Part 27 (1/2)
I said yesterday that he ought to have considered this somewhat earlier. But he muttered something in his beard, and begged me to atone for his errors to the best of my ability. I must go to Syracuse and, on the pretext of buying provisions from your Ostrogoth Counts, inquire everything about these Vandals, of whom he is ignorant and yet ought to know. So I have been here in Syracuse since yesterday, asking everybody about the Vandals, and they all laugh at me, saying: ”Why, if Belisarius does not know, how should we? We are not at war with them.”
It seems to me that the insolent fellows are right.
CHAPTER II
Triumph, O Cethegus! Belisarius's former good fortune is fluttering over the pennons at our mast-heads: the G.o.ds themselves are blinding the Vandals; they are depriving them of their reason, consequently they must desire their destruction. Hermes is breaking the path for us, removing danger and obstacles from our way.
The Vandal fleet, the bugbear of our valiant warriors, is floating harmless away from Carthage toward the north; while we, with all sails set--the east wind is filling them merrily--are flying from Sicily over the blue flood westward to Carthage. We cut the rippling waves as if on a festal excursion. No foe, no spy, far or near, to oppose us or give warning of our approach to the threatened Vandals, on whom we shall fall like a meteor cras.h.i.+ng from a clear sky.
That all this has come to the General's knowledge, and that he can make instant use of it, is due to Procopius, or--to speak more honestly--to blind chance, the capricious G.o.ddess Tyche. It seems to me, though I am no philosopher, that she rather than Nemesis guides the destinies of nations.
I wrote last that I was running about the streets of Syracuse, somewhat helplessly, not without being laughed at by the mockers, asking all the people whether no Vandals had been seen. One--this time it was a Gothic count named Totila, as handsome as he was insolent--had just answered, laughing and shrugging his shoulders: ”Seek your enemies yourselves. I would far rather go with the Vandals to find and sink you.” I was thinking how correctly this young Barbarian had perceived the advantage of his people and the folly of his Regent, when, vexed with the Goths, with myself, and most of all with Belisarius, I turned a street corner and almost ran against some one coming from the opposite direction. It was Hegelochus, my schoolmate from Caesarea, who, I knew, had settled as a merchant, a speculator in grain, somewhere in Sicily, but I was ignorant in which city.
”What are you doing here?” he asked, after the first exchange of greetings.
”I?--I am only looking for a trifle,” I answered rather irritably, for I already heard in imagination his jeering laugh. ”I am searching everywhere for a hundred and fifty to two hundred Vandal war-s.h.i.+ps. Do you happen to know where they are?”
”Certainly I do,” he replied, without laughing. ”They are lying in the harbor of Caralis in Sardinia.”
”Omniscient grain-dealer,” I cried, rigid with amazement, ”where did you learn that?”
”In Carthage, which I left only three days ago,” he said quietly.
Then the questioning began. And often as I squeezed the shrewd, sensible man like a sponge, a stream of news most important for us flowed out.
So we have nothing to fear for our fleet from the Vandal war vessels.
The Barbarians as yet have no suspicion that we are advancing upon them. The flower of their army has gone on the dreaded galleys to Sardinia. Gelimer feels no anxiety for Carthage, or any other city on the coast. He is in Hermione, in the province of Byzacena, four days'
journey from the sea. What can he be doing there, on the edge of the desert? We are, therefore, safe from every peril, and can land in Africa wherever wind, waves, and our own will may guide us.
During this conversation, and while I was constantly questioning him, I had wound my arm around my friend's neck, and now asked him to come to the harbor with me and look at my s.h.i.+p, which lay at anchor there. It was a very swift sailer of a new model. The merchant agreed. As soon as I had him safely on board, I drew my sword, cut the rope which moored us to the metal ring of the harbor mole, and ordered my sailors to take us swiftly to Caucana.
Hegelochus was startled; he scolded and threatened. But I soothed him, saying: ”Forgive this abduction, my friend; it is absolutely necessary that Belisarius himself, not merely his legal adviser, should talk with and question you. He alone knows everything that is at stake. And I will not undertake the responsibility of having failed to inquire about some important point or of having misunderstood some answer. Some G.o.d who is angered against the Vandals has sent you to me; woe betide me if I do not profit by it. You must tell the General everything you have learned; you must accompany our s.h.i.+ps, nay, guide them to Africa. This one involuntary voyage to Carthage will bring you richer profits from the royal treasures of the Vandals than sailing to and fro with wheat many hundred times. And the reward awaiting you in Heaven for your partic.i.p.ation in the destruction of the heretics--I will not estimate.”
He grinned, calmed down, then laughed. But the hero Belisarius smiled far more joyously when he saw before him the man ”just from Carthage,”
and could question him to his heart's content. How he praised me for the accident of this meeting! The command to sail was given with the blast of the tuba. How the sails flew aloft! How proudly our galleys swept forward! Woe to thee, Vandalia! Woe to the lofty towers of Genseric's citadel!
The swift voyage continued past the islands of Gaulos and Melita, which divide the Adriatic from the Tyrrhenian Sea. At Melita the wind, as if ordered by Belisarius, grew still fresher,--a strong east-southeast gale which, on the following day, drove us upon the African coast at Caput Vada, five days' march from Carthage. That is, for a swift walker without baggage; we shall probably require a much longer time.
Belisarius ordered the sails to be lowered, the anchors dropped, and summoned all the leaders of the troops to a council of war on his own s.h.i.+p. It was now to be decided whether we should disembark the troops and march against Carthage by land, or keep them on the fleet and conquer the capital from the sea. Opinions were very conflicting.
The decision has been reached; we shall march against Carthage by land.
True, Archelaus, the Quaestor, protested, saying that we had no harbor for the s.h.i.+ps without men, no fortress for the men without s.h.i.+ps. Every storm might scatter them upon the open sea, or hurl them against the cliffs along the sh.o.r.e. He also called attention to the lack of water along the coast region, and the want of means to supply food. ”Only let no one ask me, as quaestor, for anything to eat,” he cried angrily. ”A quaestor who has only the office, but no bread, cannot satisfy you with his position.” He advised hastening by sea to Carthage, to occupy the harbor of Stagnum, which could hold the entire fleet, and was at that time entirely undefended; thence to rush from the s.h.i.+ps upon the city, which could be taken at the first attack, if the King and his army were really four days' march from the coast.
But Belisarius said: ”G.o.d has fulfilled our most ardent desire; He has permitted us to reach Africa without encountering the hostile fleet.
Shall we now remain at sea, and perhaps yet meet those s.h.i.+ps before which our men threaten to fly? As for the danger of tempests, it would be better to have the galleys lost when they are empty, than while filled with our troops. We have still the advantage of surprising the unprepared foe; every delay will enable them to make ready to meet us.
Here we can land without fighting; elsewhere and later we must perhaps battle against the wind and the enemy. So I say, we will land here.