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Updated: June 4, 2025
In the shadiest spot which offered a view of the plunging river, he asked Veranilda if she would alight. 'Willingly, I would spend an hour here, she replied. 'The leafage and the water make such a delightful freshness. 'I have anticipated your thought, said Marcian. 'The woman is gone to bid them bring seats. Veranilda glanced back in surprise and saw that they were alone.
Marcian then inquired of the commander whether, in case Veranilda were found at Cumae, he would permit her to be sent on to Rome under the escort already provided; but to this Chorsoman vouchsafed no direct reply: he would consider the matter. Negotiations had reached this point when new visitors arrived, the Bishop of Surrentum and presbyter Joannes.
I went to fetch away books, as you know. 'I must go there, said Basil, gazing about him to find his slaves. 'I must go straightway. 'Why? The danger is great. 'It may be' this was spoken into Decius' ear 'that Veranilda is imprisoned there. I have proof now, awful proof, that Petronilla lied to me. I must enter, and seek. Hard by were litters for public hire.
Veranilda drew her arm back as if his touch stung her. 'I will go, she said. 'I must be alone my thoughts are in such confusion I know not what I say. 'Say but one word, he pleaded. 'Having rescued you, I knew not how to provide for your security save under ward of the king. Totila is noble and merciful; all Italy will soon be his, and the Gothic rule be re-established.
But Totila will ere long be lord of all Italy, and who knows but the deacon Leander, no friend of Constantinople, might see his interest and his satisfaction in yielding Veranilda rather to the Goth than to the Greek? Basil started. Such a thought had never entered his mind, yet he saw probability in the suggestion. 'You assure me, he said, 'that she has not yet been surrendered.
'Go call Venantius, said Basil, when he had heard the brief story, 'and bring him straight to Aurelia's house. They are gone; that slinking slave shall tell me how, or I will tear it out of him with his soul. Back he rushed, and found the nurse still crouching on the floor, wailing. He made her lead him to her lady's chamber, and to that of Veranilda, where nothing unusual met their eyes.
He had but taken the first step towards the end for which he schemed; were this successful, with the result that Heliodora used her charms upon the Greek commander, and, as might well happen, obtained power over him, he could then proceed to the next stage of his plot, which had a scope far beyond the loves of Basil and Veranilda.
It might be true that Marcian had been misled by some calumniator into thinking evil of his friend. And had he not heard the declaration of Veranilda, that she had suffered no wrong at his hands? Basil saw the face of his beloved. Only a man possessed by the Evil Spirit could have answered her as he had done.
Veranilda he had never seen, but the lover's rapture had created in his imagination a face and form of matchless beauty which he could not cease from worshipping. He took this for a persecution of the fiend, and strove against it by all methods known to him.
'I understand, said Basil in himself; and during the rest of the day he strove with all the force of his will to recover calm and pious thoughts. In the night that followed he slept little; it was now the image of Veranilda that hovered before him and kept him wakeful, perturbed with a tender longing.
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