ch the Sarmatians had gained by years of plunder,
and had there amassed, became his booty. In reward of his valour,
Theodoric gave him the rank of earl, and called him to Italy. My father
took with him Gisa, now become his wife, and all his treasure, and
bought a large and beautiful estate in Tuscany, between Florentia and
Luca. But his good fortune did not last long. Shortly after my birth,
some miserable fellow, some cowardly rascal, accused my parents of
incest before the Bishop of Florentia. They were Catholics, and not
Arians--and brothers' children; their marriage was null in the eyes of
the Church--and the Church ordered them to part. My father pressed his
wife to his heart, and laughed at the order. But the secret accuser did
not rest----"

"Who was he?"

"Oh, would that I knew it! I would reach him, even if he lived amid all
the horrors of Vesuvius! The priests tormented my mother without
cessation, and tried to alarm her conscience. In vain; she stood fast
by her God and her husband, and defied the bishop and his messengers.
And whenever my father met one of the priests upon his estate, he gave
him such a welcome that he took care never to come again. But who can
strive with those who speak in God's name! A last term was appointed;
if, by that time, the disobedient couple had not separated, they were
to be excommunicated, and their property forfeited to the Church. My
father now hurried in despair to the King, to beg for the abolition of
the terrible sentence. But the verdict of the Conclave was too clear,
and Theodoric did not dare to offend the rights of the Orthodox Church.
When my father returned from Ravenna, he stared in horror at the place
where once his house had stood: the time had elapsed, and the threat
had been fulfilled. His home was destroyed, his wife and child had
disappeared. He madly sought for us all over Italy, and at last,
disguised as a peasant, he discovered Gisa in a convent at Ticinum.
They had torn her boy from her arms, and taken him to Rome. My father
arranged everything for her flight from the convent; at midnight they
escaped over the wall of the cloister garden. But the next morning the
sisters missed their prisoner at the _hora_--her cell was empty. The
convent servants followed the track of the horses--they were overtaken.
Fighting desperately, my father fell; my mother was taken back to the
convent. The pain of her loss and the severe discipline of the order
had such a terri