It is but a short time since I returned from following him.

The darkness did not delude me; the place is on the high-road from the suburbs--the first by-path to the westward leads to its garden gate.

I know it! I have discovered his secret! I am more cunning than he!' 'For what did he seek the farm-house at night ?' demanded Goisvintha after an interval, during which she appeared to be silently fixing the man's last speech in her memory; 'are you cunning enough to tell me that ?' 'For what do men venture their safety and their lives, their money and their renown ?' laughed the barbarian.

'They venture them for women! There is a girl at the farm-house; I saw her at the door when the chief went in!' He paused; but Goisvintha made no answer.

Remembering that she was descended from a race of women who slew their wounded husbands, brothers, and sons with their own hands when they sought them after battle dishonoured by a defeat; remembering that the fire of the old ferocity of such ancestors as these still burnt at her heart; remembering all that she had hoped from Hermanric, and had plotted against Antonina; estimating in all its importance the shock of the intelligence she now received, we are alike unwilling and unable to describe her emotions at this moment.