He thought of Antonina, solitary and helpless,
listening to the tempest in affright, and watching vainly for his long-
delayed approach. His fancy arrayed before him dangers, plots, and
crimes, robed in all the horrible exaggerations of a dream. Even the
quick, monotonous dripping of the rain-drops outside aroused within him
dark and indefinable forebodings of ill. The passion that had hitherto
created for him new pleasures was now fulfilling the other half of its
earthly mission, and causing him new pains.
As the storm strengthened, as the darkness lowered deeper and deeper, so
did his inquietude increase, until at length it mastered the last feeble
resistance of his wavering firmness. Persuading himself that, after
having delayed so long, Goisvintha would now refrain from seeking him
until the morrow, and that all communications from Alaric, had they been
despatched, would have reached him ere this; unable any longer to combat
his anxiety for the safety of Antonina; determined to risk the worst
possibilities rather than be absent at such a time of tempest and peril
from the farm-house, he made a last visit to the stations of the
watchful sentinels, and quitted the camp for the night.
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