She was gone!
Carried off by a man I had reason to believe she hated, and whom God send
she might have no motive to hate more deeply hereafter!
The ugly thought swelled until it blotted out all others, and in its train
there came a fury upon me that drove me to do by instinct that which
earlier I should have done by reason. I climbed back into the saddle, and
away across the meadow I went, journeying at an angle with the road, my
horse's head turned in the direction of Blois. That road at last was
gained, and on I thundered at a stretched gallop, praying that my hard-used
beast might last until the town was reached.
Now, as I have already said, I am not a man who easily falls a prey to
excitement. It may have beset me in the heat of battle, when the fearsome
lust of blood and death makes of every man a raving maniac, thrilled with
mad joy at every stab he deals, and laughing with fierce passion at every
blow he takes, though in the taking of it his course be run. But, saving
at such wild times, never until then could I recall having been so little
master of myself. There was a fever in me; all hell was in my blood, and,
stranger still, and hitherto unknown at any season, there was a sickly fear
that mastered me, and drew out great beads of sweat upon my brow.
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