ol, I want to save her,' I retorted wrathfully. 'Tell her that,
just that and no more, and you will see the result.'

'I shall not,' he said sullenly. 'A message from you indeed!' And he
spat on the ground.

'Then on your head be it,' I answered solemnly, And I turned my horse's
head and galloped fast after the others. But I felt sure that he would
report what I had said, if it were only out of curiosity; and it would
be strange if Madame, a gentlewoman of the south, bred among old family
traditions, did not understand the reference.

And so we began our journey; sadly, under dripping trees and a leaden
sky. The country we had to traverse was the same I had trodden on the
last day of my march southwards, but the passage of a month had changed
the face of everything. Green dells, where springs welling out of the
chalk had once made of the leafy bottom a fairies' home, strewn with
delicate ferns and hung with mosses, were now swamps into which our
horses sank to the fetlock. Sunny brews, whence I had viewed the
champaign and traced my forward path, had become bare, wind-swept
ridges. The beech woods that had glowed with ruddy light were naked now;
mere black trunks and rigid arms pointing to heaven. An earthy smell
filled the air; a hundred paces away a wall of mist closed the view.
We plodded on sadly up hill and down hill, now fording brooks, already
stained with flood-water, now crossing barren heaths. But up hill or
down hill, whatever the outlook, I was never permitted to forget that
I was the jailor, the ogre, the villain; that I, riding behind in my
loneliness, was the blight on all--the death-spot. True, I was
behind the others--I escaped their eyes. But there was not a line of
Mademoiselle's figure that did not speak scorn to me; not a turn of head
that did not seem to say, 'Oh, God, that such a thing should breathe.'

I had only speech with her once during the day, and that was on the last
ridge before we went down into the valley to climb up again to Auch.
The rain had ceased; the sun, near its setting, shone faintly; for a few
moments we stood on the brow and looked southwards while we breathed the
horses. The mist lay like a pall on the country we had traversed; but
beyond and above it, gleaming pearl-like in the level rays, the line
of the mountains stood up like a land of enchantment, soft, radiant,
wonderful!--or like one of those castles on the Hill of Glass of which
the old romances tell us. I forgot