Then, with
a stifled cry, he caught her to him. For a moment she lay, palpitant,
within his arms, her tall, bronze head on a level with his chin, her
heart beating against his heart. Stooping suddenly, he kissed her on the
lips. She suffered it with an unresistance that invited. But when it
was done, she gently put him from her; and he, obedient to her slightest
wish, curbed the wild ardour of his mood, and set her free.
"Anima mia!" he cried rapturously. "You are mine now, betide what may.
Not Gian Maria nor all the dukes in Christendom shall take you from me."
She set her hand upon his lips to silence him, and he kissed the palm, so
that laughing she drew back again. And now from laughter she passed to a
great solemnity, and with arm outstretched towards the ducal camp: "Win
me a way through those lines," said she, "and bear me away from Urbino--
far away where Guidobaldo's power and the vengeance of Gian Maria may not
follow us--and you shall have won me for your own. But until then, let
there be a truce to--to this, between us. Here is a man's work to be
done, and if I am weak as to-night, I may weaken you, and then we should
both be undone. It is upon your strength I count, Franceschino mio, my
true knight."
He would have answered her. He had much to tell her--who and what he
was. But she pointed to the head of the steps, where a man's figure
loomed.
"Yonder comes the sentinel," she said. "Leave me now, dear Francesco.
Go.
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