Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/384

Rh him from out the fire-glow, and stooped, and severed the bonds that bound him, and lefb him free; and none dared touch that which she had made sacred, but stood mute, and afraid, as those who stand ín the presence of a soul that is greater than their own. And the man who had sinned against her, fell at her feet.

"Oh, God! If I had known you as I know you now!"

"You never had betrayed me. No!—Live, then, to be true to greater things than I." While the night was still young, a ship glided southward through the wide white radiance of the moon. The waters stretched, one calm and gleaming sheet of violet hues; from the fast-retreating shore a fair wind came, bearing the fragrance of a thousand hills and plains, of golden fruits and flowers of snow, and passion-blossoms of purple, and the scarlet heart of ripe pomegranates; through the silence sounded the cool fresh ripple of the waves as the vessel left her track upon the phosphor-silver, and above, from a million stars, a purer day seemed to dawn on all the aromatic perfumes of the air, and all the dim unmeasured freedom of the seas. And she, who went to freedom, looked, and looked,