the cause which led him to think ill of me,
and so to speak and act in a way which could not but make my heart burn
against him.'

'Something of this too I have heard,' said the king, his blue eyes
resting upon Basil's countenance with a thoughtful interest. 'You
believe, then, that your friend was wholly blameless towards you, in
intention and in act?'

'Save inasmuch as credited that strange slander, borne I know not upon
what lips.'

'May I hear,' asked Totila, 'what this slander charged upon you?'

Basil raised his head, and put all his courage into a brief reply.

'That I sought to betray the lady Veranilda into the hands of the
Greeks.'

'And you think,' said the king slowly, meditatively, his eyes still
searching Basil's face, 'that your friend could believe you capable of
that?'

'How he could, I know not,' came the sad reply. 'Yet I must needs think
it was so.'

'Why?' sounded from the king's lips abruptly, and with a change to
unexpected sternness. 'What forbids you the more natural thought that
this man, this Marcian, was himself your slanderer?'

'Thinking so, O king, I slew him. Thinking so, I defiled my tongue with
base suspicion of Veranilda. Being now again in my right mind, I know
that my accusation of _her_ was frenzy, and therefore I choose rather
to believe that I wronged Marcian than that he could conceive so base a
treachery.'

Totila reflected. All but a smile as of satisfaction lurked within his
eyes.

'Know you,' he next inquired, 'by what means Marcian obtained charge of
the lady Veranilda?'

'Of that I am as ignorant as of how she was first carried into
captivity.'

'Yet,' said the king sharply, 'you conversed with her after Marcian's
death.'

'Gracious lord,' answered Basil in low tones, 'it were miscalled
conversing. With blood upon my hands, I said I scarce knew what, and
would not give ear to the words which should have filled me with
remorse.'

There was again a brief silence. Totila let his eyes stray for a
moment, then spoke again meditatively.

'You sought vainly for this maiden, whilst she was kept in ward. Being
your friend, did not Marcian lend his aid to discover her for you?'

'He did so, but fruitlessly. And when at length he found her, his mind
to me had changed.'

'Strangely, it must be confessed,' said the king. His eyes were again
fixed upon Basil with a look of pleasant interest. 'Some day,
perchance, you may learn how that came about; meanwhile, y