Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/116

 not talk any more, and be not afraid. Here no one will come—you are safe!'

'Safe!' he echoed, with so poignant a despair that it struck her heart with cold as if his three-edged dagger of Florence had pierced it. 'No; I can never more be safe on earth, though I wander as long as Ahasuerus. There is nothing more to tell; you can guess what my life has been—hiding and creeping away through all this green land, for ever afraid of every sound, of every breeze, of every leaf! I came down here without knowing I was near you, and then by certain landmarks that I saw I recognised the place of the tombs that Mastarna had described to me, and I resolved to throw myself upon your mercy, and in your absence I crept down the steps. I was very faint; I have eaten nothing but berries several days, and I have an open wound on my shoulder. A month or more ago the soldiers were near enough to me to fire at me, and they hit me; though it is but a flesh wound it does not close, and it is painful. I have lain out many nights on your moors, and men used to say that it was death to do that. I have doubled like the fox; the soldiers believe me gone to the