'What frightened him?' she asked.
'A hawk flew-by,' said Sabran.
'A hawk, flying low enough for a horse to see it? It must be wounded.'
He did not answer, and they quickened their pace, as the sun sunk behind the glaciers of the west.
When he returned to the monastery the evening had closed in; the lantern was lit at his boat's prow. Dinner was prepared for him, but he ate little. Later the moon rose; golden and round as a bowl. It was a beautiful spectacle as it gave its light to the amphitheatre of the mountains, to the rippling surface of the lake, to the stately, irregular lines of the castle backed by the blackness of its woods. He sat long by the open window lost in thought, pondering on the great race which had ruled there. L'honneur parle: il suffit, had been their law, and she who represented them held a creed no less stern and pure than theirs. Her words spoken in their ride were like a weight of ice on his heart. Never to her, never, could he confess the errors of his past. He was a man bold to temerity, but he was not bold enough to risk the contempt of Wanda von Szalras. He had never much heeded right or wrong, or much believed in such ethical distinctions, only adhering to the conventional honour and good breeding of the world, but before her his moral sense awakened.
'The Marquis Xavier would bid me go from here,' he thought to himself, as the night wore on and he heard the footfall of the monks passing down the passages to their midnight orisons.
'After all these years in the pourriture of Paris, have I such a thing as conscience left?' he asked his own thoughts, bitterly. The moon passed behind a cloud and darkness fell over the lake and hid the great pile of the Hohenszalrasburg from his sight. He closed the casement and turned away. 'Farewell!' he said, to the vanished castle.
'Will you think of me sometimes, dear Princess, when I am far away?' said Sabran abruptly the next morning to his best friend, who looked up startled.
'Away? Are you going away?'
'Yes,' said Sabran, abruptly; 'and you, I think, madame, who have been so good to me, can guess easily why.'