But it is
right that I should ask leave from you to whom I altogether
belong." Many a covert sigh and sob marked the separation. But
the eyes of none were keen enough, nor the ears of any sharp
enough, to learn from what he saw and heard that there was any
love between these two. Cliges, in spite of the grief he felt,
took his leave at the first opportunity. He is full of thought
as he goes away, and so are the emperor and many others who stay
behind. But more than all the others, Fenice is pensive: she
finds no bottom or bound to the reflections which occupy her, so
abundantly are her cares multiplied. She was still oppressed
with thought when she arrived in Greece. There she was held in
great honour as mistress and empress; but her heart and mind
belong to Cliges, wherever he goes, and she wishes her heart
never to return to her, unless it is brought back to her by him
who is perishing of the same disease with which he has smitten
her. If he should get well, she would recover too, but he will
never be its victim without her being so as well. Her trouble
appears in her pale and changed colour; for the fresh, clear, and
radiant colour which Nature had given her is now a stranger to
her face. She often weeps and often sighs. Little she cares for
her empire and for the riches that are hers.
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