"Ah! now I believe that thine Allah rules thee, equally with Christians!
If I live, thou shalt see me back ere another night; if I die, France
will know how to thank thee!"
"We do not do the thing that is right for the sake that men may
recompense us," he answered her gently. "Fly to thy friend, and
hereafter do not judge that those who are in arms against thee must
needs be as the brutes that seek out whom they shall devour."
Then, with one word in his own tongue, he bade the horse bear her
southward, and, as swiftly as a spear launched from his hand, the animal
obeyed him and flew across the plains. He looked after a while, through
the dim, tremulous darkness that seemed cleft by the rush of the gallop
as the clouds are cleft by lightning, while his tribe sat silent on
their horses in moody, unwilling consent; savage in that they had been
deprived of prey, moved in that they were sensible of this martyrdom
which had been offered to them.
"Verily the courage of a woman has put the best among us unto shame,"
he said, rather to himself than them, as he mounted the stallion brought
him from the rear and rode slowly northward; unconscious that the thing
he had done was great, because conscious only that it was just.
And, borne by the fleetness of the desert-bred beast, she went away
through the heavy, bronze-hued dullness of the night. Her brain had no
sense, her hands had no feeling, her eyes had no sight; the rushing of
waters was loud on her ears, the giddiness of fasting and of fatigue
sent the gloom eddying round and round like a whirlpool of shadow.
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