Volume I Part 28 (1/2)

”Why? What about?”

”Eh!--I think--because I have beaten them little; they are ashamed.”

The other men laughed.

”Well, it will do them no harm,” said Witichis; ”go now to your meal.

To-morrow I will examine your work.”

The men went.

”What is that about Calpurnius?” asked Witichis, pouring wine into his cup.

Rauthgundis blushed and hesitated.

”He has carried away the hay from the mountain meadow,” she then replied, ”which our men had mowed; and has put it into his barn by night, and will not return it.”

”He will return it quickly enough, I think,” said her husband quietly, as he took up his cup and drank.

”Yes,” cried Athalwin eagerly, ”I think so too! And if he will not, all the better for me! Then we will declare war, and I will go over with Wachis and all the great fellows, with weapons and pikes! He always looks at me so wickedly, the black spy!”

Rauthgundis told him to be silent, and sent him to bed.

”Very well, I will go,” he said; ”but, father, when thou comest again, thou wilt bring me a real weapon, instead of this stick, wilt thou not?” and he ran into the house.

”Contentions with these Italians never cease,” said Witichis; ”the very children inherit the feeling. But it causes thee far too much vexation here. So much the more willingly wilt thou do what I now propose: come with me to Ravenna, Rauthgundis, to court.”

His wife looked at him with astonishment.

”Thou art joking!” she said incredulously. ”Thou hast never before wished it! During the nine years of our married life, it has never entered thy head to take me to court! I believe no one in all the nation knows that a Rauthgundis exists. For a surety, thou hast kept our marriage secret,” she added, smiling, ”like a crime!”

”Like a treasure!” said Witichis, embracing her.

”I have never asked thee wherefore. I was and am happy; and I thought and think now: he has his reason.”

”I had a good reason: it exists no longer. Now thou mayest know all. A few months after I had found thee amid the solitudes of thy mountains, and had conceived an affection for thee, King Theodoric hit upon the strange idea, to unite me in marriage with his sister Amalaberga, the widow of the King of the Thuringians, who needed the protection of a man against her wicked neighbours, the Franks.”

”Thou wert to wear a crown?” asked Rauthgundis, with sparkling eyes.

”But Rauthgundis was dearer to me,” continued Witichis, ”than Queen or crown, and I said, No. It vexed the King exceedingly, and he only forgave me when I told him that probably I should never marry. At that time I could not hope ever to call thee mine; thou knowest how long thy father suspiciously and sternly refused to trust thee to me; but when, notwithstanding, thou wert become my wife, I considered that it would not be wise to show the King the woman for whose sake I had refused his sister.”

”But why hast thou concealed all this from me for nine long years?”

”Because,” he said, looking lovingly into her eyes, ”because I know my Rauthgundis. Thou wouldst ever have imagined I had lost I know not what with that crown! But now the King is dead, and I am permanently bound to the court. Who knows when I shall again rest in the shadow of these columns, in the peace of this roof?”

And he related briefly the fall of the Prefect, and what position he now held near Amalaswintha.

Rauthgundis listened attentively; then she took his hand and pressed it.

”It is good, Witichis, that the Goths gradually find out thy worth, and thou art more cheerful, I think, than usual.”