any misuse of his bounty, or extravagance in the
granting of rations, the King himself superintended the distribution;
and Mataswintha, who one day met him among the groups of grateful
people, placed herself near him upon the marble steps of the Basilica
of Saint Apollonaris, and helped him to fill the baskets with bread.

It was a touching sight to see this royal pair standing before the
church doors, distributing their gift to the people.

As they were standing thus, Mataswintha remarked among the crowd--for
many country-people had fled to the city from all sides--sitting upon
the lowest step of the Basilica, a woman in a simple brown mantle,
which was half drawn over her head.

This woman did not press forward with the others to demand bread, but
leaned against a high sarcophagus, with her head resting upon her hand,
and, half concealed by the corner pillar of the Basilica, looked
sharply and fixedly at the Queen.

Mataswintha thought that the woman was restrained by fear, pride, or
shame, from mixing with the more importunate beggars who pushed and
crowded each other upon the steps, and she gave Aspa a basket of bread,
telling her to go down and give it to the woman. With care she heaped
up the sweet-scented bread with both her hands.

As she looked up, she met the eye of the King, which rested upon her
with a more soft and friendly expression than she had ever seen before.

She started slightly, and the blood rushed into her cheeks as she cast
down her beautiful eyes.

When she again looked up and glanced towards the woman in the brown
mantle, she perceived that the place by the sarcophagus was empty. The
woman had disappeared.

She had not observed, while filling the basket, that a man, clad in a
buffalo-skin and a steel cap, who had been standing behind the woman,
had caught her arm and drawn her away with gentle violence.

"Come," he had said; "this is no place for thee."

And, as if in a dream, the woman had answered:

"By God, she is wonderfully lovely!"

"I thank thee, Mataswintha," said the King, in a friendly manner, when
the rations for the day had been distributed.

The look, the tone, the words, penetrated her heart.

Never before had he called her by her name; he had ever met and spoken
to her only as the "Queen."

How happy those few words from his mouth had made her; and yet how
heavily his kindness weighed upon her guilty soul!

Evidently she had earned his more affectionate feeli