She forgot his imposture--everything.
"Ah, dear, dear monsieur!" she said brokenly.
He knew her voice, he heard her coming; his eyes opened wide, and he
raised himself on the couch with a start. The effort loosened the bandage
at his neck, and blood gushed out on his bosom.
With a convulsive motion he drew up the coverlet to his chin, to hide the
red stream, and said gaspingly:
"Pardon, madame."
Then a shudder passed through him, and with a last effort to spare her
the sight of his ensanguined body,' he fell face downward, voiceless--for
ever.
The very earth seemed breathing. Long waves of heat palpitated over the
harvest-fields, and the din of the locust drove lazily through. The far
cry of the king-fisher, and idly clacking wheels of carts rolling down
from Dalgrothe Mountain, accented the drowsy melody of the afternoon. The
wild mustard glowed so like a golden carpet, that the destroying hand of
the anxious farmer seemed of the blundering tyranny of labour. Whole
fields were flaunting with poppies, too gay for sorrow to pass that way;
but a blind girl, led by a little child, made a lane through the red
luxuriance, hurrying to the place where vanity and valour, and the
remnant of an unfulfilled manhood, lay beaten to death.
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