A Struggle For Rome Volume Iii Part 43

Never had Totila shone in such beauty! The people greeted him upon his way with shouts of joy. At the northern gate of Taginae, Aligern came riding towards him.

"I thought that thy place was with the right wing," said the King.

"What brings thee here?"

"My cousin Teja has ordered me to remain at thy side and guard thy life."

"My Teja is untiring in his care of me!" cried the King.

Aligern joined the escort.

Earl Thoris.m.u.th now undertook the command of the footmen who were hidden in the houses of Taginae.

Outside the gate, the King rode to the front of his not very numerous troop of hors.e.m.e.n, and disclosed his plan to the captains.

"I entrust to you, comrades, the most difficult of all tasks--flight!

But the flight will be only seeming. What is true, is your courage and the destruction of the foe."

And now the small troop rode forward past the place of ambush on the Flaminian Way, the King convincing himself that the Persian hors.e.m.e.n were in readiness upon both the wooded heights. The ambush on the right was commanded by Furius himself, that on the left by his chief, Isdigerd.

Totila now rode into Caprae through the southern gate, and admonished the bowmen under Earl Wisand not to issue from the houses in which they were concealed, until the Persian hors.e.m.e.n had fallen upon the Longobardians from their ambush, but then immediately to sally out of the southern gate, while at the same time the spear-bearers would advance against the enemy from the northern gate of Taginae.

"Thus the Longobardians and such of Na.r.s.es' foot who have pressed forward between Caprae and Taginae will be surrounded on all sides and crushed. I and Thoris.m.u.th attack in front, Furius and Isdigerd on both flanks, and Wisand in the rear. They will be lost!"

"Does he not look like the sun-G.o.d?" Adalgoth delightedly asked Julius.

"Peace! Make no idol of sun or man! Besides, to-day is the solstice!"

answered Julius.

At length the King reached the northern gate of Caprae, left it open behind him, and galloped out with his little troop upon the level land between Caprae and Helvillum.

Here Na.r.s.es had placed his centre; foremost Alboin with his Longobardians. Behind these, at a considerable distance, stood Na.r.s.es in his litter, surrounded by Cethegus, Liberius, Auzalas, and other leaders.

Na.r.s.es had had a bad night, disturbed by slight fits. He was very weak, and could not stand up for any length of time in his low and open litter.

He had strictly admonished Alboin not to advance to the attack without special orders.

King Totila gave a sign to his hors.e.m.e.n, and at a trot the thin line advanced towards the far superior ranks of the Longobardians.

"They surely will not shame us by attacking us with only a few lances?"

cried Alboin.

But an attack did not seem to be the present object of the King.

He had ridden far in advance of his men, who had suddenly halted, and now attracted all eyes by his feats of horsemanship.

The spectacle which he afforded was so wonderful in the eyes of the Byzantines, that the witnesses related it in astonishment to Procopius, who, himself amazed, has remitted it to us.

"On this day," he writes, "King Totila evidently wished to show his enemies what manner of man he was. His weapons and his horse shone with gold. So many shining red streamers fluttered from the point of his spear that this ornament alone announced the King from a distance.

Thus, mounted on a splendid charger, in the s.p.a.ce between the two armies, did he indulge in a skilful exercise of arms. Now he rode in a circle; now he caracoled in semicircles to the right and left; now he hurled his spear into the air, as he rode off at full gallop, and caught it by the middle of the shaft as it fell quivering, first with his right hand, and then with his left; and thus he showed to the wondering troops his feats of horsemanship."

After the battle, however, the Byzantines learned the true reason of this merry sport.

For a time Alboin looked on quietly.

Then he said to a Longobardian chief who stood near him:

"That fellow rides to the battle-field adorned like a bridegroom! What costly armour! We do not see the like at home, Gisulf. And not to dare to attack! Does Na.r.s.es again sleep?"

CHAPTER XVIII.

At last a Persian horseman, making his way through the ranks of the Goths, galloped up to the King, gave a message, and galloped back again at full speed.

"At last!" cried Totila. "Now enough of sport! Brave Alboin, son of Audoin," he loudly cried across to the enemy's ranks, "wilt thou really fight for the Greeks against us? Then come on, O King's son--it is a King who calls thee?"

Alboin could no longer restrain his impatience.

"Mine must he be with armour and horse!" he shouted, and spurred forward with his lance couched.

Totila, with a gentle pressure of his thigh, brought his horse to a sudden standstill. It seemed that he intended to stand the shock.

Alboin came on at a furious gallop.

Another slight pressure of Totila's thigh, a clever spring to one side, and the Longobardian, who could not check his horse, rushed far past his adversary.

But the next moment Totila was at Alboin's back; he could easily have bored him through with his spear.

The Longobardians, seeing the danger of their chief, uttered loud cries and hurried to his a.s.sistance.

But Totila whirled his lance round, and contented himself with giving his adversary such a thrust in the left side with the shaft end, that Alboin fell headlong out of his saddle on the right side of his horse.

Totila quietly rode back to his troop, waving his spear over his head in triumph.

Alboin had remounted, and now led his troop against the thin ranks of the Goths.

But just before the shock of meeting, the King cried, "Fly! fly into the town!" turned his horse's head, and galloped away towards Caprae.

His hors.e.m.e.n followed him.

For one moment Alboin halted in perplexity. But the next he cried:

"It is nothing else; it is a pure flight! There they run into the gate!

Yes, feats of horsemanship are one thing, and fighting is another.

After them, my wolves! into the town!"

And the Longobardians galloped forwards to Caprae, burst open the northern gate--which had been closed, but not bolted, by the flying Goths--and rushed through the long street towards the southern gate, through which the last Goth was just disappearing.