ing lives----" He passed his hand across his
brow. "Folly!" he then cried; "you are but a part of the doomed
nation--perhaps the loveliest."

Adalgoth's eyes had filled with tears as the King mentioned his young
wife. He now went up to Teja and laid his hand inquiringly upon his
shoulder.

"Is there no hope? She is so young!"

"None," answered Teja; "for no saving angel will come down from heaven.
We have still a few days before famine commences its inroads. Then I
will make a speedy end. The warriors shall sally forth and fall in
battle."

"And the women, the children--the defenceless thousands?"

"I cannot help them. I am no god. But not a Gothic woman or maiden need
fall into slavery under the Byzantines, unless they choose shame
instead of a free death. Look there, my Adalgoth--in the dark night the
glow of the mountain is fully seen. Seest thou, there, a hundred paces
to the right.--Ha! how splendidly the fiery smoke rushes from the
gloomy mouth!--When the last guardian of the pass has fallen--one leap
into that abyss--and no insolent Roman hand shall touch our pure women.
Thinking of _them_--more than of us, for we can fall anywhere thinking
of the Gothic women, I chose for our last battle-field--Vesuvius!"

And Adalgoth, no longer weeping, but with enthusiasm, threw himself
into Teja's arms.

CHAPTER VII.

A few days after Cethegus had taken up his chosen position on the left
of Narses with his mercenaries, the report came to the camp of the
Byzantines that the Goths in the Mausoleum of Hadrian had been
overpowered.

So now all Rome was in the hands of the Romans; not a single Goth, and,
as Cethegus exultingly thought, not a single Byzantine, ruled in his
Rome.

If he could now succeed in throwing his Isaurians, under the command of
the tribunes, into Rome, the Prefect would be in a much more favourable
position, opposed to Narses, than he had ever been opposed to
Belisarius, with whom he had been obliged to share the possession of
the city.

One of the messengers who had brought the news from Rome, at the same
time gave to Aulus, the hostage, a letter from the two centurions, the
brothers Macer, which ran thus: "The bride has recovered from her long
sickness; if the bridegroom will come, there is nothing more to hinder
the wedding. Come, Aulus."

These were the words fixed upon. Cethegus communicated them to his
Roman knights.

"Excellent!" cried Lucius.