The Ascent of GolgothaTwenty or thirty minutes elapsed. Véronique was still alone. The cords cut into her flesh; and the rails of the balcony bruised her forehead. The gag choked her. Her knees, bent in two and doubled up beneath her, carried the whole weight of her body. It was an intolerable position, an unceasing torture . . . . Still, though she suffered, she was not very clearly aware of it. She was unconscious of her physical suffering; and she had already undergone such mental suffering that this supreme ordeal did not awaken her drowsing senses.
She hardly thought. Sometimes she said to herself that she was about to die; and she already felt the repose of the after–life, as one sometimes, amidst a storm, feels in advance the wide peace of the harbour. Hideous things were sure to h
