VII.

With the help of the messenger and the bath attendants, Severus was
quickly armed. Accompanied by Cornelius he hastened to the Vindelician
gate, there to mount the high wall, which afforded a prospect far and
wide. The exertion made him very hot, for it was now mid-day; the
burning rays of the sun fell vertically on his heavy helmet.

At the gate he was met by a centurion of the Tribune; Leo had already
seen from the Capitol the horsemen swarming out of the western forest.
He sent word there were only about a hundred Germans: he would himself
immediately lead his cavalry to the gates, for he was able again to
mount his horse.

Severus ordered the soldier to follow him for the moment on to the
walls. With Cornelius he looked intently over the plain, which
stretched from the left farther bank of the river as far as the western
forest.

After long observation he turned. He was about to speak to Cornelius;
but his eyes fell on two country people who were anxiously looking in
the same direction.

"Now," said he, "Geta, how could you be so foolish? You swore by all
the saints that you had seen no trace of the enemy. Your cottages lie
on the other side of the western forest. And now the barbarians lie
hidden between you and the town! Were you blind and deaf?"

"Or did you _wish_ to be so?" interposed Cornelius mistrustfully.
"Consider," warned he, "they have every reason to support the
barbarians; rough and passionate these may be, but they do not press
the last marrow out of the bones of their bondmen, like the imperial
fiscal."

But the elder of the two peasants answered: "No, sir, I am no traitor.
I do not support the barbarians. Have I not served under the great
Aetius and received an honourable discharge and this little property?
Believe an old legionary; and if you do not believe me, keep me here as
a hostage till it is decided. Only yesterday I and my nephew were
boiling pitch in the west forest--the traders from Ravenna give a high
price for it. The whole forest is not five miles in breadth; if there
had been many barbarians hiding themselves there, we must have seen
them; it cannot be a migrating horde, an army of people; it can only be
adventurers, a few horsemen who are reconnoitring to see how the
country is protected."

"We will show them how it is protected," cried Severus, and he raised
his right hand menacingly. "The veteran is right, Cornelius. I believe
him. It is only that handful of rider