"Salomo," he said to one of his pretorians, as soon as he had landed, "take a handful of my guards and gallop as hard as you can to the pass. Ride over the fugitives; you must reach it before the Goths! Do you hear? You _must_! It is our last plank of salvation!" Salomo and Dagisthæos obeyed, and galloped away as swift as the wind. Belisarius collected together all whom he could reach. The Goths, as well as the Byzantines, were detained for a time by the river. But suddenly Aigan cried: "Salomo is returning!" "General," cried Salomo, as he galloped up, "all is lost! Weapons glitter in the pass! It is already occupied by the Goths!" For the first time on this unhappy day Belisarius started. "The pass lost? Then not a man of my Emperor's army will escape. Then farewell fame, Antonina, and life! Come, Aigan, draw your sword; let me not fall living into the hands of the barbarians." "General," said Aigan, "I have never heard you speak thus!" "I have never before felt thus. Let us dismount and die!" He was taking his left foot out of the stirrup, in order to spring from his horse, when Dagisthæos galloped up. "Be comforted, my general! The pass is ours--it is Roman weapons that we saw there. It is Cethegus, the Prefect; he occupied the pass in secret!" "Cethegus?" cried Belisarius. "Is it possible? Is it certain?" "Yes, my general. Look! It was high time!" It was indeed. For a troop of Gothic horsemen, sent by King Witichis, had arrived at the pass, crossing the river by a ford, before the fugitives. But just as they were about to enter it, Cethegus, at the head of his Illyrians, broke out of his ambush, and, after a short combat, drove back the surprised Goths. "The first gleam of victory on this black day!" cried Belisarius. "Up! to the pass!" And, in better order than before, the commander led his newly-rallied troops to the woody hill. "Welcome to safety, Belisarius," cried Cethegus, as he cleansed the blade of his sword. "I have waited for you here since daybreak. I was sure that you would come." "Prefect of Rome," said Belisarius, reaching out his hand, as he sat on his horse, "you have saved the Emperor's army, which I had lost. I thank you!" The Prefect's fresh troops stood in the pass like an impenetrable wall, allowing the scattered Byzantines to pass, and repelling without difficulty the attacks of the first fatigued pursuers, who pressed forward over the river. At the close of day. King Witichis withdrew his troops to pass the night on the conquered field, while Belisarius and his generals, at the back of the pass, mustered, as well as they could, the scattered remnants of the army as they arrived, singly or in groups. As soon as Belisarius had once more a few thousand men together, he rode up to Cethegus, and said: "What think you, Prefect of Rome? Your men are still fresh, and mine have yet to blunt their weapons. Let us sally forth once more, and turn the fortune of this day. The sun will not set yet awhile."