Was it, then, but a dream?
It was impossible to remain alone with her torturing thoughts. She pressed a knob of agate on the wall, which set in motion a hammer outside the room.
Very soon a slave appeared, whose features and costume betrayed a higher education.
He introduced himself as the Greek physician. She told him of the terrible dreams and the feverish tremblings by which she had been tormented during the last few hours. He explained the symptoms as the consequence of excitement, perhaps of cold taken during her flight, recommended a warm bath, and left her to order its preparation.
Amalaswintha remembered the splendid baths, which, divided into two stories, occupied the whole right wing of the villa.
The lower story of the large octagonal rotunda, designed for the cold bath, was in immediate connection with the lake. The water was conducted into the bath through sieves, which excluded every impurity.
The upper story, a smaller octagon, was erected over the bath-room of the lower story, the ceiling of which, made of a large circular metal plate, formed the floor of the upper bath, and could be pushed, divided into two semicircles, into the walls; so that both stories then formed an undivided space, which, for the purposes of cleansing or for games of swimming and diving, could be completely filled with the water of the lake.
Generally, however, the upper story was used only for the warm bath, and was provided with hundreds of pipes, and innumerable dolphin, triton, and Medusa-heads of bronze or marble, through which flowed the scented waters, mixed with oils and essences; while from the gallery all round, upon which the bathers undressed, ornamental steps led down into the shell-shaped porphyry basin of the bath.
As the Princess was recalling these rooms to her memory, the wife of the door-keeper appeared to lead her to the bath.
They passed through wide columned halls and libraries--where, however, the Princess missed the capsulas and rolls of Cassiodorus--in the direction of the garden; the slave carrying fine bath-cloths, oil flasks, and the salve for anointment.