CHAPTER 6. AN APPRENTICESHIP TO THE TEMPLE. CHAPTER 7. THE BED-CHAMBER. CHAPTER 8. THE GOTHS. CHAPTER 9. THE TWO INTERVIEWS. CHAPTER 10. THE RIFT IN THE WALL. CHAPTER 11. GOISVINTHA'S RETURN. CHAPTER 12. THE PASSAGE OF THE WALL. CHAPTER 13. THE HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS. CHAPTER 14. THE FAMINE. CHAPTER 15. THE CITY AND THE GODS. CHAPTER 16. LOVE MEETINGS. CHAPTER 17. THE HUNS. CHAPTER 18. THE FARM-HOUSE. CHAPTER 19. THE GUARDIAN RESTORED. CHAPTER 20. THE BREACH REPASSED. CHAPTER 21. FATHER AND CHILD. CHAPTER 22. THE BANQUET OF FAMINE. CHAPTER 23. THE LAST EFFORTS OF THE BESIEGED. CHAPTER 24. THE GRAVE AND THE CAMP. CHAPTER 25. THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH. CHAPTER 26. RETRIBUTION. CHAPTER 27. THE VIGIL OF HOPE. THE CONCLUSION. 'UBI THESAURUS IBI COR.' CHAPTER 1. GOISVINTHA. The mountains forming the range of Alps which border on the north-eastern confines of Italy, were, in the autumn of the year 408, already furrowed in numerous directions by the tracks of the invading forces of those northern nations generally comprised under the appellation of Goths. In some places these tracks were denoted on either side by fallen trees, and occasionally assumed, when half obliterated by the ravages of storms, the appearance of desolate and irregular marshes. In other places they were less palpable. Here, the temporary path was entirely hidden by the incursions of a swollen torrent; there, it was faintly perceptible in occasional patches of soft ground, or partly traceable by fragments of abandoned armour, skeletons of horses and men, and remnants of the rude bridges which had once served for passage across a river or transit over a precipice. Among the rocks of the topmost of the range of mountains immediately overhanging the plains of Italy, and presenting the last barrier to the exertions of a traveller or the march of an invader, there lay, at the beginning of the fifth century, a little lake. Bounded on three sides by precipices, its narrow banks barren of verdure or habitations, and its dark and stagnant waters brightened but rarely by the presence of the lively sunlight, this solitary spot--at all times mournful--presented, on the autumn of the day when our story commences, an aspect of desolation at once dismal to the eye and oppressive to the heart.