ll sophistries and all influences in the fierce
resolve of the self-love which has made Fedalma the one aim, glory, and
crown of his life. Throughout all the apparent struggle and uncertainty,
we never doubt how all shall end. Amid all the appearances of
vacillation, all the seeking external aid and furtherance, we see that
the resolve is fixed, that the eager passionate self which identifies
Fedalma as its inalienable right and property will prevail--prevail even
to set aside every obstacle of duty and right which shall seem to
interpose between it and realisation.

Equally and profoundly characteristic is the position he mentally takes
up with regard to the Gypsy chief, as well as Fedalma herself. Not
simply or primarily from mere arrogance of rank does he assume it as a
certainty that he has but to find Fedalma to win her back to his side;
that he has but to lay before Zarca the offer of his rank, wealth, and
influence on behalf of the outcast race, to win him to forego his purpose
and to surrender the daughter whom he has called to the same lofty aim.
It is because of the impossibility, swayed and tossed by the self-will of
passion as he is, of his rising to the height of their nobleness; the
impossibility of his realising natures so possessed by a great, heroic,
self-devoting thought, that hope, joy, happiness become of little or no
account in the scale, and even what is called success dwindles into
insignificance, or fades away altogether from regard.

The first betrayal of his trust, the first fall from truth and honour,
has been accomplished. Conscience has begun to succumb to self--self
under the guise of Fedalma and the overmastering self-will which refuses
to resign his claim upon her. He has secretly deserted his post,
transferring to another's hands the trust which was his, and only his. A
slight offence it may appear--a mere error of judgment swayed by devoted
love--to leave for a day or two when no danger seems specially impending,
and to leave in the hands of the trusted and loving friend the charge
committed to him. A slight offence, but it has been done in direct
violation of conscience, and so in practical abnegation of God. Therefore
the flood-gate is opened, and all sweeps swiftly, resistlessly,
remedilessly on towards catastrophe.

The tender beauty of the brief scene with Fedalma is for her overcast,
and hope, the highest hope, dies out within her, when she knows that her
lover, in appar