this miracle appears to me far too natural. Belisarius
reproved my incredulous derision. But I replied that Saint Cyprian
seems to me the patron saint of the lamplighters; I don't belong to
that society.

* * * * *

Fara, the Herulian, captured the fairest booty at Decimum. True, he
received from the noble a sharp lance-thrust in the arm through his
brazen shield. But the shield had done its duty; the point did not
penetrate too deeply into the flesh. And when he entered the nearest
villa,--he was just breaking in,--the door opened, and a wonderfully
beautiful woman, with superb jewels and scarlet flowers in her black
hair, came to meet him. Except the flowers and gems, she was not
burdened with too much clothing.

The vision held out a wreath of laurel and pomegranate blossoms.

"Whom did you expect?" asked the Herulian, in amazement.

"The victor," replied the beautiful woman.

A somewhat oracular reply! This Sphinx--she looks, I have already told
you, exactly like one--would undoubtedly have given her wreath and
herself just as willingly to the victorious Vandals. After all, what
does the Carthaginian care for either Vandals or Byzantines? She is the
prize of the stronger, the conqueror--perhaps to his destruction. But I
think the Sphinx has now found her [OE]dipus. If one of this strange
pair of lovers must perish, it will hardly be my friend Fara. He took
me to her; he has some regard for me, because I can read and write. He
had evidently praised me. In vain. She scanned me from head to foot,
and from foot to head, it did not consume much time; I am not very
tall,--then, with a contemptuous curl of her full red lips, she moved
far away from me. I will not assert that I am handsome, while Fara,
next to Belisarius, is certainly the stateliest of all our six and
thirty thousand men. But I was indignant that my mortal part at once so
repelled her that she did not even desire to know the immortal side. I
am angered against her, I wish her no evil; but it would neither
greatly surprise, nor deeply grieve me, if she should come to a bad
end.

CHAPTER X

Belisarius is pushing the work on the walls day and night. Besides the
whole army and the crews of the ships, he has employed the citizens.
They grumble, saying that we came to liberate them, and now compel them
to harder labor than Gelimer ever imposed. The vast extent of the city
wall shows m