"Bah!" said Hildebad; "I would risk that!"
"Because thou knowest not that passionate creature, that child of the Amelungs! She inherits the fiery blood of Theodoric, and will, after all, play us, too, a bad trick."
"Witichis is another kind of wooer than that boy of Asta," whispered Teja.
"I trust to that also," answered Hildebrand. "Leave him in peace a few days longer," added the old man; "his grief must have its way. Till it is assuaged he can be brought to do nothing. Do not disturb him. Let him remain quietly in his tent with his wife. I shall be obliged to disturb him soon enough."
But the old man was compelled to rouse the King from his grief sooner and in a different way from what he had intended.
The Assembly at Regeta had made a law against all Goths who deserted to the Byzantines, condemning [them] to an ignominious death.
On the whole, such desertions occurred very rarely, but still, in parts of the country where a few Goths lived among a crowded Italian population, and many intermarriages had taken place, they were more frequent.
The old master-at-arms was especially wroth with these renegades, who dishonoured themselves and their nation. It was he who had introduced this law against deserters from the army and the national flag.
Its application had not yet been necessary, and its intention was almost forgotten.
Suddenly it was brought to mind gravely enough.