voices call her name from the wall
above. Looking up she saw Zercho and Sippilo who, in advance of all the
others, had scaled the wall at the right of the gate.

"Here, little one!" shouted the Sarmatian, letting a rope slide down
the inside, while he wound the other end around the ladder rising above
the wall.

"Where are you, Bissula?" called Sippilo, leaning far over and holding
a torch down. "Alas! I can't see her anywhere!"

The girl, standing at the left of the gate, could not make her way
through the soldiers to the right; she was obliged to see a strong
Thracian on the top of the wall seize a heavy pole, which he held
crosswise with both hands, and springing forward hurl both the
over-bold assailants (they were still standing alone) backward at a
single thrust.

"Oho, Sippilo," shouted Adalo outside, "what was that?"

"A somersault!" replied the boy laughing, and jumping up again. "But
you, Zercho! Alas! you cannot stand?"

"Unfortunately! My foot--I think it is broken!"

"Take him, men, two of you, and carry him out of the fight," Adalo
ordered.

"Where?"

"To my own hall; it is still standing."

Bissula uttered a cry when she saw her two friends fall backward; but
the next instant her senses failed. A soldier whom she had repeatedly
tried to thrust aside turned angrily: he meant to strike his
troublesome comrade, as he supposed the person to be. Then he
recognized the young girl, and his wrath instantly vanished.

"Go back, little one!" he exclaimed. "You'll get killed here!"

And, with kindly intent, he flung her toward the left; but the clumsy
fellow exerted too much strength, or the weight of the dainty figure
was too light; she struck her head so violently against one of the
beams of her old hiding-place that she lay stunned and senseless where
she had fallen.

"Bissula!" Adalo called again through the gaping cleft in the door. But
he received no answer.

CHAPTER XLIX.

The Adeling and his followers would probably soon have forced their way
through this gate, one of whose wings had already caught fire and was
beginning to glow and smoke more and more, while the other was
splitting wider and wider under the heavy blows of the axe, had not the
battle on the opposite side of the camp taken a turn which was also to
prove decisive for the conflict around the Porta Decumana. Scarcely had
Bissula fallen unconscious, when down every street in the camp that led