orded a firm
footing.

"It is a pity!" he shouted. "But now this loophole will henceforth be
barred also. Surrender!"

"Never!" cried Gibamund, hurling his spear. The man by Fara's side
fell.

"Shoot! Quickly! All at once!" the Herulian leader angrily commanded.
Behind the Herulians were twenty archers, dismounted Huns. Their bows
twanged; Gibamund sank silently backward. Hilda, with a cry of anguish,
caught him in her arms.

But Markomer, raising his lance threateningly, already stood in the
place of the fallen man.

"Cease," Fara ordered. "But keep the outlet strongly guarded. The
priest said that they must yield either to-morrow or on the following
day."

* * * * *

Gelimer was roused from his unconsciousness by Hilda's shriek.

"Now Gibamund, too, has fallen," he said very calmly. "All is over."

Supported by his spear, he climbed wearily back. A few Vandals followed
him. He vanished in the darkness of the night.

Hilda sat silent with the head of her lifeless husband in her lap, and
the staff of the banner resting on her shoulder. She had no tears, but
groped in the thick gloom for the beloved face. At last she heard a
Vandal, returning from the King, say to Markomer:

"This was the final blow. To-morrow--I am to announce it to the
enemy--Gelimer will submit."

Now she sprang up, and asking two of the men to help her--she would not
release the dear head from her clasping hands--carried the dead Prince
to the top of the mountain. In a little grove of pines, just outside
the city, a small wooden hut had been built which had formerly
contained stores of every kind. Now it was half empty except for a
large pile of the wood used for fires. In this hut she spent the night
and the dark morning alone with the dead. When it grew light she
sought the King, whom she found in the basilica on the spot where
formerly--the remains of some steps showed it--the altar had stood.
Here Gelimer had placed in a crack between two stones a wooden cross,
roughly made of boughs laid across each other. He lay prone on his face
before it, clasping the cross with both arms.

"Brother-in-law Gelimer," she said in a curt, harsh tone, "is it true?
Do you mean to surrender?"

He made no reply.

She shook him by the shoulder.

"King of the Vandals, do you mean to give yourself up as a captive?"
she cried more loudly. "They will lead you through the streets of
Constantinople as a spectacle! W