Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/25

14 beneath them; under mighty aisles o£ oak and cypress, where no path led save such as the rush of their gallop forced between the breaking boughs, they held their way through the twilight haze that deepened to blackest gloom where the woods closed above, and lightened to silvery lustre where the plains stretched out unbroken. All memory of danger, all sense of danger had fallen from them; on her the dreamy night silence and the passionate sweetness of freedom rested; with him tbere was no thought remaining save that he alone held his place by her bridle-rein, that he alone had delivered her out of her bondage. In the calm around them all was at rest save their own hearts, save their own flight that held on for the same goal; all human Ufe except their own seemed banished from the world, and the slumber-hushed earth left only to them; through ravine and woodland, througk vineyard and valley, under the overhanging brow of lonely cliffs, and across the swaying bridge of giddy heights they rode together; and while the flickering light flashed down through parted leaves upon her beauty, and ever and again as he swept on beside her he met the gleam of her eyes through the shadows, he who loved her felt drunk with his joy. What cared he though he