r her
shoulder; "tears upon the book of comfort! But what do I see--the
'Iliad?' Child, I gave you the Evangelists!"

"Pardon me, Cassiodorus; my heart clings to other gods than yours. You
cannot imagine how, the more the shadow of earnest self-denial presses
upon me since I entered these walls, the more tenaciously my resisting
heart holds fast to the last ties that bind me to the world. And my
mind vacillates between disgust and love."

At this moment a loud and cheerful sound broke the silence; a strange
tone in these quiet precincts, which usually echoed only the low choral
of the nuns.

Trumpets sounded the merry signal of the Gothic horsemen. The tones
penetrated Valerians heart with a life-giving feeling. The gatekeeper
came running from the dwelling-house.

"Master," he cried, "bold horsemen are outside the gate. They make a
noise and demand meat and drink. They will not be refused, and their
leader--there he is!"

"Totila!" cried Valeria, and flew to meet her lover, who appeared in
his glittering armour and white mantle. "Oh, you bring me air and
life!"

"And new hope and old love!" said Totila, and held her in a fast
embrace.

"Whence come you? How long you have been away!"

"I come straightway from Paris and Aurelianum, from the courts of the
Frank kings. Oh, Cassiodorus, how well off are those on the other side
of the mountains! What an easy life have they! There heaven and earth
and tradition do not fight against their German spirit. The Rhenus and
Danubius are near, and uncounted Germanic races dwell there in old and
unbroken strength; we, on the contrary, are like an advanced outpost, a
forlorn hope, a single block of rock, worn away by the envious
elements. But all the greater fame," he continued, drawing himself up,
"if we can create and uphold a kingdom for the Germans in the centre of
the country of the Romans! And what a magic lies in your fatherland,
Valeria! And we have made it ours. How my heart rejoiced when olives
and laurels and the deep deep blue of heaven again greeted my eyes! I
felt that if my people can victoriously sustain themselves in this
wondrous land, mankind will see its noblest ideal realised."

Valeria pressed his hand.

"And what have you accomplished?" asked Cassiodorus.

"Much! Everything! At the court of the Merovingian, Childebert, I
met with ambassadors from Byzantium, who had already half persuaded
him to invade Italy as their allies. The gods--forgive me, pi