Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/290

Rh dropped beside the dog on the hay, and let his head sink on his hands. He was beneath the same roof with her; the knowledge made his heart beat thickly, and his temples throb. But—how to save her? It would be as dangerous to wrench her from the jaws of the Church as to rend an antelope from a panther's jaws and talons. Yet his teeth ground together under the sweeping darkness of his beard, his hand felt for the butts of his belt-pistols. "I can die with her at least." he thought, "and send some of her foes to damnation first"

His love was too fervent and too true not to be pagan in its longing and his vengeance.

The half-hour soon passed as he sat lost in thought, feverish, tempestuous, conflicting; the Umbrian brother came to him.

"Our supper is ready, my brother; it is richer than common, thanks to your woodcraft and your angling."

Erceldoune followed him, leaving the hound at guard.

A long arched stone corridor led to the refectory, a desolate, dimly-lit hall of the same rough-hewn stone, with a few feeble oil-lamps flickering in the great sea of gloom. The board was simply spread with fried fish and a simmering soup, in which the