tine imperial dignity Valerius beheld the acme of all tyranny,
and, at any cost, would gladly have saved his Latium from the avarice,
religious intolerance, and Oriental despotism of the Byzantine
Emperors.

Added to this, the father and brother of Valerius had been arrested at
Byzantium by an avaricious predecessor of Justinian, while passing
through that city, and, on pretence of participation in a conspiracy,
had been executed, and all their eastern possessions had been
confiscated; so that private loss considerably strengthened the
political hatred of the patriot. When Cethegus introduced him to the
conspiracy of the Catacombs, he had eagerly taken up the idea of an
Italian rebellion; but had repulsed all advances of the imperial party
with the words, "Rather death than Byzantium!"

So the two, Valerius and Totila, were unanimous in the resolution to
tolerate no Byzantine in their beloved country, which was scarcely less
dear to the Goth than to the Roman.

The lovers took care not to press the old man, at present, to make any
formal promise; they contented themselves with the freedom of
intercourse allowed by Valerius, and waited quietly until the influence
of habit should gradually accustom him to the thought of their ultimate
union.

Our young friends thus passed many happy days, and, added to the bliss
of their mutual love, they had the delight of witnessing the growing
affection of Valerius for Totila.

Julius was filled with the noble exaltation which lies in the sacrifice
of one's own passion for the sake of another's happiness. His soul,
unsatisfied by the wisdom of old philosophy, turned more and more
to the doctrine which teaches that peace is only to be found in
self-denial.

Valeria was of a very different nature. She was the true expression of
the Roman ideal of her father, who had conducted her education in place
of her early-lost mother, and had imbued her with the spirit of the
antique Pagans. Christianity--to which she hard been dedicated by an
outward form at the very commencement of her life, and from which she
had afterwards been wrested by an equally external formality--seemed to
her a fearful power, by no means loved or understood, but which,
nevertheless, she could not exclude from the circle of her thoughts and
feelings.

Like a true Roman, she noticed with joy and pride, not with dismay, the
martial enthusiasm with which Totila spoke to her father in their
conversations concerning