"As Volinè spoke, what this our parting really meant, burst upon me in all its awful nakedness, and a great sigh of agony escaped unbidden from my heart. The hour had sped, and we must part. In all human probability, we were to see each other no more! No more! I clasped her yet more tightly to me, and felt her lovely form trembling like a frightened bird's in my embrace. Her bosom heaved in sorrow, as I tenderly kissed her tears away, and smoothed her yellow tresses, which, like a web of spun gold, hung loose and careless over my arm. For a few brief moments thus together in silence, and then, as I kissed her once more, she broke gently from my embrace, and in sorrow walked slowly away, turning round as she did so, and sobbing said:
"'Keep a stout heart, dear Harry. My prayers are said for thee; for I am all thine own. Remember Echri's ring, and fare thee well. Beloved—fare—thee—well!'
"She was gone! and I, with arms stretched out in entreaty towards her, stood desolate and alone in my sore despair! For several moments I stood as though turned to stone, calling her name in the empty garden, and repeating aloud those touching words of Byron's:
"'Fare thee well, and if for ever,
Still for ever, fare thee well!'
But only the stars and the trees and the fountains heard me—she whom I addressed, was gone! Like some fair meteor she had rushed across my path, dazzled and attracted me during her fleeting stay beyond all power of resistance, and then as suddenly vanished from me, and left me in a chaos of misery and sorrow!
"'May God in His mercy to me blot out from my memory the agony of this parting in the garden of Siccoth; for I can never know happiness again so long as its terrors haunt me,' I prayed aloud in my woe, with face turned upwards to the starlit sky.
"How I got back to the archway, and crept along the passage and up the steps to the sliding panel, I know not, for I went my way as one in a walking sleep, with all strength sapped from my trembling frame.
"Kaosp was awaiting my return in great anxiety, for the hour was already gone, and every moment he dreaded to hear the tramp of the guard coming to relieve him and his men.
"'Keep silent, and follow me with haste,' he whispered, 'or too late I shall repent me of lending willing ears to a woman's supplications. By great good fortune the guard is late, or this night's work would be known to my ruin!'
"'I am really sorry, Kaosp, that I have rewarded your good nature by jeopardizing your safety and your honour—but the hour has seemed so short!'