e,
and hastened back with all speed to my troop. And I was very nearly
taken prisoner; for a tribune named Abdigidus, accompanied by a groom,
was fleeing, pursued by a squadron of cavalry, and though the master
escaped the servant was taken. And as I was passing by rapidly, they,
examining the servant, inquired of him who was the chief who had
advanced against them; and when they heard that Ursicinus had a little
while before entered the city, and was on his way to Mount Izala, they
put their informant to death, and then, forming into one body, pursued
us with ceaseless speed.

12. But I outstripped them by the speed of my horse, and finding my
comrades reposing securely under the walls of a slight fort, called
Amudis, with their horses dispersed over the grass, I waved my hand, and
raising the hem of my cloak: by this usual signal I gave notice that
the enemy was at hand, and then joining them we retreated together,
though my horse was greatly fatigued.

13. Our alarm was increased by the brightness of the night, as the moon
was full, and by the even level of the plain, which, if our danger
should become worse, afforded no possible hiding-place, as having
neither trees, nor bushes, nor anything but low herbage.

14. Accordingly we adopted the following plan: we lit a lamp and
fastened it tightly on a horse, which we turned loose without a rider,
and let go where it pleased to our left, while we marched towards the
high ground on our right, in order that the Persians might fancy the
light a torch held before the general as he proceeded slowly forwards,
and so keep on in that direction. And unless we had adopted this
precaution we should have been circumvented, and have fallen as
prisoners into the power of the enemy.

15. Being delivered from this danger, when we had come to a woody spot,
full of vines and fruit-bearing trees, called Meiacarire, a name derived
from the cool springs found there, we found that the inhabitants had all
fled, and there was only a single soldier remaining behind, concealed in
a remote corner. And when he was brought before our general, and through
fear told all kinds of different stories, and so became an object of
suspicion; at last, under the compulsion of our threats, he told the
real truth, that he was a native of Gaul, and had been born among the
Parisii, that he had served in our cavalry, but that fearing punishment
for some offence he had deserted to the Persians; that he had since