Can I trust you, Marcian?' he added,
grasping his friend's hand.
'As yourself--nay, better.'
'Then, to Asculum.'
CHAPTER XVI
WHISPERS
The greater part of southern Italy was once more held by the Goths.
Whilst the long blockade of Neapolis went on, Totila found time to
subdue all that lay between that city and the Ionian Sea, meeting,
indeed, with little resistance among the country-folk, or from the
inhabitants of the mostly unwalled towns. The Imperial forces which
should have been arrayed against him had wintered in various cities
of the north, where their leaders found all they at present cared
for, repose and plunder; their pay long in arrear, and hardly to be
hoped for, the Greek soldiers grew insubordinate, lived as they
would or could, and with the coming of spring deserted in numbers to
the victorious enemy. Appeals to Byzantium for reinforcements had as
yet resulted only in the sending of a small, ill-equipped fleet,
which, after much delay in Sicilian ports, sailed for Neapolis, only
to be surprised by a storm, and utterly wrecked on the shores of the
great bay.
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