"Oh, my child, my child!" he moaned, as the full might and meaning of
this devotion which had saved him at such cost rushed on him. "What am
I worth that you should perish for me? Better a thousand times have left
me to my fate! Such nobility, such sacrifice, such love!"
The hot color flushed her face once more; she was strong to the last to
conceal that passion for which she was still content to perish in her
youth.
"Chut! We are comrades, and you are a brave man. I would do the same for
any of my Spahis. Look you, I never heard of your arrest till I heard,
too, of your sentence----"
She paused a moment, and her features grew white and quivered with pain
and with the oppression that seemed to lie like lead upon her chest. But
she forced herself to be stronger than the anguish which assailed her
strength; and she motioned them all to be silent as she spoke on while
her voice still should serve her.
"They will tell you how I did it--I have not time. The Marshal gave his
word you shall be saved; there is no fear. That is your friend who bends
over me here?--is it not? A fair face, a brave face! You will go back to
your land--you will live among your own people--and she, she will love
you now--now she knows you are of her Order!"
Something of the old thrill of jealous dread and hate quivered through
the words, but the purer nobler nature vanquished it; she smiled up in
his eyes, heedless of the tumult round them.
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