And send a second
order by your aid-de-camp; the Arabs may kill me as I go, and then, they
will not know!"
He stooped and touched her little, brown, scorched, feverish hand with
reverence.
"My child, Africa has shown me much heroism, but none like yours. If you
fall, he shall be safe, and France will know how to avenge its darling's
loss."
She turned and gave him one look, infinitely sweet, infinitely eloquent.
"Ah, France!" she said, so softly that the last word was but a sign
of unutterable tenderness. The old, imperishable early love was not
dethroned; it was there, still before all else. France was without rival
with her.
Then, without another second's pause, she flew from them, and vaulting
into the saddle of a young horse which stood without in the court-yard,
rode once more, at full speed out into the pitiless blaze of the sun,
out to the wasted desolation of the plains.
The order of release, indeed, was in her bosom; but the chances were as
a million to one that she would reach him with it in time, ere with the
rising of the sun his life would have set forever.
All the horror of remorse was on her; to her nature the bitter jealousy
in which she had desired vengeance on him seemed to have rendered her a
murderess. She loved him--loved him with an exceeding passion; and only
in this extremity, when it was confronted with the imminence of death,
did the fullness and the greatness of that love make their way out of
the petulant pride and the wounded vanity which had obscured them.
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