Though a vague, awful
foreboding of disaster and death filled his heart, his resolution to
penetrate at once, at all hazards, the dark mystery of impending danger
indicated by his daughter's words and actions, did not fail him; for it
was aroused by the only motive powerful enough to revive all that
suffering and infirmity had not yet destroyed of the energy of his
former days--the preservation of his child. There was something of the
old firmness and vigour of the intrepid reformer of the Church, in his
dim eyes, as he now stopped, and enclosing Antonina in his arms,
arrested her instantly in her flight.
She struggled to escape; but it was faintly, and only for a moment. Her
strength and consciousness were beginning to abandon her. She never
attempted to look back; she felt in her heart that Goisvintha was still
behind, and dared not to verify the frightful conviction with her eyes.
Her lips moved; but they expressed an altered and a vain petition:
'Hermanric! O Hermanric!' was all they murmured now.
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