The vacant space in the middle of the tent was strewn
with martial weapons, separating the representatives of the two nations
one from the other; and thus accidentally, yet palpably, typifying the
fierce hostility which had sundered in years past, and was still to
sunder for years to come, the people of the North and the people of the
South.
The Gothic king stood a little in advance of his warriors, leaning on
his huge, heavy sword. His steady eye wandered from man to man among
the broken-spirited senators, contemplating, with cold and cruel
penetration, all that suffering and despair had altered for the worse in
their outward appearance. Their soiled robes, their wan cheeks, their
trembling limbs were each marked in turn by the cool, sarcastic
examination of the conqueror's gaze. Debased and humiliated as they
were, there were some among the ambassadors who felt the insult thus
silently and deliberately inflicted on them the more keenly for their
very helplessness. They moved uneasily in their places, and whispered
among each other in low and bitter accents.
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