in
the city, and, between the threefold walls, endless rows of workshops
were erected for smiths and armourers of all kinds, who were obliged to
labour day and night, in order to satisfy the demands of the ever
increasing army, and the eager exigence of the King.

All Ravenna had become a camp.

Nothing was heard but the hammers of the smiths, the neighing of
horses, the rattle of arms, and the war-cry of man[oe]uvring troops.

In this turmoil and restless activity Witichis sought to deaden his
grief as well as he could, and looked eagerly forward to the day when
he might lead his brave army to meet the enemy.

But though his first impulse was to lose himself in the vortex of a
fierce struggle, he did not forget his duty as King, but sent Duke
Guntharis and Hildebad to Belisarius with a proposal of peace on the
most moderate conditions.

His time thus completely claimed by affairs of state, Witichis had
scarcely a thought or look to spare for his Queen, upon whom, as he
also imagined, he could bestow no greater favour than the undisturbed
enjoyment of liberty.

But since the fatal marriage feast of Witichis and Mataswintha, at the
end of which she had learned in the bridal chamber, from his lips, that
he did not, could never love her, and had but called her wife to save
the nation, Mataswintha had been possessed by a demon: the demon of
insatiable revenge.

The most deadly hatred is that of revolted love.

From her childhood Witichis had been Mataswintha's ideal. Her pride,
her hope, and her love were all centred in him; and she had as little
doubted that the sun would rise on the morrow, as that her longing for
him would be satisfied. And now she was forced to confess to herself
that he had discovered her passion, and did not reciprocate it; and
that, although she was his Queen, her love for him appeared criminal,
with regard to his banished wife, who yet alone reigned in his heart.

He, whom she had looked upon as her destined liberator from unworthy
bondage, had done her the greatest injury; he had caused her to enter
into a marriage bond without love. He had deprived her of her liberty,
and had refused his heart in exchange.

And wherefore? What had been the cause of this sin? The Gothic kingdom,
and the Gothic crown; for, to uphold these, he had not hesitated a
moment to blast her whole life.

"If he had merely failed to reciprocate my love," she said to herself,
"I should have been too proud to hate