by the dexterity and courage
of the servant of Theophilus; and his conqueror was promoted to an
honorable rank in the Imperial stables. But it was impossible to obtain
the confidence of Michael, without complying with his vices; and his new
favorite, the great chamberlain of the palace, was raised and supported
by a disgraceful marriage with a royal concubine, and the dishonor of
his sister, who succeeded to her place. The public administration had
been abandoned to the Caesar Bardas, the brother and enemy of Theodora;
but the arts of female influence persuaded Michael to hate and to fear
his uncle: he was drawn from Constantinople, under the pretence of a
Cretan expedition, and stabbed in the tent of audience, by the sword of
the chamberlain, and in the presence of the emperor. About a month after
this execution, Basil was invested with the title of Augustus and the
government of the empire. He supported this unequal association till his
influence was fortified by popular esteem. His life was endangered by
the caprice of the emperor; and his dignity was profaned by a second
colleague, who had rowed in the galleys. Yet the murder of his
benefactor must be condemned as an act of ingratitude and treason; and
the churches which he dedicated to the name of St. Michael were a poor
and puerile expiation of his guilt. The different ages of Basil the
First may be compared with those of Augustus. The situation of the Greek
did not allow him in his earliest youth to lead an army against his
country; or to proscribe the nobles of her sons; but his aspiring genius
stooped to the arts of a slave; he dissembled his ambition and even his
virtues, and grasped, with the bloody hand of an assassin, the empire
which he ruled with the wisdom and tenderness of a parent.

A private citizen may feel his interest repugnant to his duty; but it
must be from a deficiency of sense or courage, that an absolute monarch
can separate his happiness from his glory, or his glory from the public
welfare. The life or panegyric of Basil has indeed been composed and
published under the long reign of his descendants; but even their
stability on the throne may be justly ascribed to the superior merit of
their ancestor. In his character, his grandson Constantine has attempted
to delineate a perfect image of royalty: but that feeble prince, unless
he had copied a real model, could not easily have soared so high above
the level of his own conduct or conceptions.