A Struggle For Rome Volume Ii Part 81

Bessas and all present followed, except Cethegus. Cethegus crushed the doc.u.ment in his hand.

"Wait!" he whispered furiously. "You shall yet sign!" And he slowly followed the others.

The hall leading to the King's apartment was already empty. The Prefect went into the vaulted gallery which ran round the quadrangle of the first story of the palace. The Byzantine-Roman arches afforded a free outlook into the large courtyard. It was filled with armed men. At all the four doors were placed the Persian lance-bearers of Belisarius.

Cethegus leaned against an archway and, watching the course of events, spoke to himself.

"Well, there are Byzantines enough to take a small army prisoner!

Friend Procopius is prudent. There! Witichis appears at the door. His Goths are still far behind upon the staircase. The King's horse is led forward. Bessas holds the stirrups. Witichis is close to it; he lifts his foot. Now comes a blast of trumpets. The door of the staircase is closed and the Goths shut into the palace! Procopius tears down the Gothic flag on the roof. Johannes takes the King's right arm--bravo, Johannes! The King defends himself valiantly--but his long mantle hinders him--he staggers! He falls to the ground! There lies the kingdom of the Goths!"

"There lies the kingdom of the Goths!" with these words Procopius also concluded the sentences which he wrote down in his diary that night.

"To-day I have a.s.sisted in making an important piece of history," he wrote, "and will take note of it to-night. When I saw the imperial army enter the gates and the King's palace of Ravenna, I thought that indeed it is not always merit, virtue, or number that ensures success. There is a higher power, inevitable necessity. In number and heroism the Goths were superior to us, and they did not fail in every possible exertion. The Gothic women in Ravenna scolded their husbands to their faces when they saw the slight forms, the small number of our troops as they marched in. Summa: in the most righteous cause, with the most heroic efforts, a man or a nation may succ.u.mb, if superior powers, which have not always the better right on their side, oppose him. My heart beat with a sense of wrong as I tore down the Gothic flag and set the golden Dragon of Justinian in its place, as I raised the flag of evil above the flag of righteousness. Not justice, but a necessity which is inscrutable, rules the fate of men and nations. But that does not confuse a true man. For not _what_ we do, live, or suffer--_how_ we do or bear it, makes a man a hero. The Goths' defeat is more honourable than our victory. And the hand which tore down their banner will chronicle the fame of this people for future generations.

Notwithstanding, however that may be--there lies the kingdom of the Goths!"

FOOTNOTE: [Footnote 1: Procopius, in his "Wars of the Goths," vol. i., pp. 7, 18, places here, in mistake, the Tiber instead of the Anio.]

END OF VOL. II.