Scarcely had he despatched a servant with this when Felix announced to him the arrival of Marcian.  On fire with eagerness, Basil sped to greet his friend.

‘Give me to drink,’ were the traveller’s first words.  ’I have ridden since before dawn, and have a tongue like leather.’

Wine and grapes, with other refreshments, were set forth for him.  Marcian took up an earthenware jug full of spring water, and drank deeply.  His host then urged the wine, but it was refused; and as Basil knew that one of his friend’s peculiarities was a rigorous abstinence at times from all liquor save the pure element, he said no more.

‘I have been at Nuceria,’ Marcian continued, throwing himself on a seat, ’with Venantius.  What a man!  He was in the saddle yesterday from sunrise to sunset; drank from sunset to the third hour of the night; rose before light this morning, gay and brisk, and made me ride with him, so that I was all but tired out before I started on the road hither.  Venantius declares that he can only talk of serious things on horseback.’

‘My uncle regarded him as a Roman turned barbarian,’ said Basil.

‘Something of that, but such men have their worth and their place.’

‘We will talk about him at another time,’ Basil interrupted.  ’Remember how we parted at Cumae and what happened afterwards.  We are private here; you can speak freely.  How did you release us from the grip of the Hun?’

’I told you before, good Basil, that I was here to spy upon you; and be sure that I did not undertake that office without exacting a proof of the confidence of our lords at Rome.  Something I carry with me which has power over such dogs as Chorsoman.’

’I saw that, best Marcian.  But it did not avail to save my cousin Aurelia from robbery.’

’Nothing would, where Chorsoman was sure of a week’s—­nay, of an hour’s—­impunity.  But did he steal aught belonging to the Gothic maiden?’

’To Veranilda?  She has but a bracelet and a ring, and those she was wearing.  They came from her mother, a woman of noblest heart, who, when her husband Ebrimut played the traitor, and she was left behind in Italy, would keep nothing but these two trinkets, which once were worn by Amalafrida.’

‘You know all that now,’ observed Marcian quietly.

’The story of the trinkets only since an hour or two ago.  That of Veranilda’s parentage I learned from Aurelia, Veranilda refusing to converse with me until I knew.’

‘Since when you have conversed, I take it, freely enough.’

‘Good my lord,’ replied Basil, with a look of some earnestness, ’let us not jest on this matter.’

‘I am little disposed to do so, O fiery lover!’ said Marcian, with a return of his wonted melancholy.  ’For I have that to tell you which makes the matter grave enough.  We were right, you see, in our guess of Veranilda’s origin; I could wish she had been any one else.  Patience, patience!  You know that I left you here to go to Neapolis.  There I received letters from Rome, one of them from Bessas himself, and, by strange hazard, the subject of it was the daughter of Ebrimut.’