“It was night, and the rain fell; and, falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood.  And I stood in the morass among the tall lilies, and the rain fell upon my head—­and the lilies sighed one unto the other in the solemnity of their desolation.

“And, all at once, the moon arose through the thin ghastly mist, and was crimson in color.  And mine eyes fell upon a huge gray rock which stood by the shore of the river and was lighted by the light of the moon.  And the rock was gray and ghastly, and tall,—­and the rock was gray.  Upon its front were characters engraven in the stones; and I walked through the morass of water-lilies, until I came close unto the shore, that I might read the characters upon the stone.  But I could not decipher them.  And I was going back into the morass when the moon shone with a fuller red, and I turned and looked again upon the rock and upon the characters;—­and the characters were DESOLATION.

“And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of the rock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover the action of the man.  And the man was tall and stately in form, and wrapped up from his shoulders to his feet in the toga of old Rome.  And the outlines of his figure were indistinct—­but his features were the features of a deity; for the mantle of the night, and of the mist, and of the moon, and of the dew, had left uncovered the features of his face.  And his brow was lofty with thought, and his eye wild with care; and in the few furrows upon his cheek, I read the fables of sorrow, and weariness, and disgust with mankind, and a longing after solitude.

“And the man sat upon the rock, and leaned his head upon his hand, and looked out upon the desolation.  He looked down into the low unquiet shrubbery, and up into the tall primeval trees, and up higher at the rustling heaven, and into the crimson moon.  And I lay close within shelter of the lilies, and observed the actions of the man.  And the man trembled in the solitude;—­but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock.

“And the man turned his attention from the heaven, and looked out upon the dreary river Zaeire, and upon the yellow ghastly waters, and upon the pale legions of the water-lilies.  And the man listened to the sighs of the water-lilies, and to the murmur that came up from among them.  And I lay close within my covert and observed the actions of the man.  And the man trembled in the solitude;—­but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock.

“Then I went down into the recesses of the morass, and waded afar in among the wilderness of the lilies, and called unto the hippopotami which dwelt among the fens in the recesses of the morass.  And the hippopotami heard my call, and came, with the behemoth, unto the foot of the rock, and roared loudly and fearfully beneath the moon.  And I lay close within my covert and observed the actions of the man.  And the man trembled in the solitude;—­but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock.