result however was always the same; their nerves relaxed and the two fighters fell half dead into each other's arms, for passion had made them drunk as with wine. Finally, when for the last time he drew his blunted sword from her sheath his seed was in her womb, and my father was conceived.
On the morrow she had however the full certainty of her fall, and nothing was left to lessen the keenness of her grief save the thought that she had thoroughly enjoyed herself during that night of perfect bliss, proving thereby the fallacy of Dante's saying: that no sorrow is greater than the remembrance of happy times in misery.
Stili the shame of having given up her body to the first man that had wanted it was no less poignant. The thought that—in her wakeful state—she had yielded tamely, nay eagerly, to the stings of desire was an unbearable one.
She had succumbed of her own free will; would she be able to resist on the morrow? Now that she was glutted and surfeited with lechery, now that she was alone, of
71
