The setting sun was behind the mountains, and the moon, near to the full, hung, round and white, just above the tower, in the pale eastern sky.

From the second turning of the steep descent, Veronica could see a huge bastion of the castle above the roofs, jutting out like an independent round fort.
Many of the people knew that she was coming, and some had hastened from their work to see her as soon as she arrived.

Curious, silent, pale, dirty, they thronged about the carriage.

An old woman touched Veronica's skirt, and then brought her hand back to her lips and kissed it.

Then another did the same--a thin, dark-browed girl with a ragged red shawl on her head.