'Why did he bring her here?
You know, O father, that it was not in fulfilment of his promise to me, for you heard his shameless lie when I questioned him.' 'He told her,' replied the priest, 'that she sojourned here only until he could put her under the protection of the Gothic King.' 'Of Totila ?' cried Basil.

'Nay, for all I know, he may have thought of that--his passion being appeased.' Even as he spoke be remembered Sagaris and the letter written in Gothic.

Some motive of interest might, indeed, have prompted Marcian to this step.

None the less was he Veranilda's lover.

Would he otherwise have kept her here with him, alone, and not rather have continued the journey, with all speed, till he reached Totila's camp?
'When I left her,' pursued Gaudiosus, whose confidence in his own judgment was already shaken by the young man's vehemence, 'I spoke in private with certain of the bondswomen, who declared to me that they could avouch the maiden's innocence since her coming hither--until to-day's sunrise.' Basil laughed with scorn.
'Until to-day's sunrise?
And pray, good father, what befell her at that moment?
What whisper the Argus-eyed bondswomen ?' 'They tell me,' replied the priest, 'that she went forth and met Marcian, and walked with him in a wood, her own woman having been sent back to the villa.