Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/310

Rh wrath against her for one whose fell temptations had been so fatal and so ruthless.

She made no resistance; she never felt the grating of the leathern thongs upon her wrists; she had lost all consciousness of personal suffering; she had come to deliver up her life for his, and the sacrifice was given too late. She had no knowledge left her save this, no heed for whatsoever they might do to her, though she had given herself back to a worse captivity than the prison of the grave. As the leash with which the soldiers coupled them like hounds was pulled tighter, her hand touched his. He shuddered as he had never done when the mosquito had thrust its sting into his unshielded breast.

She felt rather than saw it; it passed through her in tenfold bitterness. This man, who had held himself unworthy to touch but the hem of her garment, who had deemed himself blessed as with the gift of gods if her eyes but dwelt with a smile on his, now shrank from the contact of her hand as from pollution, from iniquity!

"Take me away," she moaned, wearily. "Would you chain him to his murderess?"

They hesitated, and looked towards their chief.

"Leave me, and take him down!" she said, with