Rosamond’s heart throbbed with grief and rage on hearing this inhuman request.  She took the skull in trembling hands, and murmuring in low accents, “Let the will of my lord be obeyed,” she touched it to her lips.  But in doing so she breathed a silent prayer, and resolved that the unpardonable insult should be washed out in Alboin’s blood.

If she had ever loved her lord, she felt now for him only the bitterness of hate.  She had a friend in the court on whom she could depend, Helmichis, the armor-bearer of the king.  She called on him for aid in her revenge, and found him willing but fearful, for he knew too well the great strength and daring spirit of the chief whom he had so often attended in battle.  He proposed, therefore, that they should gain the aid of a Lombard of unequalled strength, Peredeus by name.  This champion, however, was not easily to be won.  The project was broached to him, but the most that could be gained from him was a promise of silence.

Failing in this, more shameful methods were employed.  Such was Rosamond’s passion for revenge that the most extreme measures seemed to her justifiable.  Peredeus loved one of the attendants of the queen.  Rosamond replaced this frail woman, sacrificed her honor to her vengeance, and then threatened to denounce Peredeus to the king unless he would kill the man who had so bitterly wronged her.

Peredeus now consented.  He must kill the king or the king would kill him, for he felt that Rosamond was quite capable of carrying out her threat.  Having thus obtained the promise of the instruments of her vengeance, the queen waited for a favorable moment to carry out her dark design.  The opportunity soon came.  The king, heavy with wine, had retired from the table to his afternoon slumbers.  Rosamond, affecting solicitude for his health and repose, dismissed his attendants, closed the palace gates, and then, seeking her spouse, lulled him to rest by her tender caresses.

Finding that he slumbered, she unbolted the chamber door, and urged her confederates to the instant performance of the deed of blood.  They entered the room with stealthy tread, but the quick senses of the warrior took the alarm, he opened his eyes, saw two armed men advancing upon him, and sprang from his couch.  His sword hung beside him, and he attempted to draw it, but the cunning hand of Rosamond had fastened it securely in the scabbard.  The only weapon remaining was a small foot-stool.  This he used with vigor, but it could not long protect him from the spears of his assailants, and he quickly fell dead beneath their blows.  His body was buried beneath the stairway of the palace, and thus tragically ended the career of the founder of the kingdom of Lombardy.