"An arrow--in the calf of my leg--but it didn't go deep." "You can scarcely stand. Go home at once, do you hear? I, command it by the oath of loyalty to the Duke. Waldrun will have a healing herb for you, too. Go!" Assuming the direct leadership of the bands formerly commanded by Ebarbold and Adalo, the Duke spread his whole force into the widest possible front, to inclose the fugitives, and gave only one order: "Drive them into the lake!" The command was received with shouts of exultation, and faithfully obeyed. Hariowald had swung himself upon one of the numerous riderless horses dashing through and around the camp; his men eagerly followed his example, and thus the pursuit became a wild chase on horseback and on foot down the descent from the heights to the lake. The blazing camp behind, and the blazing ships before them, cast a terribly beautiful, flickering light over the savage, warlike scene. But already, though still very dim, another light was stealing where the red glare of the torches and the burning tents did not penetrate. The night was no longer perfectly dark. Far away, in the extreme east, dawn was glimmering; for more than two, almost three hours of the September night had passed in the battle around the camp since the criers had announced the second hour after twelve. CHAPTER LIII. Meanwhile Bissula had recovered consciousness. The loud summons of the tubas, giving the signal for the sally of the Romans, had roused her. Raising herself in her hiding-place behind the beams and planks which, piled one above another to the height of a man, completely concealed her, she peered through the openings between them. Her heart throbbed with joy as she saw the lake gate, hitherto so impenetrably and inexorably closed against her, now standing wide open. Cautiously, crouching like a kitten that tries to escape the hand outstretched to seize it, she glided to the western corner of her hiding-place and looked out at the gate. Yet, ardently as she longed for liberty, and familiar as was the fearless daughter of the forest by the lake with all the perils and horrors of the primeval woods and the waves, she was but a girl, and had never before witnessed the terrors of murderous battles. But now Bissula saw the bloody scenes, of which, hitherto, she had only heard from her uncle or some bard at a feast celebrating a victory: she saw, and trembled. By the light of the two wings of the gate, now blazing furiously, the torches of the Romans, and the bundles of faggots hurled among the tents by the Alemanni, she saw close at hand, beyond the ditch, the bloody, murderous conflict. She saw the meeting between the Romans, as they burst from the camp, and the assailing bands of her own people; saw things which sent a thrill of horror through every vein.