noon
More than once he had been about to reveal his trouble to Alfieri ; but shame restrained him when he remembered that it was Alfieri who had vouched for his discretion . After his conversation with Trescorre he had tried to find some way of sending a word of warning to Vivaldi ; but he had no messenger whom he could trust ; and would not Vivaldi justly resent a warning from such a source ? He felt himself the prisoner of his own folly , and as he rode along the wet country roads an invisible gaoler seemed to spur beside him . The clouds lifted at noon ; and leaving the plain he mounted into a world sparkling with sunshine and quivering with new-fed streams . The first breath of mountain-air lifted the mist from his spirit , and he began to feel himself a boy again as he entered the high gorges in the cold light after sunset . It was about the full of the moon , and in his impatience to reach Donnaz he resolved to push on after nightfall . The forest was still thinly-leaved , and the rustle of wind in the branches and the noise of the torrents recalled his first approach to the castle , in the wild winter twilight .