gitated entreaty, which jarred upon Hermanric's ear,
as he thought who was the petitioner, and what would be the object of
the petition,--' Have I not been patient throughout the weary journey
from the Alps? Have I not waited for the hour of retribution, even
before the defenceless cities that we passed on the march? Have I not
at your instigation governed my yearning for vengeance, until the day
that should see you mounting those walls with the warriors of the
Goths, to scourge with fire and sword the haughty traitors of Rome?
Has that day come? Is it by this blockade that the requital you
promised me over the corpse of my murdered child, is to be performed?
Remember the perils I dared, to preserve the life of that last one of
my household,--and will you risk nothing to avenge his death? His
sepulchre is untended and solitary. Far from the dwellings of his
people, lost in the dawn of his beauty, slaughtered in the beginning of
his strength, lies the offspring of your brother's blood. And the
rest--the two children, who were yet infants; the father, who was brave
in battle and wise in council--where are they? Their bones whiten on
the shelterless plain, or rot unburied by the ocean shore! Think--had
they lived--how happily your days would have passed with them in the
time of peace! how gladly your brother would have gone forth with you
to the chase! how joyfully his boys would have nestled at your knees,
to gather from your lips the first lessons that should form them for
the warrior's life! Think of such enjoyments as these, and then think
that Roman swords have deprived you of them all!'

Her voice trembled, she ceased for a moment, and looked mournfully up
into Hermanric's averted face. Every feature in the young chieftain's
countenance expressed the tumult that her words had aroused within him.
He attempted to reply, but his voice was powerless in that trying
moment. His head drooped upon his heaving breast, and he sighed
heavily as, without speaking, he grasped Goisvintha by the hand. The
object she had pleaded for was nearly attained;--he was fast sinking
beneath the tempter's well-spread toils!

'Are you silent still?' she gloomily resumed. 'Do you wonder at this
longing for vengeance, at this craving for Roman blood? I tell you
that my desire has arisen within me, at promptings from the voices of
an unknown world. They urge me to seek requital on the nation who have
widowed and bereaved me--yonde