CHAPTER XIV.
On the last day of the armistice, Cethegus was again able to appear upon the walls of the Mausoleum, where his legionaries and Isaurians greeted him with loud cheers.
His first walk was to the monument of Kallistratos. He laid a wreath of laurels and roses upon the black marble slab.
While he was superintending the strengthening of the fortifications from this point, Syphax brought him a letter from Mataswintha.
The contents were laconic enough:
"Put an end to it. I cannot bear to see this misery any longer. The sight of the interment of forty thousand of my countrymen has broken my heart. The death-choruses all seem to accuse me. I shall succumb if this continue. Famine rages fearfully in the camp. The army's last hope is a large convoy of corn and cattle, which is on the way from South Gaul. In the next calends it is expected off Portus. Act accordingly; but make an end."
"Triumph!" said the Prefect. "The siege is over. Hitherto our little fleet lay idle at Populonium; but now it shall have work enough. This Queen is the Erinnys of the barbarians."
And he himself went to Belisarius, who received him with noble generosity.
The same night--the last of the armistice--Johannes marched out of the Pincian Gate, and wheeled to the left, towards the Flaminian high-road. Ravenna was his goal.
And swift messengers sped by sea to Populonium, where a small Roman squadron lay at anchor.