Odo, questioning him, learned that at the village on the shore below
they could obtain a boat to carry them across the lake. Fulvia, for lack
of a passport, dared not set foot on Austrian soil; but the Swiss
authorities were less exacting and Odo had hopes of crossing the border
without difficulty. They set out again presently, descending through the
grey dusk of the olives till the path became too steep for riding; then
Odo lifted Fulvia from the saddle and led the two horses after her. Here
and there, between the trees, they caught a momentary glimpse of lights
on the shore and the pale gleam of the lake enclosed in black foliage.
From the village below came snatches of song and the shrill wail of a
pipe; and as the night deepened they saw, far out on the water, the wild
flare of the fish-spearers' torches, like comets in an inverted sky.
With nightfall the spirits of both had sunk. Fulvia walked ahead in
silence and Odo read a mute apprehension in her drooping outline. Every
step brought them nearer to the point they both feared to face, and
though each knew what lay in the other's thoughts neither dared break
the silence. Odo's mind turned anxiously to the incidents of the
morning, to the finding of the ducal coat-of-arms, and to all the
possibilities it suggested. What errand save one could have carried an
envoy from Pianura to that remote hamlet among the hills? He could
scarcely doubt that it was in pursuit of himself that the ducal
messenger travelled; but with what object was the journey undertaken?
Was he to be recalled in obedience to some new whim of the Duke's? Or
had some unforeseen change--he dared not let his thoughts define
it--suddenly made his presence needful in Pianura? It was more probable
that the possibility of his flight with Fulvia had been suggested to the
Duke by the ecclesiastical authorities, and that the same hand which had
parted them before was again secretly at work.
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