Chapter 17 Chapter 17 A Sunrise

A month later—it was the evening of August 20th—Simon Ford and Madge sent their best wishes to the four travelers who were leaving the cottage. James Starr, Harry and Jack Ryan will take Nell onto a land where her feet have never trod, into a radiant center whose light her eyes have yet to recognize. The tour will last two days, and James Starr and Harry agree that after spending 48 hours outside, the young girl will be able to see what she was unable to see in the dark coal mines, the facets of the earth , like a rotating painting of cities, plains, mountains, rivers, lakes, bays, and seas was displayed in front of her eyes.

In this part of Scotland, however, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, nature seems to want to gather together these human beauties with the most exactness, so that, to the sky, there seem to be everywhere, with their variations. Endless great clouds, their bright or eclipsed moons, their radiant suns, their dense stars. The excursion program is therefore arranged in such a way as to satisfy this program list. Simon Ford and Madge were very happy to be with Nell, but they were known to be reluctant to leave the cottage, so that in the end they could not make up their minds to leave their local home, even for a day.

James Starr was there as an observer, as a philosopher, desperately eager, from a psychological point of view, to observe Nell's childish feelings--perhaps even to suddenly discover some mysterious aspect in which her childhood had intervened. event. Harry, for his part, wondered wistfully if another young girl, other than the one he loved and had known until then, would have been tacitly enlightened when things in the outer world were quick to enlighten her. . As for Jack Ryan, he was as happy as a chaffinch flitting about in the morning sun.He very much wanted his infectious joy to pass on to his traveling companions.It would be a way of returning his welcome.

Nell pondered. James Starr decided, not without reason, to set off at night.Indeed, it is best for the young girl to pass unconsciously from the darkness of night into the light of day.Moreover, this arrangement will achieve this effect, since, from midnight to noon, she will pass through successive phases of darkness and light, to which her eyes will gradually become accustomed. Nell took Harry's hand as he was leaving the cottage, and said to him: "Harry, do I really have to get out of our coal mines, if only for a few days?" "Yes, Nell," answered the young man, "it must be! To you and to me!"

"But, Harry," Nell went on, "I couldn't be happier since you took me in. You've given me an education. Isn't that enough? What am I going to do up there?" Harry looked at her without answering.The thoughts Nell expressed were pretty much his thoughts. "My daughter," said James Starr at this moment, "I understand your hesitation, but it is good for you to come with us. Those you love are with you, and they will bring you back. In After this, it's up to you whether you want to go on living in the coal mines, like old Simon, like Madge, like Harry. I don't doubt it should be done, and I agree with you. But at least, you can compare what you gave up yours and what you have achieved, and act with complete freedom. Come!"

"Come, my dear Nell," said Harry. "Harry, I was coming with you," answered the young girl. At nine o'clock the last train in the tunnel brought Nell and her companions to the county ground. Twenty minutes later the train brought them to the station where the New-Aberfoyle connection branched off at the small junction of the line from Dumbarton to Stirling. The night has darkened.From the horizon to the zenith, some less dense vapor still raced high in the sky, blown by a northwest wind that cools the air.The day was beautiful.Night should be just as beautiful. At Stirling, Nell and her traveling companions left the station without taking the train.

Before them, among the tall trees, stretched a road to the banks of the River Worth. The first physical sensation the girl experiences is that of her lungs sucking in the pure air greedily. "Breathe well, Nell," said James Starr, "breathe the country air, with all its pleasant scents!" "What are these big clouds of smoke racing over our heads?" Nell asked. "It's a cloud," said Harry. "It's some semi-condensed vapor being pushed westward." "Ah!" said Nell, "how I like to feel myself drawn into their peaceful eddies!—what are those shining points shining through the cracks in the great black clouds?"

"That is the star I told you about, Nell. There are as many centers of worlds as there are suns, and there may be as many as ours." At this time, under the gradual purification of the wind, those constellations appeared more clearly on the blue-black sky. Nell looked at the thousands of glowing stars that clouded her head. "But," she said, "these are suns, and how can my eyes bear their light?" "My daughter," replied James Starr, "these are indeed suns, but suns that are moving by gravitation at great distances. The nearest of the thousand stars, Its radiance reaches us all the way, and that is the constellation Lyra, which you see almost at the top of the zenith, and it is 50 trillion miles away. Therefore its radiance cannot affect your eyes. But No human eye will be able to look upon our sun tomorrow when it rises only 38 million miles away, for it will be hotter than the fire in the great furnace. But come on, Nell, come on !"

Everyone hit the road.James Starr took the young girl by the hand.Harry walked beside her.Jack Ryan came and went like a young dog, impatient with his masters' slow walk. There is no one on the road.Nell looked at the silhouette of the big tree blown by the wind in the shadows.It was natural for her to regard them as a few giants making many gestures.The wind howled on the high branches, and when the wind stopped, there was silence. When the road crossed a plain, the horizon became more obvious. She was completely immersed in the fresh feeling and left an indelible impression on her heart. impression.After some initial questions, Nell fell silent, while her traveling companions unanimously respected her silence.They are absolutely unwilling to use words to influence this girl to use her feelings and imagination.They preferred to let her develop these concepts in her mind.

At about half-past eleven they reached the northern bank of Worth Bay. A boat hired by James Starr was waiting there.The ship would carry him and his traveling companions to Edinburgh Harbor in a few hours. Nell could see the shimmering water heaving under her feet under the action of the surf, like it was strewn with quivering stars. "Is this a lake?" she asked. "No," answered Harry, "it's a wide bay of living water, and it's the mouth of a river, and it's kind of like an arm of the sea. Take a little of this water in your palm, Nell, and you'll find it Not sweet like the water in Lake Malcolm."

The girl bent down, dipped her hands in the surging waves, and then put her hands to her lips. "The water is salty," she said. "Yes," replied Harry, "the sea has been coming back here because of the high tide. Three-quarters of our planet is covered with this salty water you just drank a few drops of." "But if the water in the river is only the water in the sea, and it's all poured into them by the clouds, why is it sweet?" Nell asked. "Because water loses its salty taste by evaporation," replied James Starr, "clouds can only form by evaporation, and pour this sweet water into the sea in the form of rain." "Harry, Harry!" cried the young girl now, "what is this red light that burns the horizon? Is a forest on fire?" Nell pointed to a corner of the sky, among the low colored clouds to the east. "No, Nell," said Harry, "it's the rising moon." "Yes, the Moon!" exclaimed Jack Ryan, "a beautiful silver disk that the gods of the sky made it walk in the firmament, and collected all the star coins!" "That's right, Jack," replied the engineer, laughing, "I didn't know you had such a penchant for bold and original metaphors!" "Hey! Mr. Stahl, my analogy is correct! You see the stars disappear as the moon advances. I deduce from this that the stars have fallen into it!" "That is to say, Jack," replied the engineer, "that it is the moon that extinguishes the stars with six times its luminosity, and that is why the latter disappear in its passage." "It's all so beautiful!" Nell kept saying, she no longer lived just by looking, "but I thought the moon was round?" "It is round when it is full," replied James Starr, "that is, when it is opposite the sun. But this night, the moon is in its last quarter, and it has broken horns, so that our friend Jack's silver plate can only be a shaving plate!" "Ah! Mr. Starr," cried Jack Ryan, "what a metaphor! I was about to swallow this hymn to the moon: running moon Come and caress..." "Ah no! I can't sing now! Your shaving plate interrupts my inspiration!" At that time, the moon gradually rose above the horizon.The last of those vapors vanished before it.In the western zenith, the stars still shine in the deep blackness, and the moon will pale them a little.Nell gazed silently at the admirable view, her eyes unwearied by the soft silvery light, but her hand trembled in Harry's to express what she had to say. "Come aboard, my friends," said James Starr, "we must be on Arthur's Hill before sunrise!" The boat is tied to a wooden bridge on the river bank.A riverboat crew guards it.Nell and her traveling companions took their seats in the boat.The sails were stretched and bulged by the northwest wind. What new impression did the young girl feel at this moment?She had been in a boat a few times on the lake at New-Aberfoyle, but the oar being stirred by Harry's hand always disappointed the oarsman's efforts.Here, for the first time, Nell felt pulled by a gliding almost as soft as a balloon gliding through the air.The bay is as flat as a lake.Nell half-lyed on the back of the boat, letting herself sway.Now and then, when the boat veered suddenly, the moonlight filtered through the waters of the Worth, so that the boat seemed to be driving on a glittering gold tablecloth.Tiny water waves sang along the decking.The situation is ecstatic. But then Nell's eyes closed involuntarily.She felt drowsy for a while.She fell asleep peacefully with her head tilted against Harry's chest. Harry wanted to wake her up so that she wouldn't miss the splendor of this beautiful night. "Let her sleep, lad," said the engineer to him. "Two hours' rest will better prepare her for the impressions of the day." At two o'clock in the morning the boat arrived at Granton Quay.As soon as the boat docked, Nell woke up. "I fell asleep?" she asked. "No, my daughter," replied James Starr, "you only dreamed that you were sleeping, that's all." The night was still very bright at this time.The moon was halfway from the horizon to the zenith, filling the sky with moonlight. The swells of the bay lapped against the small port of Granton, which only accommodates two or three fishing boats.The breeze dies down as morning approaches.The air cleared of mist promised a beautiful day in August, made even more beautiful by the proximity of the sea.Some sort of hot vapor emanated from the horizon, but so thin and so transparent that the rays of the rising sun might swallow them up in an instant.The young girl was thus able to observe the seascape, which she confused with the end of the sky.She felt her vision widen, but her eyesight could not bear the strangeness that the Atlantic offered when the light seemed to push its limits to infinity. Harry grabbed Nell's hand.The pair followed James Starr and Jack Ryan across the deserted streets ahead of them.In Nell's mind the capital's outskirts were nothing more than a collection of gloomy houses that reminded her of Coal City, only with higher vaults and sparkling dots.She walked lightly, and Harry always had to ask her to slow down in case she got tired. "Aren't you tired?" He asked her after walking for half an hour. "Not tired," she answered, "my feet don't even seem to touch the ground! The sky is so high above our heads, I should like to fly as if I had wings!" "Remember it well!" cried Jack Ryan. "It's worth remembering, our little Nell! Me too, when I've been out of the coal mines for a while!" "That's because," said James Starr, "we no longer feel the compression of the slate vaults that cover the Coal City! The sky then seems to be a deep abyss in which one wants to go forward Chong—is that how you feel now, Nell?" "Yes, Mr. Starr," replied the girl, "that's what it is. I feel like a vertigo!" "You'll get used to it, Nell," replied Harry, "you'll get used to this immensity of the world outside, and maybe you'll forget our dark coal mines then!" "Never, Harry!" replied the girl. So she covered her eyes with her hands, as if she wanted to refresh in her mind the memory of what she had just left. Between the sleeping houses of the city, James Starr and his traveling companions walked through Leith Walk.They rounded Carlton Hill, where the Observatory and Nelson's Monument stood in the gloom.They walked along Ruiqin Road, crossed a bridge, took a small turn, and reached the end of Cannon Gate. There hasn't been any activity in town yet.The Gothic clock at Cannongate Church struck two. At this point Nell stopped. "What's this big blurry mass?" She pointed to a building standing alone in the depths of a small place. "That big one, Nell," James said.Starr replied, "That's the palace of the old sovereigns of Scotland, the Holy Cross, and how many funerals there have been! Historians can trace the shadows of many kings there, from the unfortunate Mary Stuart the shadow of Charles X, the old king of France! But, in spite of these sad remembrances, when day comes, Nell, you shall not see a look too bleak in this mansion! Holy! The Crucifix, with its four great battlemented cannons, does not look too much like some kind of recreational castle, the will of its owner retaining its feudal character!—but let us go on There, within the walls of the old abbey of the holy cross, rise those magnificent rocks of Salisbury; Arthur's house looks down upon them. We shall climb to them, on top of them , Nell, your eyes shall see the sun rise above the horizon." They entered the Royal Park.Then, on a gradual ascent, they crossed the Royal Victoria Road, the magnificent vehicular circuit that Walter Scott had the honor of writing several of his legendary novels. Arthur's House, to be honest, is just a hill 750 feet high, with a solitary peak overlooking the surrounding highlands.In less than half an hour, James Starr and his traveling companions came to the head of the lion through a winding path that was easy to climb. When viewed from the west, Arthur's house looked like a lion. There the four sat down, and James Starr, rich in quotations from the great Scottish romancer, simply said: "Walter Scott writes in Chapter 8 of The Edinburgh Prison: "If I had to pick one place from which I can best watch the sunrise and sunset, this is it." "You wait, Nell. The sun is coming, and for the first time you will be able to look at it in all its splendor." The girl's gaze turned to the east.Harry sat beside her, watching her with restless attention.Wouldn't the impression of the first sunshine be too strong on her?All were silent.Jack Ryan also shut up. In the depths of a mist, a small pale line had been drawn on the horizon, tinged with a subtle rosy tint.A cloud of remaining steam floating in the zenith was attacked by the first ray of light.At the foot of Arthur's House Edinburgh, still half asleep, was a blur in the absolute stillness of the night.Here and there, a few points of light pierce the darkness.It was the morning star lit by the people in the old city.Looking back, to the west, the horizon, cut off by the shifting silhouettes, framed a rugged mountainous region where every ray of sunlight would put a plume of fire. At that time, the eastward perimeter of the sea was marked more clearly.The series of colors gradually follows the order of the solar spectrum.The red of the morning mist will fade to the violet of the zenith.The color palette is getting hotter by the second: rose becomes red, red becomes fiery.Day comes at the point where the bow of day determines the circle of the sea. At this time, Nell's eyes stretched from the foot of the mountain to the city, and the areas in the city began to spread out in groups.Tall monuments, several pointed bell towers peeped out here and there, now more clearly outlined, like a pale light spreading across the space.Finally, the first ray of light hit the girl's eyes.In the morning or evening, when the horizon is clear and pure, it is this green light that breaks out from the sea. Half a minute later, Nell straightened up and reached out to a point overlooking the new town. "A fire," she said. "No, Nell," said Harry, "that's not a fire, that's the gold the sun has painted on the top of the Walter Scott monument!" Indeed, the spire of the Minaret, 200 feet high, shone like a first-rate lighthouse. Day came.The sun is shining.Its disc still seemed wet, as if it had actually emerged from the sea.It first expands by refraction, and gradually shrinks to become a circle.Its soon unbearable radiance was the light in the mouth of a great furnace with a hole in the sky. Nell had to close her eyes almost immediately.On her eyelids that were so thin, she even had to cover them tightly with her fingers. Harry wanted her to turn to the opposite horizon. "No, Harry," she said, "my eyes should get used to seeing what your eyes can see." Through her palm Nell could still feel a rosy glow, fading to white as the sun rose above the horizon.Gradually her eyes got used to it.Then her eyelids lifted, so that at last her eyes were saturated with the sun's light. The pious child fell on his knees and cried: "My God, your world is so beautiful!" At this time, the girl lowered her eyes and watched.At her feet lay the panorama of Edinburgh: the new, orderly quarters of the New Town, the rambling heaps of houses and the eccentric street network of Ord-Lakey.The two high grounds, the castle and the Caldon hill, suspended from its basalt cliffs, on its small dome the modern ruins of a Greek monument, overlook the whole.Some beautiful and strong roads stretch from the capital to the four villages.On the north, an arm of the sea, the bay of the Worth facing the harbor of Leith; deeply notched in the shore.Above, on the third plane, stretches the shapely coastal strip of Fife.A road, as straight as Pire's, connected this northern Athena with the sea.The beautiful beaches of Puerto Nieuw and Porto-Bello stretch westward, with sand that turns the first waves of the waves yellow.Out at sea, a few boats pushed the waters of the bay, and two or three steamers lavishly embellished the sky with a cone of black smoke.Farther away, farther away, is the endless countryside covered with green clothes.The plain is uneven here and there by plain hills.To the north, the Rolls of Soft Dream, and to the west, Ben-Romance and Ben-Leddy reflected the sun as if some eternal glass had covered their tops. Nell was speechless.Her lips just whispered a few unintelligible words.Her arms trembled.Her head felt dizzy.In an instant, she collapsed.In the air so pure, before the majestic sight, she felt a sudden collapse, and fell unconscious in the arms of Harry, who was ready to accept her. This girl, who had until then spent her life in the depths of the earth, had at last contemplated these things which made up almost the whole universe created by the Creator and man.Her gaze, after looking down at the city and the countryside, opened up to the endless sea and sky for the first time.