t.

For already whole battalions of vanquished Byzantines came flying
through the wood towards him. He saw that it would be impossible to
stem the flight of these masses with his small troop.

For some time he watched the movement irresolutely.

The Gothic pursuers were already visible in the distance, when
Vitalius, one of Demetrius's captains, came wounded up to Cethegus.

"Oh, friend," he cried, "there is no stopping them! They will now go on
till they reach Ravenna."

"I verily believe it," said Cethegus. "They will more likely carry my
men away with them than stand and fight."

"And yet only the half of the victors, under Teja and Hildebrand,
follow us. The King turned back already on the field of battle. I saw
him withdraw his troops. He wheeled to the south-west."

"_Whither?_" cried Cethegus, becoming attentive. "Tell me again. In
_what_ direction?"

"He marched towards the south-west."

"He is going to Rome!" exclaimed the Prefect, and pulled his horse
round so suddenly that it reared. "Follow me!--to the coast!"

"And the routed army? without leaders!" cried Lucius Licinius. "See how
they fly!"

"Let them fly! Ravenna is strong. It will hold out. Do you not hear?
The Goth is going to _Rome_! We must get there before him. Follow me to
the coast--the way by sea is open. To Rome!"

CHAPTER III.

Lovely--famed far and wide for its beauty--is the valley in which the
Passara flows from the north into the rapid Athesis, which hurries from
the west to the south-east.

Like a bending figure, which leans longingly towards the beautiful
Southland, the lofty Mendola rises at a distance from the right bank of
the river.

Here, above the junction of the two streams, once lay the Roman
settlement of Mansio Majae.

A little farther up the river, on a dominating rock, stood the Castle
of Teriolis.

Now--from a mountain-"muhr" or "mar" (landslip)--the town is called
Meran.

The Castle has given its name to the Tyrol.

"Mansio Majae" is heard even now in the name of the place "Mais," rich
in pleasant villas.

But at the time of which we speak an East Gothic garrison lay in the
Castle of Teriolis, as was the case in all the old Rhaetian rock-nests
on the Athesis, the Isarcus, and the [OE]nus, in order to keep down the
only half-subjected Suevi, Alamanni, and Markomanni, or, as they were
already named, the Bajuvars, who dwelt in Rhaetia, on the Licus, and on
the low