Eugenia timidly pulled her back by the robe, stroking and kissing her hand; but Hilda, smoothing the boy's golden locks, went on: "It is a duty, it is a patriotic duty, that every man who can--especially a son of the royal house--should fight for his people. This lad can fight; he has proved it. So do not refuse him to his people. My ancestor taught me that only he who is to fall will fall."
"Sinful paganism!" exclaimed the King, wrathfully.
"Well, then, let me address you as a Christian. Is this your trust in God, Gelimer? Who in the two armies is as guiltless as this child? O King, I am less devout than you, but I have confidence enough in the God of Heaven to believe that he will protect this boy in our just cause. Ay, should this purest, fairest scion of the Asding race fall, it would be like a judgment of God, proclaiming that we are indeed corrupt in His eyes!"
"Hold!" cried the King, in anguish. "Do not probe the deepest wounds of my breast. If he should fall now? If a judgment of God, as you called it, should so terribly overtake us? Doubtless he is free from guilt as far as human beings can be. But have you forgotten the terrible words of menace--about the iniquity of the fathers? If I experienced that, I should see in it the curse of vengeance fulfilled, and I believe I should despair."
He began to pace swiftly up and down.
Then Gibamund whispered to his wife, who shook her proud head silently but wrathfully, "Let him go. Such anxiety in the brain of the commander-in-chief will do more harm than the spears of twenty boys can render service."
"But arrows fly far," cried Ammata, defiantly. "If, like a miserable coward, I remain behind your backs, I can fall here in the camp if the foes conquer. I certainly will not be taken captive," he added fiercely, seizing his dagger, and throwing back his head till his fair locks floated over his light-blue armor. "Better put me in a church at once--but a Catholic one; that would be a safe sanctuary, devout King."
"Yes, I will lock you up, unruly boy," Gelimer now said sharply. "For that insolent jeer, you will give up your weapons at once--at once. Take them from him, Thrasaric. You, Thrasaric, will assail the foe in the front, from Decimum. In Decimum stands a Catholic church; it will be inviolable to the Byzantines. There you will keep imprisoned during the battle the boy who desires to be a soldier and has not yet learned to obey his King. In case of retreat, you will take him with you. And listen, Thrasaric: that night--in the grove--you promised to atone for the past--"
"I think he has done so," cried Hilda, indignantly.
"Whose troops are the best drilled?" added Gibamund. "Who has lavished gold, weapons, horses, like him?"