The Children's Crusade Quotes

“Behold the voracious sea, who appears innocent and blue. Her folds are gentle and she is hemmed with white, like a divine robe. She is a liquid sky and her stars are alive. I meditate on her, from this throne of boulders where I had myself carried from my litter. She is truly amid the lands of Christianity. She receives the sacred water by which the Annunciator washed away sin. Over her beaches every holy face has bowed, and she has rocked their transparent images. Great mysterious anointed one, with neither ebb nor flow, azure candle, set in the terrestrial ring like a liquid jewel, I interrogate you with my eyes. O Mediterranean Sea, return to me my children! Why have you taken them?”
― Marcel Schwob, La Croisade des Enfants