His eyes rested on them again, after ten years.

All the way his heart had promised him nothing but this.

He had forgotten self; having in ten years, and painfully, learnt that lesson.
But the music of the bells, the distant sounds of cheering, recalled that forgotten self; or perhaps it leapt into assertiveness again unwittingly, by association of ideas with the old familiar scene.
He had left the people cheering.

.

.