Volume I Part 59 (1/2)
Silently Petros listened to these words; silently he turned and went out, followed by his companions.
Some of them accompanied him to his residence, amongst them the Bishop of Florentia.
”Reverend friend,” Petros said to the latter at parting, ”the letters of Theodahad about the matter you know of, which you entrusted to me for perusal, you must leave entirely at my disposal. I need them, and they are no longer necessary to you.”
”The process is long since decided,” answered the Bishop, ”and the property irrevocably acquired. The doc.u.ments are yours.”
The amba.s.sador then dismissed his friends, who hoped soon to see him again in Ravenna with the imperial army, and went to his chamber, where he at once despatched a messenger to Belisarius, ordering him to invade the country. Then he wrote a detailed report to the Emperor, which concluded in the following words:
”And so, my Emperor, you seem to have just reason to be contented with the services of your most faithful messenger, and the situation of affairs. The barbarian nation split into parties; a hated Prince, incapable and faithless, upon the throne; the enemy surprised, unprepared and unarmed; the Italian population everywhere in your favour. We cannot fail! If no miracle occur, the barbarians must succ.u.mb almost without resistance; and, as often before, my great Emperor appears as the protector of the weak and the avenger of wrongs.
It is a witty coincidence that the trireme which brought me here bears the name of _Nemesis_. Only one thing afflicts me much, that, with all my efforts, I have not succeeded in saving the unhappy daughter of Theodoric. I beg you, at least, to a.s.sure my mistress, the Empress, who was never very graciously disposed to me, that I tried most faithfully to obey all her injunctions concerning the Princess, whose fate she entrusted to me as her princ.i.p.al anxiety during our last interview. As to the question about Theodahad and Gothelindis, by whose a.s.sistance the Gothic Kingdom has been delivered into our hands, I will venture to recall to the Empress's memory the first rule of prudence: it is too dangerous to have the sharers of our profoundest secrets at court.”
This letter Petros sent on in advance with the two bishops, Hypatius and Demetrius, who were to go immediately to Brundusium, and thence through Epid.a.m.nos by land to Byzantium.
He himself intended to follow in a few days, sailing slowly along the Gothic coasts of the Ionian Gulf, in order to prove the temper and excite the rebellion of the inhabitants of the harbour towns.
He would afterwards sail round the Peloponnesus and Eub[oe]a to Byzantium, for the Empress had ordered him to travel by sea, and had given him commissions for Athens and Lampsacus.
Before his departure from Ravenna, he already calculated the rewards he expected to receive at Byzantium for his successful operations in Italy.
He would return twice as rich as he had come, for he had never confessed to the Queen, Gothelindis, that he had come into the country with the order to overthrow Amalaswintha.
He had rather, for some time, met her with representations of the anger of the Empress and Emperor, and had, with great show of repugnance, allowed himself to be bribed with large sums to connive at her plans, when, actually, he but used her as his tool.
He looked forward with certainty to the proud rank of patrician in Byzantium, and already rejoiced that he would be able to meet his haughty cousin, Na.r.s.es--who had never used his influence to advance him--on equal terms.
”So everything has succeeded better than I could wish,” he said to himself with great complacency, as he set his papers in order before leaving Ravenna, ”and this time, my proud friend Cethegus, cunning has proved truly excellent. The little rhetorician from Thessalonica, with his small and stealthy steps, has advanced farther than you with your proud strides. Of one thing I must be careful: that Theodahad and Gothelindis do not escape to Byzantium; it would be too dangerous.
Perhaps the question of the astute Empress was intended as a warning.
This royal couple must be put out of our way.”
Having completed his arrangements, Petros sent for the friend with whom he lodged, and took leave of him. At the same time he delivered to him a dark-coloured narrow vase, such as those which were used for the preservation of doc.u.ments; he sealed the cover with his ring, which was finely engraved with a scorpion, and wrote a name upon the wax-tablet appended to it.
”Seek this man,” he said to his host, ”at the next a.s.sembly of the Goths at Regeta, and give him the vase; the contents are his. Farewell.
You shall soon see me again in Ravenna.”
He left the house with his slaves, and was soon on board the amba.s.sador's s.h.i.+p; filled with proud expectations, he was borne away by the _Nemesis_.
As his s.h.i.+p, many weeks after, neared the harbour of Byzantium--he had, at the Empress's wish, announced his speedy arrival at Lampsacus, by means of an imperial swift-sailer which was just leaving--Petros looked at the handsome country houses on the sh.o.r.e, which shone whitely from out of the evergreen shade of the surrounding gardens.
”Here you will live in future, amongst the senators of the Empire,” he thought with great contentment.
Before they ran into the harbour, the _Thetis_, the splendid pleasure-boat of the Empress, flew towards them, and, as soon as she recognised the galley of the amba.s.sador, hoisted the purple standard, as a sign to lay to.
Very soon a messenger from the Empress came on board the galley. It was Alexandros, the former amba.s.sador to the court of Ravenna. He showed to the captain of the galley a writing from the Emperor, at which the captain appeared to be much startled; then he turned to Petros.
”In the name of the Emperor Justinian! You are condemned for life, convicted of long-practised forgery and embezzlement of the taxes, to the metal-works in the mines of Cherson, with the Ultra-Ziagirian Huns.