And so we let them run
screaming on their blind way, but forced the litters through them with
but very little regard for their coward convenience.

Now the advantage of the rebels, when it came to be looked upon by a
soldier's eye, was a thing of little enough importance. They had driven
a tunnel from behind a covering mound, beneath the walls, and had opened
it cleverly enough through the floor of a middle-class house. They had
come through into this, collecting their numbers under its shelter, and
doubtless hoping that the marriage of the Empress (of which spies had
given them information) would sap the watchfulness of the city guards.
But it seems they were discovered and attacked before they were
thoroughly ready to emerge, and, as a fine body of troops were barracked
near the spot, their extermination would have been merely a matter of
time, even if we had not come up.

It did not take a trained eye long to decide on this, and Phorenice,
with a laugh, lay back on the cushions of the litter, and returned her
weapons to the armour-bearer who came panting up to receive them. "We
grow nervous with our married life, my Deucalion," she said. "We are
fearful lest this new-found happiness be taken from us too suddenly."

But I was not to be robbed of my breathing-space in this wise. "Let me
crave a wedding gift of you," I said.

"It is yours before you name it."

"Then give me troops, and set me wide a city gate a mile away from
here."

"You can gather five hundred as you go from here to the gate, taking two
hundred of those that are here. If you want more, they must be fetched
from other barracks along the walls. But where is your plan?"

"Why, my poor strategy teaches me this: these foolish rebels have set
all their hopes on this mine, and all their excitement on its present
success. If they are kept occupied here by a Phorenice, who will give
them some dainty fighting without checking them unduly, they will press
on to the attack and forget all else, and never so much as dream of a
sortie. And meanwhile, a Deucalion with his troop will march out of the
city well away from here, without tuck of drum or blare of trumpet, and
fall most unpleasantly upon their rear. After which, a Phorenice will
burn the house here at the mine's head, which is of wood, and straw
thatched, to discourage further egress, and either go to the walls to
watch the fight from there, or sally out also and spur on the rout as
her fancy dictat