Meanwhile Teja and Hildebrand had arrived upon the chapel hill,
whither, as they had been apprised, the wounded King had been carried.
News of later events had not yet reached them.
Before they entered the walls which enclosed the grove before the
chapel, the two leaders had agreed upon the plan which they would
propose to the King. There was no other way but to retreat to the south
under the protection of the truce. But when they entered the grove,
what a sight met their view!
Sobbing loudly, Adalgoth hurried up to Teja, and led him to an ancient
and ivy-grown sarcophagus. Within it, upon his shield, lay King Totila.
The majesty of death gave to his noble features a solemnity that made
them more beautiful than they had ever been when brightened by joy.
On his left hand rested Julius, in the open hollow cover of the
sarcophagus, which had long since fallen from its proper place. Under
the common shadow of death, the resemblance between the "Dioscuri" was
more striking and touching than ever.
And between the two friends lay a third form, which had been carefully
laid by Gotho and Liuta upon the King's blood-stained mantle. Upon a
gently-rising mound lay Valeria, the Roman virgin.
Fetched from the neighbouring cloister to receive her lover, she had
thrown herself, without a scream, without even a sigh, upon the broad
shield with its solemn burthen, which Adalgoth and Aligern were
carrying through the gate with sad and slow steps. Before any one could
speak, she had cried:
"I know all--he is dead!"
She had assisted them to lay the corpse in the sarcophagus, and while
so occupied she had repeated to herself, in a low voice, these words:
"'Him too thou seest, how stalwart, tall, and fair!
Yet must he yield to death and stubborn fate,
Whene'er, at morn or noon or eve, the spear
Or arrow from the bow may rend his life.
Then may I, too, visit th' eternal shades!"
Then, without haste, quietly and slowly, she drew a dagger from her
girdle, and with the words, "Here, stern Christian God, take my soul!
thus I fulfil the vow!" the Roman maiden thrust the sharp steel into
her bosom.
Cassiodorus, a little cross of cedar in his hand, went, deeply
moved--the tears trickled down his venerable white beard--from corpse
to corpse, repeating the prayers of the Church.
And the pious women of the cloister, who had accompanied Valeria, began
the simple and noble chant:
"Vis ac splendor seculorum,
Belli laus et flos amorum
Labefacta mox marcescunt;
Dei laus et gratia sine
AEvi termino vel fine
In eternum perflorescunt."
Gradually the grove had become filled with warriors, who had followed
their leaders. Among them were Earls Wisand and Markja.
Teja heard the report of the weeping Adalgoth in silence. Then he went
close to the King's corpse. Without a tear, he laid his mailed right
hand upon the King's wounded breast, bent over him, and whispered:
"I will complete the work."
Then he went back and took his place under a mighty tree, which rose
above a forgotten grave-mound, and spoke to the little group of
soldiers who stood silently and reverently round the dead.
"Gothic men! the battle is lost, and the kingdom likewise. Whoever will
now go to Narses, whoever will subject himself to the Emperor, I will
not keep him back. But I am resolved to fight to the end; not for
victory, but to die the free death of a hero. Whoever wishes to share
this fate with me, may remain. You all wish it? 'Tis well."
Hildebrand interposed.
"The King has fallen. The Goths cannot--even to die--fight without a
King. Athalaric, Witichis, Totila--_one_ only can be the fourth; only
one is worthy to succeed these three; thou, Teja, our last, our
greatest hero!"
"Yes," said Teja; "I will be your King. Under me you shall not live
joyfully; you shall only die greatly. Be still! No cry of joy, no clang
of arms must greet me. Whoever will have me for his King, let him do as
I do."
And he broke a small branch from the tree under which he stood, and
twisted it round his helmet. All silently followed his example.
Adalgoth, who stood next him, whispered:
"O King Teja! it is a cypress bough! Thus is crowned a victim doomed to
sacrifice!"
"Yes, my Adalgoth, thou speakest prophecy;" and Teja swung his sword in
a circle round his head. "Doomed to death!"
BOOK VI.
TEJA
"I have now to describe a most remarkable battle, and the high
heroism of the man who was inferior to none of the heroes--of
Teja."--_Procopius: Gothic War_, iv. 35.
CHAPTER I.
The destiny of the Goths was soon to be fulfilled. The rolling stone
approached the abyss.
When Narses came to his senses and learned what had taken place, he
gave orders at once to arrest Liberius and send him to Byzantium to
answer for his conduct.
"I will not say," he said to his confidant, Basiliskos, "that he has
come to a false decision. I myself could not have done otherwise. But I
should have done it for different reasons. _His_ only wish was to save
his friend and the ten thousand prisoners. That was wrong. Situated as
he was, he ought to have sacrificed them, for he could not overlook the
actual condition of the war. He did not know, as I know, that after
this battle the Gothic kingdom is lost--whether it be completely
destroyed at Rome or Neapolis is indifferent--and that alone would have
been, and is, the reason for which the ten thousand should be saved."
"At Neapolis? But why not at Rome? Do you not remember the formidable
fortifications of the Prefect? Why should not the Goths throw
themselves into Rome and resist for months?"
"Why? Because things are very different with regard to Rome. But the
Goths know this as little as Liberius. And Cethegus--above all--must
know nothing of it yet; therefore be silent. Where is the Prefect of
Rome?"
"He has hastened forward, in order to be the first to conduct the
pursuit as soon as the time of truce has expired."
"Surely you have taken care----"
"Do not doubt it! He would have marched with his Isaurians alone, but
I--that is, Liberius at my order--gave him Alboin and the Longobardians
as companions, and you know----"
"Yes," said Narses, with a smile, "my wolves will not lose sight of
him."
"But how long shall he----"
"As long as he is necessary to me; not an hour longer. So the young and
royal wonder-worker lies upon his shield! Now may Justinian rightly
call himself 'Gothicus,' and again sleep peacefully. But truly--he will
never more sleep peacefully--that disappointed widower----"
So the two generals, Narses and Teja, were of one opinion with regard
to the Gothic kingdom. It was lost. The flower of the Goths had fallen
at Caprae and Taginae. Totila had placed there five-and-twenty thousand
men; not even a thousand had escaped. The two wings of the army had
also suffered great loss; and so King Teja commenced his retreat to the
south with scarcely twenty thousand men.
He was urged to the greatest speed by the calls for help sent by the
little army under Duke Guntharis and Earl Grippa, who were hard pressed
by the greater force of the Byzantines under the command of Armatus and
Dorotheos, who had landed between Rome and Neapolis.
And besides this, Teja's retreat was also precipitated because of the
terrible manner in which, when the truce was ended, he was pursued by
Narses.
While the Longobardians and Cethegus pursued the fugitives without
pause, Narses slowly followed with the main army, spreading to the
right and left his two formidable wings, which extended in the
south-west far beyond the Sub-urbicarian Tuscany to the Tyrrhenian sea,
and in the north-east through Picenum to the Ionian Gulf, extinguishing
as they passed from north to south and from west to east, every trace
of the Goths behind them.
This proceeding was considerably facilitated by the now general
desertion of the Gothic cause on the part of the Italians. The
benevolent King, who had once won their sympathies, had been succeeded
by a gloomy hero of terrible reputation. And all who hesitated were
speedily drawn over to the other side, not by inclination to the rule
of Byzantium, but from fear of Narses and of the Emperor's severity,
who threatened all who took the part of the barbarians with death.
The Italians who still served in Teja's army now deserted and hastened
to Narses. It also happened much more frequently than before the battle
of Taginae, that Gothic settlers were betrayed to the Romani by their
Italian neighbours, generally by the _hospes_, who had been obliged to
relinquish a third of his property to the Goths; or, where the Italians
were in the majority, the Goths were either killed, or taken prisoners
and delivered up to the two Byzantine fleets, the "Tyrrhenian" and the
"Ionian," which, sailing along the coasts of those seas, accompanied
the march of the land forces and received all the captured Goths on
board--men, women, and children.
The forts and towns, weakly garrisoned--for Teja had been obliged to
strengthen his small army by lessening their numbers--generally fell by
means of the Italian population, who now overpowered the Gothic
garrison, as, after Totila's election, they had done the imperial. Thus
fell, during the progress of the war, Namia, Spoletium and Perusia; the
few towns which resisted were invested.
So Narses resembled a strong man who walks with outstretched arms
through a narrow passage, pursuing all who try to hide themselves
before him. Or a fisher, who wades up a stream with a sack-net; behind
him all is empty. The few Goths who could yet save themselves fled
before the "iron roller" to the army of the King, which soon consisted
of a greater number of the defenceless than of warriors.
The Visigoths were again engaged in migration, just as they had been a
hundred years before, but this time the iron net of Narses was behind
them; and before them, as they advanced farther and farther into the
constantly narrowing peninsula, the sea. And not a ship did they
possess in which to fly.
CHAPTER II.
Added to this, an inevitable necessity reduced the number of Goths in
the King's army capable of bearing arms in the most frightful manner.
From the very commencement of the pursuit, Cethegus, with his
mercenaries, and Alboin with his Longobardians, had stuck to the
heels of the fugitives, and consequently, if the retreat of the Gothic
army--already delayed by the number of women, children, and aged people
who had joined it--was not to be brought to a complete standstill, it
was necessary to sacrifice each night a small number of heroes, who
halted at some spot suitable for their design, and held the pursuers at
bay by an obstinate, fearless, and hopeless resistance, until the main
army had again gained a considerable advance.
This cruel, but only possible expedient, always entailed the loss of at
least fifty men, and often, where the place to be defended had a wider
front, a much greater number.
Before King Teja marched from Spes Bonorum, he had explained this plan
to the assembled army; his faithful troops silently assented to it. And
every morning the "death-doomed" volunteered so eagerly to join this
forlorn hope, that King Teja--with humid eyes--made them draw lots, not
wishing to offend any one by the preference of others. For the Goths,
who saw nothing before them but the certain destruction of the nation,
and many of whom knew that their wives and children had fallen into the
enemy's hands, vied with each other in seeking death.
So their retreat became a triumphal procession of Gothic heroes, and
every halting-place a monument of courageous self-sacrifice. Thus,
among the leaders of the "doomed rear-guard," old Haduswinth fell near
Nuceria Camellaria; the young and skilful archer, Gunthamund, at Ad
Fontes; and the swift rider, Gudila, at Ad Martis. But these
sacrifices, and the King's generalship, were not without influence on
the fate of the nation.
Near Fossatum, between Tudera and Narnia, a night attack took place
between the rear-guard under Earl Markja, and the horsemen of Cethegus,
which lasted from afternoon till sunrise.
When at last the returning light illumined the hastily-constructed
earthworks thrown up by the Goths, they were as still and silent as the
grave.
The pursuers advanced with the utmost caution. At last Cethegus sprang
from his horse and on to the parapet of the earthworks, followed by
Syphax.
Cethegus turned and signed to his men: "Follow me; there is no danger!
You have only to step over the bodies of our enemies, for here they all
lie--a full thousand. Yonder is Earl Markja; I know him."
But when the earthworks were demolished, and Cethegus and his horsemen
continued their pursuit of the main army--which had gained a great
advance they soon learned from the peasants of the neighbourhood that
the Gothic army had not passed on the Flaminian Way at all.
By the noble sacrifice of this night, King Teja had been enabled to
conceal the further direction of his retreat, and the pursuers had lost
the scent.
Cethegus advised Johannes and Alboin, the one to send a portion of his
men to the south-east, the other to the left on the Flaminian Way, to
try to find the lost track. He himself longed to get to Rome. He wished
to reach that city before Narses. Once there, he hoped to be able to
checkmate him, as he had done Belisarius, from the Capitol.
After discovering that King Teja had evaded all pursuit, Cethegus
summoned his trusty tribunes, and told them that he was resolved--if
necessary, by force--to rid himself of the constant supervision of
Alboin and Johannes--who were at present weakened by the division of
their troops at his advice--and to hasten with his Isaurians alone
straight to Rome by the Flaminian Way, which was now no longer blocked
by the Goths.
But even while he was speaking, he was interrupted by the entrance of
Syphax, who led into the tent a Roman citizen, whom he had with
difficulty rescued from the hands of the Longobardians. The man had
asked for the Prefect, and the Longobardians had answered, laughing,
that they would treat him (the messenger) "as usual."
"But," added Syphax, "a great crowd of people is approaching in the
rear; I will see what it is and bring you word."
"I know you, Tullus Faber," said the Prefect, turning to the messenger,
when Syphax had left him; "you were ever faithful to Rome and to me.
What news do you bring?"
"O Prefect!" cried the man, "we all thought you were dead, for you sent
us no answer to eight several messages."
"I have not received even one!"
"Then you do not know what has happened in Rome? Pope Silverius has
died in exile in Sicily. His successor is Pelagius, your enemy!"
"I know nothing. Speak!"
"Alas, you will neither be able to advise nor to help. Rome has----"
Just then Syphax returned, but before he could speak, he was followed
into the tent by Narses, supported by Basiliskos.
"You have allowed yourself to be detained here so long by a thousand
Gothic spears," said the commander-in-chief angrily, "that the healthy
have escaped, and the sick have overtaken you. This King Teja can do
more than break shields; he can weave veils with which to blind the
Prefect's sharp sight. But I see through many veils, and also through
this. Johannes, call your people back. Teja cannot have gone south, he
must have gone northwards, for he, no doubt, has known long since that
which concerns the Prefect most: Rome is wrested from the Goths."
Cethegus looked at him with sparkling eyes.
"I had smuggled a few clever men into the city. They excited the
inhabitants to a midnight revolt. All the Goths in the city were slain;
only five hundred men escaped into the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and
continue to defend it."
Faber took courage to put in a word.
"We sent eight messengers to you. Prefect, one after the other."
"Away with this man!" cried Narses, signing to his officers. "Yes," he
continued quietly, "the citizens of Rome think lovingly of the Prefect,
to whom they owe so much: two sieges, hunger, pestilence, and the
burning of the Capitol! But the messengers sent to you always lost
their way, and fell into the hands of the Longobardians, who, no doubt,
slew them. But the embassy sent to me by the Holy Father, Pelagius,
reached me safely, and I have concluded an agreement, of which you,
Prefect of Rome, will surely approve."
"In any case, I shall not be able to annul it."
"The good citizens of Rome fear nothing so much as a third siege. They
have stipulated that we shall undertake nothing that can lead to
another fight for their city. They write that the Goths in the
Mausoleum will soon succumb to hunger; that they themselves can defend
their walls; and they have sworn only to deliver up their city, after
the destruction of those Goths, to their natural protector and chief,
the Prefect of Rome. Are you content with that, Cethegus? Read the
agreement. Give it to him, Basiliskos."
Cethegus read the paper with deep and joyful emotion. So they had not
forgotten him, his Romans! So now, when everything was coming to a
crisis, they called, not the hated Byzantines, but himself, their
patron, back to the Capitol! He again felt at the height of power.
"I am content," he said, returning the roll.
"I have promised," continued Narses, "to make no attempt to get the
city into my power by force. First King Teja must follow King Totila.
Then Rome--and many other things. Accompany me, Prefect, to the council
of war."
When Cethegus left the council in the tent of Narses, and asked after
Tullus Faber, not a trace of the latter was to be found.
CHAPTER III.
Narses, that great general, had acutely guessed in what direction King
Teja had turned aside from the Flaminian Way. He had first gone north
towards the coast of the Ionian Gulf, and thence, with singular
knowledge of the roads, had led his fugitive people and army by a
circuitous route past Hadria, Aternum, and Ortona, to Samnium. That
Rome was lost, he had learned beyond Nuceria Camellaria from some Goths
who had fled from that city.
The King, whose impatient and unsparing disposition ever looked forward
to the end, not unwillingly found himself obliged to get rid of his
prisoners.
In number about as strong as their conquerors, the captives had made
the office of guarding them so difficult, that Teja threatened to
punish with death any attempt at escape.
Notwithstanding, when the army marched northwards, a number of these
prisoners made an attempt to free themselves by force. Very many were
killed in the struggle that ensued, and the King ordered that all the
rest, together with Orestes and the whole of the officers, should be
thrown into the Aternus with their hands bound; where they died
miserably by drowning.
When Adalgoth begged Teja to revoke his cruel sentence, the latter
replied:
"Did they not fall upon our defenceless women and children in their
peaceful homes, and slay them? This is no longer a war between
warriors; it is nation murdering nation. Let us do our part."
From Samnium the King, leaving his unarmed people to follow slowly
under scanty escort--for they were threatened by no pursuit--hurried
forward with his best troops to Campania. His arrival in those parts
was so unexpected, that he not only surprised Duke Guntharis and Earl
Grippa, whose small army had melted still more in consequence of
frequent battles with superior forces, but, shortly after, the enemy
also, who now had thought themselves sure of victory.
He had found Duke Guntharis and Earl Grippa occupying a secure position
between Neapolis and Beneventum. He learned that the Romani were
threatening Cumae from Capua.
"They shall not reach that city before me," he cried; "I have to
complete there an important work."
And, his army being now reinforced by the garrison of his own county
town of Tarentum, under the command of brave Ragnaris, he surprised the
superior force of the Byzantines, which was about to march upon Cumae,
and defeated them with great loss. He himself slew the Archon Armatus
with his battle-axe, and at his side young Adalgoth ran Dorotheos
through with his spear. The Byzantines were routed, and fled northwards
to Terracina.
It was the last ray of sunshine cast by the God of Victory upon the
blue banner of the Goths.
The next day King Teja entered Cumae. Totila, upon his last fatal march
from Rome, had decided, at the instance of Teja, and contrary to his
custom, to take with him hostages from that city. No one knew what had
become of them.
On the evening of his entry into Cumae, King Teja ordered the walled-up
garden of the Castle of Cumae to be broken open. There were hidden the
hostages from Rome: patricians and senators--among them Maximus,
Cyprianus, Opilio, Rusticus, and Fidelius, the most distinguished men
of the Senate--in all they numbered three hundred. All were members of
the old league against the Goths.
Teja ordered the Goths who had lately escaped from Rome to tell these
hostages how the Romans, persuaded by envoys sent by Narses, had one
night risen in revolt, had murdered all the Goths upon whom they could
lay hands, even the women and children, and had driven the rest into
the _Moles Hadriani_.
The King fastened such a terrible look upon the trembling hostages, as
they listened to this news, that two of them could not endure to wait
till the end, but then and there killed themselves by dashing their
heads against the stony walls which surrounded them.
When the Goths from Rome had sworn to the truth of their story, the
King silently turned away and left the garden. An hour after, the heads
of the three hundred hostages stared ghastly down from the summit of
the walls.
"It was not alone to fulfil this terrible judgment that I came here,"
Teja said to Adalgoth: "I have also to reveal a sacred secret."
And he invited him and the other leaders of the troops to a solemn and
joyless midnight banquet. When the sad feast was over, the King made a
sign to old Hildebrand, who nodded, and took a dimly burning torch from
the iron ring into which it was stuck on the centre column of the
vaulted hall, saying:
"Follow me, children of these latter days, and take your shields with
you."
It was the third hour of the July night; the stars glittered in the
sky. Out of the hall, silently following the King and the aged
master-at-arms, there stepped Guntharis and Adalgoth, Aligern, Grippa,
Ragnaris, and Wisand the standard-bearer. Wachis, the King's
shield-bearer, closed the procession, carrying a second torch.
Opposite the castle garden rose an ancient round tower, named the Tower
of Theodoric, because that great King had restored it. Old Hildebrand
was the first to enter this tower with his torch, but instead of
leaving the ground-floor, which contained only the empty tower-room,
the old man halted, knelt down, and carefully measured fifteen spans of
his large hand from the door, which he had closed behind them, to the
centre of the room. The whole floor seemed to be composed of three
colossal slabs of granite. When Hildebrand had measured the fifteen
spans, he held his thumb upon the spot at which he had arrived, and
struck his battle-axe against the floor; it sounded hollow. Boring the
point of his axe into a scarcely-visible crack in the stone, he signed
to his companions to stand aside on his left; when they had done so, he
pushed a portion of the slab to the right. A chasm, as deep as the
tower was high above them, revealed itself to the astonished eyes of
those present.
The opening was only large enough to admit one man at a time. It led to
a narrow flight of more than two hundred steps, hewn in the living
rock.
Silently, at a sign from Hildebrand, the men descended. When they
arrived at the bottom, they found that the circular space was divided
in the middle by a stone wall. The semicircle into which they had
entered was empty.
And now King Teja measured ten spans on the wall to the centre, and
pressing his hand upon a stone, a small door opened inwards. Hildebrand
entered with his torch, and kindled two others which were fixed upon
the wall.
The observers started back dazzled, and covered their eyes with their
hands. When they again looked up, they recognised--at once guessing the
secret--the whole rich treasure of Dietrich of Berne.
There lay, partly heaped up symmetrically, partly thrown in disorder
one upon another, weapons, vessels, and ornaments of all kinds. Strong
Etruscan steel-caps of ancient times, brought by the commerce of the
Goths as far as the Baltic, or to the Pruth and Dniester, and now
brought back to the south by the migration of the nations, probably
near to the very spot where they had been fashioned. Near these lay
flat wooden head-pieces, over which was stretched the skin of the seal,
or the jaws of the ice-bear; pointed Celtic helmets; high-crested helms
from Rome or Byzantium; neck-rings of bronze and iron, of silver and
gold. Shields--from the clumsy wooden shield, as tall as a man, which
was set up like a wall to hide the archer, to the small round and
ornamented horseman's shield of the Parthians, studded with pearls and
precious stones. Ancient ring-mail of crushing weight, and light-padded
clothing of purple-coloured linen, besides scimitars, swords and
daggers, of stone, bronze, and steel. Axes and clubs of all kinds--from
those rudely made from the bones of the mammoth and tied to the antler
of a stag with bast, to the Frankish _franciska_, and the small
perforated and gilded axe with which the Roman circus-riders used to
split an apple while at full gallop. Spears, lances, and darts of all
sorts--from the roughly carved tusk of the narwal, to the ebony shaft,
inlaid with gold, of the Asdingian Vandal Kings in Carthage, and the
massive golden arrows of these princes, with steel points a foot long,
and the shafts decorated with the purple feathers of the flamingo.
War-mantles--made of the fur of the black fox, the skin of the
Numidian lion, and the costliest purple of Sidon. Shoes--from
the long shovel-shaped snowshoes of the Skrito Fins, to the golden
sandals of Byzantium. Doublets of Frisian wool, and tunics of Chinese
silk. Innumerable vessels and table utensils--tall vases, flat salvers,
cups, and round-bellied urns, of amber, of gold, of silver, of
tortoise-shell. Arm-rings and shoulder-clasps, necklaces of pearls and
of crystal beads, and innumerable other utensils for meat and drink,
for clothing and decoration, for sport and war.
"This secret cave," said Teja, "known only to us, the blood
brethren--the master-at-arms caused it to be hewn in the rock when he
was Earl of Cumae, forty years ago--was the vault in which was hidden
the treasure of the Goths. This is the reason why Belisarius found so
little, when he ransacked the treasure-house at Ravenna. The most
costly pieces of booty, the gifts, the collection of Amelung trophies
in war and peace, which existed long before Theodoric, in the time of
Winithar, Ermanarich, Athal, Ostrogotho, Isarna, Amala, and Gaut--all
these have we concealed here. We left nothing in Ravenna but the minted
gold, and such things as seemed richer in intrinsic value than in
honour. For months our enemies have walked above these treasures; but
the faithful abyss kept the secret. But now we will carry all away with
us. Take the treasures on your shields, and hand them from one to
another up the steps. We will take it to the last battle-field upon
which an Ostrogothic army will ever fight. No, do not be anxious, young
Adalgoth; even when I have fallen, and all is lost, the enemy shall not
bear away the sacred treasure to Byzantium. For wonderful is the last
battle-field which I have chosen; it shall conceal and swallow up the
last of the Goths, their treasure and their fame!"
"Yes, and their greatest treasure and noblest renown," said old
Hildebrand; "not merely gold and silver and precious stones. Look here,
my Goths!"
And he held his torch towards a curtain which shut off a portion of the
treasure-cave, and pushed the curtain to one side. As he did so, all
present fell upon their knees. For they recognised the great dead, who
sat, erect and clothed in purple, upon a golden throne, the spear still
grasped in his right hand.
It was the great Theodoric.
The art which had been introduced to the Romans by the Egyptians--the
art of embalming the dead--had preserved the body of the hero-King with
terrible perfection.
All present were struck dumb with emotion.
"Many years ago," at last Hildebrand began, "Teja and I mistrusted the
good fortune of the Goths. And I, who, before the breaking out of the
war, had the command of the guard-of-honour at the Mausoleum of
Ravenna, in which Amalaswintha had interred her dead father--I liked
the building but little, and still less the incense-scented priests who
so often prayed there for the soul of my good and great King--I thought
that if ever all trace of my nation were rooted out of this southern
land, no Italian or Greekling should mock at the remains of our beloved
hero. No! even as the first great conqueror of the Roman fortress,
Alaric the Visigoth, found his unknown and never to be dishonoured tomb
in the sacred bed of the stream, so also should my great King be
delivered from the curiosity of posterity. And, with Teja's help, I
took the noble corpse away by night, from its marble house, and from
the vicinity of the whining priests, and we brought it hither, as part
of the royal treasure. Here it was safe. And if, after the lapse of
centuries, some accident should betray its resting-place, who could
then recognise the King with the eagle-eye? And so the sarcophagus at
Ravenna is empty, and the monks sing and pray in vain. Here, near his
treasures and his trophies, in hero splendour, erect upon his throne,
he rests; it is more pleasing to his soul, which looks down from
Walhalla, than to see his mortal remains stretched out, weighed down by
heavy stones, and surrounded with clouds of incense."
"But now," concluded Teja, "the hour has come for him once more to rise
from the abyss. When you have raised the treasure, we will carefully
lift up this beloved form. Early to-morrow we will march out of this
city. The approach of Narses and the Prefect has already been
announced. We will go, with royal corpse and royal treasure, to the
last battle-field of the Goths, whither I have already sent the women
and children. The battle-field--long ago I saw it in the visions of my
sleepless nights--the battle-field whereon we and our nation will
gloriously perish; the battlefield which, even when the last spear is
broken, can save and hide all who do not fear to die in its glowing
bosom; the battle-field which Teja has chosen for you and for himself!"
"I guess thy meaning," whispered Adalgoth; "this last battle-field
is----"
"Mons Vesuvius!" said Teja. "To work!"
CHAPTER IV.
As rapidly as his fearful, all-encompassing system would allow, Narses,
after the council which we have mentioned as taking place at Fossatum,
had marched southward with his whole force and with the broadest front,
in order to make an end of all the remaining Goths. Only to Tuscany did
he send two small detachments, under his generals, Vitalianus and
Wilmuth, to take such forts as still resisted, and, after them, Lucca,
in Annonarian Tuscany. Valerianus, who had meanwhile conquered Petra
Pertusa, which place blocked the Flaminian Way beyond Helvillum, was
sent still farther north against Verona, the obstinate defence of which
had enabled many Goths to escape up the valley of the Athesis to the
Passara.
With these exceptions, Narses hurried south with the whole of his army.
He himself passed Rome on the Flaminian Way; while Johannes, on the
coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Herulian Vulkaris on that of the
Ionian Gulf, were to drive the Goths before them.
But Johannes and Vulkaris found but little work to do; for in the north
the Gothic families had already been received, in passing, into the
mass of the army of the King, which it was now impossible to overtake;
and from the south the Goths had likewise long since streamed past Rome
to Neapolis, whither expresses from the King had bidden them to repair.
"Mons Vesuvius!" was the rallying word for all these Gothic fugitives.
Narses had named Anagnia to his two wings as the point of reunion with
the main body.
Cethegus gladly accepted the commander's invitation to remain with him
in the centre, for he could expect no great events with the two wings;
and the road taken by Narses led past Rome. In case that the commander,
in spite of his promise, should attempt to procure entrance into Rome,
Cethegus would be on the spot.
But, almost to the Prefect's astonishment, Narses kept his word. He
quietly marched his army past Rome. And he called upon Cethegus to be
witness to his interview with Pope Pelagius and the other governing
bodies of Rome, which interview took place below the walls at the Porta
Belisaria (Pinceana), between the Flaminian and Salarian Gates.
Once more the Pope and the Romans assured Narses--swearing by the holy
remains of Cosma and Damian (according to legend, Arabian physicians
who were martyred under Diocletian), which were brought in silver and
ivory caskets to the walls--that they would unhesitatingly, after the
annihilation of the Goths in the Moles Hadriani, open their gates to
the Prefect of Rome, but firmly resist any attempt on the part of the
Byzantines to enter the city by force; for they would not expose
themselves to any possible struggle which might yet take place.
The offer of Narses to leave them at once a few thousand armed men, in
order to enable them the more speedily to reduce the Moles Hadriani,
was civilly but decidedly refused, to the great joy of the Prefect.
"They have learned two things during the last few years," he said
to Lucius Licinius, as they rode away at the termination of the
interview--"to keep the Romani at a distance, and to connect Cethegus
with the well-being of Rome. That is already a great deal."
"I regret, my general," said Lucius Licinius, "that I cannot share your
joy and confidence."
"I neither," cried Salvius Julianus. "I fear Narses; I mistrust him."
"Oho! what wise men!" laughed Piso. "One should exaggerate nothing; not
even prudence. Has not everything turned out better than we dared to
hope since the night when a shepherd-boy struck the greatest Roman poet
upon his immortal verse-writing hand, and the great Prefect of Rome
swam down the Tiber in a granary?--since Massurius Sabinus was
recognised by Earl Markja, dressed in the garments of his Hetares, in
which disguise he was about to make his escape?--and since the great
jurist, Salvius Julianus, was rudely fished up, bleeding, from the
slime of the river by Duke Guntharis? Who would have thought then that
we should ever be able to count upon our fingers the day when not a
single Goth would be left to tread Italian soil?"
"You are right, poet," said Cethegus with a smile; "these two friends
of ours suffer from '_Narses_-fever,' as their hero suffers from
epilepsy. To over-rate one's enemy is also a failing. The holy remains
upon which those priests have sworn, are really sacred to them; they
will not break such an oath."
"If I had only seen, besides the priests and artisans," replied
Licinius, "any of our friends upon the walls! But there were none but
fullers, butchers, and carpenters! Where is the aristocracy of Rome?
Where are the men of the Catacombs?"
"Taken away as hostages," said Cethegus. "And they were rightly served?
Did they not return to Rome, and do homage to the fair-haired Goth? If
now the 'Black Earl' cuts off their heads, it cannot be helped. Be
comforted; you see things in too dark a light, all of you. The crushing
superiority of Narses has made you timid. He is a great general; but
the fact that he has made this treaty with Rome--this agreement that I,
and no other, should be admitted--and that he has _kept_ it, shows that
he is harmless as a statesman. Let us but once again breathe the air of
the Capitol! It does not agree with epileptic subjects."
And when, the next morning, the young tribunes went to fetch the
Prefect from his tent to join the united march against Teja, their
leader received them with sparkling eyes.
"Well," he cried, "who knows the Romans best, you or the Prefect of
Rome? Listen--but be silent. Last night a centurion, one of the
newly-formed city cohorts, named Publius Macer, stole out of Rome
and into my tent. The Pope has entrusted to his care the Porta Latina,
to that of his brother Marcus, the Capitol. He showed me both
commissions--I know the handwriting of Pelagius--they are authentic.
The Romans are long since tired of the rule of the priesthood. They
would rejoice once more to see me, and you, and my Isaurians patrolling
the walls. Publius left me his nephew Aulus, at once as a hostage and a
pledge, who will let us know the night--which will be announced to him
in the harmless words of a letter agreed upon beforehand--on which the
Romans will open to us their gates and the Capitol. Narses cannot
complain if the Romans voluntarily admit us--I shall use no force. Now,
Licinius! Tell me, Julianus, who best knows Rome and the Romans?"
CHAPTER V.
Narses now marched to Anagnia. Two days after his arrival, his two
wings reached that place according to order. After some days occupied
in resting, mustering, and newly ordering his immense forces, the
commander-in-chief marched to Terracina, where the remainder of the
troops of Armatus and Dorotheos joined him. And now the united army
rolled forward against the Goths, who had taken up a most excellent and
secure position on Vesuvius, on the opposite mountain. Mons Lactarius,
and on both shores of the little river Draco, which flowed into the sea
north of Stabiae.
Since he had left Cumae, marched past Neapolis (the citizens of which
place shut their strong gates, which had been restored by Totila,
overpowered the garrison and declared that, following the example of
Rome, they would at present hold their fortress against both parties),
and reached his chosen battle-field, King Teja had done all that was
possible to make his naturally strong position still stronger.
He had caused provisions to be carried from the fertile country around
up to the mountains, in sufficient quantities to nourish his people
until the light of the last day should dawn upon his nation.
It has ever been a vain task for learned investigation to attempt to
find on Mons Lactarius or Vesuvius the exact spots which correspond to
the description of Procopius. It is impossible to fix upon any one of
the innumerable ravines and valleys. And yet the description of the
Byzantine historian, grounded as it was upon the verbal reports of the
leaders and generals of the army of Narses, cannot be doubted.
Rather may the contradictions be simply explained by the sudden,
forcible and gigantic changes, and by the still more numerous, gradual
and slighter alterations made in the face of the country by streams of
lava, landslips, the crumbling of the rocks, and floods which have
taken place upon that never quiet mountain, during the course of more
than thirteen centuries. Even credible accounts of much later Italian
authors, concerning places and positions on Mount Vesuvius, cannot
always be reconciled with the reality.
The ground which sucked up Teja's life-blood has no doubt been covered,
ages ago, by deep layers of silent and impenetrable lava.
Even Narses was compelled to admire the circumspection with which his
barbarian adversary had chosen his last place of defence.
"He intends to die like the bear in his den," he exclaimed as he
observed the whole of the Gothic defences from his litter at Nuceria.
"And many of you, my dear wolves," he added, turning with a smile to
Alboin, "will fall under the blows of this bear's paws when you try to
trot through those narrow entrances."
"Oho! It is only necessary to let so many run in at once that the bear
gets both paws full and is not able to strike again."
"Softly, softly! I know of a pass on Vesuvius--long ago, when I still
nursed my miserable body hoping to restore its strength, I spent weeks
together upon Mons Lactarius, in order to enjoy the pure air, and at
that time I firmly impressed upon my memory the pass I speak of; from
that pass--if the Goths get into it--only famine can drive them out."
"That will be tiresome!"
"There is nothing else for it. I have no desire once more to sacrifice
a myriad of imperial troops in order to stamp out these last sparks."
And so it happened. Very gradually, gaining each forward step only at a
great and bloody loss, did Narses draw his net tighter and more tightly
together. He surrounded in a semicircle every point of the Gothic
position, on west, north, and east; only on the south, the sea-side,
where he himself had encamped on the strand, was he able to leave a
space undefended, for the enemy had no ships whereon to fly or
wherewith to procure provisions.
The "Tyrrhenian" fleet of Narses was already occupied in carrying the
captive Goths to Byzantium; the "Ionian" was shortly expected; a few
vessels had been sent to cruise in the Bay of Bajae and opposite
Surrentum. Thus Narses, notwithstanding his great superiority, only
gradually occupied, with obstinate patience and forgetting nothing,
Piscinula, Cimiterium, Nola, Summa, Melane, Nuceria, Stabiae, Cumae,
Bajae, Misenum, Puteoli, and Nesis. And presently Neapolis also became
alarmed at the power of Narses, and voluntarily opened to him its
gates.
From all sides the Byzantines advanced concentrically towards the
Gothic position. After many furious battles the Byzantines succeeded in
driving the Goths away from Mons Lactarius and over the river Draco;
where the rest of the nation encamped upon a level plain above the pass
so highly praised by Narses, in the immediate vicinity of one of the
numerous craters which, at that time, surrounded the foot of the
principal cone; only rarely, when the wind blew from the south-east,
suffering from the smoke and sulphurous exhalations of the volcano.
Here, in the innumerable hollows and ravines of the mountain, the
unarmed people encamped under the open sky, or under the tents and
wagons which they had brought with them, in the warm August air.
"The only access to this encampment," writes Procopius, "could be
obtained by a narrow pass, the southern opening of which was so small
that a man holding a shield could completely block it up."
This opening was guarded day and night, each man occupying it for an
hour, by King Teja himself, Duke Guntharis, Duke Adalgoth, Earl Grippa,
Earl Wisand, Aligern, Ragnaris, and Wachis. Behind them the pass was
filled by a hundred warriors, who relieved each other at intervals.
And so, in accordance with the system pursued by Narses, the whole
terrible war, the struggle for Rome and Italy, had been dramatically
reduced to a point; to a battle for a ravine of a foot or two wide on
the southern point of the so dearly-loved, so obstinately-defended
peninsula. Even in the historical representation of Procopius, the fate
of the Goths resembles the last act of a grand and awful tragedy.
On the shore, opposite to the hill from which the pass was approached,
Narses had pitched his tents with the Longobardians; on his right
Johannes; on his left Cethegus.
The Prefect drew the attention of his tribunes to the fact that Narses,
by the cession of this position--Cethegus himself had chosen it--had
given either a proof of great imprudence or of complete inoffensiveness
of intention, "for," said Cethegus, "with this position he has left
open the way to Rome, which he could easily have prevented, by giving
me the command of the right wing or of the centre. Hold yourselves in
readiness to start secretly and at night with all the Isaurians, as
soon as a sign is made by Rome."
"And you?" asked Licinius anxiously.
"I remain here with the dreaded commander. If he had wished to murder
me--he could have done so long ago. But it is evident that he has no
such intention. He will not act against me without just cause. And if I
obey the call of the Romans, I do not break, I fulfil, our agreement."
CHAPTER VI.
Above the narrow pass on Vesuvius, which we will call the Ravine of the
Goths, a small but deep chasm had been formed by the black blocks of
lava. Within it King Teja had concealed the most sacred possession of
the nation--the corpse of King Theodoric and the royal treasure.
Theodoric's banner was fixed before the mouth of this chasm.
A purple mantle, stretched upon four spears, formed the dark curtain to
the rocky chamber which the last King of the Goths had chosen for his
royal hall. A block of lava, covered with the skin of the black tiger,
formed his last throne.
Here King Teja rested, when not called away by his jealously-held post
at the southern entrance of the Ravine of the Goths; upon which, now
from a distance with arrows, slings, and hurling--spears, now close at
hand in a bold and sudden attack, the outposts of Narses commenced
their assaults. None of the brave guardians returned home without
bringing tokens of such attacks upon shield and armour, or leaving
signs at the entrance of the ravine, in the form of slain enemies.
This happened so frequently, that the stench arising from the decay of
the bodies threatened to render any further sojourn in the ravine
impossible. Narses seemed to have counted upon this circumstance, for,
when Basiliskos lamented the useless sacrifice, he said, "Perhaps our
slain soldiers will be more useful after death than during their life."
But King Teja ordered that the bodies should be thrown by night over
the lava cliffs; so that, horribly mutilated, they seemed a warning to
all who should attempt to follow their example. Seeing this, Narses
begged to be allowed to send unarmed men to fetch away the bodies, a
favour which King Teja immediately granted.
Since retiring into this ravine, the Goths had not lost a single man in
fight; for only the foremost man in the pass was exposed to the enemy,
and, supported by the comrades who stood behind him, this guardian had
never yet been killed.
One night, after sunset--it was now the month of September, and all
traces of the battle at Taginae were already obliterated; the flowers
planted by Cassiodorus and the nuns of the cloister round the
sarcophagi of King Totila, his bride, and his friend, had put forth new
shoots--King Teja, who had just been relieved from his post by Wisand,
approached his lava hall, his spear upon his shoulder. Before the
curtain which closed the entrance to his rocky chamber, Adalgoth
received Teja with a sad smile, and, kneeling, offered to him a golden
goblet.
"Let me still fulfil my office of cup-bearer," he said; "who knows how
long it may last?"
"Not much longer!" said Teja gravely, as he seated himself. "We will
remain here, outside the curtain. Look! how magnificently the bay and
the coast of Surrentum shine in the glowing light left by the setting
sun--the blue sea is changed to crimson blood! Truly, the Southland
could afford no more beauteous frame with which to enclose the
last battle of the Goths. Well, may the picture be worthy of its
setting! The end is coming. How wonderfully everything that I
foreboded--dreamed, and sang--has been fulfilled!"
And the King supported his head upon both his hands. Only when the
silver tones of a harp was heard, did he again look up. Adalgoth had,
unseen, fetched the King's small harp from behind the curtain.
"Thou shalt hear," he said, "how I have completed thy song of the
Ravine; or I might have said, how it has completed itself. Dost thou
remember that night in the wilderness of ivy, marble, and laurel in
Rome? It was not a battle already fought, a battle of ancient days, of
which thou didst sing. No! in a spirit of prophecy, thou hast sung our
last heroic battle here." And he played and sang:
"Where arise the cliffs of lava,
On Vesuvius' glowing side,
Tones of deepest woe and wailing,
Evening's peace and calm deride.
For the brave dead's direst curses
Rest upon the rocky tomb,
Where the Gothic hero-nation
Will fulfil their glorious doom."
"Yes," said Teja, "glorious, my Adalgoth! Of that glory no fate and no
Narses shall deprive us. The awful judgment, which our beloved Totila
challenged, has fallen heavily upon himself, his people, and his God.
No Heavenly Father has, as that noble man imagined, weighed our
destinies in a just balance. We fall by the thousand treacheries of the
Italians and the Byzantines, and by the brute superiority of numbers.
But _how_ we fall, unshaken, proud even in our decay, can be decided by
no fate, but only by our own worth. And after us? Who after us will
rule in this land? Not for long these wily Greeks--and not the native
strength of the Italians. Numerous tribes of Germans still exist on the
other side of the mountains--and I nominate them our heirs and our
avengers."
And he softly took up the harp which Adalgoth had laid down, and sang
in a low voice as he looked down upon the rapidly darkening sea. The
stars glittered over his head; and at rare intervals he struck a chord.
"Extinguished is the brightest star
Of our Germanic race!
O Dietrich, thou beloved of Bern,
Thy shield is bruised, defaced.
Unblemished truth and courage fail--
The coward wins--the noble fly;
Rascals are lords of all the world--
Up, Goths, and let us die!
"O wicked Rome, O southern gleam,
O lovely, heavenly blue!
O rolling blood-stained Tiber-stream--
O Southerns, all untrue!
Still cherishes the North its sons
Of courage true and high;
Vengeance will roll its thunders soon--
Then, up! and let us die!"
"The melody pleases me," said Adalgoth; "but is it already finished?
What is the end?"
"'The end can only be sung in time to the stroke of the sword," said
Teja. "Soon, methinks, thou wilt also hear this end." And he rose
from his seat. "Go, my Adalgoth," he said; "leave me alone. I have
already kept thee far too long from"--and he smiled through all his
sadness--"from the loveliest of all duchesses. You have but few of
such evening hours to spend together, my poor children! If I could but
save your young and budding lives----" He passed his hand across his
brow. "Folly!" he then cried; "you are but a part of the doomed
nation--perhaps the loveliest."
Adalgoth's eyes had filled with tears as the King mentioned his young
wife. He now went up to Teja and laid his hand inquiringly upon his
shoulder.
"Is there no hope? She is so young!"
"None," answered Teja; "for no saving angel will come down from heaven.
We have still a few days before famine commences its inroads. Then I
will make a speedy end. The warriors shall sally forth and fall in
battle."
"And the women, the children--the defenceless thousands?"
"I cannot help them. I am no god. But not a Gothic woman or maiden need
fall into slavery under the Byzantines, unless they choose shame
instead of a free death. Look there, my Adalgoth--in the dark night the
glow of the mountain is fully seen. Seest thou, there, a hundred paces
to the right.--Ha! how splendidly the fiery smoke rushes from the
gloomy mouth!--When the last guardian of the pass has fallen--one leap
into that abyss--and no insolent Roman hand shall touch our pure women.
Thinking of _them_--more than of us, for we can fall anywhere thinking
of the Gothic women, I chose for our last battle-field--Vesuvius!"
And Adalgoth, no longer weeping, but with enthusiasm, threw himself
into Teja's arms.
CHAPTER VII.
A few days after Cethegus had taken up his chosen position on the left
of Narses with his mercenaries, the report came to the camp of the
Byzantines that the Goths in the Mausoleum of Hadrian had been
overpowered.
So now all Rome was in the hands of the Romans; not a single Goth, and,
as Cethegus exultingly thought, not a single Byzantine, ruled in his
Rome.
If he could now succeed in throwing his Isaurians, under the command of
the tribunes, into Rome, the Prefect would be in a much more favourable
position, opposed to Narses, than he had ever been opposed to
Belisarius, with whom he had been obliged to share the possession of
the city.
One of the messengers who had brought the news from Rome, at the same
time gave to Aulus, the hostage, a letter from the two centurions, the
brothers Macer, which ran thus: "The bride has recovered from her long
sickness; if the bridegroom will come, there is nothing more to hinder
the wedding. Come, Aulus."
These were the words fixed upon. Cethegus communicated them to his
Roman knights.
"Excellent!" cried Lucius. "Now I shall be able to place a monument
upon the spot where my brave brother fell for Rome and for Cethegus."
"Yes," said Salvius Julianus, "imprescriptible is the Romans' right to
Rome."
"But if we are to go secretly, see to it well, Prefect," said Piso,
"that our departure is concealed so long from the greatest cripple of
all times, that it will be impossible for him to overtake us."
"No," said Cethegus, "you shall not depart in secret. I have convinced
myself that this most prudent of all heroes has placed outposts far
beyond our position on the left wing. What we considered our outposts
are hemmed round by _his_--occupied by his Longobardian wolves, whom he
has placed in all directions. Without his consent, you cannot manage
your departure either by force or deception. It will be far wiser to
act openly. If he chooses, he can frustrate our plan, for, in any case,
he is sure to hear of it. But he will have nothing to say against
it--you will see! I shall tell him of my resolution, and, depend upon
it, he will approve of it."
"General, that is very bold; it is great!"
"It is the only possible way."
"Yes, you are right," said Salvius Julianus, after a few moments'
reflection. "Force and deception are equally impossible; and should
Narses consent, I will willingly confess that my fears----"
"Were founded upon an over-estimation of the _statesman_ Narses.
Large numbers have intimidated you, and the certainly not to be
over-estimated _general-ship_ of the sick man. I confess that before
the battle of Taginae the whole horizon threatened thunderstorms; but,
as I am still alive, those appearances must have been illusive. I will
at once send you with my inquiry to Narses. You are suspicious, you
will therefore observe sharply. Go, tell him that the Romans have
resolved to admit me, their Prefect, within their walls _now_, before
the annihilation of Teja's army. And I wish to know if he will permit
you to march to Rome with my Isaurians, or if he would consider such an
act as a breach of our agreement. Against his will neither I nor the
Isaurians will set forth."
The two tribunes took leave, and, as he stepped out of the Prefect's
tent, Piso said with a laugh to the others:
"The crutch of Narses rendered your wits useless, longer than the stick
of the shepherd did my fingers!"
When they were well outside, Syphax hurried up to his master.
"O master," he said, "do not trust this sick man with his quiet and
impenetrable looks! Last night I again questioned my snake oracle. I
divided the skin of my idol into two pieces, and laid them upon live
coals. The piece which I called 'Narses' outlasted by far the piece
which I called 'Cethegus.' Shall I not make the attempt? You know that
a scratch with this dagger, and he is lost! What would it matter if
they impaled Syphax, the son of Hiempsal? I cannot do it by stealth,
for the Longobardian prince sleeps in the tent of Narses, in a bed
stretched across the entrance, and seven of his 'little wolves' lie
upon the threshold. The Herulians stand outside the curtain. According
to your hint, I have watched Narses' tent at night ever since we left
Helvillum. Even a gnat can scarcely escape the vigilance of the
Herulians and Longobardians when it flies into the tent. But openly, by
day, one spring into his litter--a scratch of the skin--and he is a
dead man in a quarter of an hour!"
"And before that time has elapsed, not only is Syphax, the son of
Hiempsal, a corpse, but also Cethegus. No. But listen; I have
discovered where the commander is accustomed to hold his secret
conversations with Basiliskos and Alboin. Not in his tent--a camp has a
thousand ears--but in the bath. The physicians have ordered Narses a
morning bath in the bay at Stabiae, and he has had a bath-house built
out into the sea, which can only be reached in a boat. When Alboin and
Basiliskos accompany him thither, they are only as wise as--well, as
Basiliskos and Alboin. But when they return, they are full of the
wisdom of Narses; they know what letters have come from Byzantium, and
many other things. Round about the bath-house there is much seaweed.
Syphax, for how long a time can you dive?"
"As long," answered the slave, not without pride, "as the clumsy and
suspicious crocodile in our streams takes to observe the gazelle which
has been thrown into the reeds as a bait, and to make up his mind to
swim to it--then a knife from below in his belly! This small-eyed
Narses has something of the crocodile--we will see if I cannot outdo
him by patient diving."
"Excellent! my panther on shore, my diving duck in the water!"
"I would leap into fire for your sake, then you would call me your
'salamander.'"
"Well, you must manage to listen to the conversation of this sick man
when he goes to bathe."
"The office will very well suit another game which I have on hand. For
many days a fisherman, who throws his net every morning and evening,
and never catches anything, has been signing and winking to me in a
very innocent-sly manner. I believe he is watching for me, and not for
sea mullets. But the long-bearded wolves of this Alboin are always at
my heels. Perhaps, when I dive into the water, I shall be able to catch
up what this fisherman wishes to confide to me."
CHAPTER VIII.
Very gravely, but no more in a melting mood, Adalgoth told his young
wife of the resolve of the King, and of the last alternative between
death and a shameful slavery.
He expected an outbreak of wild grief, such as it had been so difficult
even for him to repress. But, to his astonishment, Gotho remained
unshaken.
"I have foreseen this long ago, my Adalgoth! It is no misfortune; to
lose what we love, and still live, that alone is a misfortune. I have
attained to the highest earthly bliss, I am thy wife. Whether I shall
have been so for ten years or for twenty, or for scarcely half a year,
alters nothing. At least we shall die together on the same day,
possibly at the same hour. For King Teja will not forbid thee--when
thou hast done thy part in the last battle, and, perhaps wounded, canst
fight no longer--he will not forbid thee to come and take me in thine
arms--how often hast thou carried me on the Iffinger!--and leap with me
into the abyss. Oh, Adalgoth!" she cried, passionately embracing him,
"how happy we have been! We will show that we were worthy of such
bliss, by dying bravely, without cowardly lament. The scion of the
Balthe," and she smiled, "shall not say that the shepherd's daughter
could not keep pace with his nobility. There arises in my soul a vision
of the grandeur of our mountains! My grandfather, Iffa, admonished me,
when I left him, to call to mind the fresh and free air of our
mountains, and the strict and noble severity of the proud heights,
should ever life in the narrow, small, gilded chambers here below
seem too paltry for our souls. We have not been menaced with that, but
now, when it is necessary to raise our minds from timid, tender
sorrow--which almost crept over me--and to gain strength for a noble
resolve, the remembrance of my native mountains has made me strong.
'Shame on thee,' I said to myself, 'shame on thee, daughter of the
mountains! What would the Iffinger, and the Wolfshead, and all the
stony giants say, if they saw the shepherdess despair? Be worthy of thy
mountains and of thy hero husband.'"
Adalgoth pressed his young wife to his bosom, with mingled pride and
joy.
Behind the tent of the Duke lay the low hut, made of dried branches,
where dwelt Wachis and Liuta. Liuta, who had heard from Gotho what fate
menaced them, had been obliged to use all her powers of persuasion upon
her husband (who sat shaking his head and hammering and patching his
shield, which had been sadly defaced, by Longobardian arrows in the
last watch he had held at the mouth of the pass, and who now began to
whistle to hide his suppressed sobs) before she could raise him to a
like enthusiasm of renunciation.
"I do not think," said the honest man, "that the Lord of heaven can see
it done. I am one of those who never like to say, 'All is over!' The
proud ones, those who hold their heads high, like King Teja and Duke
Adalgoth, certainly run constantly against the beams of fate. But we
small people, who can stoop and bend, easily find a mouse-hole or a
chink in the wall by which to escape. It is too vile! miserable! cruel!
rascally!"--and each word was accompanied by a sounding stroke with his
hammer. "I will not believe it! I cannot believe that hundreds of good
women, pretty girls, lisping children, and stammering old men, must
jump into the hellish fire of this accursed mountain! As if it were but
a merry bonfire! As if they would come out at the other side safe and
sound! I might just as well have let thee burn in the house at Faesulae.
And not only thou must burn, but also our expected child, whom I have
already named Witichis."
"Or Rauthgundis," said Liuta, blushing, as she bent over her husband's
shoulder and stopped his hammering. "Let this name admonish thee,
Wachis! Think of our beloved mistress. Was she not a thousand times
better than Liuta, the poor maid-servant? And would she have hesitated
or refused to die on the same day with all her people?"
"Thou art right, wife!" exclaimed Wachis, with a last furious stroke of
his hammer. "Thou knowest I am a peasant, and peasants do not at all
like to die. But if the heavens fall, they strike down peasants as well
as others; and before it happens--ha-ha!--I will deal many a famous
stroke! That would please Sir Witichis and Mistress Rauthgundis right
well also. In honour of them--yes, thou art right, Liuta--we will live
bravely--and, if it cannot be otherwise, bravely die!"
CHAPTER IX.
It was with most joyful surprise that the two tribunes, Licinius and
Julianus, entered the tent of the Prefect after their interview with
Narses.
"Once again you have conquered, O Cethegus!" cried Licinius.
"You have got the upper hand, Prefect of Rome," said Salvius Julianus.
"I do not understand it, but Narses really abandons Rome to you."
"Ha!" cried Piso, who had entered with the others, "that is your old
Caesarian luck, Cethegus! Your star, which has seemed to wane since this
famous cripple's arrival, shines anew. It seems to me that sometimes
his _mind_ suffers from attacks of epilepsy. For, with a sound mind,
how could he quietly let you enter Rome? No! Quem deus vult perdere
dementat! Now will Quintus Piso again wander through the Forum, and
look into the book-stalls to see if the Goths have assiduously bought
his 'Epistolas ad amabilissimum, carissimum pastorem Adalgothum et ejus
pedum'--(Letters to the very amiable and greatly beloved shepherd-boy,
Adalgoth, and his bludgeon)."
"So you have composed in exile, like Ovidius?" asked Cethegus, smiling.
"Yes," answered Piso. "The six-footed verses come more readily, since
they no longer need to fear the Goths, who are a foot longer. And amid
the noise of Gothic banquetings it would not be easy to compose, even
in time of peace."
"He has composed some merry verses, intermixed with Gothic words, on
that subject too," said Salvius Julianus. "How does it begin, 'Inter
hails Gothicum skapja'----"
"Do not wrong my words! It is not permitted to quote falsely what is
immortal."
"Well, how go the verses?" asked Cethegus.
"Thus," said Piso:
"De conviviis barbarorum.
Inter: 'Hails Gothicum! skapja matjan jah drinkan!'
Non audet quisquam dignos educere versus:
Calliope madido trepidat se jungere Baccho,
Ne pedibus non stet ebria Musa suis."
"Horrible poetry!" exclaimed Salvius Julianus.
"Who knows," said Piso, laughing, "whether the thirst of the Goths will
not become immortal through these verses?"
"But now tell me exactly what Narses answered?" said Cethegus.
"First he listened to us with great incredulity," replied Licinius, "He
asked suspiciously, 'Is it possible that the prudent Romans can again
beg for an Isaurian garrison and the Prefect, whom they have to thank
for so much famine and unwilling valour?' But I answered that he
under-rated the patriotism of the Romans, and that it was your affair
if you had deceived yourself. If the Romans did not voluntarily admit
us, your seven thousand men were too weak to storm the city. This
seemed to convince him. He only required our promise that, if we were
not admitted voluntarily, we would at once return here."
"And we thought we might well venture to promise this in your name,"
concluded Julianus.
"You were right," said Cethegus, with a smile.
"Narses then said that he would not hinder us if the Romans liked to
have us. And he is so completely harmless," Licinius went on, "that he
does not seem to wish to detain you, even as a hostage; for he inquired
when the Prefect would start. Therefore he must have taken it for
granted that you would lead the Isaurians to Rome yourself. And he has
nothing to say against that either. He was evidently surprised when I
answered that you preferred to witness here the destruction of the
Goths."
"Well," said Cethegus, "where, then, is this terrible Narses, the great
statesman! Even my friend Procopius sadly over-rated him, when he once
named him to me as the greatest man of the time."
"The greatest man of the time is--some one else," cried Licinius.
"It was natural that Procopius should give the palm to the superior
enemy of his Belisarius. But one almost ought to take advantage of the
clumsy blunder made by the 'greatest man,'" continued Cethegus
reflectively. "The gods might be angry if we did not make use of the
miracle of infatuation which they have accomplished for us. I alter my
resolution; I long to get to the Capitol; I will go with you to Rome.
Syphax, we will start--at once! Saddle my horse!"
But Syphax gave his master a warning look.
"Leave me, tribunes!" said Cethegus, "I will recall you directly."
"O sir!" cried Syphax eagerly, as soon as they were alone, "do not go
to-day! Send the others on in advance. To-morrow early I shall fish two
great secrets out of the sea. Diving under his boat, I have already
spoken to the fisherman I mentioned. He is no fisher, he is a slave, a
post-slave belonging to Procopius."
"What do you say?" asked Cethegus hastily and in a low tone.
"We could only exchange a few words in a whisper. The Longobardians
stood on the shore watching us. Seven letters from Procopius, sent
either openly or secretly, have never reached you. He therefore chose
this clever messenger, who will fish to-night by moonlight and give me
the letter. He had not brought it with him to-day. And to-morrow
early--to-day he was too ill--Narses will again bathe in the sea. I
have found a hiding-place among the weeds; quite close. And should they
chance to see bubbles rising from the water, I can whistle like an
otter. I saw the imperial post arrive with well-filled mail-bags.
Basiliskos took them. Do but wait until to-morrow early; Narses will be
sure to talk over the latest secrets from Byzantium with Basiliskos and
Alboin. Or at least leave me here alone----"
"No, that would be at once to betray you as a spy. You are worth more
than ten times your weight in gold, Syphax!--I shall remain here till
to-morrow," he continued, as the tribunes again entered.
"Oh, come with us!" begged Licinius.
"Away from the oppressive influence of this Narses!" added Julianus.
But Cethegus frowned.
"Does he still over-top me in your eyes, this fool, who allows Cethegus
to escape from his well-guarded camp to Rome; who throws the fish out
of his net into the water? Verily, he has too much intimidated you!
To-morrow evening I will follow you. I have still some business to
transact here, which no one but myself can complete. Meanwhile, if Rome
does not resist, you can occupy it without me. But I shall surely
overtake you at Terracina. If not, march into Rome. You, Licinius, will
keep the Capitol for me."
With sparkling eyes Licinius exclaimed: "You honour me highly, my
general! I will answer for the Capitol with my life! May I venture a
petition?"
"Well?"
"Do not expose yourself foolhardily to the spear of the Gothic King!
The day before yesterday he hurled two spears at once at you; one in
each hand. If I had not caught the one from his left hand upon my
shield----"
"Then, Licinius, the Jupiter of the Capitol would have blown it aside
before it struck me. For the god still needs me. But you mean well."
"Do not widow Roma!" persisted Lucius.
Cethegus looked at him with the irresistible look of admiring love
which was so winning on _his_ face; and continued, turning to Salvius
Julianus:
"You, Salvius, will occupy the Mausoleum. And you, Piso, the rest of
the city on the left bank of the Tiber. Particularly the Porta Latina;
through that gate I shall follow you. You will not open to Narses
_alone_, any more than you formerly did to Belisarius alone. Farewell;
salute my Roma for me. Tell her, that the last contest for her
possession, that between Narses and Cethegus, has ended with victory
for Cethegus. We shall meet again in Rome! Roma eterna!"
"Roma eterna!" repeated the tribunes with enthusiasm, and hurried out.
"Oh, why was not this Licinius the son of Manilia!" cried Cethegus,
looking after the young men as they departed. "Folly of my heart, why
art thou so obstinate? Licinius, you shall take the place of Julius as
my heir! Oh, would that you were indeed Julius!"
CHAPTER X.
The departure of the Prefect for Rome was delayed for many days.
Narses, who invited him to his table, did not indeed seek to keep him
back. He even expressed his astonishment that the "Ruler of the
Capitol" was not more powerfully drawn to the Tiber stream.
"Certainly," he said with a smile, "I can understand that, as you have
seen these barbarians rule and conquer so long in your Italy, you
desire strongly to see them fall there. But I cannot say how long that
event may yet be put off. The pass cannot be taken by storm as long as
it is defended by men like this King Teja. Already more than a thousand
of my Longobardians, Alamannians, Burgundians, Herulians, Franks, and
Gepidae have fallen before it."
"Send for once," interposed Alboin in a vexed tone of voice--"send for
once your brave Romani Against the Goths. The Herulians, Vulkaris and
Wilmuth, fell under King Teja's axe almost as soon as they arrived
here; the Gepidian Asbad, under the spear of that boy Adalgoth; my
cousin Gisulf lies wounded by Duke Guntharis's sword; Wisand, the
standard-bearer, has stabbed the Frank count, Butilin, with the point
of his flagstaff; the old master-at-arms has dashed out the brains of
the Burgundian Gernot with his stone axe; the Alamannian Liuthari was
slain by Earl Grippa, and my shield-bearer, Klaffo, by a common Gothic
soldier. And for every one of these heroes, a dozen of their followers
lie dead also. If, at midnight last night, a block of lava, upon which
I was standing, had not most opportunely slipped down just as King
Teja, who can see in the dark, was hurling his lance at me, Rosamunda
would not be the loveliest woman, but the loveliest widow in the realm
of the Longobardians! As it was I got off with some ugly bruises, which
will not be extolled in future heroic songs, but which I fancy much
more than King Teja's best spear in my stomach. But I think that it is
now the turn of other heroes. Let your Macedonians and Illyrians come
forward. We have shown them often enough how a man can die in front of
that needle's eye."
"No, my little wolf! Diamond cut diamond!" laughed Narses. "Always
Germans against Germans; there are too many of you in the world!"
"You seem to have the same fatherly opinion about the Isaurians--at
least about _mine_!--magister militum," said Cethegus. "Shortly before
their departure for Rome, you ordered my Isaurians to storm the pass in
mass--the first storming-party in mass that you had ever ordered! Seven
hundred of my seven thousand remained dead upon those rocks, and
Sandil, my tried and faithful chief, at last found this Black Earl's
axe too sharp for his helmet. He was very valuable to me."
"Well, the rest are safe in Rome. But nothing except fire can drive
these Goths out of their last hole; unless indeed the earth would do me
the favour to quake, as it did at Ravenna when Belisarius----"
"Is there still no news of the result of the process against
Belisarius?" asked Cethegus. "Letters came lately from Byzantium, did
they not?"
"I have not yet read them all.--Or, if not fire--then hunger. And if
they then sally forth for a last battle, many a brave man would rather
hear the murmur of the Ganges than the murmur of the Draco. Not you,
Prefect! I know that you can look boldly into the eye of death."
"I will still wait here a little and see how things turn out. It is bad
travelling weather. It storms and rains unceasingly. On the first or
second warm sunshiny day, I will start for Rome."
It was true. On the night of the departure of the Isaurians, the
weather had suddenly changed. The fisherman, who dwelt in a village
near Stabiae, could not venture out upon the sea; less on account of the
storm than because of the Longobardians, who had long been watching him
with suspicion, and who had once arrested him. Only when his old father
came forward and proved that Agnellus was really his, the old
fisherman's son, did they hesitatingly let him go free. But he did not
dare to pretend to fish, when no other fisher threw out his nets; and
only far out upon the water could Syphax, who was also closely watched,
venture to communicate with him.
The exits of all the camps, even of the half-deserted camp of
Cethegus--Narses had placed only three thousand Thracians and Persians
in the tents deserted by the Isaurians--were guarded night and day by
the Longobardians. And Narses was also obliged to postpone his baths
for some days. But for the secrets, namely, the letter from Procopius
and the conversation held by Narses in his bath-house, Cethegus fully
intended to wait.
CHAPTER XI.
The usual good luck of the Prefect did not desert him. The weather
changed again. On the morning of the day after his last conversation
with Narses, the sun rose splendidly over the blue and sparkling bay,
and hundreds of small fishing-boats set out to take advantage of the
favourable weather.
Syphax, yielding his place at the threshold of his master's tent to the
four Isaurians, who alone had remained behind their comrades, had
disappeared at the first approach of dawn.
When Cethegus had taken his morning bath in an adjoining tent, and was
returning to his breakfast, he heard Syphax making a great noise as he
approached through the lines of tents.
"No!" he was shouting; "this fish is for the Prefect. I have paid for
it in hard cash. The great Narses will not wish to eat other people's
fish!"
And with these words he tore himself loose from Alboin, and from
several Longobardians, as well as from a slave belonging to Narses, who
were trying to detain him.
Cethegus stopped. He recognised the slave. It was the cook of the
generally sick and always temperate general, whose art was scarcely
practised except for his master's guests.
"Sir," the well-educated Greek said to the Prefect, in his native
language, "do not blame me for this unseemly turmoil. What does a
sea-mullet matter to me! But these long-bearded barbarians forced me to
take possession, at any cost, of this fish-basket, which your slave was
bringing from the boats."
A glance which Cethegus exchanged with Syphax sufficed. The
Longobardian had not understood what had been said. Cethegus gave
Syphax a blow on the cheek, and cried in Latin:
"Good-for-nothing, insolent slave! will you never learn manners? Shall
not the sick general have the best there is?"
And he roughly snatched the basket from the Moor and gave it to the
slave.
"Here is the basket. I hope Narses will enjoy the fish."
The slave, who thought he had refused the gift distinctly enough, took
the basket with a shake of his head.
"What can it all mean?" he asked in Latin as he went away.
"It means," answered Alboin, who followed him, "that the best fish is
_not_ hidden in the basket, but somewhere else."
As soon as Syphax entered the tent, he eagerly felt in his waterproof
belt of crocodile-skin for a roll of papyrus, which he handed to the
Prefect.
"You bleed, Syphax!"
"Only slightly. The Longobardians pretended, when they saw me swimming
in the water, to take me for a dolphin, and shot their arrows at me."
"Nurse yourself--a solidus for every drop of your blood!--the letter is
worth blood and gold, as it seems. Nurse yourself! and bid the
Isaurians let no one enter."
And now, alone in his tent, the Prefect began to read.
His features grew darker and darker. Ever deeper became the wrinkle in
the centre of his mighty forehead; ever more harshly and firmly
compressed his lips.
"To Cornelius Cethegus Caesarius, the Ex-prefect and ex-friend,
Procopius of Caesarea, for the last time. This is the most sorrowful
business for which I have ever used either my former or my present
pen-hand. And I would gladly give this my left hand, as I gave my right
for Belisarius, if I need not write this letter. The revocation and
renunciation of our friendship of thirty years! In this unheroic time I
believed in two heroes; the hero of the sword, Belisarius; and the hero
of the intellect, Cethegus. In future I must hate, and almost despise,
the latter."
The reader threw the letter on the couch upon which he lay. Then he
took it up again with a frown and read on: