ng
to all present, turned to go.

When he had gone a few paces he suddenly looked back, and caught sight
of Johannes, with both his fists raised in anger, scolding at the
talkative young archon. A cold shudder ran through the Prefect. He
intended to reach his tent by the shortest cut, and, without waiting
for Syphax and his discoveries, to mount his horse and hasten to Rome
without taking leave.

The shortest way to get to his tent was to leave the camp of Johannes,
and walk along the straight line of the semicircle formed by the whole
encampment. In front of him a few Persian bowmen were riding out of the
camp commanded by Johannes. And some peasants who had sold wine to the
soldiers were also permitted to pass unhindered by the sentinels. These
sentries were all Longobardians, to whom, as everywhere, the exits of
this camp were entrusted by Narses.

As Cethegus was about to follow his countrymen, these sentries stopped
him with their spears. He caught at the shafts and angrily pushed them
aside. At this one of the Longobardians blew his horn; the others
pressed more closely round Cethegus.

"By order of Narses!" said Autharis, the captain.

"And those?" asked Cethegus, pointing to the peasants and the Persians.

"Those are not you," said the Longobardian.

At the sound of the horn a troop of guards had hurried up. They bent
their bows. Cethegus silently turned his back on them and returned to
his tent by the way that he had come.

Perhaps it was only his suddenly-aroused mistrust which made him
imagine that all the Byzantines and Longobardians whom he passed
regarded him with half-jeering, half-compassionate looks. When he
reached his tent he asked the Isaurian sentry:

"Is Syphax back?"

"Yes, sir, long since. He is impatiently waiting for you in the tent.
He is wounded."

Cethegus quickly pushed aside the curtains and entered. Syphax, deadly
pale beneath his bronzed skin, rushed to meet him, embraced his knees,
and whispered in passionate and desperate excitement:

"O my master! my lion! You are ensnared--lost--nothing can save you!"

"Compose yourself, slave!" said Cethegus. "You bleed?"
"It is nothing! They would not permit me to return to your camp--they
began to struggle with me as if in joke, but their dagger-stabs were
bitter earnest."

"Who? Whose dagger-stabs?"

"The Longobardians, master, who have placed double guards at all the
entrances of your camp."

"Narses shall give me a reason