When this stronghold fell before the
advance of Belisarius, the Goth escaped, soon after to die in
battle; Aurelia, a captive of the Conquerors, remained at Cumae, and
still was living there, though no longer under restraint. Because of
its strength, this ancient city became the retreat of many ladies
who fled from Rome before the hardships and perils of the siege;
from them the proud and unhappy woman. ever held apart, yet she
refused to quit the town when she would have been permitted to do
so. From his terrace above the Surrentine shore, Maximus gazed
across the broad gulf to the hills that concealed Cumae, yearning
for the last of his children. When at length he wrote her a letter,
a letter of sad kindness, inviting rather than beseeching her to
visit him, Aurelia made no reply. Wounded, he sunk again into
silence, until his heart could no longer bear its secret burden, and
he spoke--not to Petronilla, from whose austere orthodoxy little
sympathy was to be expected--but to his nephew Basil, whose
generous mettle willingly lent itself to such a service as was
proposed.
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