Volume Ii Part 28 (2/2)

At last Belisarius, who wished to avoid a dispute and the shame of defeat, said:

”Prefect of Rome, what have you to reply?”

With a scarcely visible quiver of mockery upon his fine lips, Cethegus bowed and began:

”The accused refers to a doc.u.ment. I believe I could embarra.s.s him greatly if I denied its existence, and demanded the immediate production of the original. However, I will not meet the man who calls himself the head of Christendom, with the wiles of a spiteful advocate.

I admit that the doc.u.ment exists.”

Belisarius made a movement of helpless vexation.

”Still more! I have saved the Holy Father the trouble of producing it, which would have been very difficult for him to do, and have brought the doc.u.ment itself with my own sacrilegious hands.”

He drew forth a yellow old parchment from his bosom, and looked smilingly now at the lines thereon, now at the Pope, and now at Belisarius, evidently enjoying their suspense.

”Yes, still more! I have examined the doc.u.ment for many days with hostile eyes, and, with the help of still greater jurists than I can boast of being--such as my young friend, Salvius Julia.n.u.s--have tried to invalidate every letter. In vain. Even the penetration of my learned and honourable friend, Scaevola, could have found no flaw. All legal forms, all the clauses in the act of donation, are sharply defined with indisputable accuracy; and indeed I should like to have been acquainted with the protonotary of Emperor Constantinus, for he must have been a jurist of the first rank.”

He paused--his eyes rested sarcastically upon the countenance of Silverius, who wiped the sweat off his brow.

”Therefore,” asked Belisarius, in great excitement, ”the doc.u.ment is formally quite correct, and can be proved?”

”Yes, certainly,” sighed Cethegus, ”the act of donation is faultlessly drawn up. It is only a pity that----”

”Well!” interrupted Belisarius.

”It is only a pity that it is false.”

A general cry arose. Belisarius and Antonina sprang from their seats; all present pressed nearer to Cethegus. Silverius alone fell back a step.

”False!” cried Belisarius in a tone that sounded like a shout of joy.

”Prefect--friend--can you prove that?”

”I should otherwise have taken care not to a.s.sert it. The parchment upon which the act of donation is written shows all the signs of great age: worm-eaten, cracked, spots of every kind--everything that one can expect from such an ancient doc.u.ment, so that, sometimes, it is difficult to decipher the letters. Notwithstanding, the doc.u.ment only _appears_ to be old; with as much art as many women employ to give themselves the appearance of youth does it ape the sanct.i.ty of great age. It is real parchment from the old and still existing parchment manufactory at Byzantium, founded by Constantinus.”

”Keep to the matter!” cried Belisarius.

”But it is not known to every one--and it appears, unfortunately for him, to have escaped the notice of the Bishop--that these parchments, on the lower edge to the left, are always marked with the stamp of the year of their manufacture, by the names of the then consuls, in, certainly, almost invisible characters. Now pay attention, general. The doc.u.ment pretends, as it says in the text, to have been prepared in the sixteenth year of the reign of Constantinus, the same year that he closed the heathen temples, as the pious doc.u.ment observes, and a year after the naming of Constantinopolis as the capital city; and it rightly names the right consuls of that year, Dalmatius and Xenophilos.

Now it can only be explained by a miracle--but in this case it would be a miracle _against_ the Church--that, in that year, therefore in the year three hundred and thirty-five after the birth of Christ, it was already known who would be consul in the year after the death of Emperor Justinus and King Theodoric; for look, here on the lower edge the stamp says--the writer had not noticed it--it is really very difficult to make out, unless one holds the parchment against the lights so--do you see, Belisarius?--and had blindly painted the cross upon it; but I, with my--what did he call it?--sacrilegious, but clever, hand have wiped it off; do you see? there stand stamped the words, 'VI. Indiction: Justinia.n.u.s Augustus, sole consul in the first year of his reign.'”

Silverius staggered, and was obliged to support himself by the chair which had been placed for him.

”The parchment of the doc.u.ment,” continued Cethegus, ”upon which the protonotary of Emperor Constantinus had written down the act of donation two hundred years ago, has therefore been taken from the ribs of an a.s.s only a year ago at Byzantium! Confess, O general, that the reign of the conceivable ends here and the supernatural begins; that here a miracle has happened; and revere the mysterious ways of Heaven.”

He gave the doc.u.ment to Belisarius.

”This is also a famous piece of history, holy and profane, which we are now experiencing,” said Procopius aside.

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