"Ah! I know!" said Spendius.
"You ought to have made your ranks twice as deep, avoided exposing the
velites against the phalanx, and given free passage to the elephants.
Everything might have been recovered at the last moment; there was no
necessity to fly."
Spendius replied:
"I saw him pass along in his large red cloak, with uplifted arms
and higher than the dust, like an eagle flying upon the flank of the
cohorts; and at every nod they closed up or darted forward; the throng
carried us towards each other; he looked at me, and I felt the cold
steel as it were in my heart."
"He selected the day, perhaps?" whispered Matho to himself.
They questioned each other, trying to discover what it was that had
brought the Suffet just when circumstances were most unfavourable.
They went on to talk over the situation, and Spendius, to extenuate his
fault, or to revive his courage, asserted that some hope still remained.
"And if there be none, it matters not!" said Matho; "alone, I will carry
on the war!"
"And I too!" exclaimed the Greek, leaping up; he strode to and fro, his
eyes sparkling, and a strange smile wrinkled his jackal face.
"We will make a fresh start; do not leave me again! I am not made for
battles in the sunlight--the flashing of swords troubles my sight; it
is a disease, I lived too long in the ergastulum.
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