Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/astruggleforrom02dahngoog 2. Diphthong oe and OE are represented by [oe] and [OE]. A STRUGGLE FOR ROME. BY FELIX DAHN. _T R A N S L A T E D F R O M T H E G E R M A N_ BY LILY WOLFFSOHN. "If there be anything more powerful than Fate, It is the courage which bears it undismayed." GEIBEL. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON. 1878. [_All Rights Reserved._] A STRUGGLE FOR ROME. BOOK IV.--_Continued_. WITICHIS. CHAPTER XXIV. Thanks to the precautions taken by Procopius, the trick had succeeded completely. At the moment in which the flag of the Goths fell and their King was taken prisoner, they were everywhere surprised and overpowered. In the courts of the palace, in the streets and canals of the city and in the camp, they were surrounded by far superior numbers. A palisade of lances met their sight on all sides. Almost without an exception the paralysed Goths laid down their arms. The few who offered resistance--the nearest associates of the King--were struck down. Witichis himself, Duke Guntharis, Earl Wisand, Earl Markja, and the leaders of the army who were taken prisoners with them, were placed in separate confinement; the King imprisoned in the "prison of Theodoric," a strong and deep dungeon in the palace itself. The procession from the Gate of Stilicho to the Forum of Honorius had not been interrupted. Arrived at the palace, Belisarius summoned the Senate and decurions of the city, and took their oaths of allegiance for Emperor Justinian. Procopius was sent to Byzantium with the golden keys of Neapolis, Rome, and Ravenna. He was to give a full report to the Emperor, and to demand for Belisarius the prolongation of his office until Italy had been completely tranquillised, as could not fail to be the case presently, and afterwards, as had been the case after the Vandal wars, to accord him the honour of a triumph, with the exposure of the King of the Goths, as prisoner of war, in the Hippodrome. For Belisarius looked upon the war as ended.