ks, but it was no use. They were seven
to one against us, and I gained nothing by it but this wound on my grey
head."

"The battery must come down," said Totila reflectively.

"The devil it must! but it will not! I have still more to tell. The
citizens begin to get unruly. Belisarius daily shoots a hundred blunt
arrows into the city, to which is tied the inscription: 'Rebel for
freedom!' They have more effect than a thousand pointed darts. Already,
here and there, stones are cast from the roofs upon my poor fellows. If
this goes on--we cannot, with a thousand men, keep off forty thousand
Greeks outside and thirty thousand Neapolitans inside. Therefore I
think--" and his eyes looked very gloomy.

"What thinkest thou?"

"We will burn down a portion of the city--at least the suburbs----"

"So that the inhabitants may like us all the better? No, Uliaris, they
shall not have cause to call us 'barbarians.' I know of better
means--they are starving; yesterday I brought in four shiploads of oil,
com, and wine; this I will divide amongst them."

"Oil and corn if thou wilt! But not the wine! That I claim for my
Goths. They have drunk cistern-water long enough, the nasty stuff!"

"Good, thirsty hero, you shall have the wine for yourselves."

"Well? and still no news from Ravenna, or from Rome?"

"None! Yesterday I sent off my fifth messenger."

"May God destroy our King! Listen, Totila, I don't believe we shall
ever get alive out of these worm-eaten walls."

"Nor I either," said Totila quietly, and offered his guest a cup of
wine.

Uliaris looked at him; then he drank and said:

"Dear fellow! thou art pure as gold, and thy Caecubian too. And if I
must die here, like an old bear amongst the dogs--I am at least glad
that I have learned to know thee so well; thee and thy Caecubian."

With this rough but friendly speech the grey old Goth left the ship.

Totila sent corn and wine to the garrison in the castle, with which the
soldiers regaled themselves far into the night.

But the next morning, when Uliaris looked forth from the tower of the
castle, he rubbed his eyes. For on the battery upon the hill waved the
blue flag of the Goths.

Totila had landed in the night in the rear of the enemy, and had taken
the works by storm.

But this new act of audacity only increased the anger of Belisarius. He
swore to make an end of the troublesome boats at any price. To his
great joy the four triremes from Sicily just then