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 the
dictation of old Iffa; and it is all written down faithfully. Lo!--now
it begins! The Latin is not always as good as that sung in the
churches. But thou, O King, wilt understand it. For where it is bad
Latin it is good Gothic. Lo!--now it really begins. Thus speaks the old
man Iffa: My Lord and King Totila; the roll which is wrapped in this
cover is the writing of the man Wargs, who, however, was neither my
son, nor was his name Wargs--but his name was Alaric, and he was a
Balthe, 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 of
Alaric! whom he himself, in his office of herald, has often, riding
through the town on a white horse, loudly summoned to appear. And never
saw I a greater resemblance than that between the father Alaric and the
son Adalgoth."
"Hail to the Duke of Apulia!" cried Totila, with a smile, as he
embraced the boy.
But, speechless with excitement, Gotho sank upon her knees, her eyes
filled 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 this
dukedom brings me! Stop there!" and he caught Gotho in his arms,
pressed her to his bosom, and kissed her heartily. Then he led her
up to the King, saying, "Now, King Totila, unite us! Here is my
bride--here is my duchess!"
And Totila, who had meanwhile cast a rapid glance over the two
documents, answered smiling:
"In this case I do not need the wisdom of Solomon. Young Duke of
Apulia, 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 of
which is rather rude, for Hildegisel was cleverer with the sword than
the pen--contains. Here is, besides, Duke Alaric's declaration of his
innocence."
"That has already been proved by his son," cried Duke Guntharis. "And I
never believed in his guilt."
"Duke Alaric," continued the King, "discovered his secret accuser too
late. Our Adalgoth, as you know, brought his innocence to light, when
he found the hidden documents in the broken statue of Caesar. Cethegus
the Prefect had kept a sort of diary in a secret cypher. But
Cassiodorus, with grief and amazement, deciphered the writing, and
found an entry at the commencement of the book, written about twelve
years ago, which ran thus: 'Duke Alaric condemned. That he was
innocent, is now only believed by himself and his accuser. He who
injures Cethegus shall not live. At the time when I woke from a
death-like swoon on the banks of the Tiber, I swore to be revenged. I
made a vow and it is now fulfilled.' The cause of this hatred is still
a secret. But it is connected in some way with our friend Julius
Montanus. Where is he?"
"He has already returned to St. Peter's with Cassiodorus," answered
Earl Teja; "excuse them. Every day at this hour they pray for peace
with Byzantium. And Julius," he added with a bitter smile, "prays also
for the Prefect's soul."
"King Theodoric," said the King, "was hardly to be persuaded of the
guilt of the brave duke, with whom he was on terms of intimate
friendship."
"Yes," observed Duke Guntharis, "he once gave him a broad gold bracelet
with 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 of
the duke--'when I fled with my child. Broken in two just in the centre
of the runic inscription. It will one day serve to prove the honourable
birth of my son.'"
"He bears the proof on his face," cried Duke Guntharis.
"But the golden proof is also not wanting!" exclaimed Adalgoth: "at
least old Iffa gave me a broken bracelet. Here it is," and he took out
the half of a broken bracelet, which he carried tied to a ribbon round
his 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 of
the 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 laid
before him, in which my handwriting was so excellently imitated that I
myself, on being shown a harmless sentence which had been cut out,
acknowledged without hesitation that I had written it. Then the judges
fitted the piece into the parchment and read the whole to me. That
letter purported to be written to the court of Byzantium, with the
promise that the writer would murder the King and evacuate South Italy,
if the Emperor would acknowledge him as King of North Italy. And the
judges condemned me. As I was led away from the hall, I met my old
friend Cethegus Caesarius in the passage. I had some time before
succeeded in persuading a girl with whom he was in love to leave him
and marry a good friend of mine in Gaul. Cethegus forced his way
through my guards, struck me lightly on the shoulder and said, "He from
whom his love has been torn, comforts himself with revenge;" and his
eyes told me that he, and no other, had been my secret accuser. As a
last favour, the King procured me the means of escape. But I and all my
house were outlawed. For a long time I wandered restlessly in the
northern mountains, until I recollected that some old and faithful
adherents of my house were settled upon the Iffinger mountain. Thither
I went with my boy, taking with me a few hereditary jewels, and my
faithful friends received me and my son, and hid me under the name of
Wargs--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 my
avenger on Cethegus the traitor, and when I die, old Iffa will continue
this education. I hope the day will come when my innocence will be
proved. 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 upon
Cethegus Caesarius. That is my last word to my son.'--'But,'" the King
now read from a second paper, "'soon after the Duke had written this, a
great landslip buried him, together with some of my relations. And I,
Iffa, have brought up the boy as my grandchild and Gotho's brother, for
the ban had not been taken off the family of Duke Alaric, and I did not
wish to expose the boy to the revenge of that devil, Cethegus. And that
it might not be possible for the boy to betray anything about his
dangerous 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 just
King, who had conquered the devilish Prefect as the God of Morning
conquers the Giant of the Night, I sent young Adalgoth away, and told
him that, according to his father's command, he must revenge the noble
chief and patron of our family upon Cethegus the traitor. But I did not
even then tell him that he was Alaric's son, for I feared the ban. So
long as his father's innocence was unproved, his father's name could
only injure him. And I sent him away in great haste, for I discovered
that the belief in his brotherly relation to my grandchild, Gotho, had
not prevented him from loving her in a very unbrotherly manner. I might
have told him that Gotho was not his sister. But far be it from me that
I should dishonestly try to unite the noble scion of my old master and
patron with my blood, the simple shepherd's child. No, if justice still
exists upon earth, he will soon take his place as Duke of Apulia, like
his father before him. And as I fear that I may die before he sends me
word of the Prefect's ruin, I have begged the long Hildegisel to write
all this down.' (And I, Hildegisel, have received for the writing
twenty pounds of the best cheese, and twelve jars of honey, which I
thankfully acknowledge, and all of which was good.) 'And with, these
writings, and with the blue stones and fine garments and golden solidi
from the inheritance of the Balthes, I send my child Gotho to King
Totila the Just, to whom she must reveal everything. He will take the
ban away from the innocent son of the guiltless duke. And when Adalgoth
knows that he is the heir of the Balthes, and that Gotho is not his
sister--then he may freely choose or shun the shepherdess; but this he
must know, that the race of the Iffingers was never a race of vassals,
but free from the very beginning, although under the protection of the
House of Balthe.
"'And now. King Totila, decide the fate of my grandchild and
Adalgoth.'"