CHAPTER XVII.
Brilliantly arose the sun on the next morning, casting its first beams over the warlike movement in the Gothic camp.
As the King issued from his dwelling in the marketplace of Taginæ, Adalgoth, Thorismuth, and Phaza hurried to meet him with his milk-white charger, sent, together with a magnificent suit of armour, by Valeria, his bride.
His arms rang as the King swung himself into the saddle.
His grooms led up two other horses in reserve, one of which was Pluto, the Prefect's restless and fiery charger.
From Totila's shoulders flowed his long white mantle, held together at the neck by a broad and heavy clasp set with precious stones. His cuirass was of shining silver, richly inlaid with gold, the figure of a flying swan upon the breast. The edges of the cuirass at the neck, arms, and belt, were bound with red silk. Beneath it showed the coat of white silk, reaching over the thighs.
Broad gold bracelets and silvered gauntlets protected his arms and hands; greaves his knees and the top of his feet.
His narrow and gracefully-shaped shield was divided into three fields of silver, gold, and crimson. On the golden field the figure of the flying swan was wrought in white enamel.
The caparison and reins of his horse were set with silver and embroidered with red silk.
In his right hand the King held a spear, to the point of which Valeria had fastened four streamers of red and white riband; merrily they fluttered in the morning breeze.
Thus brilliantly arrayed, the King rode through the streets of Taginæ at the head of his horsemen. Earl Thorismuth, Phaza, and Duke Adalgoth, and also Julius, rode in his train. Julius carried no weapons, but he bore a shield forged by Teja.
Never had Totila shone in such beauty! The people greeted him upon his way with shouts of joy. At the northern gate of Taginæ, Aligern came riding towards him.
"I thought that thy place was with the right wing," said the King. "What brings thee here?"
"My cousin Teja has ordered me to remain at thy side and guard thy life."
"My Teja is untiring in his care of me!" cried the King.
Aligern joined the escort.
Earl Thorismuth now undertook the command of the footmen who were hidden in the houses of Taginæ.
Outside the gate, the King rode to the front of his not very numerous troop of horsemen, and disclosed his plan to the captains.
"I entrust to you, comrades, the most difficult of all tasks--flight! But the flight will be only seeming. What is true, is your courage and the destruction of the foe."
And now the small troop rode forward past the place of ambush on the Flaminian Way, the King convincing himself that the Persian horsemen were in readiness upon both the wooded heights. The ambush on the right was commanded by Furius himself, that on the left by his chief, Isdigerd.
Totila now rode into Capræ through the southern gate, and admonished the bowmen under Earl Wisand not to issue from the houses in which they were concealed, until the Persian horsemen had fallen upon the Longobardians from their ambush, but then immediately to sally out of the southern gate, while at the same time the spear-bearers would advance against the enemy from the northern gate of Taginæ.
"Thus the Longobardians and such of Narses' foot who have pressed forward between Capræ and Taginæ will be surrounded on all sides and crushed. I and Thorismuth attack in front, Furius and Isdigerd on both flanks, and Wisand in the rear. They will be lost!"
"Does he not look like the sun-god?" Adalgoth delightedly asked Julius.
"Peace! Make no idol of sun or man! Besides, to-day is the solstice!" answered Julius.
At length the King reached the northern gate of Capræ, left it open behind him, and galloped out with his little troop upon the level land between Capræ and Helvillum.
Here Narses had placed his centre; foremost Alboin with his Longobardians. Behind these, at a considerable distance, stood Narses in his litter, surrounded by Cethegus, Liberius, Auzalas, and other leaders.
Narses had had a bad night, disturbed by slight fits. He was very weak, and could not stand up for any length of time in his low and open litter.
He had strictly admonished Alboin not to advance to the attack without special orders.
King Totila gave a sign to his horsemen, and at a trot the thin line advanced towards the far superior ranks of the Longobardians.
"They surely will not shame us by attacking us with only a few lances?" cried Alboin.
But an attack did not seem to be the present object of the King.
He had ridden far in advance of his men, who had suddenly halted, and now attracted all eyes by his feats of horsemanship.
The spectacle which he afforded was so wonderful in the eyes of the Byzantines, that the witnesses related it in astonishment to Procopius, who, himself amazed, has remitted it to us.
"On this day," he writes, "King Totila evidently wished to show his enemies what manner of man he was. His weapons and his horse shone with gold. So many shining red streamers fluttered from the point of his spear that this ornament alone announced the King from a distance. Thus, mounted on a splendid charger, in the space between the two armies, did he indulge in a skilful exercise of arms. Now he rode in a circle; now he caracoled in semicircles to the right and left; now he hurled his spear into the air, as he rode off at full gallop, and caught it by the middle of the shaft as it fell quivering, first with his right hand, and then with his left; and thus he showed to the wondering troops his feats of horsemanship."
After the battle, however, the Byzantines learned the true reason of this merry sport.
For a time Alboin looked on quietly.
Then he said to a Longobardian chief who stood near him:
"That fellow rides to the battle-field adorned like a bridegroom! What costly armour! We do not see the like at home, Gisulf. And not to dare to attack! Does Narses again sleep?"