ature, and did indeed in some sort hate him, yet
this hatred was only love reversed.

And now, when she saw him humbled by the terrible misfortunes of the
Gothic army and the failure of all his plans--to which failure she had
so greatly contributed by her own treason--so humbled, that his mind
had begun to be affected by sickly melancholy, and he tormented himself
with reproaches; the sight powerfully affected her impulsive nature,
strangely compounded as it was of the contradictory elements of
tenderness and harshness.

In the first moment of angry grief, she would have seen his blood flow
with delight. But to see him slowly devoured by self-reproach and
gnawing pain that she could not endure.

This softer feeling on her part had, besides, been greatly brought
about by her having noticed, since their arrival in Ravenna, a change
in the King's behaviour towards herself.

She thought that she observed in him traces of remorse for having so
forcibly encroached upon her life, and she involuntarily softened her
harsh and blunt manner to him during their rare interviews, which
always took place in the presence of witnesses.

Witichis considered the change as a sign that a step had been taken
towards reconciliation, and silently acknowledged and rewarded it, on
his part, by a more friendly manner.

All this was sufficient to induce Mataswintha, with her emotional
nature, to repulse the overtures of the Prefect, even when they
sometimes reached her by means of the clever Moor.

Now the Prefect had already learned from Syphax during the march to
Ravenna, that which was known later by other means, namely, that the
Goths expected assistance from the Franks.

He had therefore forthwith renewed his old and intimate relations
with the aristocrats and great men who ruled in the name of the
mock Kings of the Merovingians in the courts of Mettis (Metz),
Aurelianum (Orleans) and Suessianum (Soissons), in order to induce the
Franks--whose perfidy, even then become a proverb, gave good hope that
his efforts would be successful--to renounce the Gothic alliance.

And when the affair had been properly introduced by these friends, he
himself wrote to King Theudebald, who held his court in Mettis,
impressively warning him of the risk he would run if he supported such
a ruined cause as that of the Goths had undeniably become since their
ill-success in the siege of Rome.

This letter had been accompanied by rich gifts to his old frie