A Struggle for Rome, v. 3
Page 33
CHAPTER XVII.
Brilliantly arose the sun on the next morning, casting its first beamsover the warlike movement in the Gothic camp.
As the King issued from his dwelling in the marketplace of Taginae,Adalgoth, Thorismuth, and Phaza hurried to meet him with his milk-whitecharger, sent, together with a magnificent suit of armour, by Valeria,his bride.
His arms rang as the King swung himself into the saddle.
His grooms led up two other horses in reserve, one of which was Pluto,the Prefect's restless and fiery charger.
From Totila's shoulders flowed his long white mantle, held together atthe neck by a broad and heavy clasp set with precious stones. Hiscuirass was of shining silver, richly inlaid with gold, the figure of aflying swan upon the breast. The edges of the cuirass at the neck,arms, and belt, were bound with red silk. Beneath it showed the coat ofwhite silk, reaching over the thighs.
Broad gold bracelets and silvered gauntlets protected his arms andhands; greaves his knees and the top of his feet.
His narrow and gracefully-shaped shield was divided into three fieldsof silver, gold, and crimson. On the golden field the figure of theflying swan was wrought in white enamel.
The caparison and reins of his horse were set with silver andembroidered with red silk.
In his right hand the King held a spear, to the point of which Valeriahad fastened four streamers of red and white riband; merrily theyfluttered in the morning breeze.
Thus brilliantly arrayed, the King rode through the streets of Taginaeat the head of his horsemen. Earl Thorismuth, Phaza, and Duke Adalgoth,and also Julius, rode in his train. Julius carried no weapons, but hebore a shield forged by Teja.
Never had Totila shone in such beauty! The people greeted him upon hisway with shouts of joy. At the northern gate of Taginae, Aligern cameriding towards him.
"I thought that thy place was with the right wing," said the King."What brings thee here?"
"My cousin Teja has ordered me to remain at thy side and guard thylife."
"My Teja is untiring in his care of me!" cried the King.
Aligern joined the escort.
Earl Thorismuth now undertook the command of the footmen who werehidden in the houses of Taginae.
Outside the gate, the King rode to the front of his not very numeroustroop of horsemen, and disclosed his plan to the captains.
"I entrust to you, comrades, the most difficult of all tasks--flight!But the flight will be only seeming. What is true, is your courage andthe destruction of the foe."
And now the small troop rode forward past the place of ambush on theFlaminian Way, the King convincing himself that the Persian horsemenwere in readiness upon both the wooded heights. The ambush on the rightwas commanded by Furius himself, that on the left by his chief,Isdigerd.
Totila now rode into Caprae through the southern gate, and admonishedthe bowmen under Earl Wisand not to issue from the houses in which theywere concealed, until the Persian horsemen had fallen upon theLongobardians from their ambush, but then immediately to sally out ofthe southern gate, while at the same time the spear-bearers wouldadvance against the enemy from the northern gate of Taginae.
"Thus the Longobardians and such of Narses' foot who have pressedforward between Caprae and Taginae will be surrounded on all sides andcrushed. I and Thorismuth attack in front, Furius and Isdigerd on bothflanks, and Wisand in the rear. They will be lost!"
"Does he not look like the sun-god?" Adalgoth delightedly asked Julius.
"Peace! Make no idol of sun or man! Besides, to-day is the solstice!"answered Julius.
At length the King reached the northern gate of Caprae, left it openbehind him, and galloped out with his little troop upon the level landbetween Caprae and Helvillum.
Here Narses had placed his centre; foremost Alboin with hisLongobardians. Behind these, at a considerable distance, stood Narsesin his litter, surrounded by Cethegus, Liberius, Auzalas, and otherleaders.
Narses had had a bad night, disturbed by slight fits. He was very weak,and could not stand up for any length of time in his low and openlitter.
He had strictly admonished Alboin not to advance to the attack withoutspecial orders.
King Totila gave a sign to his horsemen, and at a trot the thin lineadvanced towards the far superior ranks of the Longobardians.
"They surely will not shame us by attacking us with only a few lances?"cried Alboin.
But an attack did not seem to be the present object of the King.
He had ridden far in advance of his men, who had suddenly halted, andnow attracted all eyes by his feats of horsemanship.
The spectacle which he afforded was so wonderful in the eyes of theByzantines, that the witnesses related it in astonishment to Procopius,who, himself amazed, has remitted it to us.
"On this day," he writes, "King Totila evidently wished to show hisenemies what manner of man he was. His weapons and his horse shone withgold. So many shining red streamers fluttered from the point of hisspear that this ornament alone announced the King from a distance.Thus, mounted on a splendid charger, in the space between the twoarmies, did he indulge in a skilful exercise of arms. Now he rode in acircle; now he caracoled in semicircles to the right and left; now hehurled his spear into the air, as he rode off at full gallop, andcaught it by the middle of the shaft as it fell quivering, first withhis right hand, and then with his left; and thus he showed to thewondering troops his feats of horsemanship."
After the battle, however, the Byzantines learned the true reason ofthis merry sport.
For a time Alboin looked on quietly.
Then he said to a Longobardian chief who stood near him:
"That fellow rides to the battle-field adorned like a bridegroom! Whatcostly armour! We do not see the like at home, Gisulf. And not to dareto attack! Does Narses again sleep?"