Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 2).djvu/201

 beside her, I saw that you loved her; and for her sake, perhaps, you will free me.'

'Free you!'

Daniello stared at him in amaze, forgetting how absolutely the one single longing to escape filled all the thoughts, and ate up all the soul, of this mountain-eagle, who was caged by the hot sea-shore.

The heart of Saturnino had thrilled with a sudden memory of tenderness as he had seen the girl in whom he had recognised Serapia's daughter; but far stronger and more absorbing in him was his own thirst for deliverance. It was aimost the only instinct left in him, and the few weeks that he had been free on his own hills in the summer before—all wretched, hungry, filled with fear, and compelled to concealment, though they were—had been so sweet to him, that night and day since he had been captured afresh he had meditated escape; schemed for it, lived for it, scarcely felt the heat of the sun or the cold of the wind, the aching of his old wounds or the lash of the overseer's whip, for thinking every moment—could he get away?

He would have torn himself from his trap as the eagle does, leaving its foot