only."

But the priest answered gloomily: "I cannot tell the King that he is
wrong. You, Prince, talk like a youth, like a layman, like a German,
almost like a pagan. King Gelimer, a mature man, has acquired the
ecclesiastical wisdom of the Fathers of the Church and the secular
knowledge of the philosophers. And he is a devout Christian. God is a
terrible avenger of sin. Gelimer is right, and you are wrong."

"Then I will praise the folly of my youth."

"And I my paganism!" said Hilda. "They make me happy."

"The King's (or your) Sacred Wisdom makes him miserable."

"It might paralyze his strength!"

"Had he not inherited such unusual vigor from his much-despised
ancestors."

"And with it the curse of their sins," said Gelimer to himself.

"We might consider," said Verus, slowly, "whether it would not be wise
to cast into prison, with the other captives, this Publius Pudentius,
the son of Pudentius the rebel, whom he could not take with him in his
hasty flight."

"The lad? Why?" asked Hilda, reproachfully.

"With shrewd caution, your former kings reared the sons of aristocratic
Romans at their courts, in the palace," Verus went on quietly,
"apparently to do honor to their fathers; really as hostages for their
fidelity."

"Shall Gelimer the Good visit the father's guilt on the innocent son,
like your terrible God?" cried Gibamund.

"That I would never do," said Gelimer.

"The traitor knew it," replied Verus. "He calculated on your mildness;
that is why he dares to rebel while his son is in your hands."

"Let all these boys go in peace to their families."

"That will not do. They are old enough, and have seen enough of our
preparations and our weak points to do us serious injury if they should
talk of them to our foes. They must remain in the city, in the palace.
I will leave you now; my work summons me."

"One thing more, my Verus. It grieves me that I could not extort from
Zazo before his departure a consent which I have long striven to win
from him."

"What do you mean?" asked Hilda.

"I can guess," said Gibamund.

"It concerns the prisoners in the dungeons of the citadel. When,
against the entreaties of the whole nation and Zazo's urgency
especially, Gelimer protected the lives of Hilderic and Euages,
changing the sentence of death pronounced by the Council of the Nation
to imprisonment, he was obliged to promise Zazo that at least he would
never liberate the prisoners without his consent."