Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/190

Rh friendships are too perilous. Look you; I had a friend once, an Austrian, though I bear Austria no love. We had been lads together in Venetia, and the war-feuds failed to divide us. I think he was the brightest and the bravest nature I have ever known. Well, in an evil hour he fell, as you have done, under the eyes of Idalia. He had a military secret in his keeping; a secret, granted, that was of import to Italy, so perhaps you will deem what she did was justified for Italy's sake. I might have done so, had I not known him from his boyhood; I might have done;—who touches politics fast grows a knave. Well, she sunned him in her smiles, till sense and judgment both were gone—as yours are gone. Then, while she promised him her beauty as its price, she stole his secret from him—bought it with those caresses you believe are only yours—and, when his honour was yielded up to her, turned him adrift with a laugh at his weakness. Ah! that is Miladi's way! So—I saw him shot one sunny summer dawn; with the balls in his throat, fired by a volley of his own Cuirassiers. Politically, we owed her much; personally, I never in my soul could trust the woman who betrayed Hugo."

Erceldoune shook through all his limbs; the spasm not alone of rage but of a more cruel emotion.