The Scarlet Banner Part 18

"Mine is not."

"But you shall not. I am ashamed of the base trick."

"I am not," she answered with a short laugh, gazing after Thrasaric.

"Obey, slave, or--"

He raised his arm for a blow. Again she threw back her beautiful head, but now so violently that the magnificent black hair burst from the gold fillets and fell over her rounded, dazzling shoulders; she closed her eyes and this time actually gnashed her beautiful little white teeth.

The Vandal dared not strike this threatening creature.

"Just wait till we reach home. There--"

"There we will make friends again," she answered, smiling, flashing a side glance at him from her black eyes. It was open mockery. But a feeling of horror stole over him, and he shuddered as if from fear.

"But grant me, my brother and my King, the joy of punishing this G.o.da,"

cried Zazo, who had long been struggling with his impatience, and could no longer control himself. "The fleet is ready to sail; let me go. Give me only five thousand picked men--"

"We Gundings will join you," cried Gundomar.

"And I will promise to force Sardinia back to allegiance in a single battle and to bring you the traitor's head."

Gelimer hesitated. "Now? Send away the whole fleet and the flower of the foot-soldiers? Now? When the Emperor may threaten us here on the mainland at any moment? This must be considered. I must consult Verus--"

"Verus?" cried Hilda, eagerly. "I forgot to tell you. Verus bade me say to you that he advised trampling out these first sparks without delay.

'I send you, Hilda,' he said with a peculiar smile, 'because I know that you will urge and fan the flame of a swift warlike expedition.'

You, O King, ought at once, before you return to the Capitol, to prepare the fleet in the harbor for departure and send it to Sardinia under Zazo."

"It is prepared," cried the latter, joyously. "For three days it has been ready to meet the Byzantines. But the nearest foe is the best one.

Oh, give the command, my King."

"Did Verus counsel it?" said the latter, gravely. "Then it is advisable, is for my welfare. Then, Zazo, your wish shall be fulfilled."

"Up! to the ships! to the sea! to battle!" shouted the latter, exultingly. "Up, follow me. Vandals! Tread the decks of the fame-crowned vessels again! The sea, the ocean, was ever the heaving blue battlefield of your greatest victories. Do you feel the breath of the morning wind, the strong south-southeast? It is the fair one for Sardinia."

"The G.o.d of wishes himself, who breathes in and rules the wind, is sending it to you, descendants of Genseric. Follow it; it is the breath of victory that fills your sails. To battle! To battle! On to the sea!

On to the sea! On to Sardinia!" a thousand voices shouted tumultuously.

Full of pa.s.sionate excitement, overflowing with warlike enthusiasm, the Vandals poured out of the Grove of Venus toward Carthage and the harbor.

The Romans gazed after them in amazement; the whole living generation had never witnessed any trace of this spirit in their luxurious, effeminate rulers.

"What do you say now, my Lord?" asked the younger stranger. "Have you not changed your opinion?"

"No."

"What? Yet you saw--" he pointed to the dead tiger.

"I saw it. I heard the war-cry of the crowd too. I am sorry for the brave King and his family. Let us go to our ship. They will all be lost together."

CHAPTER XIX

During the day following the nocturnal festival the fleet sailed out of the harbor of Carthage; it was only necessary to choose the troops intended for the campaign and to send them on board.

On the evening of this day Gibamund, Hilda, and Verus had gathered around Gelimer in the great hall of the palace, whose lofty arched windows afforded a wide view of the sea. Beside the marble table, heaped with papers, stood Gelimer, his head bowed as if by deep anxiety; his n.o.ble features expressed the gravest care.

"You sent for me, friend Verus, to listen with Gibamund to important tidings which had arrived within the few hours since Zazo left us. They must be matters of serious moment, from the expression of your face.

Begin; I am prepared for everything. I have strength to bear the news."

"You will need it," replied the priest, in a hollow tone.

"But shall Hilda also?"

"Oh, let me stay, my King," pleaded the young wife, pressing closer to her husband. "I am a woman; but I can keep silence. And I wish to know and share your dangers."

Gelimer held out his hand to her. "Then brave sister-in-law! And bear with us whatever may be allotted by the stern Judge in heaven."

"Yes," Verus began, "it seems as if the wrath of Heaven indeed rested on you, King Gelimer." Gelimer shuddered.

"Chancellor," cried Gibamund, indignantly, "cease such words, such unhallowed thoughts. You are always thrusting the dagger of such sayings into the soul of the best of men. It seems as if you tortured him intentionally, fostered this delusion."

"Silence, Gibamund!" said the King, with a deep groan. "It is no delusion. It is the most terrible truth which religion, conscience, the history of the world teach; sin will be punished. And when Verus became my Chancellor, he remained my confessor. Who but he has the right and the duty to bruise my conscience and, by warning me of the wrath of G.o.d, break the defiant pride of my spirit?"

"But you need strength. King of the Vandals," cried Hilda, her eyes sparkling wrathfully, "not contrition."

Gelimer waved his hand, and Verus began:

"It is almost crushing, blow upon blow. As soon as the fleet had left the roadstead (the last sail had barely vanished from our sight), the messages of evil came. First, from the Visigoths. Simultaneously with the news from Sardinia a long, long letter from King Theudis arrived.

It contained merely the repet.i.tion in many words it came from Hispalis--that he must consider everything maturely, must test what we could do in war."

"Test from Hispalis!" muttered Gibamund.

But Verus went on: "A stranger delivered this letter at the palace soon after our fleet went out to sea. It ran as follows:--

"'To King Gelimer King Theudis.

"'I am writing this in the harbor of Carthage--'"

"What? Impossible!" cried the three listeners.

"'--which I am just leaving. I wished to see the condition of affairs with my own eyes. For three days I remained among you unrecognized.

Only my brave General, Theudigisel, accompanied me in the fishing boat which bore me across the narrow arm of the sea from Calpe, and will be carrying me home again when you read this, Gelimer. You are a true king, a true hero. I saw you slay the tiger to-night; but you cannot kill the serpent of degeneration which has coiled around your people.

Your guards sleep at their posts; your n.o.bles go naked, or in women's garb. I saw them flame up at last, but it is a fire of straw. Even if they really desired to improve, they could not change in a few weeks what the slothfulness of two generations has accomplished. The punishment, the recompense, for our sins does not fail.'" The King sighed heavily. "'Woe betide him who sought to unite his destiny to your sinking race! I offer you not alliance, but refuge. If after the battle is lost, you can escape to Spain,--and I will gladly aid you to do so,--no Justinian, no Belisarius shall reach you with us.

Farewell!'"

"The subterfuge of cowardice," said Gibamund, resentfully.