This could not be permitted.
Belisarius himself filled the gap with his bodyguard on foot, and shouted to the fugitive horsemen to halt and turn.
But it seemed as if the terror which had possessed their cowardly and fallen leader had entered their hearts. They dreaded the sword of the Gothic King behind them even more than their thundering chief before them, and without pause or stay they rushed on at a gallop, as if they intended to ride down their own comrades.
For one moment a fearful shock--a thousand-voiced cry of fear and rage--a confused turmoil of mingled horse and foot--among them slaughtering Goths--and suddenly a dispersal to all sides, amid shrill cries of victory from the enemy.
The body-guard of Belisarius was ridden down; his main line of battle broken.
He ordered the retreat to the camp.
But it was no longer a retreat, it was a rout. The footmen of Hildebad, Guntharis, and Teja had now arrived upon the field of battle. The Byzantines saw their order of attack broken, they despaired of further resistance and fled in great confusion to the camp.
Notwithstanding, they would still have been able to reach it a long time before their pursuers, had not an unforeseen occurrence stopped the way.
Belisarius had set forth with such certainty of victory, that he had ordered all the carriages and baggage of the army, and even the herds of cattle--which, according to the custom of the time, were driven after--to follow the troops upon the high-roads.
The retreating masses now encountered this slowly advancing body, difficult to move and difficult to disperse, and indescribable confusion ensued.