HILAIRE BELLOC 12 1 



swing and movement of the whole. So also when 

 you stand and look from along their wake and see 

 them leaving for the horizon along a slant of the 

 Levantine, with the breeze just on their quarter 

 and their laden hulls careening a trifle to leeward, 

 you would say they were great birds, born of the 

 sea, and sailing down the current from which they 

 were bred. The peaks of their tall sails have a 

 turn to them like the wing-tips of birds, especially 

 of those darting birds which come up to us from 

 the south after winter and shoot along their way. 

 Moreover, the sails of these little ships never seem 

 to lose the memory of power. Their curves and 

 fulness always suggest a movement of the hull. 

 Very often at sunset when the dead calm reflects 

 things unbroken like an inland pond, the topmost 

 angle of these latcens catches some hesitating air 

 that stirs above, and leads it down the sail, so that 

 a little ripple trembles round the bows of the boat, 

 though all the water beside them is quite smooth, 

 and you sec her gliding in without oars. She 

 comes along in front of the twilight, as gradual 

 and silent as the evening, and seems to be im- 

 pelled by nothing more substantial than the 

 advance of darkness. It is with such companions 

 to proclaim the title of the land that one comes 

 round under a point of hills and enters harbour. 



Ililnire Bclloc. 



