"He will be here soon. He promised me. He is still praying in his tent, with Verus." "You are from--?" "Sardinia, direct. A letter from the King, sent by Verus, urging me to a speedy return and warning me not to enter the harbor of Carthage, did not reach me. But a second, despatched by my brother himself, brought the whole tale of disaster. I landed at the point named, and marched to Bulla to meet the Moorish mercenaries and lead them here. I reached Bulla and found--" He stamped his foot. "Well, what?" "The empty camp." "Had the Moors started to come here?" "They have scattered, the whole twelve thousand, into the desert." "For God's sake--" "The traitors!" "Not traitors. They sent the money back to the King. Cabaon, their prophet and chief, warned them, forbade them to take part in this battle. All obeyed. Only a few hundred men from the Pappua Mountains--" "They are bound by the ties of hospitality to Gelimer, to the whole Asding race." "--accompanied us, led by Sersaon, their chief." "This destroys the King's whole plan for to-morrow's battle." "Well," said Zazo, quietly, "to make amends he has unexpectedly received my troops. Not quite five thousand, but--" "But you are their leader," cried Gibamund. "He met on the Numidian road, first, the messengers I had sent in advance, then me and my little army. What a sorrowful hour! How I had rejoiced over my victory! But now Gelimer's tears flowed fast as he lay on my breast, and I myself--Oh, Ammata! Yet, no, we must remain firm, calm, and manly, ay, hard; for this King is far too soft-hearted." "Yet he has recovered himself since the battle of Decimum," said Gibamund. "At that time he was utterly crushed." "Yes," cried Hilda, resentfully, "more than a man should permit himself to be." "I loved Ammata scarcely less than he," replied Zazo, and his lips quivered. "But to let certain victory escape him merely to mourn for, to bury the boy--" "You would not have done so, my Zazo," said a gentle voice. Gelimer had entered. He uttered the words very quietly; the others turned, startled. "Your censure is just," he added. "But I saw in this dispensation--he was the first Vandal who fell in the war--a judgment of God. If the most innocent of us all must die, God's punishment for the iniquity of the fathers rests upon us all."