mountain-gorges: a wood without humours or surprises; but the mere
spring of the turf was delightful as he cantered down the grass alleys
roofed with level boughs, the outer sunlight just gilding the lip of the
long green tunnel.

Sometimes he attended the Duchess, but oftener chose to ride alone,
setting forth early after a night at cards or a late vigil in
Crescenti's study. One of these solitary rides brought him without
premeditation to a low building on the fenny edge of the wood. It was a
small house, added, it appeared, to an ancient brick front adorned with
pilasters, perhaps a fragment of some woodland temple. The door-step was
overgrown with a stealthy green moss and tufted with giant fennel; and a
shutter swinging loose on its hinge gave a glimpse of inner dimness. Odo
guessed at once that this was the hunting lodge where Cerveno had found
his death; and as he stood looking out across the oozy secrets of the
marsh, the fever seemed to hang on his steps. He turned away with a
shiver; but whether it were the sullen aspect of the house, or the close
way in which the wood embraced it, the place suddenly laid a detaining
hand upon him. It was as though he had reached the heart of solitude.
Even the faint woodland noises seemed to recede from that dense circle
of shade, and the marsh turned a dead eye to heaven.

Odo tethered his horse to a bough and seated himself on the doorstep;
but presently his musings were disturbed by the sound of voices, and the
Duchess, attended by her gentlemen, swept by at the end of a long glade.
He fancied she waved her hand to him; but being in no humour to join the
cavalcade, he remained seated, and the riders soon passed out of sight.
As he sat there sombre thoughts came to him, stealing up like
exhalations from the fen. He saw his life stretched out before him, full
of broken purposes and ineffectual effort. Public affairs were in so
perplexed a case that consistent action seemed impossible to either
party, and their chief efforts were bent toward directing the choice of
a regent. It was this, rather than the possibility of his accession,
which fixed the general attention on Odo, and pledged him to
circumspection. While not concealing that in economic questions his
sympathies were with the liberals, he had carefully abstained from
political action, and had hoped, by the strict observance of his
religious duties, to avoid the enmity of the Church party. Trescorre's
undisguised sy