k, so long had the drinking bout above his head detained him a
prisoner. Like a slinking beast of prey, stooping at every corner, and
with a spring quickly gaining the side of the opposite street, he
avoided the large open squares and crowded streets. He then heard, in
the distance, the roaring noise of confused voices. He looked back;
flames were rising into the heavens, already darkened with smoke.

The Tribune hastened to gain the north side of the ramparts; to find
the Porta Vindelica unoccupied he could not hope, even from German
recklessness; but he knew the secret mechanism by which, without key, a
small sortie-gate could be opened which led into the high road to
Vindelicia. This doorway he now endeavoured to reach. Unchallenged,
unseen, he mounted the wall, avoiding the steps; opened the door;
closed it again carefully; slid down the steep slope, and gained the
moat, which, formerly filled with water, had now--the sluices were all
destroyed--lain dry for tens of years. Weeds and bushes above a man's
height grew therein.

He had hardly reached the bottom of the moat when a loud neighing
greeted him out of a willow-plot; his faithful horse trotted towards
him, nodding its head.

Two other horses answered out of the bushes.

Immediately afterwards two men crept out of the thicket, crawling along
the ground on all-fours. It was Himilco the centurion, and another
Moor.

They beckoned to him silently to follow them into the hiding-place.
They had escaped into the moat after the dispersion of their troops by
the Bajuvaren. The black steed had followed the two other horses, the
man in charge of him having fallen.

Since then they had remained hidden among the thick bushes of the moat.

"The first gleam of light on this black day," said the Tribune. "We
three will fly! Come! There to the left the river approaches the moat.
The horses can easily reach it with a leap, and then swim across. I
must go to the Mercurius hill, down the Vindelician road; then--over
the mountains!"

"Sir," implored Himilco, "wait till night. Twice already have we tried
to escape by that way. Each time we were observed by the Alemannian
horsemen, who incessantly march before the gates to seize fugitives;
each time it was only with the greatest difficulty that we regained our
shelter. Only in the darkness of the night can we venture."

The Tribune was reluctantly obliged to acknowledge this counsel as
well-grounded. "At night," said he t