You had fooled me,
I thought; even in that hour I imagined you were fooling me; you
made light of me; and my sufferings were naught to you so that I
might give you some amusement to pass the leisure and monotony of
your sojourn with us."
"Roxalanne - my poor Roxalanne!" I whispered.
"Then my bitterness and sorrow all turned to anger against you.
You had broken my heart, and I thought that you had done it
wantonly. For that I burned to punish you. Ah! and not only that,
perhaps. I think, too, that some jealousy drove me on. You had
wooed and slighted me, yet you had made me love you, and if you
were not for me I swore you should be for no other. And so, while
my madness endured, I quitted Lavedan, and telling my father that
I was going to Auch, to his sister's house, I came to Toulouse and
betrayed you to the Keeper of the Seals.
"Scarce was the thing done than I beheld the horror of it, and I
hated myself. In my despair, I abandoned all idea of pursuing the
journey to Auch, but turned and made my way back in haste, hoping
that I might still come to warn you. But at Grenade I met you
already in charge of the soldiers. At Grenade, too I learnt the
truth - that you were not Lesperon. Can you not guess something of
my anguish then? Already loathing my act, and beside myself for
having betrayed you, think into what despair I was plunged by
Monsieur de Marsac's intimation.
"Then I understood that for reasons of your own you had concealed
your identity.
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