an these entered his heart towards the girl. She was
safe under the protection of the enemy and the barbarian, after having
been lost through the interference of the Roman and the senator.

To the simple perceptions of the Goth, the discovery of so much
intelligence united to such extreme youth, of so much beauty doomed to
such utter loneliness, was the discovery of an apparition that dazzled,
and not of a woman who charmed him. He could not even have touched the
hand of the helpless creature, who now reposed under his tent, unless
she had extended it to him of her own accord. He could only
think--with a delight whose excess he was far from estimating
himself--on this solitary mysterious being who had come to him for
shelter and for aid; who had awakened in him already new sources of
sensation; and who seemed to his startled imagination to have suddenly
twined herself for ever about the destinies of his future life.

He was still deep in meditation, when he was startled by a hand
suddenly laid on his arm. He looked up and saw that Antonina, whom he
had imagined to be slumbering on her couch, was standing by his side.

'I cannot sleep,' said the girl in a low, awe-struck voice, 'until I
have asked you to spare my father when you enter Rome. I know that you
are here to ravage the city; and, for aught I can tell, you may assault
and destroy it to-night. Will you promise to warn me before the walls
are assailed? I will then tell you my father's name and abode, and you
will spare him as you have mercifully spared me? He has denied me his
protection, but he is my father still; and I remember that I disobeyed
him once, when I possessed myself of a lute! Will you promise me to
spare him? My mother, whom I have never seen and who must therefore be
dead, may love me in another world for pleading for my father's life!'

In a few words, Hermanric quieted her agitation by explaining to her
the nature and intention of the Gothic blockade, and she silently
returned to the couch. After a short interval, her slow, regular
breathing announced to the young warrior, as he watched by the side of
the fire, that she had at length forgotten the day's heritage of
misfortune in the welcome oblivion of sleep.

CHAPTER 9.

THE TWO INTERVIEWS.

The time, is the evening of the first day of the Gothic blockade; the
place, is Vetranio's palace at Rome. In one of the private apartments
of his mansion is seated its all-accomplished