"Command the retreat, quick, magister militum!"
"Why, excellent Calpurnius?"
"It is the King of the Goths himself!"
"And I am Belisarius himself," answered the latter, as he donned his splendid helmet with its crest of white horse-hair. "How dare you leave your post in the vanguard?"
"I wished to bring you the news, general."
"Could no other messenger do that? Listen, Roman, you are unworthy of being liberated. You tremble, you coward heart! Return at once to the front. You will lead our horsemen to the first attack. You, Antallas and Kuturgur, take him between you. He must be brave; do you hear? If he shrink--down with him. Thus Romans must be taught courage! The watchman has just announced the last hour of night. In another hour the sun will rise. Its first beams must find the whole army on yonder hills. Up! Ambuzach, Bessas, Constantinus, Demetrius, advance to meet the enemy!"
"General, it is as they say," announced Maxentius, the most faithful of the lifeguards; "innumerable Goths are advancing."
"There are two armies against us," reported Salomo, the leader of the hypaspistes of Belisarius.
"I reckon Belisarius alone to be a whole army."
"And the plan of attack?" asked Bessas.