When the armies saw that they had been parted and left, they groaned deeply and bedewed their helmets with a stream of tears. The sighs that refused egress to their smothered words shook the strong fastenings of their breastplates. “We are betrayed,” they cried, “and forbidden to follow him we love so well. Dost thou despise, matchless chief, thine own right hands which have so often won thee the victory? Are we thus vile? Is the Western sky to be the happier which has won the right to enjoy thy rule? What boots it to return to our country, to see once more our children dear after so long an absence, to live again in the home we love? Without thee is no joy. Now must I face the tyrant’s dread wrath; mayhap e’en now he is making ready against me some wicked snare and will make me a slave to the foul Huns or restless Alans. Yet is not my strength altogether perished nor so complete my powerlessness to wield the sword. Rest thou beneath the sun’s westering course, Stilicho, thou art still * * * * * Page 78 tu mihi dux semper, Stilicho, nostramque vel absens experiere fidem. dabitur tibi debita pridem 276 victima: promissis longe placabere sacris.” Tristior Haemoniis miles digressus ab oris tangebat Macetum fines murosque subibat, Thessalonica, tuos. sensu dolor haeret in alto 280 abditus et tacitas vindictae praestruit iras, spectaturque favens odiis locus aptaque leto tempora. nec quisquam tanta de pube repertus, proderet incautis qui corda minantia verbis. quae non posteritas, quae non mirabitur aetas 285 tanti consilium vulgi potuisse taceri aut facinus tam grande tegi mentisque calorem non sermone viae, non inter pocula rumpi? aequalis tantam tenuit constantia turbam et fuit arcanum populo. percurritur Haemus, 290 deseritur Rhodope Thracumque per ardua tendunt, donec ad Herculei perventum nominis urbem. Ut cessisse ducem, propius venisse cohortes cognita Rufino, magna cervice triumphat omnia tuta ratus sceptrumque capessere fervet 295 et coniuratos hortatur voce clientes: “vicimus, expulimus, facilis iam copia regni. nullus ab hoste timor. quis enim, quem poscere solum horruit, hunc tanto munitum milite vincat? quis ferat armatum, quem non superavit inermem? i nunc, exitium nobis meditare remotus 301 * * * * * Page 79 ever our general, and though we be not together thou shalt still know our loyalty. Long has a victim been owed thee; he shall be sacrificed and thou placated by an immolation promised of old.”