CHAPTER XIV.
On the same day Cethegus paid a visit to the two ladies. He hadcome over from Rome on important business, and had just left theprivy-council which had been held in the invalid King's room. Hisenergetic features were full of repressed anger.
"To work, Camilla!" he cried. "You are too long about it. Thisimpertinent boy becomes more and more unmanageable. He defies me andCassiodorus, and even his mother. He is intimate with dangerous people.With old Hildebrand and Witichis and their friends. He sends andreceives letters behind our backs. He has managed that the Queen maynever hold a council of the regency except in his presence. And in thecouncil he crosses all our plans. This must cease. In one way oranother."
"I have no more hope of influencing the King," said Camilla gravely.
"Why? Have you already seen him?"
The girl reflected. She had promised Athalaric not to allow hisdisobedience to come to the ears of his physicians; and besides, itwent against her feelings to desecrate and betray their meeting. So sheavoided the question and said:
"If the King refuses to obey his mother, the Queen-regent, he is notlikely to suffer himself to be controlled by a young girl."
"What sweet simplicity!" laughed Cethegus. And he dropped theconversation as long as the girl remained in the room. But afterwards,in private, he forced from Rusticiana a promise to manage matters sothat her daughter in future might frequently see and speak to the King.It was possible to do this, for Athalaric's health rapidly improved. Hebecame daily more manly and more decided. It seemed as if hisopposition to Cethegus strengthened him both bodily and mentally.
In a very short time he again spent many hours of the day in theextensive pleasure-grounds. It was here that his mother and the familyof Boethius frequently met him in the evening.
And while Rusticiana appeared to receive the gracious courtesies of theQueen with answering friendship, listening attentively to herconfidential remarks, in order afterwards to report them, word forword, to the Prefect, the two young people walked before them throughthe shady paths of the garden. Often this select company entered one ofthe light gondolas in the little harbour, and Athalaric rowed themhimself over the blue sea to one of the small wooded isles which laynot far away. On the return home, the purple sails were spread, and thefresh breeze, which always arose at sunset, carried them gently andidly back. Camilla and the King, accompanied by Daphnidion, frequentlyenjoyed this trip over the waves alone.
Amalaswintha naturally saw the danger of increasing by such freedom theinclination of her son for Camilla, which had not escaped her notice;but, above all other considerations, she was thankful for thefavourable influence which this companionship evidently exercised uponher son. In Camilla's presence he was quieter and more cheerful; and atthe same time more gentle in his manner to herself, which had oftenbeen abrupt and violent. He also controlled his feelings with a masterywhich was doubly surprising in such an irritable invalid. And, lastly,the Queen-regent, supposing that his inclination should indeed ripen toearnest love, would not be averse to an alliance which promisedcompletely to win the Roman aristocracy, and erase all memory of acruel deed.
In Camilla a wonderful change was going forward. Day by day, as shemore and more clearly saw the noble tenderness, the gifted soul, andthe deep and poetical feelings of the young King develop, she felt herhate melt away. With difficulty she recalled to her memory the fate ofher father, as an antidote to this sweet poison; she learnt better todistinguish justly which of the Goths and Amelungs had contributed tothat fate, and, with growing certainty, she felt that it was unjust tohate Athalaric for a misfortune which he had merely not opposed, andindeed would hardly have been able to prevent. She would have liked,long ago, to speak to him openly, but she mistrusted her own weakness;she shunned it as a sin against father, fatherland, and her ownfreedom; she trembled as she felt how indispensable this noble youthhad become to her, how much she thirsted to hear his melodious voice,and look into his dark and thoughtful eyes. She feared this sinfullove--which she could now scarcely conceal from herself--and she wouldnot part with the only weapon that remained to her: the reproach of hispassive acquiescence in her father's death.
So she fluctuated from feeling to feeling; all the more hesitatingly,the more mysterious Athalaric's strange reserve became. After all thathad happened, she could not doubt that he loved her; and yet--
Not a syllable, not a look betrayed this love. The exclamation withwhich he had left her at the Temple of Venus was the most important,the only important speech that had escaped him. She could not suspectwhat the youth had suffered before his love had become notextinguished, but self-denying. And still less in what new feeling hehad found manly strength enough for such renunciation.
Her mother, who watched Athalaric with all the keenness of hate, and,in doing so, forgot to observe her own child, appeared even moreastonished at his coldness.
"But patience," she said to Cethegus, with whom she often consultedbehind Camilla's back. "Patience! soon, in three days' time, you willsee him alter."
"It is high time," answered Cethegus. "But upon what grounds do youbuild?"
"Upon a means which has never yet failed me."
"You will not, surely, mix a love-philtre for him?" asked the Prefect,smiling.
"Certainly I shall. I have done so already."
He looked at her mockingly.
"And are you, then, so superstitious, you, the widow of the greatphilosopher, Boethius? Upon my word, in love affairs all women are madalike!"
"It is neither madness nor superstition," replied Rusticiana quietly."Our family has possessed this secret charm for more than a hundredyears. An Egyptian woman once gave it to one of my female ancestors onthe Nile, and it has always proved its power. No woman of my family hasever loved without requital."
"That required no magic," observed the Prefect. "You are a handsomerace."
"Spare your sarcasm. The love-philtre is unfailing, and if it has notyet taken effect----"
"So you have really---- What imprudence! How could you, unobserved----"
"Every evening, when he returns from a walk or a row with us, Athalarictakes a cup of spiced Falernian. The physicians ordered it. There aresome drops of Arabian balsam in it. The cup always stands ready uponthe marble table in front of the temple. Three times I have succeededin pouring in my potion."
"Well," observed Cethegus, "until now it has done no particular good."
"That is only owing to my impatience. The herbs must be gathered duringthe new moon. I knew it well enough; but, hurried by your insistence, Itried it during the full moon, and, you see, it was not effectual."
Cethegus shrugged his shoulders.
"But yesterday," she went on, "it was new moon. I was not idle with mygolden scissors, and when he drinks now----"
"A second Locusta! Well, _my_ comfort is Camilla's beautiful eyes! Doesshe know of your arts?"
"Not a word to her! She would never suffer it. Silence! She comes!"
The girl entered in great excitement; her oval cheeks were red; a plaitof her hair had got loose, and floated over her lovely neck.
"Tell me," she cried, "you who are wise and experienced, tell me whatto think! I come from the boat. Oh, he has never loved me, the haughtyman! He pities, he is sorry for me! No, that is not the right word. Icannot explain it." And bursting into tears, she hid her face upon hermother's neck.
"What has happened, Camilla?" asked Cethegus.
"Very often before," she began, with a heavy sigh, "an expression playedabout his mouth, and filled his eyes, as if _he_ had been deeplyoffended by _me_, as if _he_ had to forgive, as if _he_ had made agreat sacrifice for me----"
"Raw boys always imagine it to be a sacrifice, when they are in love."
At this Camilla's eyes flashed; she tossed her head, and turned quicklyupon Cethegus.
"Athalaric is no boy, and no one shall laugh at him!"
Cethegus was silent, and quietly dropped his eyelids; but
Rusticianaasked in surprise:
"Do you hate the King no more?"
"To the death! He shall be undone, but not mocked!"
"What has happened?" repeated Cethegus.
"To-day I again noticed that puzzling, proud, and cold expression uponhis face more distinctly than ever. A little incident occurred whichcaused the King to speak more plainly. An insect--a beetle--had falleninto the water. The King stooped and took it out, but the littlecreature turned against the beneficent hand, and bit the fingers thatheld it. 'The ungrateful thing!' I exclaimed. 'Oh,' said Athalaric,with a bitter smile, 'we wound most those to whom we are mostindebted!' and he glanced at me with a sad and proud expression. But,as if he had said too much, he briefly bid me farewell, and wentaway; but I----" and her bosom heaved, her finely-cut lips werecompressed--"I can bear it no longer! The haughty one! He _shall_ loveme--or die!"
"That shall he," said Cethegus inaudibly; "one or the other."