nd longing overcame him, and sinking
into a chair, he buried his face in his hands.

It was well that he did so, for it spared him the sight of the Queen's
sudden start, and the Medusa-like expression which convulsed her
features.

But the sound of a fall made him spring from his seat.

Mataswintha lay upon the ground. Her left hand grasped the broken arm
of the chair near which she had fallen, while her right was pressed
convulsively upon the mosaic floor. Her pale face was bent down; her
splendid golden hair, loosed from its bonds, flowed over her shoulders;
her mobile nostrils quivered.

"Queen!" cried Witichis, bending to lift her up, "what ails thee?"

But before he could touch her, she started up, swift as a serpent, and
stood erect.

"It was only a weakness--which is already over," she panted.
"Farewell!"

She tottered to the door, and, closing it behind her, fell senseless
into Aspa's arms.

During all this time, the mysteriously threatening appearance of the
atmosphere had increased.

The little cloud which Cethegus had remarked the day before, had been
the forerunner of an immense black wall of vapour which had arisen in
the east during the night, and which, since morning, had hovered
gloomily, as if brooding destruction, over the city and the greater
part of the horizon.

In the south, however, the sun shone with an intolerable heat from a
cloudless sky.

The Gothic sentries had doffed their helmets and armour; they preferred
to expose themselves to the arrows of the enemy rather than suffer the
unbearable heat.

There was not a breath of air. The east wind, which had brought up the
wall of cloud, had dropped again.

The sea was grey and motionless; not a leaf of the poplars in the
palace garden moved.

The animal world, silent the day before, was uneasy and terrified. Over
the hot sands on the shore swallows, seagulls, and marsh-birds
fluttered hither and thither, without cause or aim, flying low above
the ground, and often uttering shrill cries.

In the city the dogs ran whining out of the houses; the horses tore
themselves loose from their halters and, snorting impatiently, kicked
and pranced; cats, asses, and mules uttered lamentable cries; and three
of the dromedaries belonging to Belisarius killed themselves in their
frantic efforts to get loose.

Evening was approaching. The sun was about to sink below the horizon.

In the Forum of Hercules a citizen was sitting upon the marbl