Sometimes  his  delirium  reached  the  point  of  his  spending
an  entire  night  gazing  at  the  moon,  which  floated  in  heaven
in  a  silvery  mist,  or  at  the  stars,  which  twinkled  afar  off  like
the  changing  lights  of  precious  stones.  In  those  long  nights
of  poetic  wakefulness,  he  would  exclaim :  "  If  it  is  true,  as
the  Prior  of  the  Pena  has  told  me,  that  it  is  possible  those
points  of  light  may  be  worlds,  if  it  is  true  that  people  live  on
that  pearly  orb  which  rides  above  the  clouds,  how  beautiful
must  the  women  of  those  luminous  regions  be !  and  I  shall
not  be  able  to  see  them,  and  I  shall  not  be  able  to  love
them  I    What  must  their  beauty  be  I    And  what  their  love  !  "

Manrico  was  not  yet  so  demented  that  the  boys  would  run
after  him,  but  he  was  sufficiently  so  to  talk  and  gesticulate
to  himself,  which  is  where  madness  begins.
II.
Over  the  Douro,  which  ran  lapping  the  weatherworn  and
darkened  stones  of  the  walls  of  Soria,  there  is  a  bridge
leading  from  the  city  to  the  old  convent  of  the  Templars,
whose  estates  extended  along  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river.
At  the  time  to  which  we  refer,  the  knights  of  the  Order
had  already  abandoned  their  historic  fortresses,  but  there
still  remained  standing  the  ruins  of  the  large  round  towers
of  their  walls, — there  still  might  be  seen,  as  in  part  may  be
seen  to-day,  covered  with  ivy  and  white  morning-glories
the  massive  arches  of  their  cloister  and  the  long  ogive
galleries  of  their  courts  of  arms  through  which  the  wind
would  breathe  soft  sighs,  stirring  the  deep  foliage.
