passions
that ever raged against the weak restraint of human will; even the firm
self-possession of Goisvintha was shaken when she found herself within
the walls of Rome.

No glance of suspicion had been cast upon her; not one of the crowd had
approached to thrust her back when she passed through the gates with
the heedless citizens around her. Shielded from detection, as much by
the careless security of her enemies as by the stratagem of her
disguise, she stood on the pavement of Rome, as she had vowed to stand,
afar from the armies of her people--alone as an avenger of blood!

It was no dream; no fleeting, deceitful vision. The knife was under
her hand; the streets stretched before her; the living beings who
thronged them were Romans; the hours of the day were already on the
wane; the approach of her vengeance was as sure as the approach of
darkness that was to let it loose. A wild exultation quickened in her
the pulses of life, while she thought on the dread projects of secret
assassination and revenge which now opposed her, a solitary woman, in
deadly enmity against the defenceless population of a whole city.

As her eyes travelled slowly from side to side over the moving throng;
as she thought on the time that might still elapse ere the discovery
and death--the martyrdom in the cause of blood--which she expected and
defied, would overtake her, her hands trembled beneath her robe, and
she reiterated in whispers to herself: 'Husband, children,
brother--there are five deaths to avenge! Remember Aquileia! Remember
Aquileia!'

Suddenly, as she looked from group to group among the departing people,
her eyes became arrested by one object; she instantly stepped forwards,
then abruptly restrained herself and moved back where the crowd was
still thick, gazing fixedly ever in the same direction. She saw the
victim twice snatched from her hands--at the camp and in the
farm-house--a third time offered to her grasp in the streets of Rome.

The chance of vengeance last expected was the chance that had first
arrived. A vague, oppressing sensation of awe mingled with the triumph
at her heart--a supernatural guidance seemed to be directing her with
fell rapidity, through every mortal obstacle, to the climax of her
revenge!

She screened herself behind the people; she watched the girl from the
most distant point; but concealment was now vain--their eyes had met.
The robe had slipped aside when she suddenly stepped forw