Why do they believe in it? Why do
they--why do they know--for they must, they do know, that I have this
power, that I am the one to succeed where any one else would fail? Why
have they left Hermione in my hands to-night?"
The ice was gone. The lightning flash lit up a man warm with the
breath of life. From the gaunt door of the abandoned palace the strip
of black cloth, the tragic words above it, dropped down and
disappeared.
Suddenly Artois knew why Vere believed in his power, and why Gaspare
believed in it--knew how their instincts had guided them, knew to what
secret knowledge--perhaps not even consciously now their knowledge--
they had travelled. And he remembered the words he had written in the
book at Frisio's on the night of the storm:
"La Conscience, c'est la quantite de science innee que nous avons en
nous."
He had written those words hurriedly, irritably, merely because he had
to write something, and they chanced--he knew not why--to come into
his mind as he took hold of the pen.
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