ted the wax on thy bold
wings. Thou wilt vanish beneath me like a falling star!"

This, however, did not seem likely to happen soon.

Cethegus awaited with impatience the arrival of a numerous fleet from
Ravenna, which was to bring him the remainder of his troops, and all
who could be spared of the legionaries and the troops of Demetrius, as
well as a quantity of provisions.

When these reinforcements had arrived, he would be able to relieve the
grumbling Romans from their arduous duties.

For weeks he had comforted the embittered inhabitants with the promise
of this fleet.

At last it was announced by a swift-sailer that the fleet had reached
Ostia.

Cethegus caused the news to be published in all the streets with a
flourish of trumpets, and announced that at the next Ides of October,
eight thousand citizens would be relieved from duty on the walls. He
also caused double rations of wine to be distributed among the soldiers
on the ramparts.

When the Ides of October arrived, thick fog covered Ostia and the sea.

The day after, a little sailing-boat flew from Ostia to Portus. The
trembling crew announced that King Totila had attacked the Ravennese
triremes with the fleet from Neapolis, under the protection of a thick
fog. Of the eighty ships, twenty were burnt or sunk; the remaining
sixty, with all their men and provisions, taken.

Cethegus would not believe it.

He hurried on board his own swift boat, the _Sagitta_, and flew down
the Tiber.

But with difficulty he escaped the boats of the King, who had already
blockaded the harbour of Portus and sent small cruisers up the river.

The Prefect now hastily caused a double river-bolt to be laid across
the Tiber; the first consisting of masts; the second of iron chains
placed an arrow's length farther up the river. The space between the
two bolts was filled with a great number of small boats.

Cethegus felt deeply the blow which had fallen upon him. Not only had
his long-wished-for reinforcements fallen into the enemy's hand; not
only was he obliged to lay still heavier burdens upon the Romans, who
began to curse him, for now the river, too, had to be defended against
the constant attempts of the Gothic ships to break through; but with a
slight shudder of horror he saw approaching nearer and nearer the most
terrible of all enemies--famine.

The water-road, by which he, as formerly Belisarius, had received
abundant provisions, was now blocked.

Italy had n