g, with a rough laugh.

'I betray the city,' resumed the man sternly, 'but on one condition;
grant it me, and--'

'I will grant you your life,' interrupted Alaric haughtily.

'My life!' cried the Roman, and his shrunken form seemed to expand, and
his tremulous voice to grow firm and steady in the very bitterness of
his contempt, as he spoke. 'My life! I ask it not of your power! The
wreck of my body is scarce strong enough to preserve it to me a single
day! I have no home, no loves, no friends, no possessions! I live in
Rome a solitary in the midst of the multitude, a pagan in a city of
apostates! What is my life to me? I cherish it but for the service of
the gods, whose instruments of vengeance against the nation that has
denied them I would make you and your hosts! If you slay me, it is a
sign to me from them that I am worthless in their cause. I shall die
content.'

He ceased. The king's manner, as he listened to him, gradually lost
the bluntness and carelessness that had hitherto characterised it, and
assumed an attention and a seriousness more in accordance with his high
station and important responsibilities. He began to regard the
stranger as no common renegade, no ordinary spy, no shallow impostor,
who might be driven from his tent with disdain; but as a man important
enough to be heard, and ambitious enough to be distrusted.
Accordingly, he resumed the seat from which he had risen during the
interview, and calmly desired his new ally to explain the condition, on
the granting of which depended the promised betrayal of the city of
Rome.

The pain-worn and despondent features of Ulpius became animated by a
glow of triumph as he heard the sudden mildness and moderation of the
king's demand; he raised his head proudly, and advanced a few steps, as
he thus loudly and abruptly resumed:--

'Assure to me the overthrow of the Christian churches, the
extermination of the Christian priests, and the universal revival of
the worship of the gods, and this night shall make you master of the
chief city of the empire you are labouring to subvert!'

The boldness, the comprehensiveness, the insanity of wickedness
displayed in such a proposition, and emanating from such a source, so
astounded the mind of Alaric, as to deprive him for the moment of
speech. The stranger, perceiving his temporary inability to answer
him, broke the silence which ensued and continued--

'Is my condition a hard one? A conqueror i