And now the song of Bernard de Ventadour, the sweet minstrel who followed Elinor of Guienne, occurred to me:—
'I thought my heart had known the whole
Of love; but small its knowledge proved;
For still the more my longing soul
Loves on, itself the while unloved.
She stole my heart, myself she stole,
And all I prized from me removed;
She left me but the fierce control
Of vain desires for her I loved!'
How lonely, voiceless, and silent seemed that moonlit landscape to me then!
Nicola was indeed gone!
* * * * * *
CHAPTER XLIV.
TAKEN PRISONER.
In my cloak-bag at the auberge I had left the king's dispatches, addressed to Sir John Hepburn and to the Duc de Lavalette, together with the case containing the baton of a marechal of France, destined for the former; but I forgot everything, save the desperate hope of rescuing Nicola and of tracking her betrayers.
I made a hundred vows of vengeance on De Bitche, whom I was one moment resolved to challenge to a solemn duel; and at another, to pistol without ceremony when or wherever I met him.
A group of dark figures on the roadway now appeared about half-a-mile before me; and the gleam of steel informed me that they were armed. I hastened forward full of new hope and a fierce joy. Some of those persons were on foot, and others on horseback; their number seemed to be about twenty, and they marched in military order. As I gained on them, they halted; and then I perceived that two of the horsemen returned to reconnoitre. On drawing nearer, I could reckon ten mounted troopers, and ten musketeers on foot; but there was not a female with them.