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"They marched on in straight line, their white shields adorned with the picture of the bull. Severe was the pressure; as flames of fire along the heath, so did their swords clear the battlefield from the assault of the Allemanns. Once again with fresh vigor sprang forward the Allemanns, the King's foremost, and again the Romans gave way. Then Cæsar ordered up his last troops, which in the Roman army are called by the generals the 'Thorn-fence.'"

"Archibald!" was called out wildly in the hall; "Eggo!" from another side.

"There stood as leader over a hundred men a Hunnic comrade, the Thuringian Archibald, and Eggo, his mother's son, much experienced in the Roman customs of war. They fixed their knees firmly on the ground, they covered their bodies with linden shields and defended themselves with fixed spears as a threefold buckler. Again the Allemanns dashed on; the shields cracked under the strokes of the ax, the spears passed through armor and body, the dead sank in long rows, and over the bodies of the fallen pressed the throng, shield against shield, and breast against breast, like a fight of bulls in an enclosed pen.

"Then the fortune of war departed from the Allemanns; they were driven backward, they were dismayed at the heaps of dying comrades. The sun sank, and the chances of the war were gone. The scattered bands fled to the shore of the stream, and behind them stormed the Romans with knife and spear, like a pack of hounds after the deer; the flying people sprang into the Rhine, the conquerors on the bank threw their spears with loud cries into a wild crowd of men and horses, of dead bodies and drowning heroes; the Nixy of the stream stretched his clawing hands around, and drew the heroes into the depths, down to his own abode."

The minstrel stopped. A loud groan passed through the assembly --- only a single hurrah sounded in the midst of it; the Prince listened attentively to the outbreak of sorrow and of joy.

Then Volkmar continued, changing the tones of sorrow to a more stirring melody:

" Cæsar approached the bank of the river, and stood smiling down on the men in their distress. He called out to his banner-bearer, who carried the dragon, the red monster worked in purple, in which the God of the Romans had placed a victory spell --- the death of the enemy--- 'Let the dragon float over the stream, that he may show his teeth and flaming tongue to the dying people! High in the air he flies toward the heavenly halls of the dead; when they rise on the cloud-bridge, he will show his teeth; the Roman dragon will stop their journey, they will descend the road to the fishes, down in the darkness to Hela's gate!"

"Then was the insult revenged by the last hero who withstood the Romans in arms --- Ingo, the son of Ingbert, from the land of the Vandals, the King's son, of the race of the gods. He had fought by the side of King Athanarich, foremost in the fight, terror of the Romans. When the fortune of battle turned, he retreated with his retinue, that had followed him on the warpath from country to country; slowly and angrily, like a growling bear, he retreated to the bank, where at the foot of the rocks the boats lay.

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