bers to the
victorious enemy. Appeals to Byzantium for reinforcements had as yet
resulted only in the sending of a small, ill-equipped fleet, which,
after much delay in Sicilian ports, sailed for Neapolis, only to be
surprised by a storm, and utterly wrecked on the shores of the great
bay. Not long after the news of this disaster, it was reported in Rome
that Neapolis, hopeless of relief, had opened her gates, and presently
the report had strange confirmation. There arrived by the Appian Way
officers of the garrison which had surrendered; not as harassed
fugitives, but travelling with all convenience and security, the Gothic
king himself having expedited their journey and sent guides with them
lest they should miss the road. Nor was this the most wonderful of the
things they had to relate. For they told of humanity on the part of the
barbarian conqueror such as had no parallel in any story of warfare
known to Greek or Roman; how the Neapolitans being so famine-stricken
that they could scarce stand on their legs, King Totila would not at
once send plentiful stores into the town, lest the sufferers should die
of surfeit, but ministered to their needs even as a friendly physician
would have done, giving them at first little food, and more as their
strength revived. To be sure, there were partisans of the Empire in
Rome who scoffed at those who narrated, and those who believed, a story
so incredible. On the Palatine, it was at first received with roars of
laughter, in which the lady Muscula's shrill voice had its part. When
confirmation had put the thing beyond dispute, Bessas and his
supporters made a standing joke of it; if any one fell sick their word
was: 'Send for the learned Totila'; and when there was talk of a siege
of Rome, they declared that their greatest fear, should the city fall,
was of being dieted and physicked by the victor.

Romans there were, however, who heard all this in another spirit. The
ill-fed populace had long ago become ready for any change which might
benefit their stomachs, and the name of Totila was to them significant
of all they lacked under the Greeks. 'Let the Goth come quickly!'
passed from mouth to mouth wherever the vulgar durst speak what they
thought. Among the nobles, prejudice of race and religion and
immemorial pride ensured predominance to the Imperialists, but even
here a Gothic party existed, and imprudent utterances had brought
certain senators into suspicion. The most active f