CHAPTER SIXAfter the Prince left Paulina, he had walked back to The Palace where he ordered a horse to be brought from the stables.
While he was waiting for it, he told one of the aides-de-camp to inform the Czar that he had gone riding and regretted that he might not be back in time for dinner and hoped that His Imperial Majesty would excuse him from being present.
When the horse arrived, it was a spirited animal that was still not completely broken in, and the Prince rode off, determined to try to ease the tumult in his mind and heart by violent exercise.
He rode until his mount was sweating and he himself felt breathless.
When he was then obliged to conform to a more ordinary pace, his thoughts and feelings swept over him like a flood tide.
How could he have imagined, he asked hims
