"No, dear mother, it is a confession--I was weak--but as truly as Gaul is free, I would have come dutifully home to you, but for the ruse by which I was misled and kept away. Will you not be indulgent towards me, mother, this once? I pray you!" saying which Victorin again knelt down before my foster-sister. "Be not so severe! I know my faults! Age will cure me! I am still too young, and my blood is still too warm. The ardor of pleasure often carries me away, despite myself--and yet, you know, mother, I would give my life for you--" "I believe you--but yet you will not sacrifice to me your insensate and evil passions--" "When one sees Victorin so respectful and repentant at his mother's feet," I whispered to Marion, "would one think he is the celebrated general, so dreaded by the enemies of Gaul--the general, who, at the age of twenty-two already has won five great battles?" "Victoria," said Tetrik in his kind and insinuating voice, "I also am a father and inclined to indulgence. Besides, in my hours of recreation, I am a poet, and I wrote an ode to Youth. How could I be severe? I love Victorin's brilliant qualities so much, that I find it hard to censure him! Could you be insensible to the tender words of your son? His only crime is his youth. As he said, years will cure that--and his affection for you, his deference to your wishes will hasten the cure--" As the Governor of Gascony was saying these words, a great noise was heard outside of the house, and the cry was soon heard: "To arms! To arms!" Victoria, who was seated, quickly rose to her feet, together with Victorin. "They cry to arms!" repeated Captain Marion anxiously, and listened. "The Franks must have broken the truce!" I cried in turn. "Yesterday one of their chiefs threatened me with a speedy attack upon our camp; I did not believe they would put their threat so quickly into action." "A truce is never broken before its expiration, without notice is given in advance," observed Tetrik. "The Franks are barbarians; they are capable of any act of treachery," cried Victoria rushing to the door. It opened before an officer covered with dust, and so breathless that he could not at first utter a word. "Do you not belong to the post of the camp's vanguard, four leagues from here?" the young general asked the officer; he knew personally all the officers of the army. "What has happened?" "A large number of rafts, loaded with troops and towed by barks, hove in sight towards the middle of the Rhine, when, upon orders of the commander of the post, I rode hither at full speed to bring the news to you, Victorin. By this hour the Frankish hordes must have disembarked. The post that I left is too weak to resist a whole army, and must have fallen back upon the camp. While crossing the camp I cried to arms! The legions and cohorts are forming in all haste." "It is the barbarians' answer to the message that Schanvoch took to them," said the Mother of the Camps to Victorin.