But Teja was beforehand. He advanced to the Prefect, trembling with hate, his sword in his hand.
"Prefect of Rome," said he, "blood has been shed--precious, noble, Gothic blood! It consecrates the furious strife which will soon be kindled. Blood, which thou shalt atone----"
"Bah!" cried Hildebad--for he was the tall Goth--pushing him aside. "Make not such a to-do about it! My dear brother can easily part with a little superfluous blood; and the others lost more than he could spare. There, thou black devil!" he cried, turning to Cethegus, and holding a broad-sword close before his eyes, "knowest thou that?"
"Pomponius's sword!" cried Cethegus, turning pale and staggering back a step.
Amalaswintha and Cassiodorus asked in alarm,
"Aha!" laughed Hildebad. "That is shocking, is it not? Nothing will come of the water-party!"
"Where is Pomponius--my Navarchus?" asked Amalaswintha vehemently.
"Ha! death and destruction!" exclaimed Cethegus, now carried away by his anger. "How happened that?"
"Merrily enough! My brother Totila--thou surely knowest him?--lay in the harbour of Ancona with two little ships. Thy friend Pomponius had had for some days such an insolent expression of countenance, and had let fall such bragging words, that it struck even my unsuspicious brother. One morning Pomponius suddenly disappeared from the harbour with his three triremes. Totila smelt a rat, spread all sail, pursued him, overtook him off Pisaurum, stopped him, went on board with me and a few others, and asked him whither he would be going."
"He had no right to do so. Pomponius will have given him no answer."
"He did so, for all that, most excellent Cethegus! When he saw that we were only ten upon his ship, he laughed, and cried, 'Whither sail I? To Ravenna, thou downy-beard, to save the Queen from your claws, and take her to. Rome!' And he therewith made a sign to his crew. But we, too, threw our shields before us, and--hurrah! how the swords flew from the sheaths! It was hard work--ten to forty! But happily it did not last long. Our comrades in the nearest ship heard the iron rattle, and were quickly alongside with their boats, and climbed the bulwarks like cats. Now we had the upper hand; but the Navarchus--to give the devil his due!--would not yield; fought like to madman, and pierced my brother's arm through his shield, so that the blood spouted. But then my brother got into a rage too, and ran his spear through the other's body, so that he fell like an ox. 'Greet the Prefect,' he said, as he lay dying, 'give him my sword, his gift, back again, and tell him that no one can cheat Death, else I had kept my word!' I swore to him that I would confirm his words. He was a brave man. Here is the sword."