one
before his tent.

For some time he walked regularly backwards and forwards, looking
anxiously down the westward lines of the encampment, and occasionally
whispering to himself a hasty exclamation of doubt and impatience.
With the first breath of the new morning, the delighting meditations
which had occupied him by his watchfire during the darkness of the
night had begun to subside. And now, as the hour of her expected return
gradually approached, the image of Goisvintha banished from his mind
whatever remained of those peaceful and happy contemplation in which he
had hitherto been absorbed. The more he thought on his fatal
promise--on the nation of Antonina--on his duties to the army and the
people to whom he belonged, the more doubtful appeared to him his
chance of permanently protecting the young Roman without risking his
degradation as a Goth, and his ruin as a warrior; and the more sternly
and ominously ran in his ears the unassailable truth of Goisvintha's
parting taunt--'You must remember your promise, you cannot save her if
you would!'

Wearied of persisting in deliberations which only deepened his
melancholy and increased his doubts; bent on sinking in a temporary and
delusive oblivion the boding reflections that overcame him in spite of
himself, by seeking--while its enjoyment was yet left to him--the
society of his ill-fated charge, he turned towards his tent, drew aside
the thick, heavy curtains of skins which closed its opening, and
approached the rude couch on which Antonina was still sleeping.

A ray of sunlight, fitful and struggling, burst at this moment through
the heavy clouds, and stole into the opening of the tent as he
contemplated the slumbering girl. It ran its flowing course up her
uncovered hand and arm, flew over her bosom and neck, and bathed in a
bright fresh glow, her still and reposing features. Gradually her
limbs began to move, her lips parted gently and half smiled, as if in
welcome to the greeting of the light; her eyes slightly opened, then
dazzled by the brightness that flowed through their raised lids,
tremblingly closed again. At length thoroughly awakened, she shaded
her face with her hands, and sitting up on the couch, met the gaze of
Hermanric fixed on her in sorrowful examination.

'Your bright armour, and your glorious name, and your merciful words,
have remained with me even in my sleep,' said she, wonderingly; 'and
now, when I awake, I see you before me again!