A Struggle For Rome Volume Iii Part 51

"There is nothing else for it. I have no desire once more to sacrifice a myriad of imperial troops in order to stamp out these last sparks."

And so it happened. Very gradually, gaining each forward step only at a great and b.l.o.o.d.y loss, did Na.r.s.es draw his net tighter and more tightly together. He surrounded in a semicircle every point of the Gothic position, on west, north, and east; only on the south, the sea-side, where he himself had encamped on the strand, was he able to leave a s.p.a.ce undefended, for the enemy had no ships whereon to fly or wherewith to procure provisions.

The "Tyrrhenian" fleet of Na.r.s.es was already occupied in carrying the captive Goths to Byzantium; the "Ionian" was shortly expected; a few vessels had been sent to cruise in the Bay of Bajae and opposite Surrentum. Thus Na.r.s.es, notwithstanding his great superiority, only gradually occupied, with obstinate patience and forgetting nothing, Piscinula, Cimiterium, Nola, Summa, Melane, Nuceria, Stabiae, c.u.mae, Bajae, Misenum, Puteoli, and Nesis. And presently Neapolis also became alarmed at the power of Na.r.s.es, and voluntarily opened to him its gates.

From all sides the Byzantines advanced concentrically towards the Gothic position. After many furious battles the Byzantines succeeded in driving the Goths away from Mons Lactarius and over the river Draco; where the rest of the nation encamped upon a level plain above the pa.s.s so highly praised by Na.r.s.es, in the immediate vicinity of one of the numerous craters which, at that time, surrounded the foot of the princ.i.p.al cone; only rarely, when the wind blew from the south-east, suffering from the smoke and sulphurous exhalations of the volcano.

Here, in the innumerable hollows and ravines of the mountain, the unarmed people encamped under the open sky, or under the tents and wagons which they had brought with them, in the warm August air.

"The only access to this encampment," writes Procopius, "could be obtained by a narrow pa.s.s, the southern opening of which was so small that a man holding a shield could completely block it up."

This opening was guarded day and night, each man occupying it for an hour, by King Teja himself, Duke Guntharis, Duke Adalgoth, Earl Grippa, Earl Wisand, Aligern, Ragnaris, and Wachis. Behind them the pa.s.s was filled by a hundred warriors, who relieved each other at intervals.

And so, in accordance with the system pursued by Na.r.s.es, the whole terrible war, the struggle for Rome and Italy, had been dramatically reduced to a point; to a battle for a ravine of a foot or two wide on the southern point of the so dearly-loved, so obstinately-defended peninsula. Even in the historical representation of Procopius, the fate of the Goths resembles the last act of a grand and awful tragedy.

On the sh.o.r.e, opposite to the hill from which the pa.s.s was approached, Na.r.s.es had pitched his tents with the Longobardians; on his right Johannes; on his left Cethegus.

The Prefect drew the attention of his tribunes to the fact that Na.r.s.es, by the cession of this position--Cethegus himself had chosen it--had given either a proof of great imprudence or of complete inoffensiveness of intention, "for," said Cethegus, "with this position he has left open the way to Rome, which he could easily have prevented, by giving me the command of the right wing or of the centre. Hold yourselves in readiness to start secretly and at night with all the Isaurians, as soon as a sign is made by Rome."

"And you?" asked Licinius anxiously.

"I remain here with the dreaded commander. If he had wished to murder me--he could have done so long ago. But it is evident that he has no such intention. He will not act against me without just cause. And if I obey the call of the Romans, I do not break, I fulfil, our agreement."

CHAPTER VI.

Above the narrow pa.s.s on Vesuvius, which we will call the Ravine of the Goths, a small but deep chasm had been formed by the black blocks of lava. Within it King Teja had concealed the most sacred possession of the nation--the corpse of King Theodoric and the royal treasure.

Theodoric's banner was fixed before the mouth of this chasm.

A purple mantle, stretched upon four spears, formed the dark curtain to the rocky chamber which the last King of the Goths had chosen for his royal hall. A block of lava, covered with the skin of the black tiger, formed his last throne.

Here King Teja rested, when not called away by his jealously-held post at the southern entrance of the Ravine of the Goths; upon which, now from a distance with arrows, slings, and hurling--spears, now close at hand in a bold and sudden attack, the outposts of Na.r.s.es commenced their a.s.saults. None of the brave guardians returned home without bringing tokens of such attacks upon shield and armour, or leaving signs at the entrance of the ravine, in the form of slain enemies.

This happened so frequently, that the stench arising from the decay of the bodies threatened to render any further sojourn in the ravine impossible. Na.r.s.es seemed to have counted upon this circ.u.mstance, for, when Basiliskos lamented the useless sacrifice, he said, "Perhaps our slain soldiers will be more useful after death than during their life."

But King Teja ordered that the bodies should be thrown by night over the lava cliffs; so that, horribly mutilated, they seemed a warning to all who should attempt to follow their example. Seeing this, Na.r.s.es begged to be allowed to send unarmed men to fetch away the bodies, a favour which King Teja immediately granted.

Since retiring into this ravine, the Goths had not lost a single man in fight; for only the foremost man in the pa.s.s was exposed to the enemy, and, supported by the comrades who stood behind him, this guardian had never yet been killed.

One night, after sunset--it was now the month of September, and all traces of the battle at Taginae were already obliterated; the flowers planted by Ca.s.siodorus and the nuns of the cloister round the sarcophagi of King Totila, his bride, and his friend, had put forth new shoots--King Teja, who had just been relieved from his post by Wisand, approached his lava hall, his spear upon his shoulder. Before the curtain which closed the entrance to his rocky chamber, Adalgoth received Teja with a sad smile, and, kneeling, offered to him a golden goblet.

"Let me still fulfil my office of cup-bearer," he said; "who knows how long it may last?"

"Not much longer!" said Teja gravely, as he seated himself. "We will remain here, outside the curtain. Look! how magnificently the bay and the coast of Surrentum shine in the glowing light left by the setting sun--the blue sea is changed to crimson blood! Truly, the Southland could afford no more beauteous frame with which to enclose the last battle of the Goths. Well, may the picture be worthy of its setting! The end is coming. How wonderfully everything that I foreboded--dreamed, and sang--has been fulfilled!"

And the King supported his head upon both his hands. Only when the silver tones of a harp was heard, did he again look up. Adalgoth had, unseen, fetched the King's small harp from behind the curtain.

"Thou shalt hear," he said, "how I have completed thy song of the Ravine; or I might have said, how it has completed itself. Dost thou remember that night in the wilderness of ivy, marble, and laurel in Rome? It was not a battle already fought, a battle of ancient days, of which thou didst sing. No! in a spirit of prophecy, thou hast sung our last heroic battle here." And he played and sang:

"Where arise the cliffs of lava, On Vesuvius' glowing side, Tones of deepest woe and wailing, Evening's peace and calm deride.

For the brave dead's direst curses Rest upon the rocky tomb, Where the Gothic hero-nation Will fulfil their glorious doom."

"Yes," said Teja, "glorious, my Adalgoth! Of that glory no fate and no Na.r.s.es shall deprive us. The awful judgment, which our beloved Totila challenged, has fallen heavily upon himself, his people, and his G.o.d.

No Heavenly Father has, as that n.o.ble man imagined, weighed our destinies in a just balance. We fall by the thousand treacheries of the Italians and the Byzantines, and by the brute superiority of numbers.

But _how_ we fall, unshaken, proud even in our decay, can be decided by no fate, but only by our own worth. And after us? Who after us will rule in this land? Not for long these wily Greeks--and not the native strength of the Italians. Numerous tribes of Germans still exist on the other side of the mountains--and I nominate them our heirs and our avengers."

And he softly took up the harp which Adalgoth had laid down, and sang in a low voice as he looked down upon the rapidly darkening sea. The stars glittered over his head; and at rare intervals he struck a chord.

"Extinguished is the brightest star Of our Germanic race!

O Dietrich, thou beloved of Bern, Thy shield is bruised, defaced.

Unblemished truth and courage fail-- The coward wins--the n.o.ble fly; Rascals are lords of all the world-- Up, Goths, and let us die!

"O wicked Rome, O southern gleam, O lovely, heavenly blue!

O rolling blood-stained Tiber-stream-- O Southerns, all untrue!

Still cherishes the North its sons Of courage true and high; Vengeance will roll its thunders soon-- Then, up! and let us die!"

"The melody pleases me," said Adalgoth; "but is it already finished?

What is the end?"

"'The end can only be sung in time to the stroke of the sword," said Teja. "Soon, methinks, thou wilt also hear this end." And he rose from his seat. "Go, my Adalgoth," he said; "leave me alone. I have already kept thee far too long from"--and he smiled through all his sadness--"from the loveliest of all d.u.c.h.esses. You have but few of such evening hours to spend together, my poor children! If I could but save your young and budding lives----" He pa.s.sed his hand across his brow. "Folly!" he then cried; "you are but a part of the doomed nation--perhaps the loveliest."

Adalgoth's eyes had filled with tears as the King mentioned his young wife. He now went up to Teja and laid his hand inquiringly upon his shoulder.

"Is there no hope? She is so young!"

"None," answered Teja; "for no saving angel will come down from heaven.

We have still a few days before famine commences its inroads. Then I will make a speedy end. The warriors shall sally forth and fall in battle."

"And the women, the children--the defenceless thousands?"

"I cannot help them. I am no G.o.d. But not a Gothic woman or maiden need fall into slavery under the Byzantines, unless they choose shame instead of a free death. Look there, my Adalgoth--in the dark night the glow of the mountain is fully seen. Seest thou, there, a hundred paces to the right.--Ha! how splendidly the fiery smoke rushes from the gloomy mouth!--When the last guardian of the pa.s.s has fallen--one leap into that abyss--and no insolent Roman hand shall touch our pure women.

Thinking of _them_--more than of us, for we can fall anywhere thinking of the Gothic women, I chose for our last battle-field--Vesuvius!"

And Adalgoth, no longer weeping, but with enthusiasm, threw himself into Teja's arms.

CHAPTER VII.

A few days after Cethegus had taken up his chosen position on the left of Na.r.s.es with his mercenaries, the report came to the camp of the Byzantines that the Goths in the Mausoleum of Hadrian had been overpowered.

So now all Rome was in the hands of the Romans; not a single Goth, and, as Cethegus exultingly thought, not a single Byzantine, ruled in his Rome.