It came, and displayed to him the man's fierce eyes
glaring steadily down upon his face; another gleam, and he beheld his
haggard finger placed upon his lip in token of silence; a third, and he
saw the arm of the figure pointing towards the plain behind him; and
then in the darkness that followed, a hot breath played upon his ear,
and a voice whispered to him, through a pause in the rolling of the
thunder--'Follow me.'
The next instant Hermanric felt the momentary contact of the man's body,
as with noiseless steps he passed him on the stones. It was no time to
deliberate or to doubt. He followed close upon the stranger's
footsteps, gaining glimpses of his dark form moving onward before,
whenever the lightning briefly illuminated the scene, until they arrived
at a clump of trees, not far distant from the houses in the suburbs that
were occupied by the Goths under his own command.
Here the stranger paused before the trunk of a tree which stood between
the city wall and himself, and drew from beneath his ragged cloak a
small lantern, carefully covered with a piece of cloth, which he now
removed, and holding the light high above his head, regarded the Goth
with a steady and anxious scrutiny.
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