Page:Selected Czech tales - 1925.djvu/191

 and communicate to others what has happened to him and what his feclings are.’

While the officer thus spoke, a young sailor began to sing a lovely song. He sang of a man who sails across the sea, while his sweetheart entreats the sea, the winds and the heavens to send him back to her. Her longing and sorrow were expressed In the temderest words imaginable. When the saillor had finished, others sang or recited poems of a like kind, emulating each other in sadness: they sang of longing for the beloved one, of ships bound for far-off countries, and of the ever-changing sea. At last they all began to talk of their homes and of those they had left behind. Dom Luiz wept, happy to the verge of pain at the thought of what he had suffered, and that now he was able, having previously forgotten his speech, to understand again the lovely music of poetry; and he wept because it was all so like a dream, and he was afraid of the awakening.

At last the old officer got up and said: ‘Boys, we will have a look at this island which we have discovered, and we will all return before sundown and set sail. We will start to-night on our return journey under God’s protection. But you,’ he turned to