Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/251

 to have died long ago. No man has any right to survive such a fiasco. I should have died with my men."

"Judging from your wounds," Corinna's mother put in, "you tried hard enough!"

"I did indeed!" he ejaculated, "and that is some comfort. And if I die now there are other comforts. For me death will be better than degradation, than living on in contempt, out of service and despised."

"We could be married at once," Corinna sobbed, "and live all our lives at Sirmio. What could be lovelier than that? What would disgrace and shame matter there together?"

"I could not be happy, sweetheart," he said gently, "even there, even with you, if I were dishonored."

"If you had let me do as I wanted," she insisted, "you might have been vindicated."

"There can be no exoneration," Bassus maintained, sadly, "no extenuation even, for a commander who loses a whole squadron of warships to an inferior enemy and is himself the sole survivor. And if there were anything to be said in my favor it would have no weight. I must be made an example of. There is no use trying to deceive our minds. I go to death. My only chance is one of his whims. It is a small chance. Let us hope till the end. But even if death is