16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
hear the Benedictus.
In the later part of the morning large numbers
of people began to arrive at the two
monasteries, many of them pilgrims coming
early for the exposition, some of them members
of the league, among whom there was a
general tendency to silence and anxious looks.
Messengers had been posted on the road to
intercept General Hurtado with a letter telling
him of Castro's activities so that he should be
prepared to reassure the meeting and to take
instant decisive measures.
He did not come. In his place there appeared
Gayongos, old, grey, his face destroyed:
he told Stephen, the Vicar-General,
Father Gómez and Sam that Hurtado, extremely
moved, had declared that with these
cries of foreign gold abroad, repeated on
every hand, and in this atmosphere of corruption
he could not, as a man of honour, con-