e had entered his breast just
below his throat.

Adalgoth tore Valerians blue banner out of his belt and tried to stanch
the streaming blood--in vain; the bright blue was at once dyed deep
red.

"Gothia!" breathed Totila, "Italia! Valeria!"

At this moment, before the unequal fight could commence, Alboin arrived
upon the spot with his Longobardians. He had followed the Prefect, not
being inclined to remain idle while the fight was going on round the
walls of Taginae.

The Longobardian looked silently and with emotion at the corpse of the
King.

"He gave me my life--I could not save his," he said gravely.

One of his horsemen pointed to the rich armour worn by the dead man.

"No," said Alboin, "this royal hero must be buried with all his royal
trappings."

"There, Alboin, on the rocky height above us," said Adalgoth, "his
bride and his tomb, self-chosen, have waited for him long."

"Take him up! I will give safe-conduct to the noble corpse and the
noble bearers. Now, my men, follow me back to the fight!"

CHAPTER XX.

But the fight was over: as Alboin and the Prefect discovered, to their
great disgust, when they again reached Taginae.

The Prefect, just as he had entered the pine-wood and was about to
follow the King's track, had been overtaken by a messenger from
Liberius, who sent word for him to return immediately. Narses was
insensible, and the peril of the situation necessitated immediate
counsel.

Narses insensible--Liberius perplexed--the victory they had thought
certain, endangered--these circumstances weighed more with the Prefect
than the doubtful expectation of dealing the death-stroke to the
half-dead King.

In haste Cethegus galloped back to Taginae the way that he had come.
When he reached the town he found Liberius, who cried:

"Too late! I have already settled and agreed to everything. A truce!
The rest of the Goths march off!"

"What?" thundered Cethegus--he would gladly have poured all the blood
of the Goths upon the grave of his darling as a sacrifice. "They march?
A truce? Where is Narses?"

"He lies insensible in his litter; he has been taken with severe
convulsions. The fright, the surprise--it prostrated him, and no
wonder."

"What surprise? Speak, man!"

And Liberius briefly related how they had forced their way into Taginae
with fearful loss of blood, "for the Goths stood like a wall"--had been
obliged to storm house by house, eve