Thus she spoke:-- 'I swore to be avenged! while I went forth from
Aquileia with the child that was killed and the child that was wounded;
while I climbed the high wall in the night-time, and heard the tumult of
the beating waves near the bank where I buried the dead; while I
wandered in the darkness over the naked heath and through the lonely
forest; while I climbed the pathless sides of the mountains, and made my
refuge in the cavern by the waters of the dark lake.
'I swore to be avenged! while the warriors approached me on their march,
and the roaring of the trumpets and the clash of the armour sounded in
my ears; while I greeted my kinsman, Hermanric, a mighty chieftain, at
the king's side, among the invading hosts; while I looked on my last
child, dead like the rest, and knew that he was buried afar from the
land of his people, and from the others that the Romans had slain before
him.
'I swore to be avenged! while the army encamped before Rome, and I stood
with Hermanric, looking on the great walls in the misty evening; while
the daughter of the Roman was a prisoner in our tent, and I eyed her as
she lay on my knees; while for her sake my kinsman turned traitor, and
withheld my hand from the blow; while I passed unseen into the lonely
farm-house to deal judgment on him with my knife; while I saw him die
the death of a deserter at my feet, and knew that it was a Roman who had
lured him from his people, and blinded him to the righteousness of
revenge.
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