stom had yet power enough to prevail
over the promptings of pity. He called to the girl--withdrawing his
arm which had hitherto been her support,--'Go, have mercy on me, go!'

But she neither heeded nor heard him. She fell on her knees at the
woman's feet, and in a low moaning voice faltered out:--

'What have I done that I deserve to be slain? I never murdered your
children; I never yet saw a child but I loved it; if I had seen your
children, I should have loved them!'

'If I had preserved to this time the child that I saved from the
massacre, and you had approached him,' returned the woman fiercely, 'I
would have taught him to strike at you with his little hands! When you
spoke to him, he should have spat upon you for answer--even thus!'

Trembling, exhausted, terrified as she was, the girl's Roman blood
rushed over her pale cheeks as she felt the insult. She turned towards
Hermanric, looked up at him appealingly, attempted to speak, and then
sinking lower upon the ground, wept bitterly.

'Why do you weep and pray and mouth it at him?' shrieked Goisvintha,
pointing to Hermanric with her disengaged hand. 'He has neither
courage to protect you, nor honour to aid me. Do you think that I am
to be moved by your tears and entreaties? I tell you that your people
have slain my husband and my children, and that I hate you for that. I
tell you that you have lured Hermanric into love for a Roman and
unfaithfulness to me, and I will slay you for doing it! I tell you
that there is not a living thing of the blood of your country, or the
name of your nation, throughout the length and breadth of this empire,
that I would not destroy if I had the power! If the very trees on the
road hither could have had feeling, I would have torn the bark from
their stems with my own hands! If a bird, native of your skies, had
flown into my bosom from very tameness and sport, I would have crushed
it dead at my feet! And do you think that you shall escape? Do you
think that I will not avenge the deaths of my husband and my children
upon you, after this?'

As she spoke, she mechanically unclenched her hands. The knife dropped
to the ground. Hermanric instantly stooped and secured it. For a
moment she stood before him released from his grasp, motionless and
speechless. Then, starting as if struck by a sudden idea, she moved
towards the opening of the tent, and, in tones of malignant triumph,
addressed him thus:--

'You shall not