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 himback. He even expressed his astonishment that the "Ruler of theCapitol" was not more powerfully drawn to the Tiber stream.
"Certainly," he said with a smile, "I can understand that, as you haveseen these barbarians rule and conquer so long in your Italy, youdesire strongly to see them fall there. But I cannot say how long thatevent may yet be put off. The pass cannot be taken by storm as long asit is defended by men like this King Teja. Already more than a thousandof my Longobardians, Alamannians, Burgundians, Herulians, Franks, andGepidae have fallen before it."
"Send for once," interposed Alboin in a vexed tone of voice--"send foronce your brave Romani Against the Goths. The Herulians, Vulkaris andWilmuth, fell under King Teja's axe almost as soon as they arrivedhere; the Gepidian Asbad, under the spear of that boy Adalgoth; mycousin Gisulf lies wounded by Duke Guntharis's sword; Wisand, thestandard-bearer, has stabbed the Frank count, Butilin, with the pointof his flagstaff; the old master-at-arms has dashed out the brains ofthe Burgundian Gernot with his stone axe; the Alamannian Liuthari wasslain by Earl Grippa, and my shield-bearer, Klaffo, by a common Gothicsoldier. And for every one of these heroes, a dozen of their followerslie dead also. If, at midnight last night, a block of lava, upon whichI was standing, had not most opportunely slipped down just as KingTeja, who can see in the dark, was hurling his lance at me, Rosamundawould not be the loveliest woman, but the loveliest widow in the realmof the Longobardians! As it was I got off with some ugly bruises, whichwill not be extolled in future heroic songs, but which I fancy muchmore than King Teja's best spear in my stomach. But I think that it isnow the turn of other heroes. Let your Macedonians and Illyrians comeforward. We have shown them often enough how a man can die in front ofthat needle's eye."
"No, my little wolf! Diamond cut diamond!" laughed Narses. "AlwaysGermans against Germans; there are too many of you in the world!"
"You seem to have the same fatherly opinion about the Isaurians--atleast about _mine_!--magister militum," said Cethegus. "Shortly beforetheir departure for Rome, you ordered my Isaurians to storm the pass inmass--the first storming-party in mass that you had ever ordered! Sevenhundred of my seven thousand remained dead upon those rocks, andSandil, my tried and faithful chief, at last found this Black Earl'saxe too sharp for his helmet. He was very valuable to me."
"Well, the rest are safe in Rome. But nothing except fire can drivethese Goths out of their last hole; unless indeed the earth would do methe favour to quake, as it did at Ravenna when Belisarius----"
"Is there still no news of the result of the process againstBelisarius?" asked Cethegus. "Letters came lately from Byzantium, didthey not?"
"I have not yet read them all.--Or, if not fire--then hunger. And ifthey then sally forth for a last battle, many a brave man would ratherhear 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 badtravelling weather. It storms and rains unceasingly. On the first orsecond warm sunshiny day, I will start for Rome."
It was true. On the night of the departure of the Isaurians, theweather had suddenly changed. The fisherman, who dwelt in a villagenear Stabiae, could not venture out upon the sea; less on account of thestorm than because of the Longobardians, who had long been watching himwith suspicion, and who had once arrested him. Only when his old fathercame forward and proved that Agnellus was really his, the oldfisherman's son, did they hesitatingly let him go free. But he did notdare to pretend to fish, when no other fisher threw out his nets; andonly 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 ofCethegus--Narses had placed only three thousand Thracians and Persiansin the tents deserted by the Isaurians--were guarded night and day bythe Longobardians. And Narses was also obliged to postpone his bathsfor some days. But for the secrets, namely, the letter from Procopiusand the conversation held by Narses in his bath-house, Cethegus fullyintended to wait.