Do not be anxious. Try to be happy. I am
myself sanguine that you will find all well. Come, pledge me your
father's health, fair lady, in this goblet of Tenedos!"
"How know I that at this moment he may not be at the point of death,"
replied Iduna. "When I am absent from those I love, I dream only of
their unhappiness."
"At this moment also," rejoined Nicaeus, "he dreams perhaps of .your
imprisonment among barbarians. Yet how mistaken! Let that
consideration support you. Come! here is to the Eremite."
"As willing, if not as sumptuous, a host as our present one," said
Iduna; "and when, by-the-bye, do you think that your friend, the Lord
Justinian, will arrive ?"
"Oh! never mind him," said Nicaeus. "He would have arrived to-morrow,
but the great news which I gave him has probably changed his plans. I
told him of the approaching invasion, and he has perhaps found it
necessary to visit the neighbouring chieftains, or even to go on to
Croia."
"Well-a-day!" exclaimed Iduna, "I would we were in my father's camp!"
"We shall soon be there, dear lady," replied the Prince.
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