The Guarany (From the Portuguese of Josée Martiniano de Alencar), Part I, Chapters VII-XII [pp. 188-204]

188 T/~e Cuarany. [Feb.
THE GUARANY.
FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF JOSE MARTINIANO DE ALENcAR.
vii. brings a feeble murmur, which seems
THE PRAYER. the final echo of the voices of day or the
last sigh of the dying evening. All
NIGHT was at hand. The sun was those on the esplanade felt more or less
setting behind the great forests, which the powerful impression of that solemn
he illumined with his last rays. The hour, and yielded involuntarily to a
soft, dim light of sunset, gliding over vague sentiment, not indeed of sadness,
the green carpet, rolled like waves of but of awe. Suddenly the melancholy
gold and purple along the foliage. The tones of a clarion were borne through
wild thorn-trees opened their white and the air, interrupting the evening condelicate flowers, and the our'cory1 ex- cert. It was one of the adventurers
panded its newest palms to receive in playing the Ave Maria. All uncovered.
its cup the dew of night. The belated Dom Antonio, advancing to the edge
animals sought their lairs; while the of the esplanade toward the west, took
Airily, calling to its mate, uttered the off his hat and knelt down. Around
soft and mournful cooings with which him grouped his wife, the two girls,
it takes leave of day. A concert of Alvaro, and Dom Diogo; the adventurdeep notes hailed the setting sun and ers, forming a great arc of a circle, knelt
mingled with the noise of the waterfall, some steps distant. The sun with his
which seemed to break the harshness last reflection lighted up the beard and
of its descent and yield to the sweet white hair of the aged nobleman, and
influence of evening. heightened the beauty of that bust of
It was the Ave Maria. How grave an ancient cavalier.
and solemn in the midst of our forests It was a scene at once simple and
is the mysterious hour of twilight, majestic that was presented by that
when nature kneels at the feet of the half Christian, half savage prayer. In
Creator to murmur the evening prayer! all those countenances, illumined by the
Those great shadows from the trees, sunset rays, was reverence. Loredano
stretching along the ground; those alone maintained his disdainful smile,
infinite graduations of light in the and followed with the same malignant
mountain ravines; those chance rays look the least movement on the part of
that escaping through the network of Alvaro, who was kneeling near Cecilia,
leaves play for a moment upon the absorbed in contemplating her as if she
sand; all these breathe a boundless were the divinity to whom he was adpoetry that fills the soul. The urut4o2 dressing his prayer.
in the depth of the forest utters its deep During the moment when the king of
and sonorous notes, which, echoing light, suspended on the horizon, was
through the long archways of verdure, casting his last glance on the earth, all
sound in the distance like the slow and surrendered themselves to a deep medimeasured tones of the angelus. The tation and said a mute prayer, which
breeze, moving the tops of the trees, scarcely moved their lips. Finally the
1A species of palm. sun went down. Ayres Comes extended
2A night bird. his musket over the precipice and a shot