"Let the galley approach quite close. When within twenty feet, shoot! Not yet!--Now! now shoot!"
"Crouch close, Goths!" cried Totila.
A hail of arrows fell over the galley. But they rebounded from a roof of shields.
"Damn them!" cried Piso, behind the Prefect. "They intend to break the chain with the force of the shock. And they will surely do it, even if every man on deck should fall! The oarsmen we cannot reach, and the south wind cannot be wounded!"
"Fire the sails! fire the ship! Bring firebrands!" cried Cethegus.
Ever nearer rustled the threatening "Swan."
Ever nearer approached the ruinous shock against the tightly-stretched chains.
Firebrands were hurled at the galley.
One flew into the sail of the main-mast, burnt quickly up, and then died out.
A second--Cethegus himself had hurled it--passed close to the golden locks of the King. It fell near him. He had not remarked it; but a shepherd-boy, who carried no weapon but a shepherd's staff, ran up and trampled it out.