Rondo

“ When he made an end, and had ridden off, Ronald marched his picquet in the direction pointed out, keeping as a guide the star already mentioned. He soon found the halting-place, and there, sure enough, was a human head placed upon a pole about ten feet high; and a more grisly, hairy, ferocious, and terrible face than it presented, human eyes never beheld. ”

“ The pass is about four miles from Ronda, and commands a splendid view of the fruitful valley, which lies, like an outspread cornucopia, at its foot. On the other side, too, the scenery is not less fine, though of a totally different nature. There a singular double-peaked crag rises up boldly and darkly on the left hand, casting its shadow on the bright foliage of an oak forest, which, deep sunk below the rest of the country, spreads its verdant covering as far to the eastward as where the huge Sierra Endrinal raises its cloud-enveloped head above all the other mountains of the range. ”

“ As it happened, the casts of the Iron Age and of Saint John the Baptist stood in the great hall where we were. Rodin asked me to look at them. And I at once recognized the truth of his words.
I noticed that in the first of these works the movement appears to mount, as in the statue of Ney. The legs of the youth, who is not yet fully awake, are still lax and almost vacillating, but as your eye mounts you see the pose become firmer—the ribs rise beneath the skin, the chest expands, the face is lifted towards the sky, and the two arms stretch in an endeavor to throw off their torpor. ”

“ If it had not been for that first glimpse, and if we had not read “Miranda of the Balcony” we should not have guessed, in walking from the station to the Alameda, that Ronda differed from other Moorish towns. But far away was a barrier of iron railing, and a curious effect as if beyond it everything ended except the sky. We walked on, reached that railing, and leaned over.
No picture, no book had been able to give us a real idea of Ronda. It was stupendous—wonderful. We stared down at the world beneath as if we hung in a balloon, for the rock fell away from our feet, a sheer precipice ”

“ Within these lovely vales once more with Rondah beside him, he cared little for the man of Earth, asleep in the snow outside the wall.
“We shall both be glad when spring is come, Rondah! I shall return to my own dear world. Will you remain forever in the Sun Island or go out into your little lava land again?” ”

“ Swift, very swift, the car sank.
“There is the house Regan built. There is a flying bird man. They are not asleep. You have told me falsely! Regan is not here!” cried Rondah.
But it was too late. The car sank into the white brilliance. The dark surface of the star was lost to view. Rondah was upon the Sun Island, even in her suspense and apprehension to be astounded at its glory! ”

“ About two in the afternoon we reached a high point of the dividing ridge, from which we obtained a good view of the Grand Rond--a beautiful level basin, or mountain valley, covered with good grass, on a rich soil, abundantly watered, and surrounded by high and well-timbered mountains-- and its name descriptive of its form--the great circle. It is a place--one of the few we have seen on our journey so far--where a farmer would delight to establish himself, if he were content to live in the seclusion which it imposes. ”

“ A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere,
With craft of delight and with cunning of sound unsought,
That the heart of the hearer may smile if to pleasure his ear
⁠A roundel is wrought. ”

“ Wisdom of deathless years was in their eyes.
“From what a race are we degenerate!” said Father Renaudin.
“To what a height may we not rise!” answered Regan.
Rondah had not been so long from Earth as to feel so keenly the wonder as she mingled with a crowd of mankind.
Before them rose a white-walled city; into its streets they walked. The old song was in the air, the song of the Sun Island.
Beyond were fields of sapphire blue, each leaf with the slightest touch of gold upon it.
221“These are our fields; these are our seas; here is our city; humanity is our people,” said their guide. “See here!” ”

“ But when that was written no first-class Bhatts were on this continent; now there are a few, and they may be used in a company, lodge, or circle of from five to one hundred persons. When used by a single one the front may be gazed at; but a glorious surface is presented edgewise, or obliquely. In lodge, the company, whether it be few or many persons, should sit in a semicircle; the mirror leaning against the wall, and the glare of a bull's-eye lantern be thrown full and round upon its glowing face. ”

“ Were these sublime cliffs, these charming cascades of the Guadalvin, and this daring bridge, in Italy instead of in Spain, they would be sketched and painted every day in the year; but I have yet to know where a good picture of Ronda may be found.
In the bottom of the chasm are a number of corn-mills as old as the time of the Moors. The water, gushing out from the arches of one, drives the wheel of that below, so that a single race supplies them all. ”

“ RONDA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Malaga; on the river Guadiaro and on the Algeciras-Bobadilla railway. Pop. (1900) 20,995. Ronda is built on a high rock nearly surrounded by the Guadiaro, which Hows through an abrupt chasm 530 ft. deep and 300 ft. wide, by which the old town is separated from the new. Of the three bridges, one is said to have been built by the Romans, another by the Moors; the most modern (1761) spans the stream in a single arch at a height of about 255 ft. ”

“ A. B.—a. b. a. b. A. B.; the rondel of Charles d'Orléans having A. B. b. a. a. b. A. B.—a. b. b. a. A. B. The length of the lines is not confined to any particular number of syllables in modern examples.
By the time of Octavien de Saint Gelais (1466-1502) the rondel has nearly become the rondeau as we know it. Still rhymed on but two sounds, it repeats the first line only, nor always the whole of that, as the quoted examples show:—
De ce qui est au pouvoir de Fortune
Nul ne se doit vanter ny tenir fort:
Car ung jour sert de plaisir et confort,
Et l'autre après, de courroux et rancune. ”

“ Love and jealousy are mingled with mystery, forming a romance of decided interest and much power. The heroine is afterwards brought to the star and takes part in a number of startling episodes, notably the exploration of the wonderful Sun Island. “Rondah” is one of the best of the fanciful novels now so popular. ”

“ Such a sight, under a splendid sunshine, when the summer sea was only rippled by a gentle breeze, to catch which every inch of canvas was spread to the yard-heads, might make the coldest heart quicken; and it certainly made me think of my mother's wishes, and of old Rodney in his bob-wig and ruffles, scrambling at the head of his boarders, sword in hand, up the carved and gilded side of the Spanish galleon—of Boscawen and Benbow, Captain Cook, and Robinson Crusoe ”

“ The hills here offer an easy egress from the rock-bound basin; but, though nature has left this one level passage through the mountains, art has taken no advantage of it to improve the state of the road, for a viler trocha is not to be met with, even in the rudest part of the Serranía.
The view of the rich plain and dark battlements of Ronda is remarkably fine. ”

“ The race of men has now possession of the star,” said Regan. “I never liked 207those wings, those black and breathful sheets of power. The elf men will improve into a humanity. The wingless race is almost, if not entirely, human. To us and to our children is the star, Rondah!” ”

“ The street rabble of Ronda was the rudest and fiercest we encountered anywhere in Spain. Several times our guide wheeled suddenly to confront some gypsyish lad, creeping up behind us with stone all ready to throw, and when, at a glint of sunset through the stormy clouds, we tried to slip out unattended to the neighboring alameda, with its far-sweeping prospect of folded mountain ranges and its vertical view of gorge and rushing river, the children actually hounded us back to the hotel. ”

“ I was well received by the capitaz and his charming wife Doña Carmen, who with her own hands and in my presence prepared for my supper a partridge and other delightful things. If the day had been hot, the night on the highest point of the royal road to Ronda was cold. A glorious wood fire added to the universal beauty of everything. ”

“ Suspicious, attentive, with eye and mind on the watch, like an old wolf, expecting an attack, Rodin advanced as usual, slowly and tortuously towards the little man, so as to have time to examine him thoroughly, and penetrate beneath his jovial outside. ”

“ In the rolling country north of the Rodadero are numbers of rocks and ledges that have been carved into fantastic seats, nooks, and crannies by a people who seem to have taken a keen delight in stone-carving for its own sake. ”

“ Nor did their kindness cease there; for I afterwards received pressing invitations to visit them, as well at Ronda as at the neighbouring watering-places, to which they are in the habit of resorting during the summer months; for the Spanish fashionables—like those of other climes—deem it essential to their well being to migrate periodically to these rendezvous for dancing and dosing. ”

“ Ronald said. "The distance is too great to leap; but if you have got a plank, or can pull up a board from the floor, you could put it across to the wall and make your escape that way. I will try to hold the stairs till you are away." ”

“ Rodin, ever in search of old buildings, in which alone he can think and work in comfort, soon became the main tenant.
To ring the bell one must reach high. With difficulty one turns the handle of the door, which swings slowly. ”

“ Crowds of gentlemen in full dress, or in uniforms, with ladies sparkling with jewels and radiant with beauty, were gliding in every direction to cool themselves after dancing, or to admire the tasteful decorations which met the eye wherever it turned; and conspicuous among these, Ronald, with the greatest delight, beheld the splintered poles and tattered colours which he had so often borne on many a weary march and dangerous occasion. ”

“ Austin Dobson.
[Pg 294]
MALAPROPOS. (Rondeau.)
Imitated from the French of Count Anthony Hamilton.
Malàpropos do English wits revive
The Rondeau, which our beauties hear with scorn;
Hide in an extinct form a heart alive,
And woo bright lasses, whom they wish to wive,
Malàpropos, with Gaulish verse outworn. ”

“ The gates of Roncesvalles stood open, and, passing through one of the archways, Ronald asked the first person he met whether there was an inn, café, taberna, or any house of entertainment, where he could procure refreshment for himself and horse, but was informed that the wretched mountain-village could boast of none. The man to whom he spoke was a miserably-clad peasant, and, like most Spanish villagers, appeared to belong to no trade or profession. ”

“ The day had been so lovely till now that we said we would stay many days in Ronda, and we loitered in the sun admiring the garden; the young landlady among her flowers said that all the soil had to be brought for it in carts and panniers, and this made us admire its autumn blaze the more. That afternoon we had planned taking our tea on the terrace for the advantage of looking at the sunset light on the mountains, but suddenly great black clouds blotted it out. Then we lost courage ”

“ When Ronald again became conscious that he was yet in the land of the living, he found himself in a waggon, the uneasy jolting of which occasioned him great agony. It was driven by two sturdy Flemish peasants, clad in blue blouses and red caps, as he could perceive by the light of the moon: they sang merrily some uncouth song, and appeared to be in a happy state of intoxication. ”

“ He pushed softly aside the foliage, and issued from the cavern. They were enabled to see objects with greater distinctness, owing to the pitchy darkness they had endured in their retreat, where it was so dense, that one could not discern the face of the other. Enabled thus to see his way with greater accuracy, Ronald descended the bank of the river in the direction of the stone cross. The others followed with hasty and stealthy footsteps, and in a few minutes they gained the rude column which marked the ford. ”

“ They swept in a canopy above the car, and like a little ball the star slept beneath them. In the midnight whiteness of the Earth moon and its satellite there lay its islanded seas, its banding continent, the fiery south, the arctic north, the gray moonlit forests, the white moonlit mountains, the mist-pale vales, silver streams, diamond lakes.
“Earth was not so fair,” said Rondah. “Then Earth was ponderous; no man could own all Earth ”

“ THE fair which is held annually at Ronda, in the month of May, collects an astonishing concourse of people from all parts of the country, and offers an excellent opportunity for seeing the peculiar costumes of the different provinces, as well as for observing the various shades of character of their respective inhabitants. The national costume, (speaking generally of it) is, without dispute, extremely becoming; for, not only does it set off to advantage such as are naturally well formed, but it conceals the defects of those to whom Dame Nature has been less kind ”

“ His hands send momentary messages to the brain, warning it that endurance is almost exhausted. Below he sees the sharp formidable spires of Saint-Jean-de-Ronde, and immediately under him, two hundred feet from where he hangs, are the hard pavement, where men appear like pigmies. ”

“ Regan cast himself beside the molten flood, waiting his doom.
“Rondah! Rondah! I shall never see you!” he moaned. “Did you die in the snow? Where are you? From what place do you see me? Oh! my love, my love!”
The air grew sulphurous with smoke. The rocks fell between him and the sea, and others fell between him and the lava.
He was too lethargic to look. The habit of the globe had seized upon him! He fell asleep for 103years! For people are a part of that globe which they inhabit. They do not realize it, but they breathe, move, think, exist, according to its spirit, as a portion of it! ”