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i OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 13 revenge. Against the proposal of the murder, he could no longer urge the scruples of fidelity or gratitude ; but Helmichis trembled, when he revolved the danger as well as the guilt, when he recollected the matchless strength and intrepidity of a warrior whom he had so often attended in the field of battle. He pi'essed, and obtained, that one of the bravest champions of the Lombards should be associated to the enterprise, but no more than a promise of secrecy could be drawn from the gallant Peredeus ; and the mode of seduction employed by Rosamond betrays her shameless insensibility both to honour and love. She supplied the place of one of her female attendants who was beloved by Peredeus, and contrived some excuse for darkness and silence, till she could inform her companion that he had enjoyed the queen of the Lombards, and that his own death, or the death of Alboin, must be the consequence of such treason- able adultery. In this alternative, he chose rather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond, -'J whose undaunted spirit was incapable of fear or remorse. She expected and soon found a favourable moment, when the king oppressed with wine had retired from the table to his afternoon slumbers. His faith- less spouse was anxious for his health and repose ; the gates of the palace were shut, the arms removed, the attendants dis- missed ; and Rosamond, after lulling him to rest by her tender caresses, unbolted the chamber-door, and urged the reluctant conspirators to the instant execution of the deed. On the first alarm, the warrior started from his couch ; his sword, which he attempted to draw, had been fastened to the scabbard by the hand of Rosamond ; and a small stool, his only weapon, could not long protect him from the spears of the assassins. The daughter of Cunimund smiled in his fall ; his body was buried under the staircase of the palace ; and the grateful posterity of the Lombards revered the tomb and the memory of their vic- torious leader. The ambitious Rosamond aspired to reign in the name of her Her flight and lover ; the city and palace of Verona were awed by her power ; and a faithful band of her native Gepidae was prepared to applaud the revenge, and to second the wishes, of their sove- reign. But the Lombard chiefs, who fled in the first moments '* The classical reader will recollect the wife and murder of Candaiiles, so agreeably told in the first book of Herodotus. The choice of Gvg^s, aipe'erai avrh<; TTtpitii'oi, may serve as the excuse of Peredeus ; and this soft insinuation of an odious idea has been imitated by the best writers of antiquity (Graevius, ad Ciceron. Orat. pro Milone, c. lo).