And from the shadows of the old buildings into which she disappeared
there rose in the stillness of the night a singular, long-drawn cry,
which at first he took for laughter, but which later he was sure he
recognised as the almost human wailing of a cat.


V

For a long time Vezin leant there against the wall, alone with his
surging thoughts and emotions. He understood at length that he had done
the one thing necessary to call down upon him the whole force of this
ancient Past. For in those passionate kisses he had acknowledged the tie
of olden days, and had revived it. And the memory of that soft
impalpable caress in the darkness of the inn corridor came back to him
with a shudder. The girl had first mastered him, and then led him to the
one act that was necessary for her purpose. He had been waylaid, after
the lapse of centuries--caught, and conquered.

Dimly he realised this, and sought to make plans for his escape. But,
for the moment at any rate, he was powerless to manage his thoughts or
will, for the sweet, fantastic madness of the whole adventure mounted to
his brain like a spell, and he gloried in the feeling that he was
utterly enchanted and moving in a world so much larger and wilder than
the one he had ever been accustomed to.

The moon, pale and enormous, was just rising over the sea-like plain,
when at last he rose to go. Her slanting rays drew all the houses into
new perspective, so that their roofs, already glistening with dew,
seemed to stretch much higher into the sky than usual, and their gables
and quaint old towers lay far away in its purple reaches.