st all their ships; that not one
could escape to warn Narses, for the enemy had blockaded the harbour.

When Jarl Harald had heard of the threatened destruction of the Goths
upon Vesuvius, he had sworn to prevent or to share their evil fate. And
sending the captured Grecian ships in advance, prudently hiding behind
them his dragon-ships, he had hurried to the coast of Neapolis on the
wings of the east wind. "And thus," concluded the interpreters, "thus
says Harald the Viking: 'Either you will allow all yet living Goths,
with all their weapons and goods, to leave the Southland upon our ships
and return with us to their fatherland; in return for which we will
give up all our thousands of prisoners, and all our prize-ships, except
those we need for the transport of the Goths; or we will immediately
kill our prisoners, land, and attack you, your camp and army, in the
rear. Then see to it, how many of you, when attacked in front by the
Goths, in the rear by us, will remain alive! For we Northmen fight to
the last man! I have sworn it by Odin.'"

Without a moment's hesitation Narses agreed to the departure of the
Goths.

"I have only sworn to drive them out of the Empire," he said, "not out
of the world. It would bring me small renown if I overpowered and
slaughtered the poor remains of such a noble nation. I reverence the
heroism of this Teja; in forty years of warfare I have never seen his
like. And I have no desire to try how my harassed army, which has had a
day of the hardest fighting, and has lost almost all its leaders and
numbers of its bravest soldiers, would resist these northern giants,
who come with untired strength and unconquered courage."

And so Narses had immediately sent heralds to Harald and to the pass.
The battle ceased; the retreat of the Goths began.

In double ranks, reaching from the summit of the mountain down to the
sea, the army of heroes formed a lane. The Viking had landed four
hundred men, who received the Goths on the sea-shore. But before the
march began, Karses signed to Basiliskos and said:

"The Gothic war is over--the stag is killed--now away with the wolves
which hunted him to the death. How are the wounded leaders of the
Longobardians?"

"Before I answer," said Basiliskos respectfully, "accept this
laurel-wreath, which your army sends to you. It is laurel from
Vesuvius; from the pass above; there is heroes' blood upon the leaves."

The first impulse of Narses was to push the w