Syphax disappeared.
Cethegus cast a look at the plan.
"So they come from the north-west, down the hill. Woe to him who shall try to stop them there. Then comes the deep valley in which we are encamped. Here the battle will be fought and lost. Behind us, to the south-east, our position lies along a deep brook; into this we shall be inevitably thrown--the bridges cannot be defended. Then a stretch of flat country. What a fine field for the horsemen to pursue us! Finally, still farther back, a dense wood and a narrow pass with the ruined Castle of Hadrian. Marcus," he cried, as the latter entered the tent, "my troops will march at once. We shall go down along the brook into the wood; and you will tell whoever questions you that we march back to Rome."
"March home, without fighting!" asked Marcus, astonished. "You surely know that a battle is pending?"
"Just for that very reason!"
And with these words Cethegus departed to wake Belisarius in his tent.
But he found him already up. Procopius stood near him.
"Do you know already. Prefect?" said Belisarius. "Fugitive country people say that a troop of horsemen approaches. The fools ride to their destruction; they think the road is open as far as Rome."
And he continued to don his armour.
"But the peasants also say that the horsemen are only the vanguard. A terrible army of barbarians follows," warned Procopius.