Volume Ii Part 13 (2/2)
”Why not?”
”My plan only amounted to a million centenaria of gold; that was too little for his Imperial Majesty. For the more a Christian church costs, the more holy and pleasing to G.o.d. A Christian asked double the amount, and got the order.”
”But still I saw you building in Byzantium?”
”Yes, general, my plan pleased the Emperor. I changed it a little, took out the altar-place, and afterwards built from it a riding-school.”
”You know Neapolis thoroughly--outside and inside?”
”Outside and inside--as well as my moneybag.”
”'Tis well. You will direct the machines for the strategist against the walls and into the city. The houses of the friends of the Goths must come down first. Forward! Mind and do your business well, or else you will be impaled! Away!”
”The poor city!” sighed Martinus. ”But you will see, Jochem, how exact are the pyrobalistae; and they work so easily, a child could manage them. And they act so splendidly!”
And now in all the camp began a monstrous and danger-pregnant activity.
The Gothic sentinels upon the ramparts saw how the heavy machines, drawn by twenty to thirty horses, camels, a.s.ses, or oxen, were brought before the walls, and divided along the whole line.
Totila and Uliaris went anxiously to the walls and tried to meet this new danger with effectual means of defence.
Sacks filled with earth were let down before the places threatened by the rams; firebrands were laid ready to set the machines on fire as they approached; boiling water, arrows, and stones were to be directed against the teams and drivers; and already the Goths laughed at the cowardly enemy when they noticed that the machines halted far out of the usual range of shot, and completely out of the reach of the besieged.
But Totila did not laugh.
He was alarmed to see the Byzantines quietly unharness the teams and arrange their machines. Not a projectile had yet been hurled.
”Well,” mocked young Agila, who stood near Totila, ”do they mean to shoot at us from _that_ distance? They had better do it at once from Byzantium, across the sea! That would be still safer!”
He had not ceased to speak, when a forty-pound stone knocked him, and a portion of the rampart upon which he stood, to pieces.
Martinus had increased the range threefold.
Totila saw that they were completely without defence against these terrible projectiles.
The Goths sprang horrified from the walls, and sought shelter in the streets, houses, and churches. In vain! Thousands and thousands of arrows, spears, heavy beams, and stones hurtled and hissed in infallible curves upon their heads; whole blocks of rock came flying through the air, and fell cras.h.i.+ng through the woodwork and slabs of the strongest roofs; while in the north the rams thundered unceasingly against the castle with ponderous strokes.
While the thick hail of projectiles literally darkened the air, the noise of breaking beams, the rattling fall of stones, the shattering of the ramparts, and the cries of the wounded deafened the ear.
The trembling inhabitants fled terrified into the cellars and vaults of their houses, cursing both Belisarius and the Goths.
But the horrified city had not yet experienced the worst.
In the market-place, the Forum of Trajan, near the harbour, stood an uncovered building, a sort of s.h.i.+p's a.r.s.enal, heaped up with old, well-dried timber, tow, flax, tar, and other combustible materials.
Into this building came, hissing and steaming, a strange projectile, and immediately a flame shot high into the air, and, fed by the inflammable materials, spread with the speed of the wind.
The besiegers outside greeted the pillars of smoke which now arose with cries of exultation, and directed arrows and darts upon the place, to prevent the inhabitants from extinguis.h.i.+ng the fire.
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