Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/152

Rh "No; you shall not die by Bourbon steel for me. I am known well in the country; the story of my arrest must be common to all now. This masque dress, which is all they left me, would draw curiosity at once. Yon look like a marinaro; you can hire the boat unsuspected, you can steer here, and, once here, with our pistola at their foreheads we can make the sailors take what way we will. Go. I shall fire if any danger come. You will hear the shot far in this still air."

"Is there no other way?"

"None. Leave me—there is no fear. And, in truth, I could not move farther yet. I am worn out at last."

She spoke faintly, wearily, and a grey hue stole over all her face, as she leaned her head upon her arm, her eyes lustreless, and with their lids heavily drooped, looking outward at the sea, whose grave she coveted. The fearlessness that had challenged death; the force that had endured any torture rather than purchase peace by the betrayal of comrades; the high and dauntless spirit that had laughed at danger, and loved peril for its very hazard's sake: these, which would never have yielded to any tyranny, or pang, or jeopardy that could have tried them, were unstrung and