d, in a niche in the wall, stood the little
earthen lamp; it threw its mild light over the pillow. By its red
glimmer, he perceived the infant near the bed of the mother in a wicker
cradle.

The beautiful sleeper had loosened her abundant light-brown hair; it
flowed over her naked shoulders and splendidly curved, though delicate
bosom, from which the woollen covering had half slipped.

The dazzlingly white left arm she had placed behind her head and neck;
the right hand covered, as if protecting, the left breast. The intruder
stepped quite close. So ravishingly beautiful he had not seen her, when
awake; and the serious eyes now closed no longer maintained a strict
watch.

The full lips were half opened; he inhaled the sweet breath of her
mouth. The young man trembled from head to foot.

"Only one kiss," thought he, "and it shall not awake her."

He was already bending softly over her face. The beautiful lips then
moved, and in her sleep she said tenderly:

"Come, O my Fulvius; kiss me!"

With the speed of lightning, Liuthari turned, sprang lightly across
Haduwalt on the threshold, then down the steps into the garden, clasped
his two hands before his eyes, and murmured:

"Oh, what wickedness might I not have done!"

He fell on his knees, and hid his feverish head in the dewy grass.
Repentance, pain, unstilled longing, surged together within him, and
were at length dissolved in a salutary stream of tears. Long lay he
thus. At last the youth of the exhausted, wounded man asserted itself
beneficially; he sank into a deep, dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER XX.

When the next morning the summer sun rose magnificently over Juvavum,
and the golden oriole began its flute-like song, young Liuthari sprang
up, a healed and a wiser man.

The wound in his arm no longer pained, and his imagination, which had
been much more excited than his heart, was stilled.

No longer dissatisfied with himself, joyful and composed, he first
cooled his face in the spring, and then, carefully hiding the wounded
arm under his mantle, he walked up the steps into the outer room.
Haduwalt, yawning and stretching up both his arms, received him with
the words:

"But thou hast long slept. And I--I think I have not closed my eyes the
whole night."

"But perhaps the ears!" laughed Liuthari. "Where is the mistress? I am
hungry."

"Here am I," cried Felicitas. "I will bring you directly fresh-laid
eggs, and mil