The features of Goisvintha--which at the period when we first beheld her on the shores of the mountain lake, retained, in spite of her poignant sufferings, much of the lofty and imposing beauty that had been their natural characteristic in her happier days--now preserved not the slightest traces of their former attractions.

Its freshness had withered from her complexion, its fulness had departed from her form.

Her eyes had contracted an unvarying sinister expression of malignant despair, and her manner had become sullen, repulsive, and distrustful.

This alteration in her outward aspect, was but the result of a more perilous change in the disposition of her heart.

The death of her last child at the very moment when her flight had successfully directed her to the protection of her people, had affected her more fatally than all the losses she had previously sustained.