I should return. I will do your bidding, and depart
for the camp (but not till the break of day), while you, Antonina,
remain in concealment and in safety here. None can come hither to
disturb you. The Goths will not revisit the fields they have already
stripped; the husbandman who owns this dwelling is imprisoned in the
beleaguered city; the peasants from the country beyond dare not
approach so near to the invading hosts; and Goisvintha, whom you dread,
knows not even of the existence of such a refuge as this. Here, though
lonely, you will be secure; here you can await my return, when each
succeeding night gives me the opportunity of departing from the camp;
and here I will warn you beforehand, if the city is devoted to an
assault. Though solitary, you will not be abandoned--we shall not be
parted one from the other. Often and often I shall return to look on
you, and to listen to you, and to love you! You will be happier here,
even in this lonely place, than in the former home that you have lost
through your father's wrath!'

'Oh! I will willingly remain--I will joyfully await you!' cried the
girl, raising her beaming eyes to Hermanric's face. 'I will never
speak mournfully to you again; I will never remind you more of all that
I have suffered, and all that I have lost! How merciful you were to
me, when I first saw you in your tent--how doubly merciful you are to
me here! I am proud when I look on your stature, and your strength,
and your heavy weapons, and know that you are happy in remaining with
me; that you will succour my father; that you will return from your
glittering encampments to this farm-house, where I am left to await
you! Already I have forgotten all that has happened to me of woe;
already I am more joyful than ever I was in my life before! See, I am
no longer weeping in sorrow! If there are any tears still on my
cheeks, they are the tears of gladness that every one welcomes--tears
to sing and rejoice in!'

She ceased abruptly, as if words failed to give expression to her new
delight. All the gloomy emotions that had oppressed her but a short
time before had now completely vanished; and the young, fresh heart,
superior still to despair and woe, basked as happily again in its
native atmosphere of joy as a bird in the sunlight of morning and
spring.

Then, when after an interval of delay their former tranquility had
returned to them, how softly and lightly the quiet hours of the
remain