d the savage treachery of the Court of Rome, had inspired her
with feelings of devotion towards the last of her household which
almost bordered on insanity. And, now that her beloved charge, her
innocent victim, her future warrior, had, after all her struggles for
his preservation, pined and died; now that she was childless indeed;
now that Roman cruelty had won its end in spite of all her patience,
all her courage, all her endurance; every noble feeling within her
sunk, annihilated at the shock. Her sorrow took the fatal form which
irretrievable destroys, in women, all the softer and better
emotions;--it changed to the despair that asks no sympathy, to the
grief that holds no communion with tears.

Less elevated in intellect and less susceptible in disposition, the
change to sullenness of expression and abruptness of manner now visible
in Hermanric, resulted rather from his constant contemplation of
Goisvintha's gloomy despair, than from any actual revolution in his own
character. In truth, however many might be the points of outward
resemblance now discernible between the brother and sister, the
difference in degree of their moral positions, implied of itself the
difference in degree of the inward sorrow of each. Whatever the trials
and afflictions that might assail him, Hermanric possessed the
healthful elasticity of youth and the martial occupations of manhood to
support them. Goisvintha could repose on neither. With no employment
but bitter remembrance to engage her thoughts, with no kindly
aspiration, no soothing hope to fill her heart, she was abandoned
irrevocably to the influence of unpartaken sorrow and vindictive
despair.

Both the woman and the warrior stood together in silence for some time.
At length, without taking his eyes from the dusky, irregular mass
before him, which was all that night now left visible of the ill-fated
city, Hermanric addressed Goisvintha thus:--

'Have you no words of triumph, as you look on the ramparts that your
people have fought for generations to behold at their mercy, as we now
behold them? Can a woman of the Goths be silent when she stands before
the city of Rome?'

'I came hither to behold Rome pillaged, and Romans slaughtered; what is
Rome blockaded to me?' replied Goisvintha fiercely. 'The treasures
within that city will buy its safety from our King, as soon as the
tremblers on the ramparts gain heart enough to penetrate a Gothic camp.
Where is the vengeance t