Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/202

 committed them to custody on the charge of harbouring treasonable designs against the head of the State.

The conquest of Italy was now undertaken in earnest, and, while a new general repaired the Roman disaster in Dalmatia, Belisarius crossed over to the continent and laid siege to Naples. Having drawn up his fleet and army in a threatening position, he called on the citizens to surrender the town. Colloquies were held by the townspeople, and, while one party urged that the example of Sicily be followed, another argued that the vengeance of the Goths, to whom they had given hostages, was more to be dreaded than the attack of Belisarius. Ultimately it was decided to defend the city, and messengers were sent to solicit extraneous aid from Theodahad. More than a fortnight had been consumed in futile assaults and repulses, when the chance observation of an Isaurian soldier suggested a means of capture by surprise. While curiously exploring the aqueduct he noticed that the water entered the town through a natural mass of solid rock, which had been bored to give it admission. The channel, however, was too narrow to allow the passage of an armed man, but would do so readily if slightly enlarged. A few men, therefore, repaired to the place secretly, and, by dint of working away the stone noiselessly with sharp tools, they opened a passage of sufficient width into the city. Under cover of night four hundred select men entered the channel, and followed the course of the aqueduct through the town in quest of a place of exit. The waterway was a vaulted gallery roofed with brick, but at length they arrived at a point from whence they could see the sky. On each side, however, they were confined by high walls not easy to scale. With some difficulty a man, stripped of his armour, clambered