the days of Theodoric.

He drove the Byzantines out of all the towns of Italy, with one fatal
exception.

He won back the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicilia.

And still more: he victoriously crossed the old limits of the kingdom,
and, as the Emperor obstinately refused recognition of the Gothic rule
and possession, sent his royal fleet to carry terror and devastation
into the provinces of the Eastern Empire.

And Italy, in spite of the continuance of the war--which was never
quite extinguished--bloomed under his government as in the time of
Theodoric.

It is remarkable that the legends both of the Goths and Italians
celebrate this fortunate King, now as the grandchild of Numa Pompilius,
Titus, or Theodoric, now as the spirit of the latter, returned to earth
in youthful form, to restore and bless his well-beloved kingdom.

As the morning sun, issuing from the clouds of night, irresistibly
spreads light and blessing abroad, so Totila's arms brought happiness
to Italy.

The dark shadows retreated step by step at his approach. Victory flew
before him, and the gates of the cities and the hearts of men opened to
him almost without a struggle.

The manly qualities--the genius of a general and a ruler--which had
slumbered in this fair youth, which were only guessed at by Theodoric
and Teja, and known to their full extent to no one, were now gloriously
displayed.

The youthful freshness of his nature, far from being destroyed by the
hard trials of the last years, by the sufferings which he had endured
in Neapolis and before Rome, by the long absence from his beloved
Valeria, from whom he was parted farther and farther by every fresh
victory of the Byzantines, had only deepened into more earnest
manliness. The bright sympathy of his manner remained, and cast the
charm of amiability and heartfelt kindness over all his actions.

Sustained by his own ideality, he tamed trustingly to the ideal in his
fellow-men; and almost all, except those governed by some diabolical
power, found his confident appeal to what was noble and good
irresistible.

As light illumines whatever it shines upon, so the noble-heartedness of
this glorious King seemed to communicate itself to his courts to his
associates, and even to his adversaries.

"He is irresistible as Apollo!" said the Italians.

More closely regarded, we find that the secret of his great and rapid
success lay in the genial art with which--following the inmost impul