The Scarlet Banner
Page 35
CHAPTER X
Belisarius is pushing the work on the walls day and night. Besides thewhole army and the crews of the ships, he has employed the citizens.They grumble, saying that we came to liberate them, and now compel themto harder labor than Gelimer ever imposed. The vast extent of the citywall shows many gaps and holes; we think that may be the reason theKing did not retreat into his capital after the lost battle. Verus,who, even in secular matters, holds a high place in the esteem of the"Tyrant" (this, according to Justinian's command, is the name we mustgive the champion of his people's liberty), is said, according to thestatements of the prisoners, to have advised the King from the first toshut himself up in Carthage and let us besiege him there. If that istrue, the priest knows more about lamps than he does of war, but thatis natural. The very first night, our General says, we could haveslipped in through some gap, especially as many thousand Carthaginianswere ready to show us such holes. And we should have captured the wholeVandal grandeur at one blow, as if in a mouse-trap; while now we mustseek the enemy in the desert. The King instantly rejected the counsel.
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The goddess Tyche is the one woman in whom I often really feel temptedto believe. And also in Ate,--Discord. To you, Ate and Tyche, mightysisters, not to Saint Cyprian, we must light lanterns to show ourgratitude. The goddess of Fortune is not weary of playing ball with thedestinies of the Vandals, but she could not do it, if Ate had notplaced this ball in her hands.
Yesterday a little sail-boat ran into the harbor from the north. Itbore the scarlet Vandal flag. Captured by our guard-ships, which werelurking unseen behind the high wall of the harbor, the Barbarians onboard were frightened nearly to death; they had had no idea of thecapture of their capital. They had come directly from Sardinia! To sendthe flower of their fleet and army there, while we were already lyingoff Sicily, was surely prompted by Ate. On the captain was found aletter with the following contents:
"Hail, and victory to you, O King of the Vandals! Where now are yourgloomy forebodings? I announce victory. We landed at Caralis, thecapital of Sardinia. We took harbor, city, and capitol. Goda, thetraitor, fell by my spear; his men are dispersed or prisoners; thewhole island is again yours. Celebrate a feast of victory. It is theomen of a greater day, when you will crush the insolent foes who, as wehave just heard here, are really sailing against our coasts. Not onemust return from our Africa! This writes Zazo, your faithful Generaland brother."
That was yesterday; and to-day one of our cruisers brought into theharbor a Vandal galley captured on its way to Sardinia. It bore amessenger from Gelimer with the following letter:
"It was not Goda who lured us to Sardinia, but a demon of hell inGoda's form, whom God has permitted to destroy us. You did not setforth that we might vanquish Sardinia, but that our foes might conquerAfrica. It was the will of Heaven, since God ordained your voyage. Youhad scarcely sailed, when Belisarius landed. His army is small, butfortune as well as heroism abandoned our people. The nation has nogood-luck, and its King no discernment; even wise plans are ruined bythe impetuosity of one or the kind heart of another. Ammata, ourdarling, has fallen; Thrasaric the faithful has fallen; Gibamund iswounded; our army was defeated at Decimum. Our ship-wharves, ourharbors, our armory, our horses, Carthage itself are in the hands ofthe enemy. But the Vandals whom I still hold together seem to have beenstupefied by the first blow; they cannot be roused, though everythingis at stake. The short-lived outburst of energy has vanished fromnearly all. It is shameful to say, but there is far more capacity forwar in the twelve thousand Moorish mercenaries, whom I hired with heavygold and have assembled in a strong camp at Bulla, than in our wholeintimidated army. Should these men also fail me, the end would sooncome. Our sole hope is on you and your return. Let Sardinia and thepunishment of the rebellion go; fly hither with the whole fleet. Do notland at Carthage, however, but far to the left, on the boundary betweenMauritania and Numidia. Let us avert or bear together the threateningdestruction. GELIMER."
The letters of the brothers cross each other, and both fall into ourhands! And now the King will vainly await his fleet in the west. Come,Goddess Tyche, puff out your cheeks, blow upon the sails of the Vandalgalleys, and bring them all in safety with the victorious army,Gelimer's last hope, into the harbor of Carthage--to captivity.
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The Goddess Tyche, too, is just a woman, like the rest. Suddenly sheturns her back upon us--at least a little--and coquets with thefair-haired warriors. I might be inclined to turn again to theholy lamplighter. The "Tyrant" is making progress. How? By his kindheart and friendliness, people say. He is winning the countrypopulation,--not the Moors, no,--the Romans, the Catholics. Hear andhelp, O Saint Cyprian! He is drawing them from us to his side. Hemaintains strict discipline; but the only time our Huns do not rob,plunder, and steal is when they are standing in rank and file beforeBelisarius--or when they are asleep; but then they at least dream ofpillaging. So the peasants whom we have liberated flee in throngs fromtheir deliverers to the camp of the Barbarian King. They prefer theVandals to the Huns. They collect together, fall upon our plunderingheroes (true, they are largely camp-followers), cut off their pagan,nay, even their Christian heads, and receive in exchange from the"Tyrant" a heretical gold-piece. That alone would not be so bad, butthe peasants serve the Vandal as spies, and tell him everything hedesires to know, so far as they know it themselves. This kindness ofheart is undoubtedly hypocrisy, but it helps,--perhaps more than if itwere genuine.
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I am really almost sorry for the Sphinx. She was so wonderfullybeautiful! Only it is a pity that she did not become an animal insteadof a woman. Fara discovered that she also allowed Althias the Thracianand Aigan the Hun to divine the mystery of her nature. At first thethree heroes intended to fight to the death for the marvel. But thistime the Hun was wiser than either the German or the Thracian. By hissuggestion, they fraternally divided the woman into equal portions bystrapping her on a board, and, with two blows of an axe, separating herinto three parts. Fara received the head, as was fair; he had the bestright to it. For when she noticed his distrust, she tried to soothe himby the offer of some fruit which she broke fresh from the tree. But shemade a mistake there; Fara, the Herulian and pagan, likes horse-fleshfar better than he does peaches. He gave it to her ape. The animal bitit, shook itself, and lay dead. This disturbed the German, and he didnot rest until he had solved all the riddles of the many-sided Sphinx,even her natural faithlessness. Then, as I said, they divided thebeautiful body into three parts. I advised them to bury the corpse verydeep, or at night scorching red flames would burst from her grave.
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A little defeat.
Belisarius was complaining he knew too little of the enemy. So he sentone of the best men of his body-guard, Diogenes, towards the southwestto obtain news. He and his men spent the night in a village. Thepeasants swore that there was not a Vandal within two days' march. Ourheroes slept in the best house,--it belonged to the villicus,--in thesecond story; of course they had first been a long time under the lowerstory, that is, in the cellar. They posted no sentinels, certainly not;they are the liberators of the peasants. The fact that they had justdrunk all the wine contained in all the amphorae in the village, killedthe people's cattle, embraced their wives, had nothing to do with thematter. Peasants must expect such things.
Soon they were all snoring, Diogenes in the lead. Night fell. Thepeasants quickly brought the Vandals,--from the immediateneighborhood,--who surrounded the house. But Saint Cyprian is strongerthan the heaviest drunken sleep. He caused a sword to drop on a metalshield below; it waked--this is a miracle in which I believe, for nomortal could accomplish it--it waked one of the sleepers. Under coverof the darkness most of the men succeeded in escaping; Diogenes cameback, too--with
three wounds in his face and neck, minus the littlefinger of his sword-hand, and without a single piece of usefulinformation.
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The Goddess Tyche is blowing badly. The Vandal fleet has not yet runinto Carthage to its destruction.
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The Tyrant seems to have roused his army from its stupor. Our outposts,horsemen whom we send forth around the city, report: "Vast clouds ofdust are rising in the southwest, which can be caused only by anapproaching army."
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No Zazo. Has he, in spite of the capture of that letter, receivedwarning and chosen another landing-place? The Vandals were undoubtedlyhidden in that cloud of dust. Our Herulians have captured a fewpeasants; we have already perceived in this almost liberated Africathat the peasants must be captured by their deliverers, if we wish toget sight of them. They seek refuge with the Barbarians from liberty.The prisoners say that the King himself is marching against us. Heordered a Vandal noble who had stolen a colonist's wife to be hanged onthe high door of the colonist's house. And this nobleman'sshieldbearer, who had taken two of the colonist's geese, to be hangedon the low stable door, beside his master. Strange, is it not? But itpleases the peasants. "Equalizing justice," Aristoteles calls it. Thiswonderful Vandal hero must surely have studied philosophy, as well asthe art of throwing spears.
Belisarius has sent an urgent warning to Constantinople concerning thelong-delayed pay of the Huns. They are growing troublesome. It is nowsix months since we left the city; December has come. Desert stormssweep over Carthage to the leaden-hued sea, which long since lost itsbeautiful blue. The Huns are threatening to leave the service. Theyexcuse their pillaging on the ground that the citizens of Carthage andthe peasants will trust neither them nor the Emperor (in which they arenot wrong). We cannot pay with money lying in Constantinople, they say.To-day a ship arrived from there, but did not bring a single solidus inmoney. There were, however, thirty tax-collectors, and a command tosend the first taxes from the conquered province.
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If King Gelimer hangs, we hang too. But we hang Romans, not Vandals.The resentment against us is no longer confined to the peasants. It isseething in Carthage, under our own eyes. The common people, thetradesmen and the smaller merchants especially, who did not feel theoppression of the Barbarians as heavily as the wealthy Senators, aregrowing rebellious. A conspiracy has been discovered. Gelimer's army isnot far from the western, the Numidian gate. His horsemen range atnight as far as the walls of the suburb of Aklas. The Vandals were tobe admitted under cover of the darkness through the gaps stillremaining in the walls of the lower city. Belisarius ordered twoCarthaginian citizens convicted of this agreement, Laurus and Victor,to be hanged on the hill outside of the Numidian gate. Belisarius likeshills for his gallows. Then the General's administration of justice canbe seen for a long distance swaying in the wind. But Belisarius doesnot dare to leave the city with the army while the Carthaginians are insuch a mood. At least the walls must first be repaired. The citizensare now compelled to work on them at night too; it is making them verydiscontented.
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No Zazo! and the Huns are on the brink of open mutiny. They declarethat they will not fight in the next battle; that they have had no payyet, and that they have been lured here across the sea, contrary to theagreement for military service. They are afraid that, after the defeatof the Vandals, they will be left here to do garrison duty, and neverbe taken home. Belisarius has already looked for a more spacious hill,but has not found one that would be large enough. There are too many ofthem. And the rest of us are, on the whole, too few. Besides, they areamong our best troops. So the General invited their leaders (the orderto hang them was written yesterday) to dine with him to-day. This isthe greatest honor and pleasure to them; unfortunately it is much lesspleasant to the regular guests of Belisarius. He praised them, andoffered them wine. Soon all were drunk and perfectly content.
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They have slept off their carouse, and now are more dissatisfied thanever,--thirstier too. We have an ample supply of wine, but, during thelast three hours, no water. The Vandals have cut the magnificentaqueduct outside the Numidian gate. The Huns can do without it, easily;but not we, the horses, the camels, and the Carthaginians. So the Kingwill thus force a decisive battle in the field. He cannot surround thecity, as we control the sea. He cannot storm it, since at last thefortifications are completed according to Belisarius's plan. Hedesires, he seeks a battle in the open field. His confidence, or thatof his "stupefied army," must have returned mightily since thatsorrowful letter.
Belisarius has no choice; he will lead us out early to-morrow morningto meet the foe. He is anxious lest the Huns may secretly harbor someevil design, and has charged Fara to keep a sharp watch upon them. Ifthe battle should waver, the Huns will waver too. Then we shall see inthe van a conflict between Byzantines and Vandals, and in the rear astruggle between Herulians and Huns. That may become exciting. But thisvery suspense, this charm of danger, attracted me to Belisarius'sservice, drew me to his camp. Better a Vandal arrow in my brain thanthe philosophy over which I had studied myself ill.--To-morrow!