Antonina whom he had once protected; of Antonina whom he had
afterwards abandoned; of Antonina whom he had now lost!

Strong in the imaginative and weak in the reasoning faculties; gifted
with large moral perception and little moral firmness; too easy to be
influenced and too difficult to be resolved, Hermanric had deserted the
girl's interests from an infirmity of disposition, rather than from a
determination of will. Now, therefore, when the employments of the day
had ceased to absorb his attention; now when silence and solitude led
his memory back to his morning's abandonment of his helpless charge,
that act of fatal impatience and irresolution inspired him with the
strongest emotions of sorrow and remorse. If during her sojourn under
his care, Antonina had insensibly influenced his heart, her image, now
that he reflected on his guilty share in their parting scene, filled
all his thoughts, at once saddening and shaming him, as he remembered
her banishment from the shelter of his tent.

Every feeling which had animated his reflections on Antonina on the
previous night, was doubled in intensity as he thought on her now.
Again he recalled her eloquent words, and remembered the charm of her
gentle and innocent manner; again he dwelt on the beauties of her
outward form. Each warm expression; each varying intonation of voice
that had accompanied her petition to him for safety and companionship;
every persuasion that she had used to melt him, now revived in his
memory and moved in his heart with steady influence and increasing
power. All the hurried and imperfect pictures of happiness which she
had drawn to allure him, now expanded and brightened, until his mind
began to figure to him visions that had been hitherto unknown to
faculties occupied by no other images than those of rivalry,
turbulence, and strife. Scenes called into being by Antonina's
lightest and hastiest expressions, now rose vague and shadowy before
his brooding spirit. Lovely places of earth that he had visited and
forgotten now returned to his recollection, idealised and refined as he
thought of her. She appeared to his mind in every allurement of
action, fulfilling all the duties and enjoying all the pleasures that
she had proposed to him. He imagined her happy and healthful,
journeying gaily by his side in the fresh morning, with rosy cheek and
elastic step; he imagined her delighting him by her promised songs,
enlivening him by her eloquent wor