'Twas summer, and the sun had mounted high: Southward the landscape indistinctly glared Through a pale steam;[T] but all the northern downs, In clearest air ascending, showed far off A surface dappled o'er with shadows flung 5 From brooding clouds; shadows that lay in spots[4] Determined and unmoved, with steady beams Of bright and pleasant sunshine interposed; To him most pleasant who on soft cool moss[5] Extends his careless limbs along the front 10 Of some huge cave, whose rocky ceiling casts A twilight of its own,[U] an ample shade, Where the wren warbles, while the dreaming man, Half conscious of the soothing melody, With side-long eye looks out upon the scene,[V] 15 By power of that impending covert, thrown, To finer distance. Mine was at that hour Far other lot, yet with good hope that soon Under a shade as grateful I should find Rest, and be welcomed there to livelier joy.[6] 20 Across a bare wide Common I was toiling With languid steps that by the slippery turf[7] Were baffled; nor could my weak arm disperse The host of insects gathering round my face, And ever with me as I paced along.[8] 25 Upon that open moorland stood a grove, The wished-for port to which my course was bound.[9] Thither I came, and there, amid the gloom Spread by a brotherhood of lofty elms,[W] Appeared a roofless Hut; four naked walls 30 That stared upon each other!--I looked round, And to my wish and to my hope espied The Friend I sought;[10] a Man of reverend age, But stout and hale, for travel unimpaired. There was he seen upon the cottage-bench, 35 Recumbent in the shade, as if asleep; An iron-pointed staff lay at his side. Him had I marked the day before--alone And stationed in the public way, with face Turned toward the sun then setting, while that staff Afforded, to the figure of the man[11] 41 Detained for contemplation or repose, Graceful support; his countenance as he stood Was hidden from my view, and he remained[12] Unrecognised; but, stricken by the sight, 45 With slackened footsteps I advanced, and soon A glad congratulation we exchanged At such unthought-of meeting.--For the night We parted, nothing willingly; and now He by appointment waited for me here, 50 Under the covert[13] of these clustering elms.