Amalaswintha covered her face. She had heartily forgiven her son while watching beside his coffin. But still this view, these words, powerfully affected her, and drew her attention away from her grief to the well-loved habit of government. Konig Witichis ist ein guter Soldat und schlechter Psychologe. Ich kenne einen viel scharferen Kopf, ders doch einen Augenblick fur moglich hielt. Und du zeigst ihm ja alles schriftlich. Und jetzt gerade, da er von den Franken im Stich gelassen ist, geht ihm das Wasser an den Hals: er greift nach jedem Strohhalm. Daran also zweifle ich nicht: versichre dich nur Antoninens. "Kuka niin on sanonut?" Mit Grauen blickte Cethegus auf das furchtbare Werk der Zerstorung, das sein Wort angerichtet. Aber es hatte gerettet. Zwolf, funfzehn, zwanzig Leitern standen leer von den hart aufeinander folgenden Mannern, die sie kurz zuvor ameisendicht besetzt hatten: ebensoviel lagen zerbrochen am Fu? der Mauer: uberrascht von diesem unerwarteten Erz- und Marmorhagel, wichen die Goten einen Augenblick. Aber gleich wieder rief sie das Horn Markjas zum Sturm: und wieder sausten die centnerschweren Lasten hernieder. Weeds grow luxuriantly in the meadows where once lay in shining order the beautiful gardens; nothing has been left of them except the wide marble basin of a long dried-up fountain, in whose pebble-filled runnels the lizards now sun themselves. Hanen sielunsa ei ajattelekaan Juudan helmea." "Omen accipio!" sanoi Cethegus nauraen. "Otan sen vastaan Brutuksen tikarikin mukaan luettuna." Lastly, the Romans themselves would, after all, have to save and defend Rome, and all his plans urged him to re-accustom his fellow-citizens to the use of arms. But Theodoric had wisely excluded the Italians from the army--exceptions were only made in favour of persons who were considered as particularly reliable and in the late unquiet times of his reign, during the process against Boethius, he had issued orders for the general disarming of all Romans. This measure had certainly never been strictly carried out, but still Cethegus dared not hope that the Queen-Regent would allow him, against the expressed will of her august father and the evident interests of the Goths, to form any considerable forces of Italians. Sich hoch aufrichtend, zerschmetterte er Gregor, dem Byzantiner, mit seinem Steinhammer den hochgeschweiften Helm und das Haupt. Aber gleichzeitig fast stie? ihn selber Lucius Licinius mit dem Schildstachel in den Graben. [pg 278]Cethegus zerhieb mit dem Schwert die Seile der Maschine, die krachend auf den Alten sturzte. The Princess followed shuddering; she could not help thinking of the cold black waves which had so dismally licked the planks of the little boat. Und Graf Ulithis? Woher wei?t du das! staunte Kallistratos. Genug, ich wei? es. Es war ein furchtbarer Augenblick fur den Prafekten. "Narses fears no one," answered the latter, without looking at his interrogator, "neither the Persians whom he has beaten, nor you whom the Persians have beaten. But he knows the Orient. If not the Persians, then it will be others who follow them. The tempest which threatens Byzantium approaches from the Tigris, not from the Tiber."