28 The Pilgrim of the Night

and women and little ones — going to and
fro in strangely coloured clothing, in the
manner of those who had sat down on the
green grass and been fed with bread and
fishes. And at the thought of this Isidore
wept.

“Why dost thou weep?” the Angel
asked.

“T weep that I was not alive to look on
the face of the Lord.”

Then suddenly, as though it were a dream,
they were on the sea-shore, and it was morn-
ing. And Isidore saw on the sparkling sea.
a fisher-ship drifting a little way from the
shore, but there was no one in it; and on
the shore a boat was aground; and half on
the sand and half in the wash of the sea
there were swathes of brown nets filled with
a hundred great fish which flounced and
glittered in the sun; and on the sand there
was a coal fire with fish broiling on it, and
on one side of the fire seven men — one of
them kneeling and shivering in his drenched
fisher’s coat and on the other side of the
fire a benign and majestic figure, on whom
the men were gazing in great joy and awe.
And Isidore, knowing that this was the