f Juvavum.

CHAPTER XIV.

We will join the drinking Germans above, rather than the Tribune raging
in impotent wrath below the marble floor.

"Welcome in victory, ye brave Bajuvaren!"

"For that we thank you, ye clever Alemanni!"

"Did we not entice them out well?" said another comrade in arms. "First
of all we--that is, Liuthari, our famous king's famous son, and two of
his followers--surprised a post of five Moorish horsemen, whom the
Tribune of the Capitol had sent out against us as spies. But we know
the forests better than those brown Africans. Four were dead, or
prisoners, before they were aware of it. One escaped--alas! But it
seems he was not able to tell much. Then a little company of us slipped
across the river--an Alemannian horse can swim like a swan--and
galloped to you Bajuvaren in the eastern mountains, in order that at
the right time the call of the heron should be answered by the cry of
the eagle."

"And this time you also, ye heavy-stepping Bajuvaren, contrary to your
manner and custom, actually came at the right time," teased Suomar,
another Alemannian.

Fiercely the Bajuvaren put his hand to the battle-axe in his girdle.
"What does that mean, thou Suevian blockhead? It is my opinion we have
come early enough to cut you down--you as well as all others who wait
long enough! Although you are so quick in thought and hasty in words,
many times already you have not had limbs quick enough for flight, to
escape from us, if we are slow."

Provoked thus, the other was going to answer angrily, but Vestralp, the
first Alemannian, interposed soothingly: "Never mind, both of you;
thou, my Suomar! and thou, brave Marcoman! Once there, the Bajuvaren
fight so splendidly that they make up for lost time."

"They have often shown that!" cried Rando, a third Alemannian.

"The last time," continued Suomar, "just now, in the market-place, and
on the steep path up to the citadel, against the cavalry of the
Tribune."

"Listen! What was that?"

"Yes! did not a groan come out of the ground?"

"There!--at the left by the altar."

"Look! behind the altar! Perhaps some one wounded."

Two warriors hastened to the spot and looked behind the altar, but they
found nothing.

"But what lies there in front--on the steps?"

"A dead man."

"A Roman?"

"A priest, as it seems."

"The slaves must have done that; the rioters who joined themselves to
us when we had climbed the wa