nd," said she, and smiled, though
her eyes were wet, while she crowned them both. Then the youth hurried
to the stable and noiselessly saddled his horse and led him to the
garden, where Garcinde lay on the breast of her friend, and whispered
amidst her tears: "I know why thou weepest. God make thee as happy as
thou hast been brave, and true to me."

They set off quietly, Geoffroy leading the horse, who with dilated
nostrils snorted at the moonlight, the girls following him over the
bridge; then he lifted his young wife into the saddle, sprang up
himself behind her, and waving his hand to Aigleta, spurred his
faithful charger on. It did not feel the weight it bore too heavy, for
with the exception of his sword and dagger, Geoffroy had taken nothing
with him but his father's song-book, and Garcinde only a few ornaments
which she had inherited from her mother, and which her father had never
touched. Thus, then, they rode through the moonlit forest. They did not
say much: every now and then when the horse was slowly crossing boggy
ground, she would turn half round to him, and then he kissed her cheek,
and her black eyes smiled while she whispered, "My dearest husband."

She rested in his arms so sweetly, and the good horse trod so securely,
that they hardly realised their circumstances--a hasty flight by
night--a dark future before them--but enjoyed their bliss as though no
shadow of care and danger hung over their love.

But when they got out of the wood and reached the hill from whence
Garcinde a few days ago had first beheld again her father's castle, she
suddenly pulled the rein and turned the horse round.

"What ails thee, sweet wife? And why dost thou halt here?" asked
Geoffroy.

She did not reply, but gazed over the wide plain towards the dark pile
with its leaden-roofed turrets that shone in the moonlight.

"What is it that you see, dearest?" asked the youth, who felt her
tremble on his breast, as though a frosty chill had overtaken her on
the warm summer night. "Let us look forwards, not back. Our happiness
lies before us." But she only shook her head sorrowfully, turned away
when he wished to kiss her, and said not a word. All of a sudden she
had seemed to see in the deserted castle her father with a taper in his
hand wandering from room to room, and crying, "Where is my daughter
Garcinde? I have pledged my honour, she must redeem my pledge. Where is
my child, and where is my honour? I was a beggar. I had no