The slaves from whom Lygia had been taken he sent to rural prisons,--a punishment almost more dreadful than death.

Throwing himself at last on a couch in the atrium, he began to think confusedly of how he was to find and seize Lygia.
To resign her, to lose her, not to see her again, seemed to him impossible; and at this thought alone frenzy took hold of him.

For the first time in life the imperious nature of the youthful soldier met resistance, met another unbending will, and he could not understand simply how any one could have the daring to thwart his wishes.

Vinicius would have chosen to see the world and the city sink in ruins rather than fail of his purpose.

The cup of delight had been snatched from before his lips almost; hence it seemed to him that something unheard of had happened, something crying to divine and human laws for vengeance.
But, first of all, he was unwilling and unable to be reconciled with fate, for never in life had he so desired anything as Lygia.