ry morning and evening,
and never catches anything, has been signing and winking to me in a
very innocent-sly manner. I believe he is watching for me, and not for
sea mullets. But the long-bearded wolves of this Alboin are always at
my heels. Perhaps, when I dive into the water, I shall be able to catch
up what this fisherman wishes to confide to me."

CHAPTER VIII.

Very gravely, but no more in a melting mood, Adalgoth told his young
wife of the resolve of the King, and of the last alternative between
death and a shameful slavery.

He expected an outbreak of wild grief, such as it had been so difficult
even for him to repress. But, to his astonishment, Gotho remained
unshaken.

"I have foreseen this long ago, my Adalgoth! It is no misfortune; to
lose what we love, and still live, that alone is a misfortune. I have
attained to the highest earthly bliss, I am thy wife. Whether I shall
have been so for ten years or for twenty, or for scarcely half a year,
alters nothing. At least we shall die together on the same day,
possibly at the same hour. For King Teja will not forbid thee--when
thou hast done thy part in the last battle, and, perhaps wounded, canst
fight no longer--he will not forbid thee to come and take me in thine
arms--how often hast thou carried me on the Iffinger!--and leap with me
into the abyss. Oh, Adalgoth!" she cried, passionately embracing him,
"how happy we have been! We will show that we were worthy of such
bliss, by dying bravely, without cowardly lament. The scion of the
Balthe," and she smiled, "shall not say that the shepherd's daughter
could not keep pace with his nobility. There arises in my soul a vision
of the grandeur of our mountains! My grandfather, Iffa, admonished me,
when I left him, to call to mind the fresh and free air of our
mountains, and the strict and noble severity of the proud heights,
should ever life in the narrow, small, gilded chambers here below
seem too paltry for our souls. We have not been menaced with that, but
now, when it is necessary to raise our minds from timid, tender
sorrow--which almost crept over me--and to gain strength for a noble
resolve, the remembrance of my native mountains has made me strong.
'Shame on thee,' I said to myself, 'shame on thee, daughter of the
mountains! What would the Iffinger, and the Wolfshead, and all the
stony giants say, if they saw the shepherdess despair? Be worthy of thy
mountains and of t