Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 3).djvu/220

 felt sure, or had buried it somewhere on the moors, to get it when she chose.

And this dead woman's body—if it were not the cover of some crime, why should such a corpse be hid here thus?

No; he was resolute; to justice she should go, away to Orbetello. They would take the dead body in its deal box with them, and the corpse of the little child wrapped in its linen, and let the judges see. He persuaded himself and them that he was acting from pure rectitude and horror of crime; in truth he would never have cared though a hundred corpses had rotted there if he had found the gold vases, the gold platters, the gold chains. Aloud he said that those who would desecrate a sepulchre would do any other sin; such were best dealt with and put aside by law. He washed his hands of it.

So he went out into the sunny air, and bade his men lift her, bound as she was, upon the ox-cart.

But, although bound, she revolted so fiercely at their touch that they were frightened and hung back.

'What have I done?' she cried to them.

'Waste no words on her,' said the