"

"He will return it quickly enough, I think," said her husband quietly,
as he took up his cup and drank.

"Yes," cried Athalwin eagerly, "I think so too! And if he will not, all
the better for me! Then we will declare war, and I will go over with
Wachis and all the great fellows, with weapons and pikes! He always
looks at me so wickedly, the black spy!"

Rauthgundis told him to be silent, and sent him to bed.

"Very well, I will go," he said; "but, father, when thou comest again,
thou wilt bring me a real weapon, instead of this stick, wilt thou
not?" and he ran into the house.

"Contentions with these Italians never cease," said Witichis; "the very
children inherit the feeling. But it causes thee far too much vexation
here. So much the more willingly wilt thou do what I now propose: come
with me to Ravenna, Rauthgundis, to court."

His wife looked at him with astonishment.

"Thou art joking!" she said incredulously. "Thou hast never before
wished it! During the nine years of our married life, it has never
entered thy head to take me to court! I believe no one in all the
nation knows that a Rauthgundis exists. For a surety, thou hast kept
our marriage secret," she added, smiling, "like a crime!"

"Like a treasure!" said Witichis, embracing her.

"I have never asked thee wherefore. I was and am happy; and I thought
and think now: he has his reason."

"I had a good reason: it exists no longer. Now thou mayest know all. A
few months after I had found thee amid the solitudes of thy mountains,
and had conceived an affection for thee, King Theodoric hit upon the
strange idea, to unite me in marriage with his sister Amalaberga, the
widow of the King of the Thuringians, who needed the protection of a
man against her wicked neighbours, the Franks."

"Thou wert to wear a crown?" asked Rauthgundis, with sparkling eyes.

"But Rauthgundis was dearer to me," continued Witichis, "than Queen or
crown, and I said, No. It vexed the King exceedingly, and he only
forgave me when I told him that probably I should never marry. At that
time I could not hope ever to call thee mine; thou knowest how long thy
father suspiciously and sternly refused to trust thee to me; but when,
notwithstanding, thou wert become my wife, I considered that it would
not be wise to show the King the woman for whose sake I had refused his
sister."

"But why hast thou concealed all this from me for nine long years?"

"Because," he said, looking lov