"Julius!" he screamed in horror.
"You, O Cethegus!" Julius could just murmur.
"Julius! you must not, must not die!"
And Cethegus passionately tried to stanch the blood that issued from the three wounds.
"If you love me," said the dying man, "save him--save Totila!" And his gentle eyes closed for ever.
Cethegus put his hand upon the heart of the dead man; he laid his ear upon the bared breast.
"All is over!" he then said, in a faint voice. "O Manilia! Julius, I loved thee! And he died with his name upon his lips! All is over!" he cried again, but this time in a voice of anger; "the last bond which united me to human love I have myself cut, deceived by mocking accident! It was my last weakness! And now all tender feeling, be dead to me! Lift him on to the horse.--This, my Pluto, shall be your last service.--Take him--up there I see a chapel--take him there, and let him be buried with all ceremony by the priests. Merely say that he died as a monk--that he died for his friend. He deserves a Christian burial. But I," he added, with a terrible expression on his face, "I will once more seek his friend; I will unite them without delay--and for ever."
And he mounted his horse.
"Whither?" asked Syphax. "Back to Taginæ?"
"No! down into that wood. He must be hidden there, for thence came Julius."