She laughed as she thought that the man about whom her arms were thrown like a lover she was luring to his destruction. That very night--before or after the joys of love; what cared she for that?--there would be between him and that other a struggle as of wild beasts, which she longed to see; a witches' carnival of love, to rejoice the souls of the dead; and she laughed. "Queens," said she, "cannot leave their kingdoms without issuing secret orders. Come, my beast!" Was she speaking to the man or the horse?--To the man, doubtless, in whom she had awakened an animal like herself. She pressed him tighter, and again she whispered: "Come, come!" He felt the vampire's breath playing in the short hair on his neck and descending in hot flushes to his feet, which were nervously tapping his horse's flanks. Renaud trembled. His passion had taken possession of him once more in all its intensity. It seemed as if a hurricane were raging in man and horse alike. They started off at full speed. Renaud believed that he had a victim in his grasp, but he was himself the victim, and he rode away with the witch clinging fast to him--as the kite sometimes flies away with the serpent, thinking that he has mastered it, only to be strangled in its folds at last. XXI HERODIAS They galloped across the plain. At every step, Renaud felt the gentle pressure of the woman's arm. Zinzara and Renaud galloped away upon Livette's horse! Of what was the drover thinking? Was she girl or woman? His pride made him persist, in spite of himself, in wishing that she might be the former, although it seemed hardly probable, heathen females mature so early! A breath of air blew in their faces. It brought to their nostrils the pungent smell of tamarisk blossoms. He slackened his horse's pace. "Go on, go on!" said she, "press on! We will talk later--by ourselves, romi, where nobody can see us." The horse darted forward afresh. Renaud was conscious of a vague yet overmastering feeling of pride in being there, in trampling the grass of the plain with four feet, in knowing no obstacles, in having that woman close beside him--and, over yonder, another! One would run risks and be false to the traditions of her race for his sake. The other, if she should know, might die of the knowledge. And, although he loved her, the thought caused a thrill of savage joy, but he promptly repressed it. Luckily, however, she would know nothing of it. And he became intoxicated with the rapid movement and with pride, man and beast combined, fairly launched upon his mad career. Magnificent was the sky, studded with more stars than the dunes have grains of sand and the desert waving flowers clinging to the twigs of the _saladelles_. The Milky-Way was as white as the pyramids of salt seen through the morning mist. One would have said that a vast bridal veil, torn in strips, was floating above the whole plain, alive with murmurs of love.