e is a dead man," cried Valerius, "they carry poisoned arrows! Up!
Julius and Thorismuth! take my child to Neapolis. I myself will go to
the pass, and cover your retreat."

In vain were Valeria's prayers; the face and mien of the old man
assumed an expression of iron resolve.

"Obey!" he cried, "I am the master of this place, and the son of this
soil, and I will ask the Huns of Belisarius what they have to do in my
fatherland! No, Julius! I must know that you are with Valeria.
Farewell!"

While Valeria and Julius, with their Gothic escort and most of
the slaves, fled at full speed on the road to Neapolis, Valerius
hurried, at the head of half-a-dozen slaves, out of the garden of the
villa, towards the pass, which--not far from the beginning of his
estates--formed an arch over the road to Regium. The rock on the left
hand, to the north, was inaccessible, and on the right, to the south,
it fell abruptly into the sea, whose waves often overflowed the road.
But the mouth of the pass was so narrow, that two men, standing side by
side with their shields, could close it like a door. Thus Valerius
might hope to keep the pass, even against a much superior force, long
enough to afford the swift horses of the fugitives a sufficient start.

As the old man was hastening through the moonless night along the
narrow path which led between the sea and his vineyards to the pass, he
remarked to the right hand, on the sea, at a considerable distance from
the land, the bright beam of a little light, which unmistakably shone
from the mast-head of some vessel. Valerius started. Were the
Byzantines pushing forward to Neapolis by sea? Were they about to land
soldiers at his back? But if so, would not more lights be visible?

He turned to question the slaves, who, at his order, but with visible
reluctance, had followed him from the villa. In vain; they had
disappeared into the darkness of the night. They had deserted their
master as soon as they were unobserved.

So Valerius arrived alone at the pass, the nether or western end of
which was guarded by two Goths, while two more filled the eastern
entrance towards the enemy, and the other four kept the inner space.

Scarcely had Valerius joined the two in front, when suddenly the tramp
of horses was heard close at hand, and soon, round the next turning of
the road, there appeared two horsemen, advancing at full trot.

Each carried a torch in his right hand; and these torches alone threw
li