drops upon the white
sand of the square.

All were silent; a deathlike stillness pervaded the wide space; the
people held their breath until the hapless King stood before
Belisarius.

Deeply moved, the Roman General, too, found no words, but kindly
extended his right hand to the man before him. Gelimer now raised his
large eyes, saw Belisarius in all the glitter of gold and armor,
glanced quickly around the three sides of the square, beheld the
magnificence and pomp of warlike splendor, the victors' banners
fluttering high in the air, on the ground the standards and sparkling
royal treasure of the Vandals. Suddenly--we all started as this corpse
burst into such wild emotion--he flung both hands, with their long gold
chain, above his head, clasping them so that the metal clashed; the
cross slipped from his grasp; he uttered a shrill, terrible laugh.

"Vanity! _All_ is vanity!" he shrieked, and threw himself prone upon
the sand just at the feet of Belisarius.

"Is this illness?" whispered the General to me.

"Oh, no," I answered in the same tone. "It is despair--or piety. He
thinks that life is not worth living; everything human, everything
earthly, even his people and his kingdom are sinful, vain, empty. Is
this the last word of Christianity?"

"No, it is madness!" cried Belisarius the hero. "Up, my brave warriors!
Let the tubas blare again, the Roman tubas which echo through the
world! To the harbor! To the ships! And to the triumph--to
Constantinople!"

F E L I C I T A S

By FELIX DAHN
_Author of_ "_The Scarlet Banner_"

Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford. $1.50

* * * * *

It tells of a lovely wife named Felicitas, of her husband's inscription
of her name upon the threshold of her home, and of the happiness that
came to them in spite of Roman wickedness and German invasion.--_Boston
Journal_.

A charming idyl of the period when the Germans were forcing themselves
and their ideals upon the Roman Empire.... Felix Dahn is perhaps the
greatest historical novelist of Germany.--_The Churchman_.

Care, elevated purity of tone, and just balance distinguish it from
many hastily thrown off and perfervid romances of the day.--_Boston
Transcript_.

The charm of it lies in this admirable picture of innocence and
happiness amid the chaos of a fallen civilization.--_The Ind