"Thou wilt not find him!"
"I will find him, if I must pluck him from hell's deepest abyss, or from out of the midst of the angels!"
"He will have fled with a strong escort," warned Witichis.
"I will reach him in the midst of a thousand demons! Hildebad, thy horse! Farewell, King of the Goths. I go to fulfil the ban!"
BOOK IV.
WITICHIS.
"And the Goths chose Witichis for their King, a man of humble origin, but a famous warrior."--Procopius: Wars of the Goths, i. 11.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
Slowly sank the sun behind the green hills of Fæsulæ, and gilded the columns in front of the simple country-house of which Rauthgundis was the mistress.