Antonina
Реклама. ООО «ЛитРес», ИНН: 7719571260.
Оглавление
Wilkie Collins. Antonina
CONTENTS:
GOISVINTHA
THE COURT
ROME
THE CHURCH
ANTONINA
AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE
THE BED-CHAMBER
THE GOTHS
THE TWO INTERVIEWS
THE RIFT IN THE WALL
GOISVINTHA'S RETURN
THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL
THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS
THE FAMINE
THE CITY AND THE GODS
LOVE MEETINGS
THE HUNS
THE FARM-HOUSE
THE GUARDIAN RESTORED
THE BREACH REPASSED
FATHER AND CHILD
THE BANQUET OF FAMINE
THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED
THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP
THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH
RETRIBUTION
THE VIGIL OF HOPE
THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.'
Отрывок из книги
WILKIE COLLINS
THE COURT. 15
.....
'But already, when the great day of despair was quickly drawing near, a bitter outrage was preparing for me alone. The men who had hitherto watched us were changed, and of the number of the new guards was one who cast on me the eyes of lust. Night after night he poured his entreaties into my unwilling ear; for, in his vanity and shamelessness, he believed that I, who was Gothic and the wife of a Goth, might be won by him whose parentage was but Roman! Soon from prayers he rose to threats; and one night, appearing before me with smiles, he cried out that Stilicho, whose desire was to make peace with the Goths, had suffered, for his devotion to our people, the penalty of death; that a time of ruin was approaching for us all, and that he alone—whom I despised—could preserve me from the anger of Rome. As he ceased he approached me; but I, who had been in many battle-fields, felt no dread at the prospect of war, and I spurned him with laughter from my presence.
'Then, for a few nights more, my enemy approached me not again. Until one evening, as I sat on the terrace before the house, with the child that you have beheld, a helmet-crest suddenly fell at my feet, and a voice cried to me from the garden beneath: 'Priulf thy husband has been slain in a quarrel by the soldiers of Rome! Already the legions with whom he served are on their way to the town; for a massacre of the hostages is ordained. Speak but the word, and I can save thee even yet!'
.....