A moment before
he had rested among the host of figures in the unevenly
lighted land of memory. Now he stood forth plainly and
seemed to smile.
I took the leading. With the inner eye I have seen lines
of light like subtle shining cords running between persons.
Such a thread stretched now between me and Enrique de
Cerda. I determined to make my way, as Juan Lepe, through
the mountains and over the plain of Granada to Santa Fe.
CHAPTER II
SET will to an end and promptly eyes open to means!
I did not start for Granada from Palos but from
Huelva, and I quitted Andalusia as a porter in a small
merchant train carrying goods of sorts to Zarafa that was a
mountain town taken from the Moors five years back. I
was to these folk Juan Lepe, a strong, middle-aged man
used to ships but now for some reason tired of them. My
merchants had only eyes for the safety of their persons and
their bales, plunged the third day into mountainous wild
country echoing and ghastly with long-lasting war. Their
servants and muleteers walked and rode, lamented or were
gay, raised faction, swore, laughed, traveled grimly or in
a dull melancholy or mirthfully; quarreled and made peace,
turn by turn, day by day, much alike. One who was a
bully fixed a quarrel upon me and another took my part.
All leaped to sides. I was forgotten in the midst of them;
they could hardly have told now what was the cause of battle.
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