Historical Tales, Vol 5 | Page 4

advantage of this
promising opportunity. He advanced and forced Hermann to raise the
siege, and himself took possession of Thusnelda, who was destined
soon afterwards to be made the leading feature in a Roman triumph.
Segestus was rewarded for his treason, and was given lands in Gaul, his
life being not safe among the people he had betrayed. As for the
daughter whom he had yielded to Roman hands, her fate troubled little
his base soul.
Thusnelda is still a popular character in German legend, there being
various stories extant concerning her. One of these relates that, when
she lay concealed in the old fort of Schellenpyrmont, she was warned
by the cries of a faithful bird of the coming of the Romans, who were

seeking stealthily to approach her hiding-place.
The loss of his beloved wife roused Hermann's heroic spirit, and spread
indignation among the Germans, who highly esteemed the
noble-hearted consort of their chief. They rose hastily in arms, and
Hermann was soon at the head of a large army, prepared to defend his
country against the invading hosts of the Romans. But as the latter
proved too strong to face in the open field, the Germans retreated with
their families and property, the country left by them being laid waste by
the advancing legions.
Germanicus soon reached the scene of the late slaughter, and caused
the bones of the soldiers of Varus to be buried. But in doing this he was
obliged to enter the mountain defiles in which the former army had met
its fate. Hermann and his men watched the Romans intently from forest
and hilltop. When they had fairly entered the narrow valleys, the adroit
chief appeared before them at the head of a small troop, which retreated
as if in fear, drawing them onward until the whole army had entered the
pass.
Then the fatal signal was given, and the revengeful Germans fell upon
the legionaries of Germanicus as they had done upon those of Varus,
cutting them down in multitudes. But Germanicus was a much better
soldier than Varus. He succeeded in extricating the remnant of his men,
after they had lost heavily, and in making an orderly retreat to his ships,
which awaited him upon the northern coast whence he had entered the
country. There were two other armies, one of which had invaded
Germany from the coast of Friesland, and was carried away by a flood,
narrowly escaping complete destruction. The third had entered from the
Rhine. This was overtaken by Hermann while retreating over the long
bridges which the Romans had built across the marshes of Münsterland,
and which were now in a state of advanced decay. Here it found itself
surrounded by seemingly insuperable dangers, being, in part of its route,
shut up in a narrow dell, into which the enemy had turned the waters of
a rapid stream. While defending their camp, the waters poured upon the
soldiers, rising to their knees, and a furious tempest at the same time
burst over their heads. Yet discipline, again prevailed. They lost

heavily, but succeeded in cutting their way through their enemies and
reaching the Rhine.
In the next year, 17 A.D., Germanicus again invaded Germany, sailing
with a thousand ships through the northern seas and up the Ems. Flavus,
the brother of Hermann, who had remained in the service of Rome, was
with him, and addressed his patriotic brother from the river-side,
seeking to induce him to desert the German cause, by painting in
glowing colors the advantage of being a Roman citizen. Hermann,
furious at his desertion of his country, replied to him with curses, as the
only language worthy to use to a traitor, and would have ridden across
the stream to kill him, but that he was held back by his men.
A battle soon succeeded, the Germans falling into an ambuscade
artfully laid by the Roman leader, and being defeated with heavy loss.
Germanicus raised a stately monument on the spot, as a memorial of
his victory. The sight of this Roman monument in their country
infuriated the Germans, and they attacked the Romans again, this time
with such fury, and such slaughter on both sides, that neither party was
able to resume the fight when the next day dawned. Germanicus, who
had been very severely handled, retreated to his ships and set sail. On
his voyage the heavens appeared to conspire against him. A tempest
arose in which most of the vessels were wrecked and many of the
legionaries lost. When he returned to Rome, shortly afterwards, a fort
on the Taunus was the only one which Rome possessed in Germany.
Hermann had cleared his country of the foe. Yet Germanicus was given
a triumph, in which Thusnelda walked, laden with chains, to the
capitol.