ve Goths--with Veranilda.'

He cast down his eyes and drew a deep breath.

'I scarce know what that religion is, O Aurelia,' came from him
stammeringly. 'I am no theologian; I never cared to puzzle my head
about the mysteries which men much wiser than I declare to pass all
human understanding. Ask Decius if he can defend the faith of
Athanasius against that of the Arians; he will smile, and shake his
head in that droll way he has. I believe,' he added after a brief
hesitancy, 'in Christ and in the Saints. Does not Veranilda also?'

The temptress drew back a little, seated herself; yielded to troublous
thought. It was long since she had joined in the worship of a
congregation, for at Cumae there was no Arian church. Once only since
her captivity had she received spiritual comfort from an Arian priest,
who came to that city in disguise. What her religion truly was she
could not have declared, for the memories of early life were sometimes
as strong in her as rancour against the faith of her enemies. Basil's
simple and honest utterance touched her conscience. She put an end to
the conversation, promising to renew it before long; whilst Basil, for
his part, went away to brood, then to hold converse with Decius.

Through all but the whole of Theodoric's reign, Italy had enjoyed a
large toleration in religion: Catholics, Arians, and even Jews observed
their worship under the protection of the wise king. Only in the last
few years of his life did he commit certain acts of harshness against
his Catholic subjects, due to the wrath that was moved in him by a
general persecution of the Arians proclaimed at Byzantium. His Gothic
successors adhered to Theodoric's better principle, and only after the
subjugation of the land by Belisarius had Arianism in Italy been
formally condemned. Of course it was protected by the warring Goths:
Totila's victories had now once more extended religious tolerance over
a great part of the country; the Arian priesthood re-entered their
churches; and even in Rome the Greek garrison grew careless of the
reviving heresy. Of these things did Decius speak, when the distressed
lover sought his counsel. No one more liberal than Decius; but he bore
a name which he could not forget, and in his eyes the Goth was a
barbarian, the Gothic woman hardly above the level of a slave. That
Basil should take a Gothic wife, even one born of a royal line, seemed
to him an indignity. Withheld by the gentleness of his tempe