on as the first hero of Byzantium.
They cried aloud, turned, and fled in wild disorder down the mountain,
followed by Teja and his heroes. For one moment the Longobardians, who
had again collected together, still held firm.

"Come, Gisulf--clench your teeth--let us stand against this
death-dealing King," cried Alboin.

But Teja was already upon them. His fearful battle-axe glittered above,
between them. Pierced through his armour deep into the left shoulder,
Alboin fell, and immediately afterwards Gisulf lay on the ground with
his helmet shattered. Then there was no more stopping the rest:
Longobardians, Gepidians, Alamannians, Herulians, Isaurians and
Illyrians, scattered in headlong flight, rushed down the mountain.

With shouts of exultation, Teja's companions followed. Teja himself
kept to the pass. He called to Wachis for spear after spear, and aiming
high over the Gothic pursuers, hurled them at the flying enemy, killing
whomsoever he touched.

They were the Emperor's best troops. In their flight they carried away
with them the Macedonians, Thracians, Persians, Armenians, and Franks,
who were slowly climbing the ascent, and fled until they reached
Narses, who had anxiously raised himself upright in his litter.

"Johannes has fallen!"

"Alboin is severely wounded!" they cried as they ran past. "Fly! Back
into the camp!"

"A new column of attack must be--Ha! look!" said Narses, "there comes
Cethegus, at the very nick of time!"

And Cethegus it was. He had completed his long ride through all the
troops to which Narses had sent Romans and Italians; he had formed
these into five companies of three hundred men each, and when they were
drawn up in battle array, he took his place quietly at their head.

Anicius followed at a distance. Syphax, carrying two spears, kept close
behind his master. Letting the defeated fugitives pass through the
vacant spaces between their ranks, the Italians marched on. Most of
them were old legionaries of Rome and Ravenna, and faithfully attached
to Cethegus.

The Gothic pursuers hesitated as they met with these fresh,
well-ordered troops, and slowly receded to the pass. But Cethegus
followed. Past the bloody place, covered with corpses, where Teja had
first destroyed the league of the twelve; past the spot farther up,
where Johannes had fallen, he marched on with a quiet and steady step,
his shield and spear in his left hand, his sword in his right. Behind
him, with lances couch