Volume Ii Part 67 (2/2)
And he began to read.
Antonina, Procopius, and Cethegus observed him attentively. His features grew darker and darker; his broad chest began to heave; both the hands with which he held the letter trembled.
Antonina anxiously approached him, but before she could question him, Belisarius uttered a low cry of rage, cast the letter on the ground, and rushed madly out of the tent. His wife followed him.
”Antonina alone dare now approach him,” said Procopius, as he picked up the letter. ”Let us see; no doubt it is another piece of imperial grat.i.tude.” And he glanced over the letter. ”The commencement is, as usual, mere phrases. Ah, now comes something better: 'Notwithstanding, we cannot deny that we expected, according to your own former boasts, a more speedy termination to the war against these barbarians; and we believe that, with greater exertion, this would not have been impossible. For this reason we cannot comply with your repeatedly-expressed wish to have the remaining five thousand body-guards sent from Persia, and the four thousand centenari of gold which lie in your palace at Byzantium. Certainly, both, as you rather superfluously remark in your letter, are your own property; and your offer to carry this war to a conclusion, paying the expenses out of your own purse, because of the existing exhaustion of the imperial exchequer, is worthy of all praise. As, however, all your property, as you more justly add in the aforesaid letter, is at the service of your Emperor, and as your Emperor considers the desired employment of your treasure and body-guard in Italy superfluous, we have decided to appropriate it otherwise, and have already sent troops and treasure to your colleague, Na.r.s.es, to be used in the Persian wars.' Ha! this is unheard of!” cried Procopius, interrupting himself.
Cethegus smiled. ”It is a tyrant's thanks for the services of a slave!”
”And the end seems to be just as pleasant,” continued Procopius. ”'An increase of your power in Italy seems to us the less desirable, because we are daily warned against your boundless ambition. You are reported to have said lately, while sitting at wine, that the sceptre originated in the general's staff, and the general's staff in the stick. Dangerous thoughts and unseemly words! You see that we are faithfully informed of your ambitious dreams. This time we will warn without punis.h.i.+ng; but we have no desire to furnish you with more wood for your general's staff; and we would remind you that the tree, which most proudly tosses its summit, is nearest to the imperial lightning.' It is shameful!” cried Procopius.
”No, it is worse; it is silly!” said Cethegus. ”It is whipping fidelity into rebellion.”
”You are right!” cried Belisarius, who had caught these words as he again rushed into the tent. ”Oh, he deserves that I should desert him, the base, ungrateful, wicked tyrant!”
”Be silent, for G.o.d's sake! You will ruin yourself!” cried Antonina, who had entered with her husband, and now tried to take his hand.
”No, I will not be silent!” cried the angry man, as he paced to and fro close to the open door of the tent, before which Bessas, Acacius, Demetrius, and many other leaders stood listening in astonishment. ”All the world shall hear me! He is an ungrateful, malicious tyrant! He deserves that I should overthrow him! that I should confirm the suspicions of his false soul!”
Cethegus cast a look at those who stood outside; they had evidently heard all. Glancing at Antonina, he now went to the door and closed it carefully. Antonina thanked him by a look. She again drew near her husband, but he had thrown himself upon the ground before his couch, striking his clenched fist upon his brow and stammering:
”O Justinian! have I deserved this from you? It is too much, too much!”
And the strong man burst into tears.
At this Cethegus contemptuously turned away.
”Farewell,” he said in a low voice to Procopius, ”It disgusts me to see men blubber!”
CHAPTER XVII.
Lost in thought, the Prefect left the tent, and went round the camp to the rather distant outwork, where he had entrenched himself and his Isaurians before the Gate of Honorius.
It was situated on the south side of the city, near the harbour wall of Cla.s.sis, and the way led partly along the sea-sh.o.r.e.
Although the lonely wanderer was at this moment preoccupied by the great thought which had become the pulse of his life, although he was oppressed by anxiety as to how Belisarius--that man of impulse--would act, and worried with impatience for the arrival of the answer from the Franks, his attention was yet involuntarily attracted by the singular appearance of the landscape, the sky, and the sea.
It was October; but the season had seemed for weeks to have altered its laws. For almost two months it had never rained. Not a cloud, not a stripe of mist had been seen in this usually so humid part of the country. But now, quite suddenly--it was towards sunset--Cethegus remarked in the east, above the sea horizon, a single, dense, and coal-black cloud.
The setting sun, although free from mist, shed no rays.
Not a breath of air rippled the leaden surface of the sea; not the smallest wavelet played upon the strand.
Not an olive-leaf moved in all the wide plain; not even the easily-shaken reeds in the marshy ditches trembled.
No cry of an animal, no flight of a bird could be heard or perceived; and a strange choking smell, as if of sulphur, seemed to lie oppressively over land and sea, and to check respiration. The mules and horses in the camp kicked uneasily against the posts to which they were tied. A few camels and dromedaries, which Belisarius had brought with him from Africa, buried their heads in the sand.
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