nfluence over him. He demanded eagerly of his comrades
if Goisvintha had arrived in his absence, and received the same answer
in the negative from each.

As he now listened to the melancholy rising of the wind and the
increasing loudness of the thunder, to the shrill cries of the distant
night-birds hurrying to shelter, emotions of mournfulness and awe
possessed themselves of his heart. He now wondered that any events,
however startling, however appalling, should have had the power to turn
his mind for a moment from the dreary contemplations that had engaged
it at the close of day. He thought of Antonina, solitary and helpless,
listening to the tempest in affright, and watching vainly for his
long-delayed approach. His fancy arrayed before him dangers, plots,
and crimes, robed in all the horrible exaggerations of a dream. Even
the quick, monotonous dripping of the rain-drops outside aroused within
him dark and indefinable forebodings of ill. The passion that had
hitherto created for him new pleasures was now fulfilling the other
half of its earthly mission, and causing him new pains.

As the storm strengthened, as the darkness lowered deeper and deeper,
so did his inquietude increase, until at length it mastered the last
feeble resistance of his wavering firmness. Persuading himself that,
after having delayed so long, Goisvintha would now refrain from seeking
him until the morrow, and that all communications from Alaric, had they
been despatched, would have reached him ere this; unable any longer to
combat his anxiety for the safety of Antonina; determined to risk the
worst possibilities rather than be absent at such a time of tempest and
peril from the farm-house, he made a last visit to the stations of the
watchful sentinels, and quitted the camp for the night.

CHAPTER 17.

THE HUNS.

More than an hour after Hermanric had left the encampment, a man
hurriedly entered the house set apart for the young chieftain's
occupation. He made no attempt to kindle either light or fire, but sat
down in the principal apartment, occasionally whispering to himself in
a strange and barbarous tongue.

He had remained but a short time in possession of his comfortless
solitude, when he was intruded on by a camp-follower, bearing a small
lamp, and followed closely by a woman, who, as he started up and
confronted her, announced herself as Hermanric's kinswoman, and eagerly
demanded an interview with the Goth.

Haggar