Looking about her, Marpasse saw a white horse lying dead upon the hillside, and something that moved half under and half beside it, with the whimpering cry of a child. Marpasse stumbled forward, for one foot had been bruised, and found Death sitting upon the carcase of the white horse. Isoult lay there with the beast’s body upon her legs, and her back broken. She could stretch out her hands to Marpasse, with a shuddering spasm of cursing that was piteous and futile.
“Curse Simon, and his bulls, curse Gaillard, the great coward! I am done for, and this white hog, this devil’s bitch lies on my legs like a rock. Hold off, great fool. Do I want to be pulled about when my back’s broken, and my ribs are pricking my liver.”
Marpasse tried to drag her clear of the horse, but Isoult’s screams and curses sobered her. She saw that Isoult was near her end, crushed like a wild cat in the steel jaws of a trap. The girl, too, had the spiteful valour of a cat, and pushed Marpasse’s hands away when she tried to fondle her.
“None of your spittle,” she said, biting her lips with the anguish in her; “it is jolly, I tell you, to be trampled into the dirt! Just the sort of end I was made for. Who cares? Oh, yes, I shall go straight to hell.”
She chattered on at random, laughing, sneering, and biting her lips. Marpasse sat by her, her heart full of inarticulate and half-angry pity.
“What are you sitting there for, great fool? There is that red-headed Denise of yours; you left me for her; I know, Gaillard told me the story. Oh yes, you had what you wanted, Messire Gaillard, you held me in your arms, devil; you saw me trampled on, and rode after the red head. God curse you, my Gaillard, you bundle of burning straw in a body of clay. Tell me, Marpasse, are not we women accursed fools?”
She began to curse Gaillard bitterly under her breath. Marpasse saw a change come over her, for she seemed to grow thinner and greyer in the dusk. A great sob gathered in Marpasse’s throat. She fell a-weeping, and hung dearly over Isoult.
“There, child, what does it avail? Lie in my arms now, and fall asleep.”
Isoult ceased her cursing suddenly, and shuddered a little as she felt Marpasse’s tears falling upon her face. Her black eyes became dark, and very wistful.
“What are you weeping for, great fool?”