"It is the truth!"
Through the forest aisles rode the Duke of Spoleto.
He saw and paused.
"I return beyond the Alps to join the forces of Rudolf of Hapsburg. My men are at your disposal. I shall wait for you on yonder hillock."
He wheeled about and was gone.
Again silence held for a pace.
Presently Ilaria gave a great sigh and looked strangely at the sun.
"I have dreamed a dream," she crooned, "and all was dark and fearful. Death seemed near; lurid phantoms,—things from hell! I knew not what I did, nor where I wandered, nor what strange stupor held my soul. All my being cried out to you—yet all was dark about me, horrible midnight, peopled with foul forms! Oh, that night,—that night—"
Shivering, she covered her eyes as if trying to banish the memory.
"It has passed," she breathed after a pause, during which Francesco had taken her in his arms, kissing her eyes, her lips, and the sylph-like, flower-soft face. "I see the dawn!"