Volume Iii Part 18 (2/2)
But behind him, amid those whom his eye could not intimidate, there arose a threatening cry:
”Bread!” ”Surrender!” ”Bread!”
Cethegus turned.
”Are you not ashamed? You, worthy of your great name, have borne so much, and now, when it is only necessary to hold out a little longer, you would succ.u.mb? In a few days Belisarius will bring relief.”
”You told us so seven times already!”
”And after the seventh time Belisarius lost almost all his s.h.i.+ps.
”Which now aid in blocking our harbour!”
”You should name a term; a limit to this misery. My heart bleeds for this people!”
”Who are you?” the Prefect asked the invisible speaker of the last sentence; ”you can be no Roman!”
”I am Pelagius the deacon, a Christian and a priest of the Lord. And I fear not man but G.o.d. The King of the Goths, although a heretic, has promised to restore to the orthodox the churches of which his fellow-heretics, the Arians, have deprived them, in every town which surrenders. Three times already has he sent a herald to the citizens of Rome with the most lenient proposals--they have never been permitted to speak to us.”
”Be silent, priest! You have no fatherland but heaven; no people but the communion of saints; no army but that of the angels. Manage your heavenly kingdom, but leave to men the kingdom of the Romans.”
”But the man of G.o.d is right!”
”Set us a term.”
”A short one!”
”Till then we will still hold out.”
”But if it elapse without relief----”
”Then we will surrender!”
”We will open the gates.”
But Cethegus shunned this thought. Not having received news from the outer world for weeks, he had no idea when Belisarius could possibly arrive at the mouth of the Tiber.
”What!” he cried. ”Shall I fix a term during which you will remain Romans, and after which you will become cowards and slaves! Honour knows no term!”
”You speak thus, because you do not believe in the reinforcements.”
”I speak thus, because I believe in _you_!”
”But we will have a term. We are resolved. You speak of Roman freedom!
Are we free, or are we bound to obey you like your slaves? We demand a term, and we will have it.”
”We will have it!” repeated a chorus of voices.
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