thrust.

But at that moment he was recognised by Piso on the wall, who hurled a
splendid sleeping Faun which lay near him down upon the King. It struck
the King's shoulder, and he fell.

Earl Markja, Iffamer and Aligern bore him out of the fight.

Cethegus saw him fall, and then himself sank down upon the threshold of
the door; the protecting arms of a friend received him--but he could
recognise nothing; his senses failed him.

He was presently recalled to consciousness by a well-known sound, which
rejoiced his soul; it was the tones of the tubas of his legionaries and
the battle-cry of his Isaurians, who had at last arrived, and, led by
the Licinii, fell upon the Goths, who were disheartened by the fall of
their King.

The Isaurians, after a bloody fight, had issued through a breach in the
outer wall (which had been broken outwards by the Goths who were
inside).

The Prefect saw the last of the barbarians fly; then his eyes closed
once more.

"Cethegus!" cried the friend who held him in his arms, "Belisarius is
dying; and you, you too are lost!"

Cethegus recognised the voice of Procopius.

"I do not know," he said with a last effort, "but Rome--Rome is saved!"

And his senses completely forsook him.

CHAPTER XIII.

After the terrible exertion of strength in the general attack and its
repulse, which had begun with the dawn of day, and had only ended at
its close, a long pause of exhaustion ensued on the part of both Goths
and Romans. The three commanders, Belisarius, Cethegus, and Witichis,
lay for weeks recovering from their wounds.

But the actual armistice was more the effect of the deep discouragement
and oppression which had come over the Gothic army when, after striving
for victory to the uttermost, it had been wrested from them at the
moment of seeming success.

All day they had done their best; their heroes had outvied each other
in deeds of valour; and yet both their plans, that against Belisarius
and that against the city, were wrecked in the consummation.

And although King Witichis, with his constant mind, did not share in
the depression of his troops, he all the more clearly discerned that,
after that bloody day, he would be obliged to change the whole plan of
the siege.

The loss of the Goths was enormous; Procopius valued it at thirty
thousand dead and more than as many wounded. On every side of the city
they had exposed themselves, with utter contem