CHAPTER III
High above, on the Capitolium of the city, towered the Palatium, theroyal residence of the Asdings; not a single dwelling, but a wholegroup of buildings. Originally planned as an acropolis, a fortress torule the lower city and afford a view over both harbors across the sea,the encircling structures had been but slightly changed by Genseric andhis successors; the palace remained a citadel and was well suited tohold the Carthaginians in check. A narrow ascent led up from the quayto a small gateway enclosed between solid walls and surmounted by atower. This gateway opened into a large square resembling a courtyard,inclosed on all sides by the buildings belonging to the palace; thenorthern one, facing the sea, was occupied by the King's House, wherethe ruler himself lived with his family. The cellars extended deep intothe rocks; they had often been used as dungeons, especially for statecriminals. On the eastern side of the King's House, separated from itonly by a narrow space, was the Princes' House, and opposite to this,the arsenal; the southern side, sloping toward the city, was closed bythe fortress wall, its gateway and tower.
The handsomest room on the ground-floor of the Princes' House was asplendidly decorated, pillared hall. In the centre, on a table ofcitrus wood, stood a tall, richly gilded jug with handles, and severalgoblets of different forms; the dark-red wine exhaled a strongfragrance. A couch, covered with a zebra skin, was beside it, on which,clinging together in the most tender embrace, sat "the handsomest ofthe Vandals" and a no less beautiful young woman. The youth had laidaside his helmet, adorned with the silvery wing-feathers of the whiteheron; his long locks fell in waves upon his shoulders and mingled withthe light golden hair of his young wife, who was eagerly trying tounclasp the heavy breast-plate; at last she let it fall clanking besidethe helmet and sword-belt upon the marble floor. Then, gazing lovinglyat his noble face, she stroked back, with both soft hands, theclustering locks that curled around his temples, looking radiantly intohis merry, laughing eyes.
"Do I really have you with me once more? Do I hold you in my embrace?"she said in a low, tender tone, putting both arms on his shoulders andclasping her hands on his neck.
"Oh, my sweet one!" cried the warrior, snatching her to his heart andcovering eyes, cheeks, and pouting lips with ardent kisses. "Oh, Hilda,my joy, my wife! How I longed for you--night and day--always!"
"It is almost forty days," she sighed.
"Quite forty. Ah, how long they seemed to me!"
"Oh, it was far easier for you! To be ever on the move with yourbrother, your comrades, to ride swiftly and fight gayly in the land ofthe foe. While I--I was forced to sit here in the women's rooms; to sitand weave and wait inactive! Oh, if I could only have been there too!To dash onward by your side upon a fiery horse, ride, fight, and atlast--fall, with you. After a hero's life--a hero's death!"
She started up; her gray-blue eyes flashed with a wonderful light, andtossing back her waving hair she raised both arms enthusiastically.
Her husband gently drew her down again. "My high-hearted wife, myHilda," he said, smiling, "with the instinct of a seer your ancestorchose for you the name of the glorious leader of the Valkyries. Howmuch I owe old Hildebrand, the master at arms of the great King of theGoths! With the name the nature came to you. And his training andteaching probably did the rest."
Hilda nodded. "I scarcely knew my parents, they died so young. Eversince I could remember I was under the charge and protection of thewhite-bearded hero. In the palace at Ravenna he locked me in hisapartments, keeping me jealously away from the pious Sisters, the nuns,and from the priests who educated my playmates,--among them thebeautiful Mataswintha. I grew up with his other foster-child,dark-haired Teja. My friend Teja taught me to play the harp, but alsoto hurl spears and catch them on the shield. Later, when the king, andstill more his daughter, the learned Amalaswintha, insisted that I muststudy with the women and the priests, how sullenly,"--she smiled at theremembrance,--"how angrily the old great-grandfather questioned me inthe evening about what the nuns had taught me during the day! If I hadrecited the proverbs and Latin hymns, the _Deus pater ingenite_ or_Salve sancta parens_ by Sedulius--I scarcely knew more than thebeginning!"--she laughed merrily--"he shook his massive head, mutteredsomething in his long white beard, and cried: 'Come, Hilda! Let's getout of doors. Come on the sea. There I will tell you about the ancientgods and heroes of our people.' Then he took me far, far from thecrowded harbors into the solitude of a desolate, savage island, wherethe gulls circled and the wild swan built her nest amid the rushes;there we sat down on the sand, and, while the foaming waves rolledclose to our feet, he told me tales of the past. And what tales oldHildebrand could tell! My eyes rested intently on his lips as, with myelbows propped on his knee, I gazed into his face. How his sea-grayeyes sparkled! how his white hair fluttered in the evening breeze! Hisvoice trembled with enthusiasm; he no longer knew where he was; he saweverything he related, or often--in disconnected words--sang. When thetale ended, he waked as if from a dream, started up and laughed,stroking my head: 'There! There! Now I've once more blown those saints,with their dull, mawkish gentleness, out of your soul, as the northwind, sweeping through the church windows, drives out the smoke of theincense.' But they had taken no firm hold," she added, smiling.
"And so you grew up half a pagan, as Gelimer says," replied herhusband, raising his finger warningly, "but as a full heroine, whobelieves in nothing so entirely as the glory of her people."
"And in yours--and in your love," Hilda murmured tenderly, kissing himon the forehead. "Yet it is true," she added, "if you Vandals had notbeen the nearest kinsfolk of my Goths, I don't know whether I shouldhave loved you--ah, no; I _must_ have loved you--when, sent by Gelimer,you came to woo me. But as it is, to see you was to love you. I owe allmy happiness to Gelimer! I will always remember it: it shall bind me tohim when otherwise," she added slowly and thoughtfully, "many thingsmight repel me."
"My brother desired, by this marriage, to end the hostility, bridge thegulf which had separated the two kingdoms since--since that bloody deedof Hilderic. It did not succeed! He united only us, not our nations. Heis full of heavy cares and gloomy thoughts."
"Yes. I often think he must be ill," said Hilda, shaking her head.
"He?--The strongest hero in our army! He alone--not even BrotherZazo--can bend my outstretched sword-arm."
"Not ill in body,--soul-sick! But hush! Here he comes. See howsorrowful, how gloomy he looks. Is that the brow, the face, of aconqueror?"