o third fleet. That of Neapolis and that of Ravenna
blockaded Rome under the Gothic flag.

And now the horsemen which Marcus Licinius had sent on the Flaminian
Way to reconnoitre and forage, came galloping back with the news that a
strong army of Goths, under the dreaded Teja, was approaching at a
quick step. The vanguard had already reached Reate.

The day following Rome was also invested on the last side which had
remained open--the north--and had nothing left to depend upon but its
own citizens.

And the latter were weak enough, however strong might be the Prefect's
will and the walls of the city.

Yet for weeks and months Cethegus's stern resolution sustained the
despairing defenders against their will.

At last the fall of the city, not by force, but by starvation, was
expected daily.

At this juncture an unexpected event occurred, which revived the hopes
of the besieged, and put the genius and good fortune of the young King
to a hard proof: for there once more appeared upon the scene of
battle--Belisarius!

CHAPTER VII.

When news arrived in the golden palace of the Caesars at Byzantium of
the lost battles on the Padus and at Mucella; of the renewed siege of
Rome, and the loss of Neapolis and almost all Italy, the Emperor
Justinian, who had already imagined the West again united to the East,
was awakened from his dream of triumph in a terrible manner.

It was now easy for the friends of Belisarius to prove that the recall
of that hero had been the origin of all these disasters.

It was clear that as long as Belisarius had been in Italy victory had
followed victory; and no sooner had he turned his back, than
misfortunes crowded one upon the other.

The Byzantine generals in Italy openly acknowledged that they could not
replace Belisarius.

"I am not able," wrote Demetrius from Ravenna, "to meet Totila
in the open field. Scarcely am I able to defend this fortress in the
marshes. Neapolis has fallen. Rome may surrender any day. Send us
again the lion-hearted man, whom, in our vanity, we dreamed we could
replace--the conqueror of the Vandals and the Goths."

And Belisarius, although he had sworn never again to serve the
ungrateful Emperor, forgot all his wrongs as soon as Justinian smiled
upon him. And when, after the fall of Neapolis, he actually embraced
him and called him "his faithful sword"--in truth, the Emperor had
never believed in the general's rebellion,