u still call him a barbarian--I will never
become his. I ask nothing of you but this: learn to know him. Decide
for yourself whether my choice be noble. He is beloved by all the
Goths, and all men are friendly to him--surely you alone will not
reject him?"

Again she took her father's hand.

"Oh, learn to know me, Valerius!" begged Totila earnestly, taking his
other hand.

The old man sighed. At length he said: "Come with me to your mother's
grave, Valeria; there it is amongst the cypresses; there stands the urn
containing her heart. Let us think of her--the noblest woman who ever
lived--and appeal to her shade. And if your love prove to be true and
well placed, then I will perform what I have promised."

CHAPTER XXIII.

A few weeks later, we find Cethegus in the well-known room containing
the statue of Caesar, together with our new acquaintance, Petros, the
ambassador of the Emperor Justinian, or rather of the Empress.

The two men had shared a simple meal and had emptied a flask of old
Massikian together, exchanging reminiscences of past times--they had
been fellow-students, as we already know--and had just left the
dinner-room for the study of Cethegus, in order, undisturbed by the
attendants, to talk over more confidential affairs.

"As soon as I had convinced myself," said Cethegus, concluding his
account of late events, "that the alarming reports from Ravenna were
only rumours--perhaps inventions, and, at all events, exaggerated--I
opposed the utmost coolness to the excitement and zeal of my friends.
Lucius Lucinius, with his fiery temper and foolish enthusiasm, almost
spoilt everything. He repeatedly demanded that I should accept the
office of Dictator, and literally put his sword to my breast, shouting
that I should be compelled to serve the fatherland. He let out so many
secrets, that it was fortunate the dark Corsican--who seems to stick to
the Goths, no one knows why--took him to be more drunk than he really
was. At last news came that Amalaswintha had returned, and so people
and Senate gradually became more calm."

"And you," said Petros, "have saved Rome for the second time from the
revenge of the barbarians--a service which can never be forgotten, and
for which all the world, but most of all the Queen, must thank you."

"The Queen--poor woman!" answered Cethegus, shrugging his shoulders.
"Who knows how long the Goths, or your imperial master at Byzantium,
will le