Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 3.djvu/322

paused; then she heard the muttering of voices, and some change in their guards' position round the waggon, as though uneasiness or insecurity was prevalent amongst the scanty troop. Time seemed endless; but she knew that she might easily err in its reckoning, for the oxen moved with great tardiness, and neither man nor beast could press on with any swiftness till the sun had sunk lower. At her feet Erceldoune lay motionless; she could not see or touch him, she could only listen for each sigh of the painful breath he drew through his aching chest. A feverish lethargy held him insensible. They had screened him from the heat with some broken boughs;—the soldiers compassionated him as the prey of the "evil eye." At times, from the weakness that had followed on the ordeal he had endured, his breathing and the pulsations of his heart were so low, that neither could be detected by her eager ear; she could not tell whether life had ceased or not, and her own heart stood still with a fear that no jeopardy of her own life had ever roused in her. And yet—what would existence, if it lingered in him, be to him! Only an existence dragged out at the galley-oar amidst the companionship of felons. Or,—even if his country and his friends gained freedom for him.—only one