my mother's severity relaxed when I met
her harshness with gentleness; and daily all hearts were turned to me
more kindly, as I became more tender. And for all this I had to thank
him. He had saved me from rushing into shame and misery, and had won
for me a whole world of love. Since then I have lived, and live, only
for him."

And she ceased, and laid her hand upon her beating heart.

"But, mistress, when did you see or speak to him again? Does your love
live on such scanty nourishment?"

"I have never spoken to him again, and have only seen him once. On the
day of Theodoric's death, he commanded the guards of the palace, and
Athalaric told me his name; for I had never dared to inquire about him,
lest my flight, and ah! my secret, should be discovered. He was not at
court; and if he sometimes came there, I was away."

"So thou knowest nothing further of him? of his life; of his past?"

"How could I inquire! My blushes would have betrayed me. Love is the
child of silence and of longing. But I know all about his--about _our_
future."

"About his future?" laughed Aspa.

"Yes. At every solstice there used to come to the court an old woman
named Radrun, and she received from King Theodoric strange herbs and
roots, which he sent for from Asia and the Nile purposely for her. She
had asked for this as the sole reward for having foretold his fortune
when a boy, and everything had been fulfilled. She brewed potions and
mixed salves; they called her in public 'the woman of the woods,' but
in private, 'the Wala, the witch.' And we at court knew--all except the
priests, who would have forbidden it--that every summer solstice, when
she came, the King let her prophesy to him the events of the coming
year. And when she left him, I knew that my mother, Theodahad, and
Gothelindis, called her and questioned her, and what she foretold
always came to pass. So the next solstice I took heart, watched for the
old woman, and when I found her alone, enticed her into my room, and
offered her gold and shining stones if she would tell me my fortune.
But she laughed, and drew forth a little flask made of amber. 'Not for
gold, but for blood!' she said, 'the pure blood of a king's child.' And
she opened a vein in my left arm, and received the blood into her amber
flask. Then she looked at both my hands, and said, 'He whom thou
holdest in thy heart will give thee glory and good fortune, will bring
thee paralysing pain, will be thy consort, but