Volume Ii Part 60 (2/2)
”They shall repent it!” cried Cethegus furiously. ”Woe to Bessas! I will remember this! Up, Lucius Licinius! take half the remaining Isaurians. No take them all--_all_! You know where they stand. Attack the body-guard of the Thracian from behind, and if they will not yield, strike them down without mercy. Help your brother! I will follow immediately.”
Lucius Licinius lingered.
”And the Tiburtinian Gate?”
”Must remain closed.”
”And Belisarius?”
”Must remain outside.”
”Teja and Totila have almost reached him!”
”So much the less dare we open! First Rome; then the rest! Obey, tribune!”
Cethegus remained behind to order the reparation of the damaged gate.
It took a considerable time.
”How was it, Syphax!” he asked his slave. ”Was he really alive?”
”He still lives.”
”How stupid these Goths are!”
A messenger arrived from Lucius.
”Your tribune sends word that Bessas will not yield. The blood of your legionaries has already been shed at the Tiburtinian Gate. And Asgares and the Isaurians hesitate to strike; they doubt that you are in earnest.”
”I will show them that I am in earnest!” cried Cethegus, as he mounted his horse and galloped away like the wind.
He had to go a long way. Over the bridge of the Janiculum, past the Capitol, across the Forum Romanum, through the Via Sacra and the Arch of t.i.tus, leaving the Baths of t.i.tus to the right; out over the Esquiline Hill, and, lastly, through the Esquiline Gate to the outer Tiburtinian Gate--a distance which extended from the extreme western to the extreme eastern limit of the immense city.
When he reached the gate, he found the bodyguard of Bessas and Belisarius showing a double front.
One line prepared to overpower the legionaries and Isaurians under Marcus Licinius at the gate, and to open the latter by force; while the second line stood opposed to the rest of the Isaurians, to whom Lucius gave the order to advance in vain.
”Mercenaries!” cried Cethegus, checking his foaming horse close before them; ”to whom have you sworn obedience--to me or to Belisarius?”
”To you, general,” said Asgares, the leader, stepping forward; ”but I thought----”
The sword of the Prefect flashed; and, struck to the heart, the man fell.
”Your duty is to obey, stupid rascal, and not to think!”
The Isaurians were horrified.
But Cethegus quickly gave the word of command.
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