Some sudden thought or recollection heightened her
colour and caused her to hesitate ere she proceeded. She was about at
length to continue, when a peal of thunder, louder than any which had
preceded it, burst threateningly over the house and drowned the first
accents of her voice. The wind moaned loudly, the rain splashed against
the door, the latch rattled long and sharply in its socket. Once more
Hermanric rose from his seat, and approaching the fire, placed a fresh
log of wood upon the dying embers. His dejection seemed now to
communicate itself to Antonina, and as he reseated himself by her side,
she did not address him again.
Thoughts, dreary and appalling beyond any that had occupied it before,
were rising in the mind of the Goth. His inquietude at the encampment
in the suburbs was tranquillity itself compared to the gloom which now
oppressed him. All the evaded dues of his nation, his family, and his
calling; all the suppressed recollections of the martial occupation he
had slighted, and the martial enmities he had disowned, now revived
avengingly in his memory.
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