He now placed his men in the shape of a wedge on the road and on each side of it, outflanking the enemy's column. He himself led the thin edge of the wedge. He determined to allow the enemy to ascend halfway up the hill. Both parties looked forward to the shock in breathless expectation. Ambazuch, an experienced warrior, quietly marched forward. "Let them come on," he said to his people, "until you feel their horses' breath upon your faces. Then, and not before, hurl your lances. Aim low, at the breasts of the horses, and immediately after draw your swords. In this way I have always succeeded in overthrowing horsemen." But it turned out otherwise. For when Totila gave the order to charge, it seemed as if a thundering avalanche were descending the hill upon the terrified enemy. The shining, clattering, snorting, threatening mass rushed on like a hurricane, and before the first row of the Armenians had found time even to raise their spears, they lay upon the ground, pierced through by the long lances. They had been swept away as if they had never stood there. All this had taken place in a moment of time; and when Ambazuch was about to order his second line, in which he himself stood, to kneel and shorten their spears, he found it already ridden over; the third rank dispersed; and the fourth, under Bessas, able to offer but a faint resistance to the terrible horsemen, who now began to draw their swords. He tried to rally his men; he flew back and called to his wavering lines to stand and fight; but just then Totila's sword reached him; a mighty stroke crushed in his helmet. He fell on his knees, and held the hilt of his sword towards the Goth. "Take a ransom!" he cried. "I am yours!" Totila was about to stretch forth his hand to take the sword, when Teja cried: "Remember Petra!" A weapon flashed, and Ambazuch sank dead on the ground. At this the last lines of the Armenians, carrying Bessas away with them, fled in terror. Belisarius's vanguard was annihilated. With loud cries of joy King Witichis and his followers had witnessed Totila's victory. "Look! now the Hunnish horsemen, who stand just below us, advance against Totila," said the King to the old standard-bearer. "Totila turns to meet them. They are much more numerous. Up, Hildebad! Hasten down the road to his aid." "Ha!" cried old Hildebrand, bending forward in his saddle, and looking over the edge of the rocks, "who is that tribune between the two body-guards of Belisarius?" Witichis bent forward also. "Calpurnius!" he exclaimed with a sharp cry. And suddenly, seeking no path, just from where he stood, the King galloped down the hill towards his deadly enemy. The fear that Calpurnius might escape him overpowered every other thought. As if on wings, as if the God of Revenge were guiding him over bush and crevice and ditch and pointed rock, the King galloped madly on.