"Forget _that_? I?" He shuddered and
closed his eyes. Then, rousing himself by a violent effort from the
burden of his gloomy thoughts, he went on: "Still your firmly rooted
delusion! Always this distrust of the most faithful among all who love
me!"

"Oh, brother! But I will not upbraid you; your clear mind is blinded,
blinded by this priest! It seems as if there were some miracle at
work--"

"It _is_ a miracle," interrupted Gelimer, deeply moved, raising his
eyes devoutly.

"But what say you to the fact that this Pudentius, whom you, too, do
not trust, is admitted to the city secretly at night--by whom? By
Verus, your bosom friend!"

"That is not true."

"I have seen it. I will swear it to the priest's face. Oh, if only he
were here now!"

"He is not far away. He told me--he was the first one of you all to
greet me at the parade--that he longed to see me, he must speak to me
at once. I appointed this place; as soon as the King dismissed me I
would be here. Do you see? He is already coming down the colonnade."

CHAPTER VI

The tall, haggard priest who now came slowly into the hall was several
years older than Gelimer. A wide, dark-brown upper garment fell in
mantle-like folds from his broad shoulders: his figure, and still more
his unusually striking face, produced an impression of the most
tenacious will. The features, it is true, were too sharply cut to be
handsome; but no one who saw them ever forgot them. Strongly marked
thick black brows shaded penetrating black eyes, which, evidently by
design, were always cast down; the eagle nose, the firmly closed thin
lips, the sunken cheeks, the pallid complexion, whose dull lustre
resembled light yellow marble, combined to give the countenance
remarkable character. Lips, cheeks, and chin were smoothly shaven, and
so, too, was the black hair, more thickly mingled with gray than seemed
quite suited to his age,--little more than forty years. Each of his
rare gestures was so slow, so measured, that it revealed the rigid
self-control practised for decades, by which this impenetrable man
ruled himself--and others. His voice sounded expressionless, as if from
deep sadness or profound weariness, but one felt that it was repressed;
it was a rare thing to meet his eyes, but they often flashed with a
sudden fire, and then intense passion glowed in their depths. Nothing
that passed in this man's soul was recognizable in his features; only