"I pity her for being born of such a stock," answered Victoria sadly. "I pity her for having harbored murder in her heart."
"Believe me," I said to my foster-sister. "That woman's death is a just punishment; besides it puts an end to a life that was soiled with crimes at which nature shudders. May it have pleased the gods that, like Elwig, her brother Neroweg lost his life to-day, and that his stock may be extinguished in him. I will otherwise regret all my life that I did not finish the man when I had a chance. I have a presentiment that his descendants will be fatal to mine."
Victoria gave me a look of astonishment at hearing me utter these words, the sense of which she could not comprehend.
But Victorin turned her thoughts and mine into other channels, exclaiming:
"Hesus be blessed, mother! This was a happy day for Gaul! You escaped a grave danger, and our arms are victorious! The Franks are driven from our frontier!—"
Victorin broke off; he seemed to listen to a sound in the distance; with flashing eyes he resumed:
"Do you hear, mother? Do you hear the song that the wind carries to our ears?"
We all remained silent; and repeated in chorus by thousands of voices tremulous with the joy of triumph, the following refrain reached us across the stillness of the night:
| "This morning we said:— |
| ‘How many are there of these barbarians?’ |
| This evening we say:— |
| ‘How many were there of these blood-thirsty Franks!’" |