Meanwhile the ships were advancing in beautiful array, with a favouring breeze, and their white sails gleaming in the red light of the morning. Judging by the number of vessels how powerful the enemy must prove, the Italian chiefs did not venture to oppose them at their first landing, but retired upwards from the shore, forming a kind of ambuscade, whence they could watch the movements of the invaders, and take advantage of a favourable opportunity for attack, hoping perchance to surprise them when engaged in plundering the town; or, finally, if the enemy came in battle-array against them here, at least, they would, if put to flight, stand a better chance than on the shore below, of securing their retreat to Rome. At the moment when the troops, who had just then assembled, heard the command for wheeling round, and marching back towards the capital, this order was obeyed with the greatest alacrity and precision. When the captains, however, found, that the proper station on a rising ground had been gained, and intended that they should again turn round towards the sea, they saw that obedience was no longer to be expected. To the people of Ostia, bearing arms indeed, but wholly unpractised in warfare, the road to Rome, that lay now before them, was a prospect far too attractive to be resisted. The more vehemently that the chiefs thundered out the orders to “halt,” the more rapidly did the troops now march forward; and when the commands were changed into threats, and measures were taken to interrupt their course, their march turned straightway into flight, and, as if the enemy had been in full chace, they pursued their way, while the captains found, that only a few old and practised soldiers were left near them. The men of this little band looked at each other with melancholy pride. They could not but feel, that they might be well compared to corn, and the dispersed multitude to worthless chaff. Their honour, however, was to be purchased only by unavoidable death; for already Nurreddin’s ships lay at anchor; already his troops had disembarked, and in their glittering dresses had begun to arrange themselves on the shore, while even the number of their waving banners exceeded that of the warriors who were left here to oppose them. Not one of this band, however, thought of following the example that had been set them by the contemptible runaways; for, whoever remains steadfast in resolve till a certain trying point has been passed over, henceforward is troubled neither with doubts nor fears.