CHAPTER VI.
Thus she lay, she knew not how long, half awake, half dreaming; pictureafter picture arose in her excited mind.
Eutharic with the expression of constant pain upon his lips--Athalaricas he lay stretched upon his bier, he seemed to sign to her--thereproachful face of Mataswintha--then mist and clouds and leaflesstrees--then three angry warriors with pale faces and bloodygarments--and the blind ferryman in the realm of shades.
At another time it seemed to her as if she lay on the steps of themonument in the desolate waste, and again something rustled behind her,and a shrouded figure bent over her, nearer and nearer, oppressing andsuffocating her.
Her heart was contracted by fear; she started up terrified, and lookedabout her. There!--it was no dream-fancy--something really rustledbehind the curtains, and a shrouded shadow glided along the wainscotedwalls.
With a scream Amalaswintha opened the curtain wide--there was nothingto be seen.
Was it, then, but a dream?
It was impossible to remain alone with her torturing thoughts. Shepressed a knob of agate on the wall, which set in motion a hammeroutside the room.
Very soon a slave appeared, whose features and costume betrayed ahigher education.
He introduced himself as the Greek physician. She told him of theterrible dreams and the feverish tremblings by which she had beentormented during the last few hours. He explained the symptoms as theconsequence of excitement, perhaps of cold taken during her flight,recommended a warm bath, and left her to order its preparation.
Amalaswintha remembered the splendid baths, which, divided into twostories, occupied the whole right wing of the villa.
The lower story of the large octagonal rotunda, designed for the coldbath, was in immediate connection with the lake. The water wasconducted into the bath through sieves, which excluded every impurity.
The upper story, a smaller octagon, was erected over the bath-room ofthe lower story, the ceiling of which, made of a large circular metalplate, formed the floor of the upper bath, and could be pushed, dividedinto two semicircles, into the walls; so that both stories then formedan undivided space, which, for the purposes of cleansing or for gamesof swimming and diving, could be completely filled with the water ofthe lake.
Generally, however, the upper story was used only for the warm bath,and was provided with hundreds of pipes, and innumerable dolphin,triton, and Medusa-heads of bronze or marble, through which flowed thescented waters, mixed with oils and essences; while from the galleryall round, upon which the bathers undressed, ornamental steps led downinto the shell-shaped porphyry basin of the bath.
As the Princess was recalling these rooms to her memory, the wife ofthe door-keeper appeared to lead her to the bath.
They passed through wide columned halls and libraries--where, however,the Princess missed the capsulas and rolls of Cassiodorus--in thedirection of the garden; the slave carrying fine bath-cloths, oilflasks, and the salve for anointment.
At last they arrived at the tower-like octagon of the bath-rooms, whichwas completely lined and paved with pale grey marble.
They went through the halls and passages, which served for thegymnastics and games of ball usually indulged in before and after thebath, past the heating-rooms, undressing and anointing-rooms, directlyto the calidarium, or warm bath.
The slave silently opened the door in the marble wall. Amalaswinthawent in and stood upon the narrow gallery which ran round the basin.Immediately before her was a flight of easy steps leading into thebath, out of which warm and delicious odours already arose.
The light fell from above through an octagonal dome of artistically-cutglass. Close to the entrance into the room a staircase of cedar-wood,consisting of twelve steps, led on to a spring-board.
On the marble walls of the gallery, as well as of the basin, theopenings of the water-works and heating-pipes were concealed by marblebas-reliefs.
Without a word, the attendant laid the various articles for the bathupon the soft cushions and carpets which covered the gallery, andturned to go.
"How is it that I seem to know you?" asked the Princess, lookingthoughtfully at her. "How long have you been here?"
"Eight days," answered the slave, turning the handle of the door.
"How long have you served Cassiodorus?"
"I serve, and have always served, the Princess Gothelindis."
At this name Amalaswintha started up with a cry and caught at thewoman's skirt--too late; she was gone and the door closed, andAmalaswintha heard the key taken from the lock outside.
A great and unknown terror overcame her. She felt that she had beenfearfully deceived; that some shocking secret lay behind. Her heart wasfull of unspeakable anxiety; and flight--flight from the rooms was heronly thought.
But flight seemed impossible. The door now appeared to be only a thickmarble slab like those on the right and left; even a needle could nothave penetrated into the junctures. She looked desperately round thewalls of the gallery, but met only the marble stare of the tritons anddolphins. At last her eyes rested upon a snake-encircled Medusa's headdirectly opposite and a scream of horror escaped her lips.
The face of the Medusa was pushed aside, and the oval opening beneath,the snaky hair was filled with a living countenance! Was it a humanface?
The trembling woman clung to the marble balustrade of the gallery, andbent, over it, staring at the apparition. Yes, it was the distortedfeatures of Gothelindis! A hell of hate and mockery flashed from theeyes.
Amalaswintha fell upon her knees and hid her face in her hands.
"_You_--you here?"
A hoarse laugh was the reply.
"Yes, child of the Amelungs, I am here; to your ruin! Mine is thisisland; mine the house--it will become your grave--mine is Dolios, andall the slaves of Cassiodorus; bought by me eight days ago. I havedecoyed you here; I have followed you like your shadow. I have enduredthe torture of my hatred for long days and nights, in order to enjoyfull revenge at last. I will revel for hours in your death-agony. Iwill see your tender frame shaken as with fever-frost, and your haughtyfeatures convulsed with terror. Oh, I will drink a sea of revenge!"
Amalaswintha rose from her knees wringing her hands.
"Revenge? For what? Why this deadly hatred?"
"Ah! can you ask? Certainly years have passed, and the happy easilyforget. But hate has a faithful memory. Have you forgotten how twoyoung girls once played under the shade of the plantains in the meadowat Ravenna? They were the fairest among their play-fellows; both young,beautiful, and amiable. A royal child the one, the other a daughter ofthe Balthes. The girls were about to choose a queen of the games. Theychose Gothelindis, for she was still more handsome than you, and not sotyrannical. And they chose her twice in succession. But the King'sdaughter stood near, devoured by ungovernable pride and envy, and whenthey chose me for the third time she took up a pair of sharp-pointedgardener's scissors----"
"Stop! Oh! be silent, Gothelindis!"
"And hurled it at me. It hit me. Screaming' with pain and bleeding, Ifell to the ground, my whole cheek one yawning wound, and my eye, myeye pierced through! Ah! how it still pains, even to-day!"
"Forgive, pardon me, Gothelindis!" cried Amalaswintha. "You havepardoned me long ago."
"Forgive? I forgive you? Shall I forgive you when you have robbed me ofmy eye, and of all my beauty? You conquered for life! Gothelindis wasno more dangerous as a rival. She lamented in secret; the disfiguredgirl hid from the eyes of mankind. And years passed. Then there came tothe court of Ravenna a noble Amelung from Spain; Eutharic with his darkeyes and tender soul. And he, himself sick, took pity upon the sick andhalf-blind girl. He spoke to her with affection and kindness; spoke tothe ugly, disfigured creature whom all the others avoided. And it wasdecided--in order to eradicate the ancient enmity between our families,and to expiate old and new guilt--for Duke Alaric had been condemned inconsequence of a secret and unproved accusation--that the poor ill-useddaughter o
f the Balthes should become the wife of the noblest of theAmelungs. But when you heard this, you, who had so terribly disfiguredme, were resolved to deprive me also of my lover! Not out of jealousy,no; not because you loved him, no; but from mere pride. Because youwere determined to keep the first man in the kingdom and the heir tothe crown to yourself. And you succeeded; for your father could denyyou nothing, and Eutharic soon forgot his compassion for the one-eyedgirl, when the hand of the beautiful Amalaswintha was offered to him.In recompense--or was it only in mockery?--they gave me, too, to anAmelung; to Theodahad, that miserable coward?"
"Gothelindis, I swear to you, I never suspected that you lovedEutharic. How could I----"
"To be sure! how could you believe that the disfigured girl couldplace her heart so high? Oh, you cursed woman, if you had really lovedhim, and had made him happy--I could have forgiven all! But you neverloved him; you are only capable of ambition! His lot with you wasmisery. For years I saw him wasting by your side, oppressed, unloved,chilled to the very soul by your coldness. Grief soon killed him. You!you have robbed me of my lover and brought him to the grave withsorrow--revenge! revenge for him!"
And the lofty dome echoed with the cry: "Revenge! Revenge!"
"Help!" cried Amalaswintha, and ran despairingly round the circle ofthe gallery, beating the smooth walls with her hands.
"Aye! call! call! here no one can hear you but the God of Revenge! Doyou think I have bridled my hate for months in vain? How often, howeasily could I have reached you, with dagger or poison, at Ravenna! Butno; I have decoyed you here. At the monument of my murdered cousins; anhour ago at your bedside; I with difficulty restrained my upliftedhand--but slowly, inch by inch, shall you die. I will watch for hoursthe growing agony of your death."
"Terrible! Oh, terrible!"
"What are hours compared with the long years during which I wasmartyred by the thought of my disfigurement, of your beauty and yourpossession of my lover! But you shall repent it!"
"What will you do?" cried the terrified woman, again and again seekingsome outlet in the walls.
"I will drown you, slowly and surely, in the waterworks of this bath,which your friend Cassiodorus built. You do not know what tortures ofjealousy and impotent rage I endured in this house when your weddingwith Eutharic was celebrated, and I was compelled to serve in yourtrain. In this room, you proud woman, I unloosed your sandals, anddried your fair limbs--in this room you shall die?"
She touched a spring in the wall.
The floor of the basin, the round metal plate, divided into two halves,which slid slowly into the walls on the right and left.
With horror the imprisoned woman looked down from the narrow galleryinto the chasm thus opened at her feet.
"Remember that day in the meadow!" cried Gothelindis; and in the lowerstory the sluices were suddenly opened, and the waters of the lakerushed in, roaring and hissing, and rose higher and higher with fearfulrapidity.
Amalaswintha saw certain death before her. She saw the impossibility ofescape, or of softening her fiendish enemy by prayers. At this crisis,the hereditary courage of the Amelungs returned to her; she composedherself, and was reconciled to her fate.
She descried, amid the numerous reliefs of mythological subjects nearher, a representation of the death of Christ on the right of theentrance. The sight strengthened her mind; she threw herself upon herknees before the marble cross, clasped it with both ands, and prayedquietly with closed eyes, while the water rose and rose; it alreadysplashed upon the steps of the gallery.
"You pray, murderess? Away from the cross!" cried Gothelindis, enraged;"think of the three dukes!"
Suddenly all the dolphin and triton heads on the right side of theoctagon began to spout streams of hot rater; white steam rushed out ofthe pipes.
Amalaswintha sprang up and ran to the left side of the gallery.
"Gothelindis, I forgive you! Kill me, but forgive me also!"
And the water rose and rose; it already covered the topmost step of thebath, and slowly wetted the floor of the gallery.
And now the streaming water-pipes spouted upon Amalaswintha from theleft also. She took refuge in the middle of the gallery, directlyopposite the Medusa, the only place where no steam from the hot-waterpipe could reach her.
If she mounted the spring-board, which was placed here, she couldrespite her life for some time longer. Gothelindis seemed to expectthat she would do so, and to revel in the prospect of the lengthenedtorture of the agonised woman.
The water already rushed over the marble flooring of the gallery andlaved the feet of Amalaswintha. She ran quickly up the brown andshining wooden steps, and leaned over the railing of the bridge.
"Hear me, Gothelindis! my last prayer! not for myself, but for mypeople, for _our_ people. Petros will destroy them, and Theodahad----"
"Yes, I know that the kingdom is your last anxiety! Despair. It islost! These foolish Goths, who have always preferred the Amelungs tothe Balthes, are sold and betrayed by the Amelungs. Belisariusapproaches, and there is no one to warn them."
"You err, satanic woman; they _are_ warned! I, their Queen, have warnedthem! Hail to my people! Destruction to their enemies! and may God havemercy on my soul!" and she suddenly leapt from the spring-board intothe water, which closed whirling over her head.
Gothelindis looked at the place which her victim had occupied a momentbefore.
"She has disappeared," she said. Then she looked at the water--on thesurface floated Amalaswintha's kerchief.
"Even in death this woman conquers me," said Gothelindis slowly. "Howlong was my hate, and how short my revenge!"