Volume Iii Part 48 (1/2)
Hildebrand interposed.
”The King has fallen. The Goths cannot--even to die--fight without a King. Athalaric, Witichis, Totila--_one_ only can be the fourth; only one is worthy to succeed these three; thou, Teja, our last, our greatest hero!”
”Yes,” said Teja; ”I will be your King. Under me you shall not live joyfully; you shall only die greatly. Be still! No cry of joy, no clang of arms must greet me. Whoever will have me for his King, let him do as I do.”
And he broke a small branch from the tree under which he stood, and twisted it round his helmet. All silently followed his example.
Adalgoth, who stood next him, whispered:
”O King Teja! it is a cypress bough! Thus is crowned a victim doomed to sacrifice!”
”Yes, my Adalgoth, thou speakest prophecy;” and Teja swung his sword in a circle round his head. ”Doomed to death!”
BOOK VI.
TEJA
”I have now to describe a most remarkable battle, and the high heroism of the man who was inferior to none of the heroes--of Teja.”--_Procopius: Gothic War_, iv. 35.
CHAPTER I.
The destiny of the Goths was soon to be fulfilled. The rolling stone approached the abyss.
When Na.r.s.es came to his senses and learned what had taken place, he gave orders at once to arrest Liberius and send him to Byzantium to answer for his conduct.
”I will not say,” he said to his confidant, Basiliskos, ”that he has come to a false decision. I myself could not have done otherwise. But I should have done it for different reasons. _His_ only wish was to save his friend and the ten thousand prisoners. That was wrong. Situated as he was, he ought to have sacrificed them, for he could not overlook the actual condition of the war. He did not know, as I know, that after this battle the Gothic kingdom is lost--whether it be completely destroyed at Rome or Neapolis is indifferent--and that alone would have been, and is, the reason for which the ten thousand should be saved.”
”At Neapolis? But why not at Rome? Do you not remember the formidable fortifications of the Prefect? Why should not the Goths throw themselves into Rome and resist for months?”
”Why? Because things are very different with regard to Rome. But the Goths know this as little as Liberius. And Cethegus--above all--must know nothing of it yet; therefore be silent. Where is the Prefect of Rome?”
”He has hastened forward, in order to be the first to conduct the pursuit as soon as the time of truce has expired.”
”Surely you have taken care----”
”Do not doubt it! He would have marched with his Isaurians alone, but I--that is, Liberius at my order--gave him Alboin and the Longobardians as companions, and you know----”
”Yes,” said Na.r.s.es, with a smile, ”my wolves will not lose sight of him.”
”But how long shall he----”
”As long as he is necessary to me; not an hour longer. So the young and royal wonder-worker lies upon his s.h.i.+eld! Now may Justinian rightly call himself 'Gothicus,' and again sleep peacefully. But truly--he will never more sleep peacefully--that disappointed widower----”
So the two generals, Na.r.s.es and Teja, were of one opinion with regard to the Gothic kingdom. It was lost. The flower of the Goths had fallen at Caprae and Taginae. Totila had placed there five-and-twenty thousand men; not even a thousand had escaped. The two wings of the army had also suffered great loss; and so King Teja commenced his retreat to the south with scarcely twenty thousand men.