16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'Amen,' said Stephen, and they walked in.
Compline, at San Pedro's, was traditionally
very long, and the choir-monks were still singing
the Nunc dimittis when Stephen was woken
and led through passages behind the chapel.
The pure, impersonal, clear plainchant, rising
and falling, moved his sleepy mind: the strong
cold east wind outside the postern cleared it
entirely.
The path led him and the others, a line of
lanterns, over a ridge behind the monastery
and down into the high but comparatively fertile
plateau beyond – excellent grazing, he
had been told – and so towards a large summering-house,
a borda or shieling, ordinarily
used by those who looked after the flocks.
From the low voices before and behind him
Stephen gathered that some men must have
come in not only after his arrival but after he
had gone to bed. Presently he saw a similar