k it is well done to found a sanctuary
apart from the world, where poverty, purity, and humble-mindedness can
dwell in peace."

"But to me," said Totila, "it seems that splendour, the happiness of
honest love, and cheerful pride, are no sin before the God of Heaven!
What thinkest thou of our dispute, friend Teja?"

"It has no meaning for me," answered Teja quietly, "for your God is not
my God. But let us not speak of that, for here comes Valeria."

CHAPTER III.

One evening, the same on which Adalgoth had arrived with the King at
Taginal, Gotho, the shepherdess, stood in the sunset light upon the
southern declivity of the Iffinger, leaning upon her staff.

Round her gambolled and grazed her flock of sheep and lambs, and
gradually gathered close round their mistress, eagerly expecting to be
led to the sheepfold.

But they waited and bleated in vain, for the pretty maiden bent over
the mossy stones on the edge of the clear mountain brook. Heaped up in
her leather apron lay the lovely scented flowers of the mountain:
thyme, wild-rose, mint--which grew on the moist edges of the brook--and
the dark blue enzian.

Gotho murmured and spoke to herself, to the flowers, and to the running
stream, throwing the flowers into the water, sometimes singly,
sometimes in little sprays or unfinished wreaths.

"How many," said the girl, as she tossed her thick yellow braids over
her shoulder, "how many of you have I sent away to greet him! For he
has gone to the south, and the water runs there too. But I know not if
you give my greeting, for he has never yet come home. But you, as you
rise and sink in the dance of the ripples, you beckon me to follow you.
Ah! if I could! or follow the little fish which dart down the stream
like dark arrows! Or the swift mountain swallows that skim through the
air as free as thought! Or the rosy-winged evening clouds, when the
mountain wind drives them southwards! But most surely of all would the
heart of the seeker herself find him, could she but leave the mountain,
and follow him to the distant and sunny land. But what should I do down
there? A shepherdess amongst the warriors or the wise court-ladies! And
I shall certainly see him again, as surely as I shall again see the
sun, although it sinks behind yonder mountains. It is sure to come
again, and yet! all the time between its parting ray and its morning
greeting is filled with longing!"

From the house there suddenly sounded a far-rea