ins;
but let not the weary repine, for the glorious resting-place that
awaits our labours is the city of Rome! The curse of Odin, when in the
infancy of our nation he retired before the myriads of the Empire, it
is our privilege to fulfil! That future destruction which he denounced
against Rome, it is ours to effect! Remember your hostages that the
Romans have slain; your possessions that the Romans have seized; your
trust that the Romans have betrayed! Remember that I, your king, have
within me that supernatural impulse which never deceives, and which
calls to me in a voice of encouragement--Advance, and the Empire is
thine! Assemble the warriors, and the City of the World shall be
delivered to the conquering Goths! Let us onward without delay! Our
prey awaits us! Our triumph is near! Our vengeance is at hand!'

He paused; and at that moment the trumpet gave signal for the march.

'Up! up!' cried Hermanric, seizing Goisvintha by the arm, and pointing
to the waggon which had already begun to move; 'make ready for the
journey! I will charge myself with the burial of the child. Yet a few
days and our encampment may be before Aquileia. Be patient, and I will
avenge thee in the palaces of Rome!'

The mighty mass moved. The multitude stretched forth over the barren
ground; and even now the warriors in front of the army might be seen by
those in the rear mounting the last range of passes that lay between
the plains of Italy and the Goths.

CHAPTER 2.

THE COURT.

The traveller who so far departs from the ordinary track of tourists in
modern Italy as to visit the city of Ravenna, remembers with
astonishment, as he treads its silent and melancholy streets, and
beholds vineyards and marshes spread over an extent of four miles
between the Adriatic and the town, that this place, now half deserted,
was once the most populous of Roman fortresses; and that where fields
and woods now present themselves to his eyes the fleets of the Empire
once rode securely at anchor, and the merchant of Rome disembarked his
precious cargoes at his warehouse door.

As the power of Rome declined, the Adriatic, by a strange fatality,
began to desert the fortress whose defence it had hitherto secured.
Coeval with the gradual degeneracy of the people was the gradual
withdrawal of the ocean from the city walls; until, at the beginning of
the sixth century, a grove of pines already appeared where the port of
Augustus once existed.