But the Batavian was suddenly startled from his mythological studies.
He heard from the east a shout in German: "Romans! Romans! On them!"
and saw a boat filled with Alemanni steer toward them.
"Quick! Disperse in every direction!" he called, and the boats
containing the fugitives scattered. He soon lost sight of two, which
attracted the attention of the pursuers and were driven by the Germans
out upon the lake toward the south. He himself steered and rowed at the
same time, assisted by several soldiers, close in to the shore
westward, where by good fortune he reached a small patch of rushes,
among which he hid the boat; the second one, containing Decius, soon
joined him.
From this place Ausonius, who by Saturninus's order was watching the
shore to see if they could rescue any fugitive Romans, perceived by the
dim light of morning the figure of a girl in a gleaming white robe, who
was running at her utmost speed straight toward the boats. He already
thought he recognized Bissula when her cry fell upon his ear: "Adalo,
Alemanni, help Bissula!" He also saw a horseman dashing in furious
pursuit down the hill. He ordered the men to row quickly shoreward.
Prosper, even Rignomer, hesitated. "My lord," the latter warned him,
"they will murder us all!"
"No matter! Bissula! It is for Bissula!"
Then Rignomer instantly obeyed. Hidden behind his sail he had not seen
the young girl, and could not hear her; but now he turned the helm, and
sent the boat with the speed of lightning toward the shore, at the same
time urging the soldiers to row with all their might. The rest of the
men now recognized the fugitive, and so the rescuers came just in time
to save her from sinking.
Bissula, whose strength was completely exhausted, lay unconscious in
the bottom of the boat for a long, long time. Rignomer had rolled into
a bundle a fishing net which he found in the bow and put it under her
head for a pillow. Ausonius, sitting on a thwart, supported her lovely
little head and gazed anxiously down into her face, while the Batavian
rubbed her cold hands.
Meanwhile the two boats left their hiding-place among the rushes, rowed
first directly southward out upon the lake, and then by making a wide
circuit to avoid pursuit, intended to turn toward Arbor. But they did
not go far.
"What have you determined, General?" asked Decius, calling from the
second boat as they rowed side by side.
"To take vengeance," replied Saturninus savagely; "vengeance for this
unprecedented disgrace. As soon as I reach Arbor, I shall beseech the
Caesar, if ever Saturninus deserved favor from the Empire, to give me
three legions. The Barbarians shall be repaid this very night."
"Stay," cried Rignomer. "I have long seen a Roman galley coming toward
us."
"Where? Whence?" asked Decius. "It probably contains Barbarians."
"No, no! It is coming from the southwest. Look yonder--from
Constantia!"
"Yes," exclaimed Decius. "That is the Emperor's swiftest ship; I
recognize it. It bears the great purple flag, so the Emperor himself is
on board."
"Or a Magister Militum sent by the Caesar," remarked Saturninus.
The two boats remained motionless; the swift galley swept forward. It
must at first have been supposed that the boats were filled with
Barbarians, but the crew soon discovered that the men were Romans; and
now the ship reached them. On her deck, beside a richly armed officer,
stood Nannienus. "O my friend," cried Saturninus, raising his head,
"that we should meet again thus! And you, Andragathes, what do you
bring? I hope help, reenforcements. We are defeated: army and ships are
lost." He groaned aloud.
"I know it, my Saturninus," replied the imperial envoy. "Nannienus,
whom I took on board, here on the lake, flying in a Barbarian boat, has
told me all that he had himself experienced and what he feared for you.
Alas! What is this little defeat? What are these two or three thousand
men, compared to the terrible blow which has fallen upon us?"
"What has happened?" asked the Roman leader, startled.
"A second Cannae, Gratianus says."
"Oh, what a dreadful word is that!"
"The Emperor Valens and his whole army are defeated, put to rout by the
Goths at Adrianople. Forty thousand Romans lie dead upon their shields,
thirty thousand are prisoners. The Emperor Valens while wounded was
burned during his flight, in a peasant's house. All the Eastern
Provinces are overrun by the Goths; even Constantinople is threatened.
Gratianus has appointed you, Saturninus, commander-in-chief of the
whole trembling, orphaned Eastern Empire. He commands you to hasten at
once to Vindonissa, to lead his whole army thence against the Goths on
the Danube. You are his last hope, and the Empire's. 'Saturninus alone
can still save us,' he ordered me to tell you."
"And this Saturninus is a bungler," groaned the Illyrian, "and a
wounded man, too. Attacked and disgracefully defeated by Suabian
robbers--beaten in every sense!" He laughed grimly.
"Ha!" replied Nannienus mournfully, "that is nothing compared to my
fate. An imperial fleet, under my command, captured and burned by
miserable fishing boats."
"Alas," Saturninus continued, "and now I cannot even avenge myself and
my honor as a General on these miscreants. But the Empire--the
Emperor's command overrules everything else. I obey. Turn the helm. We
will go to Constantia, thence to Vindonissa. Come with me at once,
Ausonius. Do you not hear?"
"Directly," replied the latter. "She is opening her eyes."