e
flowery glade where they laid them down. Through the whole of the night
the brook rippled and the nightingales sang, and the moon shone so
brightly that no one could have thought of sleep, not at least two who
had so much to confide to each other, and knew not whether there would
be time for it on the following day. When the morning drew near, and
the dew began to fall, and a cooler air swept through the wood,
Garcinde arose and said, while a shudder passed over her, "It is
growing cold, my husband. I think we ought to go home." "Where?" asked
he, looking at her in amazement, but she smiled.

"Only come," said she, "I will show you. Can I have any other home than
thine?" With that she took his arm and led him out of the wood, and
over the bridge back into his tower.

"Here let me rest," said she, as she seated herself on his mother's
bed. "Here I would fain sleep for an hour until the sun rises. But
leave me alone, my beloved, otherwise we shall go on talking, and I
shall not be able to close an eye. And give me your song-book too, I
should like to read a verse or two before I fall asleep. And now, one
good-night kiss, and then go! Oh, Jaufret, I love thee more than my
life! Are we not two happy beings to have enjoyed such bliss that
nothing can trouble us. And if we lived a hundred years, could time
make us richer in joys when we have drunk from the cup of eternal
blessedness?" Once more he embraced the lovely one, and kissed her long
and fervently on her mouth. Then he left her alone.

An hour later the cock crew. But it did not wake the youth who lay in
the rose-garden, his cloak thrown over him, smiling in his dream as
though he were inwardly happy, and murmuring the name of his young
wife. Neither did it wake the sleeper in the turret-room, whose lips
were half-open as though they, too, would pronounce a name, but all was
still as death in the dim chamber.

It was only when the sun had already risen over the tops of the trees,
that Aigleta came by with weary eyes and pale face, listless and
absorbed in her own thoughts. When she saw Geoffroy lying in the
garden, she was horror-stricken as though she had seen a ghost, and it
was only when she ascertained that he was breathing that she bent down
to wake him. "You still here?" she whispered. "And where is--your
wife?"

He sprang up in haste, and without answering a word, rushed to his
turret. When he opened the door, he gave a cry like a man mortally
wounded,