the
bauble; a woman did it Hilda. She killed herself. O God, I beseech Thee
for her: forgive her!" And this is not hypocrisy. I hardly understand
it. Yet these strange events force upon me thoughts which usually I
would willingly avoid. Whoever has once meddled with philosophy--I shun
it, but carry it ever in my brain--will never again escape the
questioning concerning the Why?

Lucky accidents have always happened in the destinies of men;
but whether any enterprise has ever been attended with such good
fortune as ours is doubtful. Belisarius himself marvels. Five
thousand horsemen,--for our foot-soldiers scarcely entered the
battle,--strangers who, after they were put on shore, had no refuge,
no citadel, possessed no spot of ground in all Africa except the
soil on which they stood, did not know where they were to lay their
heads,--five thousand horsemen, in two short conflicts, against ten
times their number, destroyed the kingdom of the terrible Genseric,
took his grandson prisoner, seized his royal citadel and royal
treasures! It is incomprehensible. If I had not witnessed it myself, I
would not have believed it. After all, is there a God dwelling in the
clouds who wonderfully guides the destinies of men?

Belisarius's generalship, and our brave, battle-trained army did much;
something, though not a large share, was accomplished, as now appears,
by Verus's long-planned treachery, carried out to the end. Without our
knowledge, he has corresponded all this time with the Emperor, and
especially with the Empress. The most was due to the degeneracy of the
people, except the royal House, which lost three men in the struggle.
The incomprehensible, contradictory nature of this King also
contributed to the destruction. Yet all these things would not have
produced the result so speedily, but for the unexampled good fortune
which has attended us from the beginning.

And this luck--is it blind? Is it the work of God, Who desired to
punish the Vandals for the sins of their forefathers and for their
own? It may be so. And not without reverence do I bow to such a rule.
But--and here again the mocking doubt which never entirely deserts me,
again rises in my mind--then we must say that God is not fastidious in
His choice of tools, for this Gelimer and his brothers are hardly
surpassed in virtue by Theodora, Justinian, Belisarius himself;
perhaps, O Cethegus, not even by the friend who has written you these
lines.