A Struggle for Rome, v. 1

  CHAPTER V.

  Meanwhile Athalwin had already reached his father and climbed up hisknee, clinging to his foot.

  The rider lifted him up with a loving hand, set him before him in thesaddle, and spurred his horse into a gallop. The noble animal, once thecharger of Theodoric, neighed lustily as he recognised his home and hismistress, and shook his flowing mane.

  The rider now reached the hill, and dismounted with the boy.

  "My dear wife!" he exclaimed, embracing her tenderly.

  "My Witichis!" she answered, blushing with pleasure, and clinging tohim; "welcome home!"

  "I promised that I would come before the new moon--it wasdifficult----"

  "But thou hast kept thy word, as always."

  "My heart drew me here," he said, putting his arm around her.

  They went on slowly to the house.

  "It seems, Athalwin, that Wallada is of more consequence to thee thanthy father," said Witichis, smiling, to the boy, who was leading thehorse carefully after them.

  "No, father; but give me the lance too--I have not often such apleasure in this country life;" and dragging the long, heavy shaft ofthe spear after him with difficulty, he cried out: "Eh! Wachis,Ansbrand! father has come! Fetch the skin of Falernian from the cellar.Father is thirsty after his rapid ride!"

  With a smile Witichis stroked the golden curls of the boy, who nowhurried past them to the house.

  "Well, and how does all go on here?" asked Witichis, looking atRauthgundis.

  "Very well, Witichis. The harvest is all brought in, the grapescrushed, the sheaves housed."

  "I do not ask about that," said he, pressing her tenderly to him--"howart thou?"

  "As well as a poor woman can be," she answered, looking up at him, "whomisses her well-loved husband. Work is the only thing that comforts me,my friend; plenty of occupation, which benumbs a sensitive heart. Ioften think how thou, far away amongst strange people, must troublethyself in court and camp, where there is none to cherish thee. Atleast, I say to myself, he shall find his home well-kept and cheerfulwhen he returns. And it is that, seest thou, which sanctifies andennobles all the dull routine of work, and makes it dear to me."

  "That's my brave wife! But dost thou not too much fatigue thyself?"

  "Work is healthy. But vexation, and the men's wickedness, _that_ hurtsme!"

  Witichis stood still.

  "Who dares to grieve thee?"

  "Ah! the Italian servants, and our Italian neighbours! They all hateus. Woe to us, if they did not fear us. Calpurnius, our neighbour, isso insolent when he knows thou art absent, and the Roman slaves aredisobedient and false; our Gothic servants alone are good."

  Witichis sighed. They had now arrived at the house, and sat down at amarble table under the colonnade.

  "Thou must remember," said Witichis, "that our neighbour was forced togive up to us the third part of his estate and slaves."

  "And has kept two-thirds, and his life into the bargain--he ought tothank God!" answered Rauthgundis contemptuously.

  Just then Athalwin came running with a basketful of apples, which hehad plucked from the tree. Presently Wachis and the other Germanservants came with wine, meat, and cheese, and greeted their masterwith a frank clasp of the hand.

  "Well done, my children. The mistress praises you. But where are Davus,Cacus, and the others?"

  "Pardon, sir," answered Wachis, grinning, "they have a bad conscience."

  "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 hiscup.

  Rauthgundis blushed and hesitated.

  "He has carried away the hay from the mountain meadow," she thenreplied, "which our men had mowed; and has put it into his barn bynight, 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, allthe better for me! Then we will declare war, and I will go over withWachis and all the great fellows, with weapons and pikes! He alwayslooks 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 thounot?" and he ran into the house.

  "Contentions with these Italians never cease," said Witichis; "the verychildren inherit the feeling. But it causes thee far too much vexationhere. So much the more willingly wilt thou do what I now propose: comewith me to Ravenna, Rauthgundis, to court."

  His wife looked at him with astonishment.

  "Thou art joking!" she said incredulously. "Thou hast never beforewished it! During the nine years of our married life, it has neverentered thy head to take me to court! I believe no one in all thenation knows that a Rauthgundis exists. For a surety, thou hast keptour 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 thoughtand think now: he has his reason."

  "I had a good reason: it exists no longer. Now thou mayest know all. Afew months after I had found thee amid the solitudes of thy mountains,and had conceived an affection for thee, King Theodoric hit upon thestrange idea, to unite me in marriage with his sister Amalaberga, thewidow of the King of the Thuringians, who needed the protection of aman 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 orcrown, and I said, No. It vexed the King exceedingly, and he onlyforgave me when I told him that probably I should never marry. At thattime I could not hope ever to call thee mine; thou knowest how long thyfather suspiciously and sternly refused to trust thee to me; but when,notwithstanding, thou wert become my wife, I considered that it wouldnot be wise to show the King the woman for whose sake I had refused hissister."

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

  "Because," he said, looking lovingly into her eyes, "because I know myRauthgundis. Thou wouldst ever have imagined I had lost I know not whatwith that crown! But now the King is dead, and I am permanently boundto the court. Who knows when I shall again rest in the shadow of thesecolumns, in the peace of this roof?"

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

  Rauthgundis listened attentively; then she took his hand and pressedit.

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

  "Yes; I feel more contented since I can bear part of the burden of thetime. It was much more difficult to stand idly by and see it pressingheavily upon my nation. I am only sorry for the Queen, she is like aprisoner."

  "Bah! Why did the woman grasp at the office of a man? Such a thingwould never enter my head."

  "Thou art no Queen, Rauthgundis, and Amalaswintha is proud."

  "I am ten times prouder than she! but not so vain. She can never haveloved a man, nor understood his nature and worth, otherwise she couldnot wish to fill a man's place."

  "At court that is looked upon in a different manner. But do come withme to Ravenna."

  "No, Witichis," she quietly said, rising from her seat, "the court isnot fit for me, nor I for the court. I am the child of a mountainfarmer, and far too uncultured. Look at this brown neck," she laughed,"and these rough hands! I cannot tinkle on the lyre, or read verses. Ishould be ill suited for the fine Roman ladies, and thou wouldst havelittle honour with me."

  "Surely thou dost not
consider thyself too bad for the court?"

  "No, Witichis, too good."

  "Well, people must learn to bear with and appreciate each other."

  "I could not do that. They could perhaps learn to bear with me, out offear of thee. But I should daily tell them to their faces that they arehollow, false, and bad!"

  "So, then, thou wilt rather do without thy husband for months?"

  "Yes, rather do without him, than be near him in a false and unfittingposition. Oh, my Witichis!" she added, encircling his neck with herarm, "consider who I am and how thou foundest me! where the lastsettlements of our people dot the edge of the Alps, high up upon thesteep precipices of the Scaranzia; where the youthful Isara breaksfoaming out of the ravines into the open plains, there stands myfather's lonely farm; there I knew of nought but the hard work ofsummer upon the quiet alms, of winter in the smoke-blackened hall,spinning with the maids. My mother died early, and my brothers werekilled by the Italians. So I grew up lonely, no one near me but my oldfather, who was as true, but also as hard and close, as his nativerocks. There I saw nothing of the world which lay outside ourmountains. Only sometimes, from a height, I watched with curiosity apack-horse going along the road deep below in the valley, laden withsalt or wine. I sat through many a shining summer evening upon thejagged peaks of the high Arn, and looked at the sun sinking splendidlyover the far-away river Licus; and I wondered what it had seen thewhole long summer day, since it had risen over the broad [OE]nus; and Ithought how I should like to know what things looked like at the otherside of the Karwaendel, or away behind the Brennus, over which mybrothers had gone and had never returned. And yet I felt how beautifulit was up there in the green solitude, where I heard the golden eaglescreaming in its near eyrie, and where I plucked more lovely flowersthan ever grow in the plains, and even, sometimes, heard by night themountain-wolf howling outside the stable-door, and frightened it awaywith a torch. In early autumn, too, and in the long winter, I had timeto sit and muse; when the white mist-veils spun themselves over thelofty pines; when the mountain wind tore the blocks of stone from ourstraw-roof, and the avalanches thundered from the precipices. So I grewup, strange to the world beyond the next forest, only at home in thequiet world of my thoughts, and in the narrow life of the peasant. Thenthou earnest--I remember it as if it had happened yesterday----"

  She ceased, lost in recollection.

  "I remember it too, exactly," said Witichis. "I was leading acentumvirate from Juvavia to the Augusta-town on the Licus. I had lostmy way and my people. For a long time I had wandered about in thesultry summer day, without finding a path, when I saw smoke risingabove a fir-tree grove, and soon I found a hidden farm, and enteredthe yard-gate. There stood a splendid girl at the pump, lifting abucket----"

  "Look, even here in the valley, in this southern valley of the Alps, itis often too close for me; and I long for a breath of air from thepine-woods of my mountains. But at court, in the narrow gildedchambers! there I should languish and pine away. Leave me here; I shallmanage Calpurnius well enough. And thou, I know well, wilt still thinkof home, wife, and child, when absent in the royal halls."

  "Yes, God knows, with longing thoughts! Well then, remain here, and Godkeep thee, my good wife!"

  The second day after this conversation Witichis again rode away up thewooded heights.

  The parting hour had made him almost tender; but he had firmly checkedthe outbreak of feeling which it was so repugnant to his simple andmanly nature to indulge in. How the brave man's heart clung to histrusty wife and darling boy!

  Behind him trotted Wachis, who would not be prevented from accompanyinghis master for a short distance.

  Suddenly he rode up to him.

  "Sir," said he, "I know something."

  "Indeed! Why didst not tell it?"

  "Because no one asked me about it."

  "Well, I ask thee about it."

  "Yes; if one is asked, then of course he must answer! The mistress hastold you that Calpurnius is such a bad neighbour?"

  "Yes; what about that?"

  "But she did not tell you since when?"

  "No; dost thou know?"

  "Well, it was about half a year ago. About that time Calpurnius oncemet the mistress in the wood, alone as they both thought; but they werenot alone. Some one lay in a ditch, and was taking his mid-day nap."

  "Thou wert that sluggard!"

  "Rightly guessed. And Calpurnius said something to the mistress."

  "What did he say?"

  "That I did not understand. But the mistress was not idle; she liftedher hand and struck him in the face with such a smack, that itresounded. And since then our neighbour is a bad neighbour, and Iwanted to tell you, because I thought the mistress would not wish tovex you about the rascal; but still it is better that you know it. Andsee! there stands Calpurnius at his house door; do you see? and nowfarewell, dear master."

  And with this he turned his horse and galloped home. But the bloodrushed to Witichis' face.

  He rode up to his neighbour's door. Calpurnius was about to retreatinto the house, but Witichis called to him in such a voice, that he wasobliged to remain.

  "What do you want with me, neighbour Witichis?" he asked, looking up athim askance.

  Witichis drew rein, and stopped his horse close to him. Then he heldhis clenched iron-gloved fist close before his neighbour's eyes.

  "Neighbour Calpurnius," he said quietly, "if _I_ ever strike thee inthe face, thou wilt never rise again."

  Calpurnius started back in a fright.

  But Witichis gave his horse the spur, and rode proudly and slowly uponhis way.