g hair, "Athalaric shall love
me and perish! Away to Ravenna! I will and must see him!"

And she rushed out of the room.

Her whole soul was thirsting to be with the object of her love and
hate.

CHAPTER XIII.

That same day the inhabitants of the villa entered upon their journey
to Ravenna.

Cethegus sent a courier forward with a letter from Rusticiana to the
Queen-regent. Therein the widow of Boethius declared, "that by the
mediation of the Prefect of Rome, she was now ready to accept the
repeated invitation to return to court. She did not accept it as an act
of pardon, but of conciliation; as a sign that the heirs of Theodoric
wished to make amends for the injustice done to the deceased."

This proud letter was written from Rusticiana's very heart, and
Cethegus knew that such a step would do no harm, and would only exclude
any suspicious construction that might be laid upon the sudden change
in her sentiments.

Half-way the travellers were met by a messenger bearing the Queen's
answer, which bade them welcome to her court.

Arrived in Ravenna, they were received by the Queen with all honours,
provided with a retinue, and led into the rooms which they had formerly
occupied. They were warmly welcomed by all the Romans at court.

But the anger of the Goths--who abhorred Symmachus and Boethius as
ungrateful traitors--was greatly excited by this measure, which seemed
to imply an indirect condemnation of Theodoric. The last remaining
friends of that great King indignantly left the Italianised court.

Meanwhile, time, the diversions of the journey, and the arrival at
Ravenna, had softened Camilla's excitement. Her anger had the more time
to abate, as many weeks elapsed before she met Athalaric; for the young
King was dangerously ill.

It was said at court, that while on a visit to Aretium, whither he had
gone to enjoy the mountain air, the baths, and the chase, he had drank
from a rocky spring in the woods of Tifernum while heated with hunting,
and had thereby brought on a violent attack of his former malady. The
fact was, that his followers had found him lying senseless by the side
of the spring where he had met Camilla.

The effect of this story upon Camilla was strange. To the hate she bore
to Athalaric was now added a slight feeling of compassion, and even a
sort of self-reproach. But on the other side, she thanked Heaven that,
by this illness, the meeting was postponed, w