Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/126

Rh if ever we are free, you shall be lord of all I own. Ah! you only care to be lord of myself? Do you think that I do not know that? But I shall care to crown you, and give you such purples as I have. You are royal to the very core of your fearless, kingly heart; and you shall reign over my kingdom, such as ít is, if ever we can reach it."

They went out into the stillness of the forest, so still that they might have been alone in an unpeopled world. Here and there through the network ,of branches the flushed sky glowed as fire; darkness already had fallen on the slopes of the hills, behind which the sun had sunk down; on the foam of the waters opposite gleams and breadths of prismatic colour still sparkled; the evening air was heavy with fragrance, and under the foliage the lucciole began to glimmer. Erceldoune went towards the grazing horses, tethered in camp fashion by a long heel-rope, beneath the cedars; she followed him, stroking the neck of the brave sorrel that had borne her with such unflagging speed through the whole of the past night.

"Carry me as bravely again, caro," she murmured to him, drawing the silken mane through her hand. "Take me to freedom, and you shall have such pathless meadows of wild grass to wander in, eastward, at