hours! It made my heart jump into my throat to see in the doorway
of the inn a girl of her own tender and buoyant shape, to hear her very
tones, with that caressing fall which never failed to move me, and to
see the quick turn of a crowned head exactly in her own manner. Before
many hours were over I found myself stabbed more or less vividly by
every young woman I met. There was no escaping from Aurelia in Aurelia's
own city.