"I leave my life behind me; thou hast yet a life before thee."
"And what a life!"
"The life of a King for his people, as thine oath demands."
"Fatal oath!"
"It was right to swear it; it is a duty to keep it. And thou wilt think of me in the gilded halls of Rome, as I of thee in my hut, deep in the ravine. Thou wilt not forget thy wife, nor the ten years of our faith and love, nor our sweet boy."
"Oh, my wife, my wife!" cried the tortured man, pressing his face against the saddle-bow, and putting both arms around her.
She bent over him and laid her hand upon his head.
Meanwhile Wachis had overtaken them; he looked at the group for a short time, and then he could bear it no longer.
He pulled his master gently by the mantle.
"Master, listen; I can give you good advice. Do you not hear me?"