Now he would play the part of an honest man;
his heart throbbed at the thought.
But all this time his eyes were fixed upon the closed vehicle,
behind which he rode; and was it indeed the thought of having gained
freedom which made his heart so strangely beat? He pushed his horse
as near as possible to the carriage; he rode beside it; he stretched
out his hand and touched it. As soon as the nature of the road
permitted, he gave an order to make better speed, and his horse
began to trot; he thought less of the danger from which he was
fleeing than of the place of rest where Veranilda would step down
from the carriage, and he would look upon her face.
Under the great white moon, the valley into which they were
descending lay revealed in every feature, and the road itself was as
well illumined as by daylight. On they sped, as fast as the mules
could be driven. Near or far sounded from time to time the howl of a
wolf, answered by the fierce bark of dogs in some farm or village;
the hooting of owls broke upon the stillness, or the pipe of toads
from a marshy hollow.
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