A Struggle for Rome, v. 3

by Felix Dahn

  CHAPTER XII.

  The King broke the seals and read:

  "'This is written by Hildegisel, the son of Hildemuth, whom they call"the long;" once priest, now castellan at Teriolis. Written at thedictation of old Iffa; and it is all written down faithfully. Lo!--nowit begins! The Latin is not always as good as that sung in thechurches. But thou, O King, wilt understand it. For where it is badLatin it is good Gothic. Lo!--now it really begins. Thus speaks the oldman Iffa: My Lord and King Totila; the roll which is wrapped in thiscover is the writing of the man Wargs, who, however, was neither myson, nor was his name Wargs--but his name was Alaric, and he was aBalthe, the banished Duke of----'"

  A ay of astonishment from all present interrupted the King. He paused.But Duke Guntharis cried:

  "Then Adalgoth, who calls himself the son of Wargs, is the son ofAlaric! whom he himself, in his office of herald, has often, ridingthrough the town on a white horse, loudly summoned to appear. And neversaw I a greater resemblance than that between the father Alaric and theson Adalgoth."

  "Hail to the Duke of Apulia!" cried Totila, with a smile, as heembraced the boy.

  But, speechless with excitement, Gotho sank upon her knees, her eyesfilled with tears, and, looking up at Adalgoth, she sighed:

  "Then thou art not my brother! O God!--Hail, Duke of Apulia! Farewell!farewell for ever!" and she rose to her feet and turned to go.

  "Not my sister!" cried Adalgoth. "That is the best thing which thisdukedom brings me! Stop there!" and he caught Gotho in his arms,pressed her to his bosom, and kissed her heartily. Then he led herup to the King, saying, "Now, King Totila, unite us! Here is mybride--here is my duchess!"

  And Totila, who had meanwhile cast a rapid glance over the twodocuments, answered smiling:

  "In this case I do not need the wisdom of Solomon. Young Duke ofApulia, thus I betroth thee to thy bride." And he laid the laughing,weeping girl in Adalgoth's arms.

  Then he turned to the assembled Goths, and said:

  "Permit me shortly to explain to you what this writing--the Latin ofwhich is rather rude, for Hildegisel was cleverer with the sword thanthe pen--contains. Here is, besides, Duke Alaric's declaration of hisinnocence."

  "That has already been proved by his son," cried Duke Guntharis. "And Inever believed in his guilt."

  "Duke Alaric," continued the King, "discovered his secret accuser toolate. Our Adalgoth, as you know, brought his innocence to light, whenhe found the hidden documents in the broken statue of Caesar. Cethegusthe Prefect had kept a sort of diary in a secret cypher. ButCassiodorus, with grief and amazement, deciphered the writing, andfound an entry at the commencement of the book, written about twelveyears ago, which ran thus: 'Duke Alaric condemned. That he wasinnocent, is now only believed by himself and his accuser. He whoinjures Cethegus shall not live. At the time when I woke from adeath-like swoon on the banks of the Tiber, I swore to be revenged. Imade a vow and it is now fulfilled.' The cause of this hatred is stilla secret. But it is connected in some way with our friend JuliusMontanus. Where is he?"

  "He has already returned to St. Peter's with Cassiodorus," answeredEarl Teja; "excuse them. Every day at this hour they pray for peacewith Byzantium. And Julius," he added with a bitter smile, "prays alsofor the Prefect's soul."

  "King Theodoric," said the King, "was hardly to be persuaded of theguilt of the brave duke, with whom he was on terms of intimatefriendship."

  "Yes," observed Duke Guntharis, "he once gave him a broad gold braceletwith a runic device."

  The King now resumed his reading of the papers:

  "'I took a bracelet given me by King Theodoric'--these are the words ofthe duke--'when I fled with my child. Broken in two just in the centreof the runic inscription. It will one day serve to prove the honourablebirth of my son.'"

  "He bears the proof on his face," cried Duke Guntharis.

  "But the golden proof is also not wanting!" exclaimed Adalgoth: "atleast old Iffa gave me a broken bracelet. Here it is," and he took outthe half of a broken bracelet, which he carried tied to a ribbon roundhis neck; "I have never been able to explain the sense of these words:

  "'The Amelung-- The eagle-- In need-- The friend--'"

  "Thou hast not the other half," said Gotho, and took the second half ofthe bracelet from her bosom. "See, here is written:

  "'--to the Balthe, --to the falcon, --and death, --to the friend.'"

  And now Teja, holding the two halves together, read:

  "'The Amelung to the Balthe, The eagle to the falcon, In need and death, The friend to the friend.'"

  But the King continued to read from the roll:

  "'King Theodoric could no longer protect me when letters were laidbefore him, in which my handwriting was so excellently imitated that Imyself, on being shown a harmless sentence which had been cut out,acknowledged without hesitation that I had written it. Then the judgesfitted the piece into the parchment and read the whole to me. Thatletter purported to be written to the court of Byzantium, with thepromise that the writer would murder the King and evacuate South Italy,if the Emperor would acknowledge him as King of North Italy. And thejudges condemned me. As I was led away from the hall, I met my oldfriend Cethegus Caesarius in the passage. I had some time beforesucceeded in persuading a girl with whom he was in love to leave himand marry a good friend of mine in Gaul. Cethegus forced his waythrough my guards, struck me lightly on the shoulder and said, "He fromwhom his love has been torn, comforts himself with revenge;" and hiseyes told me that he, and no other, had been my secret accuser. As alast favour, the King procured me the means of escape. But I and all myhouse were outlawed. For a long time I wandered restlessly in thenorthern mountains, until I recollected that some old and faithfuladherents of my house were settled upon the Iffinger mountain. ThitherI went with my boy, taking with me a few hereditary jewels, and myfaithful friends received me and my son, and hid me under the name ofWargs--the banished--and gave out that I was the son of old Iffa,sending away all untrustworthy servants who might have betrayed me.Thus I lived in secret for some years. I educate my son to be myavenger on Cethegus the traitor, and when I die, old Iffa will continuethis education. I hope the day will come when my innocence will beproved. But if it delays too long, my son, when he can wield the sword,shall leave the Iffinger and go to Italy, and revenge his father uponCethegus Caesarius. That is my last word to my son.'--'But,'" the Kingnow read from a second paper, "'soon after the Duke had written this, agreat landslip buried him, together with some of my relations. And I,Iffa, have brought up the boy as my grandchild and Gotho's brother, forthe ban had not been taken off the family of Duke Alaric, and I did notwish to expose the boy to the revenge of that devil, Cethegus. And thatit might not be possible for the boy to betray anything about hisdangerous parentage, I never told him of it. But when he was grown up,and I heard that there reigned in the Roman citadel a mild and justKing, who had conquered the devilish Prefect as the God of Morningconquers the Giant of the Night, I sent young Adalgoth away, and toldhim that, according to his father's command, he must revenge the noblechief and patron of our family upon Cethegus the traitor. But I did noteven then tell him that he was Alaric's son, for I feared the ban. Solong as his father's innocence was unproved, his father's name couldonly injure him. And I sent him away in great haste, for I discoveredthat the belief in his brotherly relation to my grandchild, Gotho, hadnot prevented him from loving her in a very unbrotherly manner. I mighthave told him that Gotho was not his sister. But far be it from me thatI should dishonestly try to unite the noble scion of my old master andpatron with my blood, the simple shepherd's child. No, if justice stillexists upon earth, he will soon take his place as Duke of Apulia, likehis father before him. And as I fear that I may die before he sends meword of the Prefect's ruin, I have begged the long Hildegisel to writeall this down.' (And I, Hildegisel, have received for the
writingtwenty pounds of the best cheese, and twelve jars of honey, which Ithankfully acknowledge, and all of which was good.) 'And with, thesewritings, and with the blue stones and fine garments and golden solidifrom the inheritance of the Balthes, I send my child Gotho to KingTotila the Just, to whom she must reveal everything. He will take theban away from the innocent son of the guiltless duke. And when Adalgothknows that he is the heir of the Balthes, and that Gotho is not hissister--then he may freely choose or shun the shepherdess; but this hemust know, that the race of the Iffingers was never a race of vassals,but free from the very beginning, although under the protection of theHouse of Balthe.

  "'And now. King Totila, decide the fate of my grandchild andAdalgoth.'"