The Scarlet Banner

  CHAPTER III

  Many days' march westward from the road which the Byzantines werefollowing toward Carthage, and a considerable distance south of MountAuras, the extreme limit of the Vandal kingdom in Africa, lay a smalloasis. It was within the sandy desert which extended southward into theunknown interior of the hot portion of the globe. A spring of drinkablewater, a few date-palms in the circle around it, and, beneath theirshade, a patch of turf of salt grass, affording sufficient fodder forthe camels--that was all. The ground in the neighborhood was flat,except that here and there rose waves of the yellow, loose, hot sandswept together by the wind. Nowhere appeared shrub, bush, or hillock;as far as the eye could rove in the brightest light of day, it found noresting-place till, wearied by the quest, it sought some point close athand.

  But it was night now, and wonderfully, indescribably magnificent wasthe silent solitude. Over the whole expanse of the heavens the starswere glittering in countless multitudes with a brilliancy which theyshow only to the sons of the desert. It is easy to understand thatdeity first appeared to the Moors in the form of the stars. In themthey worshipped the radiant, beneficent forces which contrastedbenignly with the desert's scorching heat, the desert's storms. Fromthe course, position, and shining of the stars, they augured the willof the gods and their own future.

  Around the spring were pitched the low goatskin tents of the nomadMoors, only half a dozen of them, for the whole tribe had not gathered.The faithful camels, carefully tethered by the feet among the tentropes, and covered with blankets to protect them from the stings of theflies, were lying in the deep sand with their long necks outstretched.In the centre of the little encampment were the noble racers, thebattle stallions, and the brood mares, confined in a circle made withropes and lances thrust into the sand. On the round top of one of thetents towered a long spear, from whose point hung a lion's skin; forthis was the shelter of the chief.

  The night wind, which blew refreshingly from the distant sea in thenortheast, played with the mane of the dead king of the wilderness,sometimes tossing the skin of the huge paw, sometimes the tuft of hairat the end of the tail. Fantastic shadows fell on the light sandy soil;for though the moon was not in the sky, the stars shone bright. A deep,solemn stillness reigned. Every living creature seemed buried in sleep.Four huge fires, one at each of the four points of the compass, wereblazing, a bow-shot from the tents, to frighten the wild beasts fromthe flocks; from them arose at long intervals the only sound that brokethe stillness; namely, the cry of some shepherd who thus kept himselfawake and warned his companions to be watchful. This solemn silencecontinued for a long, long time.

  At last a couple of stallions neighed, a weapon clanked outside fromthe direction of the fires, and directly thereafter a light, almostinaudible footstep came toward the centre of the camp,--toward the"Lion Tent." Suddenly it paused; a slender young man stooped to theground before the entrance.

  "What? Are you lying in front of the tent, grandfather?" he asked inastonishment. "Are you asleep?"

  "I was watching," a low voice answered.

  "I should have ventured to rouse you. There is a fateful star in theheavens. I saw it appear when I was keeping the eastern fire-watch. Assoon as I was relieved, I hastened to you. The gods are sending awarning! But youth does not understand their signs; you do, wiseancestor. Look yonder, to the right--the right of the last palm. Don'tyou see it?"

  "I saw it long ago. I have expected the sign for many nights, ay, foryears."

  Awe and a slight sense of fear thrilled the youth. "For years? You knewwhat would happen in the heavens? You are very wise, O Cabaon."

  "Not I. My grandfather told my father, and he repeated the marvel tome. It was more than a hundred years ago. The fair-faced strangers camefrom the North across the sea in many ships, led by that King ofterrors with whose name our women still silence unruly children."

  "Genseric!" said the youth, softly; his tone expressed both hate andhorror.

  "At that time, from the same direction as the ships, a terrible starmounted into the heavens--blood-red, like a flaming scourge with manyhundred thongs; it swung menacingly over our country and people. And mygrandfather, after he had seen the terrible war-king in the harbor ofTsocium, said to my father and to our tribe: 'Unfasten the camels!Bridle the noble racers, and set forth. Go southward, into thescorching bosom of the protecting Mother! This King of Battles and hiswar-loving nation are what the terrible star announced. For many, manyyears, and tens of years, all who oppose them will be lost; the armiesof Rome and the galleys of Constantinople will be swept away by thesegiants from the North, like the clouds which seek to oppose the star.'And so it came to pass. The sons of our tribe, though they would farrather have discharged their long arrows at the fair-haired giants,obeyed the old man's counsel, and we escaped into the shelteringdesert. Bonifacius, the Roman General, fell. Our ancestor had foretoldit in the prophetic saying: 'G will destroy B. But,' he added, 'someday, after more than a hundred years, a star will rise in the east, andthen B will overthrow G. Other tribes of our race who, with theimperial troops, tried to resist the invaders, were mowed down likethem by Genseric, the son of darkness. And when they came howling toour tents, raising the death-wail, and summoned us to a war ofvengeance, my grandfather and afterwards my father refused, saying:'Not yet! They cannot yet be conquered. More than two or threegenerations of men will pass, and no one will be able to stand beforethe giants from the North, neither the Romans by sea, nor we sons ofthe desert. But the children of the North cannot remain permanently inthe land of the sun! Many of those who came to our native country toconquer and rule us, mightier warriors than we, have vanquished us, butnot this land, this sun, these deserts. Sand and sun and luxuriousidleness have lessened the strength of the strangers' arms, the mightof their will. So will also fare these tall, blue-eyed giants. Thevigor will leave their bodies, and the lust for battle their souls. Andthen--then we will again wrest from them the heritage of ourancestors.' So it was predicted, so it has been.

  "For tens of years our archers, our spearmen could not withstand thefierce foes; then their strength decayed, and we often drove them backwhen they entered the sacred desert. When, some day, a star like thisreturns, my ancestor declared, the reign of the strangers will be over.Take heed whence a scourge-like star comes again; for from thatdirection will come the foe that will hew down the yellow-haired men.The star to-night came from the east; and from the east will come theconquerors of Genseric's people!

  "We have news that the Emperor has made war upon the Vandals, that hisarmy has landed in the far East! But it does not agree--the other sign!G doubtless means Gelimer, the fair-haired King. But the Emperor of theRomans is J, Justinian. Speak, have you chanced to hear the name of theRoman. General?"

  "Belisarius."

  The old man started up. "And B will overthrow G,--Belisarius willvanquish Gelimer! Look, how blood-red the scourge-like star is shining!That means bloody battles. But we, son of my son, we will not interposewhen Roman sword and Vandal spear are clashing against each other. Theconflict may easily extend as far as the Auras Mountain; we will plungedeeper into the wilderness. Let the aliens fight and destroy oneanother. The Roman eagle, too, will not long have its eyrie here. Thestar of misfortune will rise for them as well as for these tallsea-kings. The intruders come--and pass away; we, the sons of thecountry, will remain. Like the sand of our deserts we wander before thewind, but we shall not pass away; we always return. The land of the sunbelongs to the sons of the sun. And, as the sand of the desert coversand buries the proud stone buildings of the Romans, so shall we, everreturning, bury the alien life which forces itself into our country,where it can never thrive. We retire--but we return."

  "Yet the fair King has obtained ten thousand of our men for the war.What must they do?"

  "Give back the money; leave the Vandal army, which the gods haveabandoned! Order my messengers to-morrow to dash with this command toevery tribe where I rule--with this advice, where I
can counsel."

  "Your counsel is a command wherever the desert sand extends. Only Igrieve for the man with the mournful eyes. He has shown favor to manyof our people, granted hospitality to many of our tribes; what returnshall they make to their friend?"

  "Hospitality unto death! Not fight his battles, not share his booty;but if he comes to them seeking shelter and protection, divide the lastdate with him, shed the last drop of blood in his defence. Up, strikethe basin! We will depart ere the sun wakes. Untether the camels!"

  The old man rose hastily.

  The youth dealt the copper kettle that hung beside the tent a blow withhis curved scimetar. The brown-skinned men, women, and children wereastir like a swarm of ants. When the sun rose above the horizon, theoasis was empty, desolate, silent as death.

  Far in the south whirled upward a cloud of dust and sand which thenorth wind seemed to be driving farther and farther inland.