One morning when the square was quiet and empty and flooded with light – when had K. ever seen it like that, before or after? – he managed it with surprising ease; he climbed the wall at his first attempt with a small flag gripped between his teeth. Loose stones were still rolling down beneath him when he reached the top. He rammed the flag in, it unfurled in the wind, he looked down and around and over his shoulder at the crosses half-buried in the ground; here, at this moment, no one was greater than he. Then the teacher happened to come by; his angry look had forced him to come down. As he
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