But even if I were wrong--even if she did hate me--what a fresh revulsion would not be hers when anon she learnt that--whatever my sins--I had not played lightly with her love; that I was not, as she had imagined, the betrothed of another woman! The thought fired me like wine.

I was no longer listless--no longer indifferent as to whether I lived or died.

I must live.

I must enlighten the Keeper of the Seals and the judges at Toulouse concerning my identity.

Why, indeed, had I ever wavered?
Bardelys the Magnificent must come to life again, and then--What then?
As suddenly as I had been exalted was I cast down.