She looked so decided that Amalaswintha did not attempt to learn more.
"Well," she said, "my daughter has no common nature. So I demand of you what is uncommon: to sacrifice all to the highest."
"Mother, I cherish a noble dream in my heart. To me it is the highest. To it I will sacrifice all."
"Mataswintha," said the Queen, "how unqueenly! See, God has blessed you above thousands with beauty of body and mind. You are born to be a queen."
"I will be a queen of love. All praise my beauty. I have proposed to myself, loving and beloved, happy and bestowing happiness, to be a true woman!"
"A woman? is that all your ambition?"
"It is. Oh, would it had been yours!"
"And the realm is nothing to you, the grandchild of Theodoric? Your nation, the Goths, are they of no account?"
"No, mother," said Mataswintha quietly; "it grieves me, it almost makes me ashamed, but I cannot pretend what I do not feel. The word 'Goth' arouses no sentiment in me. Perhaps it is not my fault; you have always despised these Goths and valued these 'barbarians' lightly; that was my first impression; it is enduring. And I hate this crown, this kingdom of the Goths; it has taken the place of my father, of my brother, and of myself in your heart! The Gothic crown has never been anything to me but a hated and inimical power."
"Oh, my child, woe to me if I am guilty of this! If you will not do it for the sake of our kingdom, oh, do it for my sake! I am lost without these Wölfungs. Do it for the sake of my love!" And she took her daughter's hand.