me level--was naturally much smaller. At the head of this
party stood the Queen.

This woman Cethegus now sought to uphold in the possession of power;
for her feminine, weak, and divided government was calculated to
undermine the strength of the nation, to excite party spirit and
discontent, and to exclude all augmentation of national feeling.

Cethegus trembled at the thought that he might see an energetic man
unite the strength of the whole nation. And often the traits of
sublimity which occasionally were to be seen in Amalaswintha, and,
still more, the fiery sparks of repressed feeling which sometimes
blazed out in Athalaric's soul, caused him serious uneasiness. Should
mother and son betray such feelings more frequently, then, certainly,
he would be compelled to overthrow their government as zealously as he
had hitherto upheld it.

Meanwhile he rejoiced in the unlimited command which he possessed over
the mind of Amalaswintha. It had been easy for him to gain it; not only
because he, with great subtlety, took advantage of her predilection for
learned discussions--in which he was so often vanquished by the
seemingly superior knowledge of the Princess that Cassiodorus, who was
a witness of their arguments, could not refrain from regretting that
the genius of Cethegus, once so brilliant, had rusted for want of
practice--but he had touched the proud woman on a much more sensitive
subject.

Her great father had been blessed with no son; only this one daughter
had been born unto him. The wish for a male heir had been often heard
in the mouths of the King and of his people, and had penetrated to the
daughter's ears in her childish years. It outraged the feelings of the
highly-gifted girl that, merely on account of her sex, she should be
put lower than a possible brother, who, as a matter of course, would be
more capable and more worthy of governing. So, when a child, she often
wept bitter tears because she was not a boy. Of course, as she grew up,
she only heard the offensive wish from the lips of her father; every
other mouth praised the wonderful talent, the manly spirit and courage
of the brilliant Princess. And these praises were not flattery;
Amalaswintha was, indeed, a wonderful creature. The strength of her
will, the power of her intellect, her love of authority, and cold
abruptness of manner, far exceeded the limits which generally bound the
sphere of feminine grace. The consciousness that when her hand was
be