A Captive of the Roman Eagles Part 32

"Now that we have ships, we can also search the two tracts of marshland overgrown with rushes, which stretch for leagues on the right and left.

We once thought we saw a column of smoke rising in the western marsh."

"That shall be done to-morrow, before we march. A naval battle on Lake Venetia! It has scarcely happened since the days of Tiberius."

"But I am glad to know that you are here on land with your men: Welcome once more to the Barbarian country and to my camp."

With these words the two commanders, followed by a glittering train of Nannienus's officers and the Tribune's mailed riders, pa.s.sed through the Porta Dec.u.mana, which now stood wide open; for the Tribune's men were pouring out, down the mountain side and through the damp meadows and bogs of the half league of country to the sh.o.r.e, to greet their comrades on the fleet.

Bissula had crouched and made herself as small as possible, that she might slip out unseen like a little mouse from her hiding-place east of the lake gate. But the Illyrian guards were rigidly trained: two gigantic Thracians--one on each side of the threshold--held their spears crossed before the opening, and scanned sharply every one who went in or out. The young girl had crept successfully between the outstretched legs of one, when she struck her head against the shaft of the other's spear. The man's attention was attracted; he recognized her and pushed her gently but irresistibly back.

"No, no!" he said, laughing. "You mustn't go out, you little red serpent! I should get a double drubbing--from the Tribune on the right and the Prefect on the left. Stay inside."

Bissula, her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears of impotent rage, was obliged to go back: and there, outside the gate, liberty was beckoning; there laughed (she saw it again, for the first time through the open gate) in its azure splendor her beloved lake; there on the right rustled the trees which surrounded Adalo's hall, and there flew a gull, screaming loudly with delight in life and joy in its free movement, across the rushes of the marshy sh.o.r.e. Alas! and she must go back into the camp, to an uncertain fate. To-morrow she was to leave the country, to go--whither?

"Oh, Adalo, help soon!"

Since the night before she had constantly whispered his name, again and again, as though it were a protecting spell.

On reaching her tent, she untied the bear, which was becoming wildly excited by the noise of the soldiers, and dragged it by the collar inside of the inclosure, where she remained all day. She was not disturbed. Prosper brought wine and food, and told her that his master's whole time was claimed by Nannienus and the other guests; but early the next morning she must be ready to take ship for Constantia, then to go to the Emperor at Vindonissa, and lastly, to his beautiful home. Bissula made no answer.

Leaving the viands untouched, she crouched like some captured wild beast in the corner of her tent farthest from the entrance, with her eyes fixed intently upon it, listening with anxiety and dread to every sound which drew nearer to her tent from the streets of the camp.

Faithful Bruna lay across the threshold; she was the girl's only comfort.

CHAPTER XLVII.

So the hours of the day had pa.s.sed. The sun had sunk majestically into the lake; darkness had gathered quickly; there was no moon. The Comes of Britannia had left Ausonius's table early, the hospitable host had vainly tried to induce him to empty one more goblet.

"As many as you please, after the victory, Ausonius. But a sailor must keep sober. Besides, his place is on the water, not on forest-clad heights. I feel here, away from my ships, like a whale left stranded by the tide and lying gasping on the sh.o.r.e. Truly, the only right kind of water is salt water--"

"Because we can't drink it," remarked Ausonius, filling his goblet again.

"But, when one can't have the sea, this long stretch of lake isn't bad.

Remember me to your nephew, Hercula.n.u.s; perhaps by to-morrow he will have recovered from his illness enough for me to seek him in his tent.

And at the earliest dawn of morning, Saturninus, I will search the two reedy lakes for you. If there are no Alemanni, there will be plenty of rare waterfowl to hunt."

He went out with his officers and rode with them, guided by torch-bearers, down the mountain back to the ship-camp: for one-half of the newcomers slept on sh.o.r.e in the tents they had brought with them; the other half on the vessels.

As soon as Nannienus went on board he asked the watch at the helm, a trustworthy Breton countryman, whether he had anything to report.

"Nothing from here, my lord. Only behind Arbor a fire seems to be burning on the Hill of Mercury; or they are celebrating one of their Easter festivals. Look yonder!"

"Yes, that is in one of the farms of the Alemannic settlers. Hark! What was that?"

"Wild swans, my lord. They must have hundreds of nests in the reedy forests. They call and answer one another very often."

"Then surely no men can be hidden there; the n.o.ble birds are very shy and wary. Who is coming to relieve you?"

"I, Albinus, the veteran from Arbor."

"Good: you will watch the first and second hours after midnight. Wake me before the gray of dawn."

The sentries in the camp above on the Idisenhang, and below in the tents brought from the ships, had shouted the hour of midnight without the occurrence of anything to disturb the sleepers, who were lying in the deepest repose, except that for a long time the n.o.ble dogs which the Tribune, a keen sportsman, had brought from Vindonissa and kept in an empty tent near the northern gate, had barked violently. They were costly animals of the purest British breed, which, trained in the arena at Rome to fight the aurochs, were now to test their skill and courage in the primeval forests. They could not be quieted, whether the guards patted or flogged them, and their loud, angry baying was heard in the ditch before the north gate, where the whole Batavian cohort was on duty. The bright flames and thick columns of smoke from their watch-fire rose from the ditch, now dry once more.

Beyond it, on the north, about a hundred paces from the wall, Rignomer, with Brinno and two more of his countrymen, had been stationed as an outpost.

"Do you hear the dogs?" asked Rignomer.

"I'm not deaf," growled Brinno,

"When they keep on incessantly, it means something!" the other continued mysteriously.

"Of course it does. They are hungry. Or they have the little one's she-bear at bay."

"She-bear? Nonsense! She's sleeping where others would like to sleep.

No, no! Dogs don't you know that?--can see spirits and hear G.o.ds. There is something abroad. Between midnight and dawn the night huntsman rides over the tree-tops. I thought just now that I heard a horse neigh above me, beyond that distant hill--in the air."

"Oh, pshaw! I never saw a horse fly yet!"

"But _He_ flies on his eight-hoofed gray steed through the clouds and over the wind-swept forests, when he drives the woman of the woods before him. Hark, what was that? At the right!"

"The hoot of an owl! Very near us!"

"And there--one at the left."

"Hark," cried a third soldier, "didn't that sound like metal on metal--the clanking of arms--close in front of us?"

"No," said the fourth, "but I hear the faint trampling of a horse's hoofs. Hark! There are several. Now it comes again, nearer still! The foe!"

"Yes, it is the foe!" said Rignomer, seizing the signal horn to raise it to his lips--but he had no power to do so. Horror, paralyzing terror, awe which shook every limb, seized upon the brave man. His hair bristled; voice and hand refused their service. Rigid with fear, he stared at the wooded height before and above him, which suddenly seemed alive.

A warrior sprang from behind every tree; every bush; yet it was not these hundreds of Alemanni that terrified the battle-tried Batavian, but another spectacle. Sometimes in a full glare of light, sometimes dimly seen by the flame of two blazing torches, swung in circles by two hors.e.m.e.n riding at his right and left, a powerful figure of superhuman stature on a grayish-white horse came dashing down from the height toward him. White hair and a floating beard waved around a fierce but majestic countenance, above which a bird-monster, whose like Rignomer had never seen, seemed to flap its white wings threateningly against the mercenary as the vision rushed onward in silence, a huge spear thrust before him, a long dark cloak flowing back from his shoulders like a cloud; then, when close at hand, the horseman shouted: "Odin!

Odin has you all!"

The German flung down spear and shield and, with the cry: "Odin is upon us! Odin is leading them! All is lost," ran back to the ditch at full speed. Two of his comrades followed his example, and all three leaped into the ditch shouting: "All is lost! Odin is upon us! Fly!"

Rignomer was considered the bravest of his race, so even the Batavians, who were too far off to understand his words, were infected by his example; for they saw their leader unarmed, running with every sign of the utmost terror from the ditch toward the northern gate to tear it open and vanish in the camp.

"Fly! Fly! All is lost!"

Most of the men had understood this and, with the same shouts, they now climbed up the wall or poured through the open gate.

Brinno alone had not fled from the post: at Rignomer's cry, also greatly alarmed, he had leaped behind the nearest tree, but here, looking sharply at the terrible horseman, he recovered his composure: "Nonsense!" he called after his flying comrades. "His horse has only four feet, not eight. That is not _he_!" He stepped forward bravely with levelled spear, but the next instant was thrown down by the Duke's charger and, directly after, about thirty mounted men leaped into the ditch, which was now no longer defended, and dashed to the right and left in pursuit of the fugitives who were running along the bottom. The s.p.a.ce around the gate was almost empty, swept clean in an instant.

Hariowald himself had ridden straight toward the gate, but just before he reached it, it was flung back from within, shutting out several fugitives who were trying to enter. The Duke sprang from his horse; the intelligent animal instantly stood motionless. He beckoned to his mounted men and to a small band who, meanwhile, had reached the ditch on foot, to follow him to the left of the gate, where rose a huge stone. A large number of other foot-soldiers now also reached the gate and, mounting ladders they had brought with them (which, strangely enough, were exactly the length required to reach from the bottom of the ditch to the wall), or even climbing on one another's backs, endeavored to scale the wall or to break down the gate with axes.