"We shall meet again, O Belisarius!" he said. "Give the signal for the march of my Isaurians," he called loudly to Marcus; "and to my Byzantines also," he added in a low voice. "But Belisarius has----" "_I_ am their Belisarius. Syphax, my horse." As he mounted, a troop of Roman horsemen galloped up; torches were carried before the leader. "Who goes there? Ah! you, Cethegus! What? you ride away? Your people march towards the river! You surely will not leave us now, in this time of imminent danger?" Cethegus bent forward. "Hoho! it is you, Calpurnius? I did not recognise you; you look so pale. What news from the front?" "Fugitive peasants say," answered Calpurnius anxiously, "that there are certainly more than a party of skirmishers. The King of the barbarians, Witichis himself, is on the march through the Sabine mountains. They have already reached the left bank of the Tiber. Resistance, then, is madness--destruction. I follow you; I will join your march." "No," said Cethegus harshly; "you know that I am superstitious. I do not like to ride with men who are doomed to the Furies. The punishment for your cowardly murder of that boy will surely overtake you. I have no desire to share it with you." "Yet voices in Rome whisper that Cethegus, too, does not shun an opportune murder," answered Calpurnius angrily. "Calpurnius is not Cethegus," retorted the Prefect, as he proudly pranced away. "Meanwhile, greet Hades for me," he added. CHAPTER VI. "Cursed omen!" growled Calpurnius. And he hastened to join Belisarius. "Command the retreat, quick, magister militum!" "Why, excellent Calpurnius?" "It is the King of the Goths himself!" "And I am Belisarius himself," answered the latter, as he donned his splendid helmet with its crest of white horse-hair. "How dare you leave your post in the vanguard?" "I wished to bring you the news, general." "Could no other messenger do that? Listen, Roman, you are unworthy of being liberated. You tremble, you coward heart! Return at once to the front. You will lead our horsemen to the first attack. You, Antallas and Kuturgur, take him between you. He _must_ be brave; do you hear? If he shrink--down with him. Thus Romans must be taught courage! The watchman has just announced the last hour of night. In another hour the sun will rise. Its first beams must find the whole army on yonder hills. Up! Ambuzach, Bessas, Constantinus, Demetrius, advance to meet the enemy!" "General, it is as they say," announced Maxentius, the most faithful of the lifeguards; "innumerable Goths are advancing." "There are two armies against us," reported Salomo, the leader of the hypaspistes of Belisarius. "I reckon Belisarius alone to be a whole army." "And the plan of attack?" asked Bessas. "That I will decide upon when in sight of the enemy, while Calpurnius arrests their progress with his horsemen. Forward! Give the signal. Bring Phalion out!"