midday
And these trees , which are about the size of a crab tree , grew in close groves on either side of the road , with no manner of fence to protect them , so that any one is lief to pluck what he may without let , so plentiful are they , and curious to see how fruit and blossom grow together on the same bush , the lemons , as I hear , giving four crops in the year , and more delicious , full , and juicy than any to be bought in England at six to the groat . We got a dinner of bread and cheese -LRB- very high -RRB- at a roadside house , and glad to have that , only no meat of any kind , but excellent good wine with dried figs and walnuts , which is the natural food of this country , where one may go a week without touching flesh and yet feel as strong and hearty at the end . And here very merry , Jack in his pertinacious , stubborn spirit declaring he would drink his wine in the custom of the country or none at all , and so lifting up the spouted mug at arm 's length he squirts the liquor all over his face , down his new clothes and everywhere but into his mouth , before he could arrive to do it like Don Sanchez ; but getting into the trick of it , he so mighty proud of his achievement that he must drink pot after pot until he got as drunk as any lord . So after that , finding a retired place , -- it being midday and prodigious hot -LRB- though only now in mid-April -RRB- , -- we lay down under the orange trees and slept a long hour , to our great refreshment . Dawson on waking remembered nothing of his being drunk , and felt not one penny the worse for it . And so on another long stretch through sweet country , with here and there a glimpse of the Mediterranean , in the distance , of a surprising blueness , before we reached another town , and that on the top of a high hill . But it seems that all the towns in these parts -LRB- save those armed with fortresses -RRB- are thus built for security against the pirates , who ravage the seaboard of this continent incessantly from end to end .