she still unconsciously traced her rapid way through the streets that
led to the Tiber. It was not Numerian, not Rome, not daylight in a
great city, that was before her eyes: it was the storm, the
assassination, the night at the farm-house, that she now lived through
over again.

Still the quick flight and the ceaseless pursuit were continued, as if
neither were ever to have an end; but the close of the scene was,
nevertheless, already at hand. During the interval of the passage
through the streets, Numerian's mind had gradually recovered from its
first astonishment and alarm; at length he perceived the necessity of
instant and decisive action, while there was yet time to save Antonina
from sinking under the excess of her own fears. Though a vague, awful
foreboding of disaster and death filled his heart, his resolution to
penetrate at once, at all hazards, the dark mystery of impending danger
indicated by his daughter's words and actions, did not fail him; for it
was aroused by the only motive powerful enough to revive all that
suffering and infirmity had not yet destroyed of the energy of his
former days--the preservation of his child. There was something of the
old firmness and vigour of the intrepid reformer of the Church, in his
dim eyes, as he now stopped, and enclosing Antonina in his arms,
arrested her instantly in her flight.

She struggled to escape; but it was faintly, and only for a moment.
Her strength and consciousness were beginning to abandon her. She
never attempted to look back; she felt in her heart that Goisvintha was
still behind, and dared not to verify the frightful conviction with her
eyes. Her lips moved; but they expressed an altered and a vain
petition: 'Hermanric! O Hermanric!' was all they murmured now.

They had arrived at the long street that ran by the banks of the Tiber.
The people had either retired to their homes or repaired to the Forum
to be informed of the period when the ransom would be paid. No one but
Goisvintha was in sight as Numerian looked around him; and she, after
having carefully viewed the empty street, was advancing towards them at
a quickened pace.

For an instant the father looked on her steadily as she approached, and
in that instant his determination was formed. A flight of steps at his
feet led to the narrow doorway of a small temple, the nearest building
to him.

Ignorant whether Goisvintha might not be secretly supported by
companions in her ceasel