urn away from
thee. Rauthgundis goes to save her people and her husband's honour.
Thou canst never tear away thy heart from me; I know that mine it will
remain, now more than ever! Go, Hildebrand and Teja, what we two have
now to go through, will admit of no witness."

The two men silently left the place; silently they went together down
the lane of tents; at the corner the old man stopped.

"Good-night, Teja," he said; "it is now done!"

"Yes; who knows if well done? A noble, noble sacrifice! Many more will
follow, and, meseems there, in the stars, it stands written--in vain!
But for honour then, if not for victory! Farewell."

He drew his dark mantle closely round his shoulders, and disappeared
like a shadow into the night.

CHAPTER XVII.

The next morning, before cockcrow, a veiled woman rode out of the camp.
A man in a brown war-mantle walked beside her, holding her horse's
bridle, and ever and again looking into her veiled face.

At an arrow's length behind them rode a servant, with a bundle at his
back, where hung a heavy club.

They went on their way for some time in silence.

At last they reached a woody eminence; behind them lay the broad plain
where stood the Gothic camp and the city of Ravenna; before them, to
the north-west, the road which led to the Via AEmilia.

The woman checked her horse.

"The sun is just rising. I have sworn that it shall find thee free.
Farewell, my Witichis!"

"Hurry not so away from me," he said, pressing her hand.

"I must keep my word if my heart breaks! It must be!"

"Thou goest more easily than I remain!"

She smiled painfully.

"I leave my life behind me; thou hast yet a life before thee."

"And what a life!"

"The life of a King for his people, as thine oath demands."

"Fatal oath!"

"It was right to swear it; it is a duty to keep it. And thou wilt think
of me in the gilded halls of Rome, as I of thee in my hut, deep in the
ravine. Thou wilt not forget thy wife, nor the ten years of our faith
and love, nor our sweet boy."

"Oh, my wife, my wife!" cried the tortured man, pressing his face
against the saddle-bow, and putting both arms around her.

She bent over him and laid her hand upon his head.

Meanwhile Wachis had overtaken them; he looked at the group for a short
time, and then he could bear it no longer.

He pulled his master gently by the mantle.

"Master, listen; I can give you good advice. Do you not hear