"

"Roma eterna!" repeated the tribunes with enthusiasm, and hurried out.

"Oh, why was not this Licinius the son of Manilia!" cried Cethegus,
looking after the young men as they departed. "Folly of my heart, why
art thou so obstinate? Licinius, you shall take the place of Julius as
my heir! Oh, would that you were indeed Julius!"

CHAPTER X.

The departure of the Prefect for Rome was delayed for many days.
Narses, who invited him to his table, did not indeed seek to keep him
back. He even expressed his astonishment that the "Ruler of the
Capitol" was not more powerfully drawn to the Tiber stream.

"Certainly," he said with a smile, "I can understand that, as you have
seen these barbarians rule and conquer so long in your Italy, you
desire strongly to see them fall there. But I cannot say how long that
event may yet be put off. The pass cannot be taken by storm as long as
it is defended by men like this King Teja. Already more than a thousand
of my Longobardians, Alamannians, Burgundians, Herulians, Franks, and
Gepidae have fallen before it."

"Send for once," interposed Alboin in a vexed tone of voice--"send for
once your brave Romani Against the Goths. The Herulians, Vulkaris and
Wilmuth, fell under King Teja's axe almost as soon as they arrived
here; the Gepidian Asbad, under the spear of that boy Adalgoth; my
cousin Gisulf lies wounded by Duke Guntharis's sword; Wisand, the
standard-bearer, has stabbed the Frank count, Butilin, with the point
of his flagstaff; the old master-at-arms has dashed out the brains of
the Burgundian Gernot with his stone axe; the Alamannian Liuthari was
slain by Earl Grippa, and my shield-bearer, Klaffo, by a common Gothic
soldier. And for every one of these heroes, a dozen of their followers
lie dead also. If, at midnight last night, a block of lava, upon which
I was standing, had not most opportunely slipped down just as King
Teja, who can see in the dark, was hurling his lance at me, Rosamunda
would not be the loveliest woman, but the loveliest widow in the realm
of the Longobardians! As it was I got off with some ugly bruises, which
will not be extolled in future heroic songs, but which I fancy much
more than King Teja's best spear in my stomach. But I think that it is
now the turn of other heroes. Let your Macedonians and Illyrians come
forward. We have shown them often enough how a man can die in front of
that needle's eye."

"No, my lit