erything an army needs for man and horse (the troublesome Totila, who
is no well-wisher of ours, was instantly recalled). In reply to our
amazed questions, they answered, by the learned Cassiodorus's
instructions: "You will pay us by avenging us upon the Vandals." Well,
Justinian will reward them. I wonder if the scholar knows the fable of
how the horse, because he hated the stag, carried the man upon his back
and hunted the stag to death? The free animal had taken the man on his
back for this ride only, but never again was he rid of his captor. But
the water is giving out. What we have with us is scanty, foul, and
putrid; and to march for days under the African sun with no water for
men and beasts--how will it end?

* * * * *

I shall really soon believe that we are God's chosen favorites--we, the
chaste-hearted warriors of Justinian the truthful and Theodora! Or have
the Vandals and their King called down upon themselves the wrath of
Heaven so heavily that miracles continually happen against these
Barbarians and in our favor?

Yesterday evening we all, from the General to the camel, were in sore
anxiety about water. To-day the slave Agnellus--he is a countryman of
yours, O Cethegus, and the son of a fisherman from Stabiae--brought to
my tent whole amphorae of the most delicious spring water, not only for
drinking, but amply sufficient for bathing. With the last strokes of
the spade our Herulians opened a large bubbling spring on the eastern
edge of the camp--an unprecedented thing in the Byzacena province,
between the sea and the "desert,"--so the people here call all the
country southwest of the great road along which we are marching, and
surely quite unjustly, for some of it is very fertile; yet it is old
desert ground and often merges imperceptibly into the real wilderness.
At any rate, this spring gushed forth for us from the surrounding dry
sand. The stream of water is so abundant that men and animals can
drink, boil, and bathe, pour out the foul water from the ships, and
replace it with the best. I hastened to Belisarius and congratulated
him, not only because of the actual usefulness of this discovery, but
because it is an omen of victory. "Water gushes out of the wilderness
for you. General," I exclaimed. "That means an effortless victory. You
are the favorite of Heaven." He smiled. We always like to hear such
things.

* * * * *

Belis