wolf-skin.

"Yes. She is like a black panther, or like this country: beautiful,
passionate, treacherous, and deadly. Come, Theudigisel! Let us go to
the lake too. Most of the Vandals are gathering there. We shall have an
opportunity to know them thoroughly. Here is a shorter foot-path,
leading across the turf."

"Stay! don't stumble, my lord! What is lying there directly across the
way?"

"A soldier--in full armor--a Vandal!"

"And sound asleep in the midst of all this uproar."

"He must be very drunk."

The older man pushed the prostrate figure with the handle of his spear.

"Who are you, fellow?"

"I?--I?" The startled warrior propped himself on one elbow; he was
evidently trying to think. "I believe I am--Gunthamund, son of
Guntharic."

"What are you doing here?"

"You see. I am on guard. What are you laughing at? I am on guard to
prevent any carousing in the grove. Where are the others? Have you no
wine? I am horribly thirsty." And he sank back in the tall soft grass.

"So these are the guards of the Vandals! Do you still counsel, my brave
duke, as you advised,--beyond the sea?"

The other, shaking his head, followed silently. Both vanished in the
throng of people who were now pressing from every direction toward the
lake.

CHAPTER XII

ON the southern shore of this tree-girdled water, opposite to the
little harbor, walled with marble, into which it ran at the northern
end, were high board platforms hung with gay costly stuffs, erected for
specially distinguished guests, who were numbered by hundreds; a
balcony draped with purple silk, extending far out into the sea, was
reserved for the most aristocratic spectators.

Now the soft moonlight resting on the mirrorlike surface of the lake
was suddenly outshone by a broad red glare, which lasted for several
minutes. As it died away, a blue, then a green light blazed up,
brilliantly illuminating the groups of spectators on the shore, the
white marble buildings in the distance, the statues among the
shrubbery, and especially the surface of the lake itself and the
magnificent spectacle it presented.

From the harbor, behind whose walls it had hitherto remained concealed,
glided a whole flotilla of boats, skiffs, vessels of every description:
ten, twenty, forty vessels, fantastically shaped, sometimes as
dolphins, sometimes as sharks, gigantic water birds, often as dragons,
the "banner-beast" of the Vandals. Masts, yar