Ch. 26 - Retribution - Page 2

savage ancestors sustained her in a
suicide-pride.

Ere long the laughter of Ulpius, while he moved slowly hither and
thither in the darkness of the temple, was overpowered by the sound of
her voice--deep, groaning, but yet steady--as she uttered her last
words--words poured forth like the wild dirges, the fierce death-songs
of the old Goths when they died deserted on the bloody battle-field, or
were cast bound into deep dungeons, a prey to the viper and the asp.
Thus she spoke:-- 'I swore to be avenged! while I went forth from
Aquileia with the child that was killed and the child that was wounded;
while I climbed the high wall in the night-time, and heard the tumult of
the beating waves near the bank where I buried the dead; while I
wandered in the darkness over the naked heath and through the lonely
forest; while I climbed the pathless sides of the mountains, and made my
refuge in the cavern by the waters of the dark lake.

'I swore to be avenged! while the warriors approached me on their march,
and the roaring of the trumpets and the clash of the armour sounded in
my ears; while I greeted my kinsman, Hermanric, a mighty chieftain, at
the king's side, among the invading hosts; while I looked on my last
child, dead like the rest, and knew that he was buried afar from the
land of his people, and from the others that the Romans had slain before
him.

'I swore to be avenged! while the army encamped before Rome, and I stood
with Hermanric, looking on the great walls in the misty evening; while
the daughter of the Roman was a prisoner in our tent, and I eyed her as
she lay on my knees; while for her sake my kinsman turned traitor, and
withheld my hand from the blow; while I passed unseen into the lonely
farm-house to deal judgment on him with my knife; while I saw him die
the death of a deserter at my feet, and knew that it was a Roman who had
lured him from his people, and blinded him to the righteousness of
revenge.

'I swore to be avenged! while I walked round the grave of the chieftain
who was the last of my race; while I stood alone out of the army of my
people in the city of the slayers of my babes; while I tracked the
footsteps of the Roman who had twice escaped me, as she fled through the
street; while I watched and was patient among the pillars of the temple,
and waited till the sun went down, and the victim was unshielded for the
moment to strike.

'I swore to be avenged! and my oath has been fulfilled--the knife that
still bleeds drops with her blood; the chief vengeance has been wreaked!
The rest that were to be slain remain for others, and not for me! For
now I go to my husband and my children; now the hour is near at hand
when I shall herd with their spirits in the